Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts

Political Hot Air

It is curious how we have created what we consider to be the ‘information age’ and yet have so little concern for the validity of the information.   The political campaign environment in the US is fraught with blatant misrepresentations and distortions of fact, but the party faithful accept the rhetoric as dogma.  Amazing.   It’s hard for me to see how one can pronounce the need for freedom of speech with no independent thought.

While the political winds of mindlessness only blow through every four years, the impact of our choices linger.  But the same could be true of many of our decisions - what we choose for fuel, how we build our homes, how we educate our children.  

So in the last blog, I had thought about a comment regarding the use of water for the production of corn, and the impact this would have on food prices.   But it seemed this was a pretty bold statement, and worth fact-checking.   Where and how?   Any “Fact Check” websites are sponsored, and thus likely skewed.   But a critical review of a few data sources will usually surface some reliable information.

What I learned from the Energy Fact Check, a resource of the American Council on Renewable Energy, is that historically, if the farm price of corn increases 50 percent, then retail food prices as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) increases by 0.5 to 1 percent.” (Source: USDA, http://1.usa.gov/ONCzk5).  Which would indicate that the increase use of corn for fuel can’t be held responsible for food price increase.  But there is still a question of water consumption, which raises several questions. Is biofuel an efficient source of fuel , and should  we be using our limited water resources of food or for energy?  If we do choose to use crops for energy, which has the least impact on water?  These are big questions, and I don’t presume to present a conclusive opinion with such a limited amount of research, but I did find some interesting facts. First of all, from a nation-centric viewpoint,  the US is a net exporter of corn, increasingly to China.  But that doesn’t negate the global viewpoint of water for fuel or food. Digging a bit further, I learn from studies at the University of Twente, in the Netherlands, is that corn (maize) and sugarbeets are the most water efficient of the biomass crops.  Also, that it is more efficient to use the entire biomass (stems and leaves), to produce electricity than to produce a biofuel.  This might support a shift to electric cars, vs. fuel.   Additionally,  Argonne National Labs has identified that some biomass feedstocks, such as crop residue, are estimated at more than 100 percent cleaner than traditional gasoline.   We also learn that the ethanol plants byproduct of dry grains and solubles has a market value as feed to dairy and beef cattle.   And that ethanol blends reduce the GHG emissions per mile driven, more so in cellulosic ethanol than in corn ethanol.  So the question really seems to not be should we growing corn for food or for fuel, but can we switch to managed biomass farms, such as switchgrass. The large energy and GHG emission benefits and the great potential of cellulosic ethanol supply are recognized in the 2005 Energy Bill.

Saab - BioFuel Vehicle

 So the next time the question of transportation fuel comes up, and there are heated discussions of fracking, or gasoline pipelines -  I can point to Sweden, who has quietly and effectively eliminated these discussions by a wholesale conversion to cellulose fuel.   Not only have the Swedish car manufacturers gotten a jump-start in developing flex-fuel models which can run on up to 85 percent ethanol blends,  but the country is well on its way to breaking dependence on fossil fuel by 2020.  This goal was set as recently as 2005 -  the same time the US signed the ‘Energy Bill.’   This is not to say that Sweden does not have challenges with supporting sustainable biomass stock from waste and not triggering a deforestation in developing countries providing biomass.    And the fundamental question of transportation by car use, and fuel based, comes into question.   But these are discussions which lead to solutions, not dogma which leads… nowhere.

I won’t pontificate here with any obvious conclusions, but just point to the benefits of looking at facts, having a reasoned discussion, and seeking solutions.   That is just my opinion.

 

Edible Landscaping

This is World Water Week,  hosted each year in Stockholm.   This year’s theme examines the link between water and food security.   This seems very apropos,  considering the damage wrought on this year’s US crop by insufficient rain. Agriculture now consumes more than 70 percent of the world’s freshwater resources.  The population is expected to increase another 40% by 2050, and the demand for food and feed will increase even more, as world civilizations seek to adopt the Western world’s way of life.   The link between water and food security has global impacts, by the very nature of food exports.    For example, dry weather in Russia this year has sent world wheat prices up 19 percent.  This very directly impacts the cost of a loaf of bread, and affects the poor disproportionately.

There are no simple solutions,  but there is no shortage of possibilities.  We might start with rethinking our very relationship with water, and with food.  In our buildings, we have a very narrow concept of “clean water in” and “dirty water out.”  We build our plumbing for single use. In previous blogs, we’ve  looked at some alternative perspectives.  We examined other uses of water in a building ( Design Thinking – about Water),  we took a look at the water sources , and the water outflows. 

What is we were to apply this same analysis to the food ‘stream?’   Food is currently seen in the same single use value stream – it arrives in packages, and the remains are deposited in the trash.  It is a classic example of the way we have separated our lives into compartments.    But let’s rethink ‘food.’   These are actually plants and animals.   Why couldn’t vegetables be interspersed with the flower beds, or indoor plants be lemon trees?     It’s called ‘edible landscaping.’   Of course, this is not really anything new, but just a regaining of a more integrated way of life.   

There is no shortage of resources to get you going.   The Edible Landscaping website has been around since 1979, and offers workshops in their Afton, Virginia Location.  Charlie Nardozzi has long promoted rood and ornamental gardening on radio and TV shows in the Northeast.  Rosalind Creasy has just published a colorful book on edible landscaping.   Even the White House is getting in on the movement, with Michelle Obama telling the story of the ‘American Grown’  White House kitchen garden in a new  e-book.

Bringing food cultivation back into the scope of the building design can tie in well with the rethinking of water design. Graywater can be used to water plant, and plants can help stabilize water run-off. Food waste can be composted in the garden, and added back to the soil. Even if there is no kitchen, the food production can be distributed to employees, or donated to food shelters and it helps bridge some of the divides we’ve created in our culture. So in honor of World Water Week, let’s all rethink our homes, our workplaces, and our communities to see how we might weave a tighter link between water and our food security.  

Lawns – ‘Green’ Alternatives

I am addicted to weed pulling.  Admittedly, there is a meditative quality to it – since there are really few more mindless activities one could be doing on a beautiful summer day…..   But in toto, the logic of fertilizing, watering, mowing and trimming just escapes me.  The only time I, or any of us venture onto the lawn is to engage in these tasks.   Why do we need this vast expanse of greenery?

The best incentive for Natural Lawn Care

It used to be that kids played on the lawn.   When I was little, we had kickball games that spanned over several houses in the neighborhood.   It was our gymnastics practice fields,  or a place to hang out with our friends.  If there is even a glimmer of hope that your lawn can be used for kids – then please -  keep it for them.  In which case, there are several new hybrid grasses which need much less mowing.  They have more of a ‘tufty’ look to them, but I can’t see how that would be a problem for a kid.

There is another reason to keep a vast expanse of green – and that is for the neighborhood cohesiveness.   For example,  my street is a bit of a classic early century urban scene, with smallish sized cottages with set-backs from the street.  We all have somewhat postage stamp sized front lawns, with ribbons of concrete leading to the garage in the backyards.   The connecting greenery of our lawns provides a visual flow from one house to the other.  We can see other houses and their front porches.  We talk, we wave, we know our neighbors.   One of the neighbors pulled out the lawn and built in an elaborate landscape with curving walls, tall bushes and trees. We can’t see her – and we don’t know her.  It also divides the block.   We say :  below Mrs. X, or this side of Mrs. X. 

The Great American Delawning

So the elegant solution to big, flat greenspace with no mowing is areas of creeping thyme, or sedum.  Once they are established, they seem to be easy to take care of.    Beyond the basics, there are all sorts of groundcovers, creeping evergreens, and other low-lying bushes.  

I won’t even venture to offer an opinion on landscape design, as that is an art form which I have not mastered, but there are several excellent sources of information.  The Lawn Reform Coalition reminds us that lawncare as we know it is not a sustainable practice, in any sense of the word.  Their website offers great advice for all different climates, and ‘lawn’ needs.  Other websites are www.safelawn.org,   the Great American Delawning  at www.sustainable-gardening.com.

The trick with any of these landscapes is the installation.  Do it right the first time.   Our neighborhood has far too many ‘xeriscaped’ yards which look like a wild weed patch.   The difference seems to be in removing enough of the old thatch to accommodate a good 3 -4 inches of mulch,  laying down a landscape fabric (or lots of newspaper) to prevent recurring weed growth (like morning glory), and a drip irrigation so that vagrant weed seeds just dry out.     



The ultimate 'lawnmower'

My all time favorite is goats.  Yes, goats – the environmentally friendly weed eaters on hooves.  San Francisco International has hired goats to trim the grass.  They seem to have a knack for picking out the noxious weeds. They actually prefer poison ivy, blackberries.  They are grazers who will eat selectively, starting with the weeds.  This is probably not a do-it-yourself project,  since goats can also overgraze an area.  And goats are animals which need food, shelter – and goats begat goats… So unless you are interested in starting a small farm, you can hire your own goats (Eco-Goats,  California Grazing).

From Soil Hospital to Wildflower Meadow

In investigative writing for blogs (and dissertations), I often think up all the possible negative twists on a story and then search Google to get the inside scoop.   In the case of the Olympic Soil Hospital, there was no dirt other than… well just good clean dirt.  Bad puns aside, this project does really appear to be an outstanding example of turning and industrial wasteland into an eco-realm of wildflower meadows and woodlands.

The site was 102 hectares  (about 250 acres) of polluted waterways, and an accumulation of over 200 years of industrial neglect. The contaminant cocktail  included oil, petrol, tar, cyanide, arsenic and lead, as well as some very low level radioactive material – just about every  type of nasty stuff which humans have concocted.   Boreholes were drilled to gain a complete understanding of the extent of the environmental damage. 

The first task was to demolish the existing buildings and dismantle the pillars and bridges. An amazing 95% of the 500,000 tons of demolition materials was reclaimed and re-used on site.  This included reclaiming eight steel-frame buildings and 12 roof trusses for reuse elsewhere, 150 000 yellow bricks reclaimed, and the reuse of materials such as cobblestones, railway track, and even manhole covers.

The bioremediation strategy was to treat the soil onsite- not shifting the burden to that magical land of ‘away, ’ and avoiding the impact of hundreds of trucks carrying soil through the streets of London.  A innovative concept of ‘soil hospitals’ were set up on the Olympic Park with machines that washed, sieved and shook the soil free from contaminants, producing clean material which could then be re-used on the Park.  In the end, 80% of the soil in the area has been replaced. That is 2 million tons of soil.  A separation layer of .8 meters of clean fill covers the entire park, to provide protection for human health from any contamination which remained in the ground.  

The crowning touch was to move beyond the classic parkscape concept of vast expanses of grass (with “keep off the grass” signs), and create instead an eco-realm of wildflower meadows and woodland.  Nor did this ecological strategy  overlook the little guys. Lizards, newts and toads which were carefully collected from the waterways prior to deconstruction, and reintroduced upon completion.   In a rare moment of man building in the image of nature, the waterways were restored to living river edges, instead of the reinforced concrete or metal edging more commonly seen in urban waterways.

So let’s give another gold to Britain’s Atkins Engineering for their dedication and innovative spirit in providing not only a fine Olympic venue, but a legacy for East Londoners to enjoy.

P.S.  Thanks to my roving reporters Felix and Bridget, who provided some Olympic insight - and photos!

Shades of Green: the 70’s vs. the Millenium

Recently a friend asked for help in designing an off-the-grid house.  Interestingly, I pulled out the old books from the 70’s to show as examples and inspiration.   We tagged a combination of an earth berm, passive solar, attached greenhouse buffer space, solar thermal, and a stack effect heating/cooling drawing from a heat sink southern rock exposure and a cool northern forest glen.    It seemed so -  natural…

Apparently this approach differs greatly from the current focus on technology – low-E windows, solar panels, energy saving bulbs, energy efficient HVAC.

Why the difference?    I’m going to give away my age here, but I think there might be a clue in reflecting the condition of our “growing up” years.   The energy efficiency pioneers of the 70’s were raised in a world which was just starting to incorporate central forced air heating and central air conditioning in commercial buildings, but mostly without  that  buffer of mechanical temperature controls in their homes.  They knew summers to be hot, and winters to be bone chilling cold. They experience humidity, and knew the cooling effects of a light breeze.   So the ‘problem’ they were solving was the core issue of achieving a more even temperature and humidity to increase the comfort level.   

The catalyst which sparked the flurry of home innovation was the OPEC oil crisis, but the 60’s generation set the stage in the interest to go “organic,” and embracing nature, and to do your own thing.   So the 70’s energy efficient designs are innovative, organic and leverage the opportunities offered by natural elements.  They are based on building physics, harnessing solar heat, moving air through buffering plenums, shading designs for cooling.    Mechanical heating and cooling were then positioned as supplemental, providing  the final bit of temperature moderation.   And ‘mechanical’ solutions were equally creative in those days, including whole house fans, solar thermal radiant heat, trombe walls with fans…

But forced air mechanical units essentially trumped all those approaches, and this Millennial generation approaches design from a difference reference point.   They start with the presumption that central air HVAC is normal and necessary.   So then the question becomes how to produce the electricity to feed this mechanical creature who has a permanent spot in your basement or attic.  So we put our efforts into solar panels, windmills, hydroelectric.  And the HVAC monster is not the only electricity gobbling resident in the household.  There are water heaters, refrigerators, coffee makers, microwaves, TVs, radios, hair dryers, hair curlers, hair straighteners…. and a gazillion more gadgets.   In systems thinking jargon, we would call this an electricity addiction.   And the interesting part is that if electricity prices are kept low (either through subsidized coal, or reduced priced of solar panels), then it triggers an even greater addiction to electricity.    While I’m not necessarily advocating a return to the cave, this addiction and new norm distances the HVAC ‘solution’ even further from the core issue  -  which is rooted in building physics.

from solar to Architecture2030

So call me an old geezer looking for some recognition for my craft, or a die-hard granola, but I prefer to bill myself as a systems analyst and root cause problem solver who thinks we could learn a lot by cruising the second hand bookstores and picking up the old 70’s energy efficiency solutions.  If the black and white photos make you uncomfortable, you can certainly Photoshop in some color – but I think there is some fundamental knowledge to be gained.    And if you prefer to learn on-line, there is no finer collection of these experienced builders than at GreenbuildingAdvisor.com.   These guys have been experimenting, building, and testing building systems for years.   ( Click HERE to read an excellent synopsis of the solar vs superinsulation lessons from the last 30 years). Which brings me to Ed Mazria, who I first knew the author of the epic book on Passive Solar building. Now, he is best known and the catalyst for the Architecture 2030 movement, bringing together good science, analysis and problem solving to boldly set the energy bar at the level we need to see to address our climate issues.   

Solaripedia design in Serbia

So what if we were design with the starting premise of  NO mechanical assist in dwellings.  Afer we've refined the design as best possible, only then would we identify the need for supplemental space conditioning.  The energy for this smaller and more targetted heating and cooling equipment can come from the grid, but ultimately, we would ‘pay’ this forward by creating excess energy,  cleaning more air than we pollute, harvesting and placing more water than we use.  This goal of becoming energy neutral might help re-assess the need for all the eletricity gadgets as well.  Combining the knowledge gained through the experimentation of the 70’s and 80's, the growing knowledge of building science, and the technology of the Millenium, there is no reason we couldn’t achieve Mazria’s goals and leave our own legacy for our children to build upon.

Hollywood, Bollywood and Power Grids

No Electricity - No Trains

While Hollywood is showing previews of a TV show “Revolution” depicting life in a world left suddenly without electricity, the real thing was playing out in India - and NOT a Bollywood movie.  This event left  more than half a billion people without power, roughly 10 percent of the entire world population at a standstill.   Blame it on infrastructure combined with excess demand.  Blame it on a corrupt government system where civil servants are pressured by local leaders to break the quota amounts and allow their regions to get more.  Or blame it on insufficient breaker systems, or the emergency system which is supposed to shut down branches to keep the grid alive.  That’s India…. or is it also the USA?

What about the power outage in 2003, which affected more than 50 million people, caused by a power surge in the Midwest? Or in 2007, which left the Queens area of New York  in the dark for as long as nine days?   OR in 2008, when a failed switch in Miami left 4 million people without power?  

U.S.  energy experts say that a failure such as in India is unlikely to happen in the US.   They cite the fact that our electric grids are segmented into three parts, with safeguards to prevent an outage in one system from tripping in another.  Great,  but one third of the USA is still a pretty good size!   And, 75% of the power outages in the U.S. are caused by weather.  But as we saw with the Derecho event  earlier this summer, extreme power events are on the rise – and there is more human infrastructure which is at risk as we build and expand.   The experts also say that the US generates more than enough electricity to meet demand and always have power in reserve. While that may be true, there remain very crucial issues of updating the grid from analog to digital, installing smart metering which could self-monitor, self-heal, and minimize the repercussion of an individual incident.

A greater danger is lurking in cyberspace.  Apparently, the vulnerabilities of the existing electric grid control systems are available online,  and groups such as ‘Anonymous’ have already demonstrated their ability to hack into the network.   Many of the grids and controls were built well before the concept of ‘cybersecurity.’  Energy regulators appealed to the Senate just last week to consider the security risk this poses and to increase information sharing.

Is this the right solution?  I am reminded that the best solution addresses the root of the problem, doesn’t create more problems, and doesn’t create a dependency on the intervention mechanism (usually more paperwork or bureaucracy.)  In India, the solution was that many of the businesses, healthcare and even homes have back-up diesel fuel generators, since blackouts are relatively uncommon.   That is a large bandaid, but not a solution.    A big part of the problem seems to be the large dependencies created by current power plants and grids.   This requires lots of controls to prevent the spread of power outages.   

Smart Towns -  localized energy management

I wonder if there might not be a more elegant solution by decentralizing power into smaller areas. This would contain power outages and reduce the scale of security threats.  The management of the grid would be more responsive to local conditions, and the fiscal management more linked to the users. There is already a trending toward this concept from the private sector, with Greensburg, Kansas  and towns Germany who are buying back their energy infrastructure (see Ecobuildtrends  Power (ful) lessons from Greensburg).   Japan is developing Smart Towns.   The concept of a distributed grid has been around for a long time, but often got pushback based on the type of power generation.  After all, not everyone wants a coal-fired power plant in their back yard.   But with developing technology in biofuel from waste products, power generation from algae growth,  cogeneration, combined heat and power plants,  the time might be right to reconsider this equation.

Let’s keep the power-outage world of “Revolution’ TV show a Hollywood imaginary world.