Mindzle

Archive for December, 2009

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Aquaponics is the attempt to create a intertwined biosphere of plant and animal life (primarily fish) that benefits the growth of both. More often than not these systems are used to grow food, however that is not always the case.

I have been researching these systems, looking for the best designs, and noting the pitfalls, so that in the near future, I may have the understanding to build my own system.

In all my digging for the nuggets of knowledge regarding this fairly obscure topic, these are the 5 most useful blogs I have found.

1. Backyard Aquaponics – The premiere information portal for the would be Aquaponaut. This site is the home of the Backyards Aquaponics magazine and has more information in it’s forums than pretty much the rest of the Internet combined. It is a fantastic resource and should not be missed by anyone seriously considering their own system.
2. Snow Camp Aquaponics – This wonderful little blog documents the trials and tribulations of Brian Naess in his quest to develop an aquaponics system on a shoestring budget. He posts only about once a month, but his perseverance through every disaster and his dedication to just making it work gives me hope for my future system and should inspire any would-be aquaponaut.
3. Aquaponics Made Easy – Murray Hallam runs a business that creates a wide variety of products for use in Aquaponics including grow beds and tanks. His blog is full of useful videos, tips, tricks, advice, system designs and installations. This site is a treasure trove of information, and a great resource for buying material if you happen to live in Australia. The videos alone make it a must see.
4. A Thought Adrift – Simon Gemmell was so successful with his own aquaponics system that he launched Capital Aquaponics as a business to design and develop systems for others. His photos give you an idea of the incredible potential of these systems. The growth of both plants and trout is impressive and shows everyone what they should strive for their system to be.
5. Backyard Aquaponics Forum – Yes this is basically just the forum from the first site mentioned, and no it is not a blog. Regardless, it is so important as a resource that it must be given more real estate on this post. The forums are very active with people designing and building their own systems. Some of the larger ones are commercial in scale, and f it were not for the pictures I wouldn’t believe them. I regularly lurk the forums, just trying to gain as much info, from the community, that my brain can absorb.

So there you have it, my top 5 aquaponics Blogs. If anyone has any more suggestions I’d love to hear them. Cheers!

Related articles by Zemanta

• Aquaponics Aquaponics, energy efficiency, and an ecosystem approach to food production (slideshare.net)
• Aquaponics: An Efficient Way to Feed Ourselves? (treehugger.com)

Like some men, I am notoriously late on finding gifts for my friends, family and my wife. I really hate shopping, but that isn’t why it gets put off to the last minute. It has more to do with not noticing the days slip away. Running around, getting “work” done gets in the way, not that I mind.

We don’t watch TV, not in the sense that most people do. We simply do not have any television service, and chose not to get any wen we moved out here in the boonies. We watch movies and occasionally a show from our Netflix subscription.

I love Netflix, it puts entertainment on my schedule not that of the TV networks and advertisers. It also means I don’t see commercials anymore. Consequently we watch very few hours of TV a week, and sometimes none at all.

This has given me time to work on things like our yard, garden, chicken coup and fun projects like painting and drawing. This time also gives me plenty of time to read.

I read quite a bit. In fact it is hard to have enough books around to not run out or end up re-reading the same books over and over again.

In our little corner of the world we lack a local library. What we need is a Netflix for books. Well I just came across this fantastic service, Book Swim the Netflix for Books. I am going to get several gift cards for avid readers in my social circle, and sign up for my own account today.

Happy Holidays everyone and I hope 2010 s a better year for everyone!

Energy Systems - Renewable Energy

Ethanol production plants have been built in the Midwest and have also been promoted heavily through Federal subsidies.  Is ethanol biofuel a significant contender in alternative energy?

That ethanol is benefiting our nation’s quest toward energy independence, in the way that it is used today, is a hard argument.  Why are we using farm lands to make fuel for automobiles when it is not the most practical thing to do?  There is still plenty of oil in the Earth, and plenty of room for improvements in efficiency and renewable energy technologies.

Ethanol production is driving up the price of foods because of the increased competition for grains.  Farmers should be able to make a good living off their land, there is no question of that.  That the gasoline market is competing with our fundamental food production capability, however, brings a good argument.

A disadvantage of ethanol is its heat content is lower than other fuels.  It’s energy density is only 60% of gasoline (HHV = 12,700 BTU/lb vs. 20,500 BTU/lb), and so gallon for gallon doesn’t deliver the same amount of useful energy.  One could envision ethanol being used to heat homes and make hot water, but that is not currently it’s marketed use.

Maybe the final blow against ethanol biofuel is that, unlike solar power, wind power, and other alternative energy systems, it is not tapping a source of free energy (unless it is derived from agricultural waste).  When you factor in the energy used to plant, harvest, and refine the grains into ethanol it is an expensive fuel.  It has almost half the energy of diesel or gasoline, and similar amounts of production costs.

The methods being used to produce ethanol today is not generating alternative energy that lives up to the publicity it has received.  The use of advanced technologies to generate ethanol biofuel from agricultural wastes could prove to be very useful in the future.  It falls in the realm of alternative energy, but in the current way used it is not tapping a free source of energy.

Significant solar power plant projects are being considered in locations like California and New Mexico where there is significant sunshine.  It is therefore reasonable to consider the overall effectiveness and practicality of solar power plants on a large scale.  To what extent can solar power be used to power America’s energy base?

The proposed answer is simple.  Pound for pound and dollar for dollar solar power stations can not create the output of a fossil fuel power station.  The energy trapped in coal, natural gas, and diesel fuel is very concentrated and very potent.  Combustion fuels will continue to outperform the renewables market for as long as carbon based fuel prices remain low.

Combustible fuels are nothing more than solar energy locked up and concentrated from millenia before, so don’t think of them as a bad thing.  Without combustion, we would be without many modern technological developments, and we could not support our industrial base.

Most of our comforts and commercial activities are founded on several industries.  This foundation includes the mining of ores from the Earth, and the manufacturing of raw materials such as aluminum, iron, steel, copper, and more.  This includes plants that produce machinery, tools, cars, airplanes and all the gadgets and gizmos we use in everyday life.  This also includes heavy agricultural machinery and sawmills required to provide basic products to our economy. 

Put simply we use a lot of power to accomodate our regular daily lives.  This energy consumption is rooted in the infrastructure that bolsters our economy and our existence and the reality is it is supported by energy generated through combustion.

Here in lies the fundamental problem with large scale solar power stations.  They can’t supply adequate energy to support America’s industrial base.  This does not mean they are irrelevant or undesireable.  It means solar energy systems make the most sense in small commercial and residential applications where energy consumption is lower.

For example a 500 MW fossil fueled power plant can fit in a small area of less than a quarter square mile without much difficulty.  As a comparison a PV solar power plant would need almost 2 square miles of PV panels to equal this same capacity.  This is 2 square miles of actual solar panels, and does not account for the mounting and maintenance space.  Being that solar panels provide peak power only 5 to 7 hours per day, then apples to apples we’re only getting ¼ the total output with more than eight times the space!

Where there is plenty of sun and good weather we need to use solar power solutions to supplement our energy portfolio.  Our modern combustion technologies deserve recognition.  Modern combustion power systems are more efficient and cleaner than ever before capable of reliable power 24 hours a day 7 days a week.  The energy density of fossil fuels is just to high to ignore when it comes to powering America’s industrial base.

Pollution is the fouling of the environment, that is, land, water and air- by waste, smoke, etc. Every industrial country faces the problem of waste. As factories make new goods for people to buy, old ones are thrown out with the household trash. Burning this garbage pollutes the air, throwing it into rivers and seas pollutes the water while piling it up leads to unpleasant rubbish heaps, which take up much-needed space.

Our beautiful ecosystem is being systematically damaged by industrial pollution channeled into rivers like Ganga and Yamuna, nuclear wastes from atomic plants routed into the world’s oceans and poisonous gases like carbon dioxide mixed with the ozonosphere. Besides, tropical rain forests and green pastures are disappearing under the pressure of a proliferating population. Dams are being built over  rivers such as the Narmada to change nature’s well-balanced surface equations between flora and fauna. Elsewhere  sloping mountainous terrain is being converted into mini oceans to supply electricity to the ever-starving industrial stomach of our age. Elephants, tigers, wild rhinos of South Africa and many other forest creatures have become endangered species.

Consumerism has created a garbage glut in the world. Consumers in industrialized countries throw out staggering amounts of refuse like cartons, cigarette butts, polythene bags and plastic containers, which mix with the water of rivers and oceans and fertile crop-yielding soil of the earth. If too much sewage is poured into seas, lakes and rivers, the water can no longer dilute it,as a result all the oxygen gets used up and the fish die. The bacteria which normally break down the refuse into harmless matter also die, only harmful bacteria which do not need air remain and these cause diseases.

Owning a car has really become a status symbol these days. The arrival of Maruti 800 on the roads of India already brought a revolution in the world of automobiles. And now the upcoming Nano will bring about a new revolution. But the increase in the number of cars has added to various pollution problems. The smoke-emitting guzzlers have made cities like Delhi living gas chambers.  The growing number of vehicles; have vitiated the atmosphere. The amount of harmful gases in the air is alarmingly on the rise. They affect our eyes and lungs giving rise to all kinds of respiratory diseases.

On the landmass, eco-destroying monsters are deforestation, dams constructed to generate electricity and serve irrigational facilities, and soot and toxic gases resulting in the greenhouse effect. Some American environmentalists like Jeremy Rifkin blame the world’s population of cattle for most of the ecological ills. These creatures we feed and fatten to get their meat, spoil streams and underground aquifers. Tropical rain forests are turning into pastures for this gluttonous herd. In Saharan Africa, the burgeoning population of cattle is denuding the arid lands of fertile vegetation. In Netherlands, population of pigs poses a major ecological threat. Their manure defiles water supply with excessive nitrates and acidifies local soils.

Building dams over rivers is like clotting the blood of nature and stopping its pulse from beating. Scientists have proved that dams and embankments cause more floods and do more harm than good. Flooding is a boon of nature when occurring in limits. It cleanses and renews river basins, expands feeding and breeding grounds of plants, fishes, birds and wildlife, and spreads fresh layers of fertile silt from which we get bumper crops.

Getting rid of plastics is particularly difficult- with time, wood and paper decay through the action of bacteria, but plastics never decay.

Pollution must be controlled and the sooner the better. It will cost a great deal, both in terms of money and a change in lifestyle. For example, acid rain can be arrested by checking harmful fumes before they go out from power station chimneys. This may push up the price of electricity, but is for the better. Also, the packaging of goods in bright plastics and the ‘throwaway’ culture should be discouraged. As industry needs a regular supply of raw materials, the best solution to the problem of waste is to make use of it as a raw material by reusing or recycling it. Governments must not allow construction contractors who are largely responsible for manmade floods to plunder the timber wealth of forests.

The introduction of metro has eased the traffic on the roads of Delhi to a little extent. It provides a comfortable, cleaner and cheaper alternative to the office-goers. The day is not very far when unconventional sources of energy will be used to drive cars.

The Japanese solution to environmental hazards is burning, burying, reducing and recycling waste products. In U.S., more than 2,000 garbage burning plants work day and night in addition to 125 large incinerators. Another Japanese solution is aqua culture, which they have introduced in their industries to keep them clean. An Italian chemical giant has manufactured a plastic substitute, which reduces the greenhouse effect. 

A high governmental priority will be to educate citizens about environmental risks, economic and health dangers of resource degradation and the real cost of natural resources. Greater emphasis should be placed on promoting awareness, undertaking and competence in schools, colleges and training institutions. NGOs and public-spirited individuals can bring about significant measures on polluting units for adopting abatementprocedures/policies. A system of certification of goods that are environment friendly should be set up. Only then this vast country of ours and the whole world will become a pleasant and clean place to live in.

Global warming and climate change perhaps the most talked matter today, rightly so because it poses dangers that may lead to wiping out nature and the entire animal & bird population of the Planet closely followed by the human species.

International efforts to tackle the problem have perhaps been a bigger failure than even the Doha Round of Negotiations! Political issues and matters of selfish interests of nations always rule over the bigger problem at hand, that of Global Warming. The question remains, should we wait for a renewed Kyoto Protocol? Or is it time we realize that political hassles will not let us stop this menace and therefore we should look for ‘politically amiable’ solutions.
Geo engineering is perhaps one of them. Geo Engineering is a technique of large scale manipulation of the Earth’s environmental set up to reduce the impact of carbon emissions. There are three major techniques under this method that can be used, namely, Solar radiation management, Greenhouse gas remediation and Arctic geoengineering. Some of the techniques proposed under Geo Engineering may seem to some as taken out of some Scientific Fiction book by a crazy author!

The tipping point in the field of Solar radiation management came in 2006, when the Nobel Prize—winning atmospheric scientist Paul Crutzen published an editorial examining the possibility of releasing vast amounts of sulfurous debris into the atmosphere to create a haze that would keep the planet cool. To implement this system precursor gases such as hydrogen sulfide (H2S) can be released using artillery, aircraft and balloons. The price tag that comes with this technique is even more amazing : somewhere between a few hundred million dollars and a couple of billion dollars every year. This technology also has support in an event that took place in 1991. Mount Pinatubo erupted, releasing 15m tonnes of sulphur dioxide into the stratosphere which  formed a thick cloud of aerosol particles and within 15 months this had spread across the world, reflecting a significant proportion of the sun’s energy back into space. Average global temperatures fell by over 0.5 degrees celcius.

The Arctic region represents a major cause of concern. The impact of Global Warming can be especially seen in ice covered areas like the Arctic where the ice sheet is rapidly melting. This is an important concern also because it drastically increases sea levels and may cause calamaties by submerging low lying islands. Therefore, geo engineering offers a specific plan for this concern called Arctic Geo engineering under which the aim would be to enhance the polar ice cap by spraying or pumping water onto the top of it which would build thicker sea ice. Ice serves as an insulator and therefore ice on the surface would freeze quicker than that below. River water is being suggested to be used in this case as it is not saline. Presence of salt may in fact reduce freezing capacity and leads to the new layer of ice become perforated.
Geo Engineering is increasingly being looked upon as a viable solution by a lot of developed and developing countries alike. In fact in 2001, President Bush had withdrawn US support from the Kyoto Protocol. This meeting therefore represented something like a US counterproposal to Kyoto, an ‘alternative approach to climate change’. President Obama is also looking at proposals and asking his efficient team of scientists to explore most effective possibilities. Geo Engineering should not be promoted as a technique to be applied in isolation. In fact, it should be used as a supplementary technique along with the main aim of reducing carbon emissions. It is only then can we expect to reduce global temperatures and avoid the destruction of our planet.

Nuclear energy promises to be the most viable source of energy in view of the depleting natural resources. However the consequences of generating nuclear energy are far reaching and grave. With the ever increasing need for technology, domestic and industrial power supply, defence requirements and scientific research demands, the lure of nuclear energy bypasses the outcry of the environment and planet.

Transboundary dumping of hazardous waste refers to the export of such waste to the third world countries, especially Sub-Saharan nations by the first world mainly U.S. and Europe. Besides dumping into the sea is a common way of disposal of nuclear waste. For years the coast of Farallon Islands near the Californian Coast remained the biggest dumping site in America, containing 47,500 barrels of low level radioactive waste disposed from the various US nuclear reactors and US Navy and University of California’s nuclear laboratories. Ships containing hazardous waste barrels released them into the sea and the barrels that did not sink were holed for immediate sinking, leading to nuclear pollution. The marine life was and continues to be put to danger when such waste enters the marine food chain and ultimately the human chain.

The Sub- Saharan countries like Guinea Bissau which is among the 20 most poor countries of the world, agree to the import of hazardous waste from the first world nations due to financial requirements. At one point Guinea Bissau was offered 600 billion dollars for acting as the dumping ground. The sum was twice its foreign debt and four times it’s GNP at the time. Such financial lures are the main reason for transboundary dumping. Also the lack of technological know-how in such countries make them easy targets for nuclear waste trading in the name of fertilizers, road building material and re-cycleable chemicals. The lack of stringent regulations regarding proper disposal and environmental issues in these countries attract first world countries where laws are more rigidly binding. Also the prevalence of deep-rooted corruption exacerbates the problem. ‘Under the table’ deals with government officials of these countries make them soft targets for waste disposal.

The lack of economic, social and infrastructural development in the third world countries forces them to convert their own land into ‘cradle of death’. The lack of technological knowledge leads to improper disposal of deathly waste in grossly insufficient incinerators which in some cases are almost absent. In Nigeria for example empty containers of nuclear waste are used for storing water for domestic purposes. Is this not worse than murder, condemning your ignorant fellow nationalities to decades of darkness? Is it not inhuman to knowingly put the innocent future generation to a lifelong sentence of poor health and handicap? Is this not the most excruciating pain being inflicted on Mother Nature? And yet money rules!

Russia is planning to make itself the world’s biggest nuclear dumping ground with the promise of extracting nuclear material from the waste and reselling it. Has it forgotten the Chernobyle disaster, has it forgotten its incapability in handling nuclear hazards? We talk of the Brundland report, we discuss sustainable development in every UN meeting. But then I guess all the propaganda is to give us the false hope that ‘everything’s OKAY’. Well it’s high time we realized that things are beyond okay and its time we put our foot down.

Conservation is the only option. The need for nuclear energy cannot be denied, but we need technological advancements in nuclear waste disposal techniques. We belong to nature and the nature belongs to us. Realisation of sustainable development is the only way out for harmonious co-existence, or shall we say existence because without a healthy environment the question of our survival is redundant.

Albert Einstein once said, “Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances for survival of life on earth as much as the evolution of a vegetarian diet.”

How amazingly right that genius was. A 2006 United Nations report summarized the devastation caused by the meat industry by calling it “one of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global” The report recommended that animal agriculture “be a major policy focus when dealing with problems of land degradation, climate change and air pollution, water shortage and water pollution, and loss of biodiversity.

Today many people have started recognizing the importance of reducing their own ‘eco-footprint’ which is a measure of human’s demand on the Earth’s ecosystems.  They have begun to switch to water saving and power saving devices, hybrid cars and renewable energy sources. However, one of the simplest and yet most significant choices we can make to reduce our environmental impact has been overlooked. Switching to a vegetarian diet is arguably the most ‘effective’ way to go green!

For all my meat eating friends, should know that just for the satisfaction of their ‘tongue’ they are contributing immensely to Global Warming. People eating non-vegetarian food and the meat industry contribute to 27% of global warming. (That’s more pollution than all the vehicular traffic of the world put together) Now after knowing this fact if one still continues to eat meat than either they simply don’t care for the Environment or they have other justifications to eat them.

People have been found to give justifications saying, “The chicken are made to be eaten, otherwise their number will grow in a proportion that it will destroy the balance of earth. If you don’t destroy them, they will eat up everything anyways” and also “if you tell egg is a non-vegetarian thing then why do you take milk then? That is also another animal product and most of the eggs that you take do not have fertilizing power. Hence, actually you don’t kill any chicken also.” These are only few of the common reasons for eating non-vegetarian food.

Chicken are grown on factory farms, and no chicken that we eat is wild! I checked up www.goveg.com and was simply shocked to see the atrocities being done on these poor birds. According to scientists at the Smithsonian Institute, the equivalent of seven football fields of land is bulldozed every minute, much of it to create more room for farmed animals. Of all the agricultural land in the U.S., nearly 80 percent is used in some way to raise animals—that’s roughly half of the total land mass of the U.S. More than 260 million acres of U.S. forest have been cleared to create cropland to grow grain to feed farmed animals. My argument is that, if people stop eating chicken or for that matter meat, million upon millions acres of land that is used to feed these animals, could be used for humans or could be returned to their original forest state. This would atleast help in giving fresh air for lungs to breathe in. Conservative estimates predict that a 50% reduction in meat consumption in developed countries could save 3.6 million children from malnutrition. When these estimates are projected to all people in extreme poverty it is estimated that 33.6 million people could be saved from malnutrition.

8/10th to 9/10th of the land in USA is used to grow feed for animals. Isn’t this baffling? They actually have to import food grains for human consumption. We are losing about 1 acre of rain forest almost every few minutes to create grazing land for animal that other people eat. So many species of animals, birds and trees have gone extinct! We don’t even know how to get them back. The veggies have been time and again said to be hypocrites as they themselves intake milk, which is also an animal product. Our ancient Ayurveda says that milk is okay, provided it is coming from free range of cows and not from factory cows.

How about fish? Mass fishing has destroyed the ocean ecology, only 20% of the fish caught are fit for human consumption, rest are just dumped back in the ocean after they are dead. These fish are caught by trawlers the size of a football field, and they scour the deep seas to get to the fish. Other fish are grown on factory farms, where they are fed a dangerous cocktail of chemicals to give them colour, or make them grow faster, or resistant to disease because of over crowding and they are also fed fish which are farmed from the ocean. The ocean ecology is very fragile and through this mass fishing and factory fish farms, humans have managed to make many oceanic flora and fauna already extinct.

Between watering the crops that farmed animals eat, providing drinking water for billions of animals each year, and clean away the filth in factory farms, transport trucks, and slaughterhouses, the farmed animal industry places a serious strain on our water supply as well. It takes 5,000 gallons of water to produce 1 pound of meat, while growing 1 pound of wheat only requires 23 gallons. In US over half of the water is used to grow feed for livestock.

Al Gore in his movie about Global warming dint mention even once the effect that eating non-vegetarian food has on the environment. The movie or rather the documentary was successful in creating awareness amongst the people. It offered few solutions, but does provide some hope. Mr. Gore himself is a meat eater and so this major contributor to global warming was not addressed at all!

Seeing all this from a humane angle, one tends to ponder that is all this eating of animals justified? Don’t they have lives in them? The other day I was having a chat with my Bengali friend who is a staunch fish lover. She said that she was compelled to eat fish because it’s the staple diet of people staying in Bengal. I only have one question to her and all the Bengalis, just because fish has some nutritional value, just because it is their staple diet, will they continue to gulp them even after knowing all these facts? They should probably get a DVD of Finding Nemo! There’s also a very logical reason associated with stopping the intake of non-vegetarian food. Right before an animal is going to be slaughtered, innumerable harmful toxins are released in their body (as a result of fear of being killed).  And lo! What do we do? We end up taking in the same toxins after eating them up.

The evidence is clear: the production of livestock for human consumption is having a devastating impact on the planet and its people. Switching to a healthy vegetarian diet not only saves the lives of animals, it may even save us and the planet.
Whoever is reading this, please know that when you eat non vegetarian food or watch others eat that and don’t educate them; even you are contributing to global warming and the rape of our planet!

Climate change is one of the most prevalent problems that the world is facing today. With so many establishments that do not have any agenda but to earn money and don’t really care if their processes, end products and waste materials are hazardous to nature. As a result, the condition of our environment is constantly getting worse with no chances of getting any better.

It may be because of a lack of awareness or just lack of concern for the environment. Even the end users of certain products haven’t shown any concern and love for nature. We must admit that it’s not really our concern if the product that we buy and use is environment-friendly or not. What we are more conscious about is if the cost of the product is within our budget, whether it’s safe for the environment is not really an issue for us. What makes it worse is that most of the cheapest products that you buy haven’t passed any testing or certifications to prove it safe for the environment.

There are few people who know about sustainable products. Sustainable products are products that are produced so as to cause no harm to nature. And even when it is time for it to decompose, still, it will cause no harm to nature. The truth is that these kinds of products are already available on the market, and is gradually becoming known to the world. Its purpose also is to gradually eliminating those products that bring no good to the environment.

It feels good knowing that there are still lots of people who are willing to go all the way for the love of nature. The efforts of finding means to produce not just recyclable, but environment-friendly products from raw materials, manufacturing processes and to its decay are made possible by organizations that are willing to save this earth for the people of today and the generations to come.

Sustainable products are not that easy to produce. Complex procedures need to be carefully considered in order to measure and examine if a product passes all the needed requirements in order to be considered as sustainable. Due to these complex measures and procedures that need to be done to determine the sustainability of a product, the price that is allotted to it once ready to be sold may not be affordable for some consumers.

In the end, what everyone should realize is each one us should make even in our own little way to save the earth from all possible hazards that society can cause to it. By this, you will do something beneficial to nature. When people learn to make use of sustainable products, it will be a great start for saving the earth.With regards to the government, maybe what they can do is find ways to make sustainable products not just appealing, but affordable to the public. Maybe some other methods could be used just to make people interested in buying them. That way, it will definitely result in a healthier world for this generation and generations to come.

Find out the components that make up a sustainable product esign. Discover more by visiting the site or simply clicking the link.