oh, you've hit it on the head, chip. not just healthcare, either. make no small plans, goes the saying, and noone takes that principle more seriously than your freindly neighborhood multinational. the schemes afoot for the transformation of africa are staggeringly vast in their scope, and you can bet bill is invested in them up to his armpits.
On 6/18/08, Darryl McMahon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Not Chris, but thought I'd chime in anyway, as the rain is providing > with that rare few spare minutes. > > Keith Addison wrote: >> Hello Chris >> >>> For a quarter of 250.00 a barrel, current solar technology will >>> fill the needs of the planet. >> >> Do you mean PVs? They have their role to play, but making them is >> dirty, recycling them later is also dirty. > > Hopefully, by now, people are figuring out that solar is so much more > than just photovoltaics (PV). But then, I've been playing at the > low-tech end for so long now I tend to forget there are still newbies to > solar water heating, solar space heating, controlling unwanted solar > gain, and of course the grandparents of solar energy, sunlight to grow > plants in the garden and the hydrologic cycle to deliver water to the > plants (and rainbarrels), rather than the tap. > > Of course, if the price of gasoline drops, even a little, then the > industrialized world and its consumer pawns will go back to sleep. > >> >> What's your plan for dealing with old batteries? > > Re-use and recycling. Of course, we're mucking that up now courtesy of > cheap oil, multi-national corporations and uneven laws around > environmental behaviour, but I expect we'll eventually figure out that > we don't want to ship the old ones half-way round the world to > remanufacture them. Lead-acid has a pretty good story with regard to > recycling, probably because the "scrap" is so valuable. Last I heard, > dead lead-acid batteries (golf-cart size) are fetching $12 and more a > piece at the local boneyard. > > Could always be better of course. I'd like to see more Edison cells, > then we could go a century or more before trips to the scrap yard. > >> >> Anyway, there just isn't a single, one-size-fits-all "best >> technology". It'll need all ready-to-use renewable energy >> technologies, used in combination as the local circumstances require, >> as well as reduced energy use (currently mostly waste), improved >> energy efficiency, and decentralisation of supply to the small-scale >> or farm-scale local-economy level. >> >> Many places would be better off with a biogas digester, a generator >> and a car engine, cheap and easily available stuff locals can >> maintain, plus a few palm-oil trees for transport fuel, and maybe >> passive solar, compost heat, micro-hydro, wind generators, better >> woodstoves... > > ... and bicycles and walkable communities and gardens and ... > > Sadly, this week I feel like we're still losing more than we're winning > - Ontario announcement to further embrace big nuclear. Apparently I'm > supposed to be happy that my guerilla clotheslines were finally > legalized a couple of months ago. Not hardly. Guess I'll have to find > some new ways to subvert the power structure. > > <snip text re: Bill Gates, Green Revolution, centralized solutions, etc > - no arguments here> > >> >> We have to do this stuff ourselves, local citizens of the global village. >> >> Best >> >> Keith >> > <snip old message to save bandwidth> > > -- > Darryl McMahon > Save water and your money. The Water Saver toilet fill diverter. > http://www.econogics.com/WaterSaver/ > > > _______________________________________________ > Biofuel mailing list > Biofuel@sustainablelists.org > http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel > > Biofuel at Journey to Forever: > http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html > > Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 > messages): > http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/ > _______________________________________________ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
