This is a very important point, I think. Recycling means using something for the same purpose again - taking a milk bottle, crushing it down, melting it and making a new milk bottle is recycling.
Downcycling is something very different. Taking a yoghurt pot and making a fleece is downcycling. You couldn't use the material from the yoghurt pot to make another yoghurt pot of the same quality.
Generally something that was pure (aluminium, copper, plastic, whatever) that has been processed into something less pure (a drinks can coated in paint, for example) is unlikely to be truly recycled, due to the energy cost in doing so.
So even if you "recycle what you can" just bear in mind that it is unlikely to be true closed loop recycling. Perfectly closed systems are impossible (there is always entropy, or an increase in disorder in any system), but to call converting a tetra pak into toilet paper recycling is disingenuous at best.
Treehugger has a good piece on this!
Last night I played Trivial Pursuit for a number of hours - 1980s Trivial Pursuit. I had a great time, while being aware the group dynamics. One person there does seasonal tree planting work - on average he earned 6p per tree, and would plant about 2,000 a day - absolutely incredible.
I am seriously considering a "no packaging" trial for food, though I think I might wait until the spring when there will be more foragable food available. I have one mini mulched bed here at home, but as we'll all move out in May I don't suppose we'll see the benefit from it! That doesn't matter, though - if we can stealth-indoctrinate our landlord (who lives here over the summer), and leave something in place for the next group of students, that'd be energy well spent.
Today is to be a lazy day, I think. It's been raining since I've been awake! Time for another cup of tea :)
Friday, October 30, 2009
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Goodbye, coral reefs?
After reading this piece about the likely disapearance of the coral reefs last night, I felt compelled to write to my British MP..
Dear MP,
I am writing about climate change and peak oil. I am currently studying something called "Permaculture" in Ireland.
Last night I read a piece about how the Coral Reefs are most likely doomed. Combined with the projection that African Elephants might be extinct in 10 years, the decline of polar bears, and hundreds and thousands of other species extinctions that don't make the headlines, I found this piece incredibly distressing.
After having a rather bad night's sleep, I came upon the analogy this morning of sitting and having breakfast, pondering what the weather might be like on the weekend, while my house burned down.
The recession is not my house burning down. It is a pay cut, a loss of job, a change of circumstance. Climate change is something rather more severe. And we - you, me, all the MPs, most of the population in general - don't appear to be getting it. Because the supermarkets still have food, we don't have to worry about it.
But we DO have to worry about it. The course textbook for my Permaculture course is called "The Earth Care Manual" by Patrick Whitefield, and at the start of it he shows a couple of pie charts linking our environmental impacts with the things we do. He suggests that food consumption is something like 30-35% of our impact - if you include fertiliser, transport and so on. I have heard that for every calorie of energy we get from eating food, 10 are used to grow, harvest and transport it.
The fact that "globalisation" means we both export and import large amounts of beef, lamb, pork and so on is reprehensible. And the thing is, it is probably also suicidal.
Yesterday afternoon I walked out of town across a bridge on the Bandon river, and was lucky enough to see a couple of otters - one had just caught a fish and was eating it. I stood for a long time looking at the water, even after they had disappeared from view.
I continued on my journey, the purpose of which was to forage for food - sea beet, alexanders, sorrel, horseradish - and, after collecting what became today's lunch, sat and watched the sea for a time.
It was beautiful. And we are all making a terrible mess, for... the opportunity to drive to work. To buy mangoes. And strawberries, out of season.
It doesn't matter - none of that matters. I feel so sad, and I realise I am just one person, with one view that is one of many. I appreciate the fact you drive a hybrid car. But it isn't enough. In my opinion.
I want my children to be able to see otters, to eat healthy fresh locally grown food, to breathe clean air. And I am terribly afraid they won't be able to.
Yours sincerely,
David Evans
Dear MP,
I am writing about climate change and peak oil. I am currently studying something called "Permaculture" in Ireland.
Last night I read a piece about how the Coral Reefs are most likely doomed. Combined with the projection that African Elephants might be extinct in 10 years, the decline of polar bears, and hundreds and thousands of other species extinctions that don't make the headlines, I found this piece incredibly distressing.
After having a rather bad night's sleep, I came upon the analogy this morning of sitting and having breakfast, pondering what the weather might be like on the weekend, while my house burned down.
The recession is not my house burning down. It is a pay cut, a loss of job, a change of circumstance. Climate change is something rather more severe. And we - you, me, all the MPs, most of the population in general - don't appear to be getting it. Because the supermarkets still have food, we don't have to worry about it.
But we DO have to worry about it. The course textbook for my Permaculture course is called "The Earth Care Manual" by Patrick Whitefield, and at the start of it he shows a couple of pie charts linking our environmental impacts with the things we do. He suggests that food consumption is something like 30-35% of our impact - if you include fertiliser, transport and so on. I have heard that for every calorie of energy we get from eating food, 10 are used to grow, harvest and transport it.
The fact that "globalisation" means we both export and import large amounts of beef, lamb, pork and so on is reprehensible. And the thing is, it is probably also suicidal.
Yesterday afternoon I walked out of town across a bridge on the Bandon river, and was lucky enough to see a couple of otters - one had just caught a fish and was eating it. I stood for a long time looking at the water, even after they had disappeared from view.
I continued on my journey, the purpose of which was to forage for food - sea beet, alexanders, sorrel, horseradish - and, after collecting what became today's lunch, sat and watched the sea for a time.
It was beautiful. And we are all making a terrible mess, for... the opportunity to drive to work. To buy mangoes. And strawberries, out of season.
It doesn't matter - none of that matters. I feel so sad, and I realise I am just one person, with one view that is one of many. I appreciate the fact you drive a hybrid car. But it isn't enough. In my opinion.
I want my children to be able to see otters, to eat healthy fresh locally grown food, to breathe clean air. And I am terribly afraid they won't be able to.
Yours sincerely,
David Evans
Saturday, October 24, 2009
350.org day of action!
So today was the day for doing something to promote climate change awareness, as part of 350.org's campaign in the run up to the Copenhagen meetings in December.
The plan was for us to erect a yurt and entice people in with biscuits. But the weather had other things planned - it's been the windiest day since I came to Ireland, and Donal - the yurt's owner - decided it'd be a bad idea to put it up.
Oh well, we'll go and... gate crash a craft fair, instead! Yeah!
We all had great fun moving around town, getting people to put a message or a fingerprint on our 350 banner in exchange for cookies! We had drum accompaniment also, which was absolutely fantastic.
The banner will go on to a rally in Dublin in December, before the actual talks in Copenhagen begin. Pictures and a short writeup available here.
In the evening, my housemate's mum cooked a lovely dinner for us. Hurrah for mums!
The plan was for us to erect a yurt and entice people in with biscuits. But the weather had other things planned - it's been the windiest day since I came to Ireland, and Donal - the yurt's owner - decided it'd be a bad idea to put it up.
Oh well, we'll go and... gate crash a craft fair, instead! Yeah!
We all had great fun moving around town, getting people to put a message or a fingerprint on our 350 banner in exchange for cookies! We had drum accompaniment also, which was absolutely fantastic.
The banner will go on to a rally in Dublin in December, before the actual talks in Copenhagen begin. Pictures and a short writeup available here.
In the evening, my housemate's mum cooked a lovely dinner for us. Hurrah for mums!
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Two great field trips
We are doing such a great course! So far this week we have visited Brown Envelope Seeds, one of only two commercial seed savers in Ireland, and the Hollies, a.. community? Ecovillage?
Seed saving on Tuesday gave us the chance to see how much effort goes in to keeping varieties going. This is a small operation - two full time and one part time people working there - and fascinating to see. They have a couple of plots of land, each with a poly tunnel or two (the plots are far enough apart so different varieties can be grown without the risk of cross polination), a little woodland, and a converted milking shed. At the time of writing there are only two commercial seed producers in the whole of Ireland!
We got to help getting beans from their pods, and later tried to help in removing radish seeds from their husks by dancing on top of them...! We also did "the usual" - a little weeding, a lot of chatting, and plenty of tea drinking!
On Wednesday? Wow. The Hollies is a beautiful 28 acre plot. There are 9 adults living there, one family in the original farmhouse, one in a completed cob house, one in an annexe and one in a wooden cabin built in about 23 weeks, mostly single handed!
There are lots of cob buildings - they hold a number of cob courses there, the longest being a 10 week apprenticeship, which goes into all aspects of cob building at great depth - not limited just to the cob, but roofing, design, and so on. And the cob buildings are beautiful! Curvy, sculpted, organic.
Most of the timber and firewood used is sourced locally; they have composting toilets, a yurt, and cob pizza oven; coppice land growing away merrily. And it feels peaceful, grounded, and just generally lovely!
They even had grapes - almost, almost ripe - growing in one poly tunnel. Big, healthy (tasty - almost!!) bunches of grapes.
Homemade wine, anyone?
Seed saving on Tuesday gave us the chance to see how much effort goes in to keeping varieties going. This is a small operation - two full time and one part time people working there - and fascinating to see. They have a couple of plots of land, each with a poly tunnel or two (the plots are far enough apart so different varieties can be grown without the risk of cross polination), a little woodland, and a converted milking shed. At the time of writing there are only two commercial seed producers in the whole of Ireland!
We got to help getting beans from their pods, and later tried to help in removing radish seeds from their husks by dancing on top of them...! We also did "the usual" - a little weeding, a lot of chatting, and plenty of tea drinking!
On Wednesday? Wow. The Hollies is a beautiful 28 acre plot. There are 9 adults living there, one family in the original farmhouse, one in a completed cob house, one in an annexe and one in a wooden cabin built in about 23 weeks, mostly single handed!
There are lots of cob buildings - they hold a number of cob courses there, the longest being a 10 week apprenticeship, which goes into all aspects of cob building at great depth - not limited just to the cob, but roofing, design, and so on. And the cob buildings are beautiful! Curvy, sculpted, organic.
Most of the timber and firewood used is sourced locally; they have composting toilets, a yurt, and cob pizza oven; coppice land growing away merrily. And it feels peaceful, grounded, and just generally lovely!They even had grapes - almost, almost ripe - growing in one poly tunnel. Big, healthy (tasty - almost!!) bunches of grapes.
Homemade wine, anyone?
Monday, October 12, 2009
Autumn Food Fest!
Yesterday was Transition Town Kinsale's Autumn Food Fest, celebrating local food growing and community gardening!
It was a lovely, sunny day, and the hall we were in was packed - I had agreed to bake bread, using local wheat, an electric mill to make the flour, and a small oven to bake the bread. Lots and lots of people were interested in the grinder, what kind of bread I was baking (in Ireland most bread is soda bread, but I was using dried yeast).
There were plenty of other things going on - other people from my course were using a butter churn to make butter, there was a pumpking carving competition, fancy dress (dress up as a vegetable...), a couple of beekeepers, jam and chutney swapping, a food mountain that was auctioned off, plus live music, venison stew, the possibility to sign up for an allotment locally... wow!
I think they took about €900 before expenses, and everyone had fun taking part too. What better way to spend a Sunday?!
It was a lovely, sunny day, and the hall we were in was packed - I had agreed to bake bread, using local wheat, an electric mill to make the flour, and a small oven to bake the bread. Lots and lots of people were interested in the grinder, what kind of bread I was baking (in Ireland most bread is soda bread, but I was using dried yeast).
There were plenty of other things going on - other people from my course were using a butter churn to make butter, there was a pumpking carving competition, fancy dress (dress up as a vegetable...), a couple of beekeepers, jam and chutney swapping, a food mountain that was auctioned off, plus live music, venison stew, the possibility to sign up for an allotment locally... wow!I think they took about €900 before expenses, and everyone had fun taking part too. What better way to spend a Sunday?!
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Field trips and frolics
On Monday we visited our teacher's permaculture plot (and home). We did a little work in the morning - weeding bamboo, amongst other things - and had a tour in the afternoon.
He has mini Hazel coppices, Sweet Chestnuts, Walnuts, plenty of fruit trees and bushes. He's been there about 8 years and thinks it'll be another 7 before he's got everything running in true forest garden fashion.
Interesting. About the same length of time as to start an ecovillage. Which is fun, seeing as I was hoping to be doing forest garden stuff for the 15 years BEFORE starting the ecovillage - but I'm not going to want to leave my plot just as it becomes fully productive!! I'll have to think about that one.
On Tuesday, we spent some time with the second year permies, and then did some theory on forest gardens. I feel the knowledge is settling in nicely, though I need to do more reading - funny as I've just realised how little I learn from reading, relative to doing. The great thing about this course is that we DO get to do.
And today, we had Paul for Organics/food growing - continuing discussion on mulching, a presentation by the Allium family, and sowing green manure!
After school we had a meeting about setting up student working groups. Nobody was really interested in the sustainability group, and the communications group only had a couple of people in, which was a bit disheartening - everyone was doing the fun stuff, entertainment and skill sharing. Well. No point worrying about it - it just means I'll have to slip sustainability into the other groups, become some kind of double agent with a hidden agenda!
Tomorrow is my day off - phew! Time to catch up on work!!
He has mini Hazel coppices, Sweet Chestnuts, Walnuts, plenty of fruit trees and bushes. He's been there about 8 years and thinks it'll be another 7 before he's got everything running in true forest garden fashion.
Interesting. About the same length of time as to start an ecovillage. Which is fun, seeing as I was hoping to be doing forest garden stuff for the 15 years BEFORE starting the ecovillage - but I'm not going to want to leave my plot just as it becomes fully productive!! I'll have to think about that one.
On Tuesday, we spent some time with the second year permies, and then did some theory on forest gardens. I feel the knowledge is settling in nicely, though I need to do more reading - funny as I've just realised how little I learn from reading, relative to doing. The great thing about this course is that we DO get to do.
And today, we had Paul for Organics/food growing - continuing discussion on mulching, a presentation by the Allium family, and sowing green manure!
After school we had a meeting about setting up student working groups. Nobody was really interested in the sustainability group, and the communications group only had a couple of people in, which was a bit disheartening - everyone was doing the fun stuff, entertainment and skill sharing. Well. No point worrying about it - it just means I'll have to slip sustainability into the other groups, become some kind of double agent with a hidden agenda!
Tomorrow is my day off - phew! Time to catch up on work!!
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Energy efficiency
I packed my little energy meter and brought it with me to Ireland. At the moment I'm testing out our washing machine, to see how much energy it uses at different settings (yes, I'm a geek).
So far, a 30 degrees C wash at 700RPM spin on "eco" uses roughly 0.4 of a kWh, whereas 40 degrees C at 1000RPM uses 0.7 kWh! Quite a difference. I'll be making notes over the next few weeks :)
So far, a 30 degrees C wash at 700RPM spin on "eco" uses roughly 0.4 of a kWh, whereas 40 degrees C at 1000RPM uses 0.7 kWh! Quite a difference. I'll be making notes over the next few weeks :)
Another week gone already!
As ever with something enjoyable, this course is speeding past. 3 weeks into the course, I regret nothing about beginning it!
Tuesday and Wednesday were good days, spent on Forest Gardens, mulching, then into the gardens weeding, planting out the Mizuna and Osaka we sowed at the start of term.
Thursday was a hectic day - student council meeting first thing, then grinding grain to make flour, and baking the flour into very tasty bread. This is in aid of the Transition Town Kinsale Autumn Food Fest, next weekend.
On Friday we all went out to Killarney for a walk in Ireland's oldest forest. I don't feel I "learned" much but it was a lovely day in the woods, bonding with the class, hugging trees and picking up tidbits of info.
Sadly the Freshers' Flu that's been going round finally caught up to me last night, so I'm taking it easy over the weekend - lots of hot, honeyed tea! Mmmm.. Speaking of which..!
Tuesday and Wednesday were good days, spent on Forest Gardens, mulching, then into the gardens weeding, planting out the Mizuna and Osaka we sowed at the start of term.
Thursday was a hectic day - student council meeting first thing, then grinding grain to make flour, and baking the flour into very tasty bread. This is in aid of the Transition Town Kinsale Autumn Food Fest, next weekend.
On Friday we all went out to Killarney for a walk in Ireland's oldest forest. I don't feel I "learned" much but it was a lovely day in the woods, bonding with the class, hugging trees and picking up tidbits of info.
Sadly the Freshers' Flu that's been going round finally caught up to me last night, so I'm taking it easy over the weekend - lots of hot, honeyed tea! Mmmm.. Speaking of which..!
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