Electric Propulsion

The increasing focus on the climate challenge is spawning amazing ingenuity on a global scale.

I just came across a Ford F-150 prototype looking like a real macho hunk:

Hi-Pa Drive™ F-150
What’s been taken out of this Ford F-150 hinges on what’s been put in. The engine, drive train, gear box and all the related parts have been replaced with the game-changing Hi-Pa Drive™ system. The four electric in-wheel motors that power the fully-electric Hi-Pa Drive F-150 will deliver more than 600 horsepower as well as more torque than the 320 horsepower V-8 engine it replaced. Hi-Pa Drive is helping car designers eliminate oil dependency, carbon emissions and costs, while adding more power, room, performance and design options.

The people making the electric motor can be found here:

http://www.hipadrive.com/index.html

French Taste

 

I wanted to share this interior with my readers. My brother-in-law Albert captured this equisite interior in a B&B we all stayed in for a wedding in Normandie.

The area has a lovely landscape and a very leisurely pace.

The B&B is close to:
View Larger Map

Biochar Information Resources

In the battle to strengthen awareness and galvanize people to action, there are some useful resources on the web that will assist in better understanding the issues:

http://www.biochar-international.org/ 
The International Biochar Initiative

http://www.biocharcentral.com/
This is a new social networking site for the biochar community

www.350.org 
This is a climate action website. They organize events like:

Take Action with 350 on October 24th

I hope this is helpful.

Why we are all required to act

This is why we need to act. Pictures are worth a thousand words.

The Climate: From recognition to effective action

Sir Anthony Giddens, a former Director of the London School of Economics, formulated the "Giddens Paradox". It goes like this:

Since the dangers posed by global warming are not immediate or visible to most people, they ignore them; but waiting for them to become visible and immediate before taking serious action will be, by definition, too late. This is a political and not a technocratic problem, he argues, and those in the climate-change lobby who get impatient with politics are wrong. Even the best technocratic scheme has little chance of success unless a way is found to achieve it through politics...

I would like to add a slightly different nuance, referred to as the "Knagenhjelm Paradox":

Each one of us is not equipped to comprehend the effect of the sum of our individual actions. Each person perceives his/her own actions as marginal and does not have a behaviour codex that will guide their decisions consistent with the cumulatively optimal outcome.

To overcome this conundrum I propose that we must create a political movement with a simple to understand objective:

A Carbon Added Tax (CAT) must be introduced. Governments can decide whether it should be a defined component of existing Value Added (Sales) Tax, or a separately identified component. It should reflect the amount of climate gas produced by the product or service in question.

This tax should be introduced by all countries above a certain GDP/Capita. The revenue should be earmarked for climate mitigation measures. Half should be deployed domestically and the other half in Less Developed Countries to save the rainforest, create CO2 sequestration projects and develop sustainable energy resources.

In developed countries the tax revenue should be used for:

• Feed-in tariffs for sustainable energy such as wind, solar, hydro electric and geothermal
• Removal of all tax on zero emission transport and energy solutions
  
• Cheap loans for insulation of the building stock

These measures must be designed to price harmful solutions out of the market.

This is the beginning of the Third World War. The enemy is ourselves - our own behaviour and everyday choices. As footsoldiers in this most dangerous conflict in human history, we must demand of our leaders that they lead from the front with courage and resolve. If not, they will be replaced by those who will.

Onwards and Upwards!

King of the forests

We are approaching the season when hunters and gatherers prepare to secure the energy supply for the cold season. This noble creature is engaged on exactly the same mission. He also needs to make his best eforts to have enough fat on his loins to get him through the winter alive.

Careful wildlife management will ensure that the deer population will remain healthy and robust, whilst offering some of its surplus protein up to us humans to enjoy with gratitude.

This is far better than cattle force fed on antibiotics and hormones!

A proud skipper with his vessel!

Here is the proud owner and skipper of an 1891 Colin Archer designed pilot vessel, faithfully brought back to its original specification in the eighties. We skirted a very dark storm cloud but were swiped by it resulting in a howling gale and a serious test of the rig, ropework and pulleys. She stood up to the test like a true viking lady should!

It is a true privilege to sail such a fine vessel!

Debunking Monbiot

The article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/mar/24/george-monbiot-climate-change-biochar in the Guardian by George Monbiot it did huge damage to the vital build-up of interest and action around biochar. His tendentious article derailed focus on R&D that is necessary to understand how to best deploy this planet-saving substance.

This pulls the carpet under Monbiot's arguments:

http://kanan48.wordpress.com/2009/03/27/biochar-schemes-are-the-best-way-to-save-us-from-climate-catastrophe/

I hope activity going forward can focus on serious research as well as deployment on the ground. The focus now must be to get carbon credits from emitters to pay for deployment of pyrolysis plants in local poor communities. This will reduce the destruction of virgin forest, promote carbon sequestration and increase agricultural productivity and food production.

Lovelock on biochar

Dr. Lovelock has endorsed biochar as a means of mitigating the effects of climate change resulting from excessive emissions of climate gases. The article behind the link also takes issue with the attack on biochar by George Monbiot from the Guardian. His outburst has derailed a productive debate that needs to continue. However, we must keep the debate in perspective.

Here is a quote from the article:

But if we could also extract CO2 we "might" have a shot. And the approach with the most potential, said Lovelock, is to turn organic material into "biochar" and bury it. Lovelock endorsed the approach during his May 26 meeting in Toronto. "I've written before about biochar, or agrichar, or charcoal, or just plain char – it's all pretty much the same. Take biomass, such as wood or municipal organic waste, and bake it at over 300 degrees C in the absence of oxygen. The process is called pyrolysis, and what it does is lock in about 60 per cent of the carbon in the charred biomass."

http://www.thestar.com/sciencetech/article/654444

Biochar Workshop

Biochar will take centre stage in Oslo on Friday 26th during a workshop arranged by yours truly and Arvid Solheim of the Norwegian Development Fund.

The objective is to direct focus at this very exciting substance that can contribute to carbon sequestration, soil enrichment and increased productivity as well as serve as a means to build value chains.

Biochar is the subject of many lively debates, but I encourage people to keep their eye on the ball - the the big one - Earth. Photosynthesis harvests CO2 from the atmosphere and produces biomass. Normally the CO2 is released back into the atmosphere when biomass burns or rots. The plan is to take "waste" biomass and use pyrolysis to convert it to biochar, an inert substance that remains stable in the earth for thousands of years. Biochar is porous and hence can act as a "sponge" for water as well as being an excellent habitat for micro-organisms that help produce nutrients that benefit the soil. It also acts as a slow release mechanism for nutrients and moisture.

The plan is not to create giant monoculture plantations, but to use biochar judiciously to improve soil quality and extract CO2 from the atmosphere.

Mobile Phone + Computer = Mobile Computer

Moore's law and convergence are reaching an interesting inflection point.

Would you like a full blown Windows PC that would fit in your inside pocket? With a proper keyboard?

That is also a full-blown smart phone as well? 2 gig memory and 100 gig disk? High resolution screen?

With the Intel Atom processor and new high quality bluetooth handsfree earplugs.

With this, you could travel and attend meetings with everything you need in your inside pocket.

Identity Big Bang

In the beginning, we started out as just one unique physical entity.

Then, the digital big bang occurred, and increasing numbers of digital fragments of ourselves were flung far and wide into the digital universe. Cyberspace is teeming with ill-intentioned aliens. They feed on and abuse orphan digital identities.

Can we save ourselves from this mounting danger? How can we create our own inalienable digital entity that is protected from attack and misuse?

Interesting thought, no?

Identity and Security

Those are two immensely important and valuable words in the Internet vocabulary.

Identity theft and Internet crime are spreading like a virulent pandemic, attacking our identity and wallets.

Reliable strong authentication is one of the remaining unconquered frontiers of computing.

Watch this space!

Biochar - a top 10 candidate to reduce CO2

These two videos explain why biochar can play a key role in sequestering CO2, reducing rainforest destruction, producing net energy in the form of biofuels and improving agricultural productivity - all at the same time!

Part I: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-hSl59ET2A
Part II: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6EPKYp5UgI

Enjoy - and then think about the implicaitons!

Gore and Obama

Here is an excellent summary of the Gore prescription and some of the remedies prescribed by Obama:

http://eternalhope.blog-city.com/al_gore_on_climate_change__where_are_we_now.htm

Easter

A short rest on the farm and pondering the next few months.
On the non-profit priority list, EarthBook and biochar loom large.
If it makes you curious, that is a good start.

I just lost my bloginity....

This is the first of perhaps many blogs from me.

It will meander as I am prone to between simplifying our digital world via cleantech ideas such as biochar and long range hard rock drilling to exploit renewable energy and well brewed beer. It will also swing by permaculture and how we can minimise our environmental footprint.