Imagine if it were possible for us to live in ways that are less costly, much cleaner and safer - less carbon dioxide and other global warming gasses - clean air to breathe, clean water to drink - plentiful wholesome foods grown locally year-round all around our planet, without fossil fuels or toxic pesticides, in more fertile soils and with less irrigation water.
Imagine if we could live and work in buildings that were comfortable year-round, with normal lighting, appliances and electronics, and normal flush toilets - without the need for fossil fuels or nuclear power - without causing pollution to air, water and soil.
Imagine if we could get to where we want to go in cars, trucks, buses, trains, boats and even airplanes, without the need for gasoline or other fossil fuels.
The fact is that we now can live that way.The fact is that the technologies are available - right now, today - that make it possible for us to live that way. Some of these technologies are literally available right now for anyone to use, and are highly cost-effective and reliable, such as food production and heating. Others, such as wastewater management, electricity and transportation are fully developed and on the verge of blossoming into widespread use, but are being held back by permitting, patent, chicken-or-egg issues. Once any of these sectors have gone into streamlined SolarGreen mode, the cost of living will go way down, and national and personal security, freedom, economy and health will dramatically improve, compared to the obsolete 20th-century toxic nuclear and fossil-fueled mode.
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| This home is food/heat/electricity selfsufficient, incl. for el-car |
Food Production: abundant reliable supplies of highest quality organic foods, including meat, can be produced locally year-round in most regions on Earth, without any heating fuels or toxic pesticides, in energy-selfsufficient greenhouses that store solar heat and incorporate warm-blooded animals (such as chickens, pigs or cows). Thus, just one acre of land with 6 such greenhouses (incorporating chickens and turkeys), can produce 5 servings weekly of organic greens, herbs, eggs and meat for 2000 people, year-round, and also provide housing and employment for 24 people - without any heating fuels or heavy equipment - reducing CO2 emissions by hundreds of tons annually, compared with what would be required to produce the equivalent amounts of food and housing with today's prevailing technologies.
Heating: solar heating for homes, schools and other buildings can cut heating costs and carbon dioxide emissions by 80% or more. Fact: even when outside temperature is below zero Fahrenheit, my solar roof generates 600 cfm (cubic feet per minute) of 120 degree F air, which is pulled into below-floor rock storage by 2 fans powered by one 50w PV panel - and - at the same time, copper tubing embedded in this solar roof, heats the water in the pool as effectively as the 5500-watt water heater that came with the pool.
Wastewater management: for the many areas in the US and around the world where water supplies are shrinking, there are waterless toilets that are clean and sanitary, have unlimited use capacity, turn human waste into valuable compost and topsoil, and cost less than $100, with zero electricity use and zero maintenance costs.
For standard flush toilets, there are systems fully ready for widespread use, that filter the effluent from septic tanks. Such systems incorporate natural filters which enhance the surrounding landscaping, save water, and, compared with standard septic systems, they also release some 90% less pollution to our groundwater (our drinkingwater!). They also reduce costs by about 90%.
However, the legal use of these systems is prevented by severe regulatory obstacles, which must be overcome, because the septic systems that regulations currently require cause serious problems: they release nitrogen, viruses, hormones, toxins, antibiotics and other pharmaceuticals, in quantities that are causing great harm to our health and to the health of our aquatic ecosystems.
Upper left photo shows clean and healthy pond close to my natural filter wastewater management system.
Lower left photo shows severe algae infestation on pond at Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary, caused by nitrogen from their standard septic system.
Electricity: Photovoltaics, aka PV, in its many different forms, is a highly reliable, effective and clean technology for producing electricity with solar power. The price is steadily falling and the efficiency is rapidly rising, but even as it stands today, one square foot of PV can produce about 15 kWh annually in a cloudy region like New England, almost double that amount in Arizona. People say PV is too expensive, but actually, even at today's prices and efficiency, PV is less costly than electricity produced with coal, oil, gas or nuclear, IF we count the real full costs of those methods, such as the enormous harm being done to human health and communities, water supplies, ecosystems, mountains, forests. And, of course, if we continue the ever-increasing burning of fossil fuels, CO2 emissions will thicken our atmosphere to the point that life as we know it will seize to exist within the lifespan of today's young children.
Transportation:
All-electric cars, buses and trucks are now being made, and also plug-in hybrids that get hundreds of miles per gallon. Batteries can of course be charged by solar power. Most of these technologies are not yet available for everyone to purchase and use right now, but will be very soon. For instance, hundreds of the 5-passenger BYDe6 are now being hyper-tested in China: 200-mile-range batteries that can recharge in 15 minutes (non-toxic and recyclable, with 300,000 mile lifespan).
Also, fuel oil and jet fuel are being made from algae grown in sewage effluent.
These technologies, and many others being developed around the world, are reasons for us to feel hopeful that we will be able to pull ourselves out of our current extremely destructive ways of living.
We have to evolve beyond the obsolete 20th-century fossil-fueled methods, and no longer continue to settle for what my town (West Tisbury) did: after the recent renovation, the Town Hall in my town now emits about 70 tons of CO2 into our atmosphere annually for electricity and heating. With a comprehensive solar design and firewood back-up, this building could have instead been carbon neutral. Now, West Tisbury is in the process of planning to double
the size of the Public Library.
Will it have a large CO2 footprint or a small one?
The choice is up to the voters of West Tisbury.
My Reasons for Starting This Blog Site
For the past three decades, I have been developing and living with designs and methods that prove that we can live in ways that cause some 90% less harm than current prevailing methods, and save thousands of dollars, and improve the quality of our lives, including our freedom, security, comfort and health.
In my book SOLVIVA, published in 1998, I described the methods I use for achieving this lifestyle. Soon my second book will come out. The working title is "Green Light at the End of the Tunnel", and it will contain even more how-to information, including detailed to-scale drawings of most of the many Solviva designs for heating, food production and wastewater management, with hundreds of numbered descriptions.
For more information, please go to www.solviva.com/designs and consulting.
Anna Edey, 18 Solviva Road, Vineyard Haven, MA 02568 * (508) 693-3341
I will be posting more blogs on these issues from time to time, in between my full-time job of completing my second book. You are welcome to add your questions, comments or ideas, to build upon and clarify what I consider to be the most important issue of our time - learning how to live without destroying ourselves.
In the meantime, I wish you all, us all, the very best -
Anna
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