I’ve been a “green thinker” for as long as I can remember. Most of my lights are compact fluorescent (or their non-compact siblings), my home has extra insulation, my appliances are primarily Energy Star, I turn of lights when not in use, I set the thermostat appropriately, and we use ceiling fans to help make things “feel cooler.” I’m trying to obtain the funding needed to install a grid-tied, hybrid solar-wind generating setup to help off-set my reliance on the power grid, and to purchase a Toyta Prius to help off-set my use of fossil fuels.
No, I’m not “all the way there” yet (and probably never will be), but I’m working on it.
Not long ago my wife and I saw a telivision show where they installed a “green roof.” Basically, they made a 4 inch deep “growing box” on the roof, lined it with pool liner, placed a couple sheets of carpet padding down (to help hold in the water), placed some soil and netting down (to hold the soil in place), then planted it with ground-cover (sedums and the like).
The thought is multi-threaded:
- By adding soil and plant material to the roof, you capture rain water and put it to good use, not wasting it by running it down the gutter and into the storm sewer
- By adding plant material you keep the soil from drying up and turning your roof into a desert
- By adding plants, you’re helping put more oxygen into the air (and take carbon dioxide and other chemicals out of the air
- You’re adding several inches of insulation to your roof (where you need it most); this helps keep your home cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter
- You’re introducing plant matter into the environment, which attracts beneficial insects and animals that would not normally have been there (due to the descruction of their habitat to build your habitat)
Here’s another view from KCPW’s Julie Rose: .mp3
Aquaponics, composting and humanure bio-gassing all require more study! Apparently maggots do a much better job of composting, make good chicken feed, and leave much safer residues, even from pet poop, than normal composting, but they are harder to sell as “Green!” Oslo, Norway runs public buses on bio-gassed sewage, but Chicago? Detroit? New York?, Washington? Phoenix? Vegas? no we Shiite all over our own country-side and wonder why the world thinks we stink! Dry toilets that save water for agriculture? Naw! We bring big 16 gallon-a-crap water-polluters to the Moon if we have to, but Shiite in a bag to save a farmers ass? Just Not American! Sweden has clean indoor dry crappers that yield top-soil building fertilizers too boot! India saves the whole streets poop, bio-gasses it and runs cars on it! Americans? Hell No! We got the bomb, and plastic money galore! Why Change? Why Obama-Change Why now? when we are so comfortable smelling the pig-shiite from the facory Farms instead of doing the sanitary thing and bio-gassing it into fuel and paying our bills? Send Timmy Geithner back to Beijing, tell him to speak Mandarin this time! Tell him to get on his knees! And for G d's sake tell him what every teenage American girls knows! Tell him to cover his teeth with his lips if he expects to get anything! We need the trillion dollar loans now, or we will have tio change and we don't want to do we?