January 02, 2007
Wal-Mart tries again
An article in today's New York Times described Wal-Mart's intention to sell millions of high efficiency light bulbs, and the significant resistance the company is feeling from light bulb manufacturers that aren't particularly anxious for consumers to go in the high efficiency direction.
It's hard for me to be skeptical about this, in spite of my automatic Wal-Mart radar warning buzzing steadily. I'm sure they plan to make money, but it seems maybe like win-win. Which is pretty unusual for Wal-Mart.
Here's a link to the article: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/02/business/02bulb.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
I just stopped at Lowe's to pick up some things tools and noticed how prominent the compact fluorescents are. All over the store, at the front of the light bulb section and on a central aisle end shelf. This is surely a response to Wal-Mart.
Posted by aquacura.com at 09:55 PM | Comments (0)
January 12, 2006
Trackback pings
I am still getting used to how blogs operate. There is a feature called trackback pings that, as near as I can tell, allows someone who has identified my site to attach a link to it each time I make an entry. I believe I disabled that feature for entries after a certain date, but it may persist for some earlier entries. Some of the trackbacks sound pretty raunchy. I try to remember to weed them out when I issue a comment on an earlier entry, but I may forget. Also, I think the process is ongoing for these older entries. Please do not be offended by the titles of some of the trackbacks.
Posted by aquacura.com at 02:11 PM | Comments (0)
August 11, 2005
The challenge ahead
You have probably read recently of the debate among petroleum folks regarding the amount of oil left in the ground today. Some say that worldwide production has peaked, and that extraction will decrease at a quickening rate from now until the last of the recoverable oil has been pumped. Others say that there is still plenty of oil, and that the peak is farther away than one can foresee with today's information.
Whichever group is correct, there is no doubt whatsoever that petroleum supplies will be exhausted someday in the future.
So let's imagine that the end of oil is near, and envision how we would contend.
What would change?
What wouldn't change? Every aspect of our lives involves petroleum. If we include natural gas, we are even more fully dependent. (In fact, here in the U.S., natural gas availability is related to oil availability, since some of our gas -- and an increasing amount in the future -- is transported to our shores in LNG tankers that run on fuel oil)
This isn't going to be a polemic. If you believe that hydrocarbons will last well into the 21st century, then take this as perhaps an interesting exercise. If you are concerned, as I am, that the end may be a lot closer at hand, then this exercise might be a useful opportunity to sort out some ideas and create the outline of a plan to deal with the impacts.
First, let's list the aspects of our lives that will be affected when the oil runs out:
Transportation -- this is the biggie
Electric power
Food for consumption -- most of it comes from a distance
Stuff -- it all comes to us on trucks
Heating
Agriculture -- the raw materials of our food
I'll be taking up each of these aspects over the next few weeks.
Posted by aquacura.com at 09:17 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 29, 2005
Organic farming beats conventional farming
Isn't it odd that we call the approach that depends on nutrients provided by nonrenewable petroleum and poisons "conventional"?
I'm not a farmer, and I mostly avoid expressing opinions on subjects that I know little of. So I was pleased to see that an agronomist at Cornell has determined that the organic approach beats the conventional approach for corn and soybeans. See this link: http://www.organicconsumers.org/organic/norm071805.cfm
Posted by aquacura.com at 04:57 PM | Comments (0)
Limits of growth
I've always admired the work and writing of Tom Horton at the Baltimore Sun. He cares deeply about the (declining) health of the Chesapeake Bay, and for decades has refused to give up nagging his fellow Marylanders about the need to make choices. If you want to preserve the Bay, even in its presently degraded condition, you have to face the daily decisions you are making that lead inexorably to the Bay's decline.
Read Horton's article from today's Sun:http://http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-md.horton29jul29,1,4946355.column?page=1&coll=bal-pe-maryland
I am probably going to sound hopelessly naive, but I have asked myself the essential question in Horton's article with respect to our economy: "Why does a company have to grow to prosper?" I know the answer -- I'm not actually that naive. A company has to grow to satisfy its investors, who seek higher equity value, as equity value is defined by equity markets.
I'll depart from economics here and return to something I know more about: the impact of our society's growth (as we shareholders in society define growth) on the ecosystems that support us. We are not going to make it as a society if we do not reconsider how we define growth. I am not referring to birth rate or to immigration policies. I'm talking about the footprint that each of us places on the earth. In the U.S. we are looking at limits on growth because of our decisions as to the size of the footprint we aspire to (as well as our decisions to occupy ecosystems that could not accommodate humans without technological interventions -- read "air conditioning")
I do take one exception to Horton. He yields to hyperbole in saying that super ultra-efficient vehicles, like the Prius, would buy us only a few months of relief in our use of petroleum. That assessment is far too pessimistic, but it does have a ring of truth. If we all bought and drove Priuses (Priae?) and we allowed that collective concession to calm us into doing nothing to prepare for the end of petroleum, then we would simply be pushing the crisis out into the future.
Posted by aquacura.com at 10:45 AM | Comments (0)
June 28, 2005
Welcome to the Aqua Cura weblog
I formed Aqua Cura in 2002, after a 25-year career in what I call "big engineering" to practice in sustainable water management. Managing stormwater in a manner that will have minimal impact on the environment is an important element of this practice area. As I worked with certain development teams, I began to see that they incorporated green building practices into their projects, so I looked into the green movement and found that it fits very well with my water management practice.
I also found that green building professionals are the most collaborative people I have met in my career. In big engineering, sharing ideas and knowledge is not done; it is deemed to place your firm at a competitive disadvantage. It is a refreshing change (one of the reasons I left big engineering was the lack of collaboration, even within the firm I worked for).
I have set up this weblog to invite collaboration and to offer a place to make business relationships. For instance, there are a lot of small design professionals, builders, and equipment reps working in green building. As small firms, we don't have a lot of budget to mount marketing campaigns or to hire business development specialists. I welcome these firms to use this weblog to contact and team on projects.
So feel free to offer your views or to solicit participants in projects.
Posted by aquacura.com at 09:50 PM | Comments (0)