Getting serious about Rainwater Harvesting

Not too long ago my wife and I decided to get really serious about rainwater harvesting. For too long I’d been using a series of 32/60 gallon barrels and they would last a few weeks after every downpour in the monsoon season but as a year round solution they were not up to the job.

Stop paying lip service to energy problems.

I read a letter to the editor in Wapo. (link)

I commented (also repeated below … well, it’s probably more of a rant, I have a habit of commenting more on other comments than the articles/letters)

Don’t look to government figureheads for answers.

The recent debt ceiling arguments are just the latest example of how we like to be lied to and stick our fingers in our ears when anyone say’s both parties are at fault and the system is critically broken.

This is just another rant about oil, war and un-sustainability of empire brought on by a slightly biased article and one fairly ignorant reader letter in my local paper. It started out as a reply letter but it won’t get printed so here it is >.<

Recently I read Richard Brinkly’s peice on the debt ceiling discussion, <a member of the Saddlebrooke Republican club no less> and a letter from Henry Sheetz stating he’s unhappy with Obama.  (apparently Henry was born in 2008 as he specifically labels ‘Bama as “Worst President Ever” Let the Bush bashing begin …)

<”I dread to think what Obama would have done if 9/11 happened on his watch?” -

I’m glad you asked, depending on his resolve against the military industrial complex, which I haven’t really seen much of as a president, but as a senator he voted against it, we wouldn’t have invaded Iraq and we’d be in a much better position today financially for it.

But, you’re falling into a trap. Government figureheads are meaningless distractions, whining about which one does a better job misses the point; each one is a product of our willingness to be lied to as long as we have security and liberty. That will not change, so the results don’t change.>

I hate to break it to both these guys, but almost anything that the Dems or Republicans do is meaningless. They are almost worse than any kind of distraction I can think of.
Lady Gaga ? *shudder*

Most of the work that happens in the halls of congress is a little out of touch with reality, and in turn it distorts our understanding of reality. We sometimes willfully accept it and sometimes we don’t.

The reality is the unsustainable nature of the American Empire in which we live, we must have learnt that 2 quasi-unexplainable wars costing billions have wreaked havoc at home and is one of the biggest reasons why we are where we are today.

Quasi-unexplainable ? everyone has a different opinion on why we are in Iraq and Afghanistan, they’ll fall into a few
different catagories; Security, democracy building, defeating Al-Q and the Q’s.

Then there are a few more which really get a bit closer to what some might term the truth; Oil, natural resources, Still incomplete Caspian sea pipeline deals, opium production, strategic presence and economic subjugation of middle eastern powers. ( How much money (oil) will the western world be asking from Iraq as a back scratch ? Just how long can the Saudi’s keep up their excess capacity ? )

Now these are never publicly acknowledged overt reasons for why we go to war, and the compartmentalized nature of our society means we don’t get the whole picture which leads great swaths of the public to literally not give a shit. Business as usual.

They might be termed fringe benefits. Fringe benefits which really do help us a lot. Opening Iraq’s oil supply will one day be viewed as one of the most essential actions of the 21st century by “dumb growth” addicted historians and economists. It’s a good thing we kill and die so the US economy, (by this time if you haven’t realized it’s a war economy whose GDP relies so heavily on the price of oil it’s just not funny) can sustain a growth rate of 3% or more.

It’s not so much that oil comes to us from unstable places, which right now from Iraq it really doesn’t but how much oil is on the market to maintain a low price, a future low price at that.

Ever wonder how much the illegal drug trade adds to the economy ? Look that one up.

All this to sustain us. All of this effort outlayed so that we can achieve our meager security and liberty; both of which will
hit the fan when, we realize, as the people in power realized a few decades ago; the elixir of growth gets scarce.

But go ahead. Keep asking those in power dumb questions;  they won’t tell you the truth anyway. Don’t look directly to government figure heads for answers get wise on you’re own and you’ll quickly realize there are
many scary factors that are beyond their control, and certainly beyond your own. Welcome to the collapse.

This post brought to you by ignorance, half truths, sun burn and back pain.

I just wrote this and then proceeded to read this from the Post Carbon Institute’s Richard Heinberg. Highly recommended reading and a lot better written

The day we hopefully changed.

Saturday the 8th of January 2011 is a day that will stay with us, just like many other days when acts of terrorism, foreign and domestic in origin, stay with us.

Yard update

Veggie gardens are coming along, in fact one almost has a dog-fence up now. I planted a new citrus, its an orange/grapefruit hybrid, from seed, there’s one in a neighbors yard that produces like crazy every year. The lemon tree is doing great.

You can see my “greenhouse” also. And my ‘maters are getting nice and big, one of them is even reddening up.

American Atheists, you’re doing it wrong…

I just read a story in The Week “American Atheists: Mounting a real war on Christmas” They’re renting billboards and plastering the message “You KNOW it’s a myth, this season, celebrate REASON!” depicting the 3 wise men and the nativity.

The most important thing the United States needs right now.

What is the biggest and most prevelent tool of the largest religion in the US ? Well, that religion is consumerism, and that tool is Television.

Some characterize TV as an information, entertainment and pleasure source, others as a distraction. It can be, and is all of these things depending on who you talk to, and what you watch.

Letter to the Marana Explorer

It’s The Energy That Matters

October is national energy awareness month.

How we use energy in the next decade and beyond is what will define us as a nation.

For this reason we should discuss oil and the perspectives contained in two recent reports.

The Lloyds 360 Risk Assessment on sustainable energy security for 2010 cites quotes from sources including the IEA (Intl. Energy Agency), US DOE (Dept. of Energy), USEIA (Energy Info. Admin.) and the US Chamber of Commerce all discussing how important a prospect of peak oil is.

One researcher states that “A supply crunch appears likely around 2013 .. given recent price experience, a spike … of $200 per barrel is not infeasible.” The report continues on alternative fuels, shale, natural gas, alternative energies, climate change policy or lack thereof, interrupting investment decisions and is a recommended read. The report is aimed at business leaders and investors.

The US Joint Forces Command Joint Operating Environment (JOE) Report 2010 talks about threats our military will face in the coming decades.

“By 2030, demand is estimated to be nearly 50% greater than today. To meet that demand, even assuming more effective conservation measures, the world would need to add roughly the equivalent of Saudi Arabia’s current energy production every seven years.” (A country in this ball park is Iraq, who’s global output could be 12 MBD [mil. barrels/day]. by 2016)

The JOE report continues to say “By 2012, surplus oil production capacity could entirely disappear, as early as 2015, the shortfall in output could reach nearly 10 MBD”

We are the largest importer of oil standing to be the most sensitive to any shocks in supply. Domestic reserves, in the Gulf or Alaska will be a blip in supply and take 10 years to see any benefit. We use 20m. barrels in a day, domestic shale will not support this level of use, serving only an increase in costs.

This information should be on everyone’s radar, it should inform many decisions. There is too little talk of the price of our addiction to foreign oil, only that we are addicted.

Coming elections present opportunity for us to question our various candidates about their views on our energy future and how best to cushion the energy descent that an oil shock will bring.

Some big fat dots …

Connecting the dots on why we went into Iraq in 2003 is getting a little easier, as the mainstream media starts to cover certain points. Ok, they’re really pretty fat dots that we’re connecting here.

One more was added today as the Iraqi oil minister announed that the countries estimated reserves have jumped about 25% (of course this could just be to tempt investment, it could be industry hype)

Al Jazeera – Iraq announces jump in oil reserves http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/10/201010462122529481.html

NPR aslo had a segment on the announcement, talking to Ben Lando, Iraq Bureau chief for http://www.iraqoilreport.com/ A site I had only recently discovered myself, for this article: American Base in Basra on front line of oil boom.

Ben said something which rang like a bell through the mist in the closing moments of the segment when asked about exactly how much oil might be out there in the world, some of it we might not know about yet:

<some talking about new technology> “What people will usually say is that the low-hanging fruit is gone, except for in Iraq. Iraq is the last place where there’s a country with massive untapped and even undiscovered oil and gas reserves. Iraq is a place for the oil sector right now, and everything else kind of pales in comparison.” – Ben Lando

Thanks Ben. Thanks a whole lot. Anyone who hears that quote and still thinks we didn’t go into Iraq with some measure of attempting to open up that countries energy reserves is in utter denial.

Dick Cheney crafted the Bush administration’s energy policy, with the “energy task force” (check out the link to a map of Iraqi oil fields in that wikipedia article. Gun.. smoke much ?).

A subscriber to the belief that peak oil theory would come to fruition fairly soon, Dick had an inkling it was about time to create a climate that was more condusive to opening up Iraq.

The Lloyds 360 Risk assesment on sustainable energy security 2010 also talks a little bit about Iraq, calling it the “wild card” of OPEC and stating that the aim is to see 12 million barrels a day exported onto markets by 2016.

So wait, what am I implying here ? with these big fat dots (Like Saddam trading oil exclusively in Euros in 2002) That come around 2016 when presumably Saudi Arabia is growing and perhaps cutting back on its exports, increasing domestic consumption from a giant oil field which has been producing since 1943, and perhaps Mexican oil exports will have declined a bit more etc etc .. (many unknowns and unknowables)

Will we be sucking a bunch of oil from Iraq ? what will those numbers look like ? who will be the big exporters at that point ? Canada, Africa, Iraq ? Venuzuela ? How much more will we be depending on Iraq in 2020-2030 … And will we feel any guilt for ripping that country open, ending the lives of thousands, hundreds of thousands of people 30 years before ? Will we wince at the connection, however small it is, however little we depend on Iraq for our future oil addiction, was it worth it ? We might never know.

This wild tangent was brought to you by a cup of earl grey tea and mcvities digestive biscuits.

The Journey Begins …

Tomorrow.

Tomorrow I will hopefully be picking up a 1986 Toyota pick up truck. 169k on the clock, rust free, 4spd 22R engine with a little oil in the coolant. Hopefully I can make it home

Pray why spend $950 on this piece of junk ?

It shall become my lifes work for the next (insert optomistic number of years here) to convert it to electric drive.

It’s not the destination, its how you get there.