The knock-on effects of peak oil | Business | The Observer

High oil prices generally cause economic recessions. The trouble in Dubai is due to decrease in oil consumption due to the current economic recession likely triggered by the high oil prices in 2007-8. What's keeping oil prices in check currently is the recession causing lowered demand. If/as the recession lifts and economic activity returns to "normal" oil demand should rise again. Since it seems oil production cannot return to meeting rising demand, then high oil prices should result, again. Which would cause another recession.

Article Reference: 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/nov/29/peak-oil-prices-rise

Links: 

http://delicious.com/reikiman/7gen

TechnoSanity #35: Buy Nothing Day

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It's thanksgiving day, 2009. I am thankful for my life, the work I'm doing, the ability to speak the message which I have to share.

Today is supposed to be a moment of being thankful, grateful for the bounty of our lives. Of course gratefulness is a practice for every day, not just one day a year, but it's helpful to have the reminder of gratefulness due to the day for giving thanks. But, wait, is this what most of thanksgiving celebrations are about? Is the orgy of football games a practice of gratefulness? Is the orgy of eating a practice of gratefulness? Well, okay, maybe that one is, or at least can be. Is the orgy of shopping on the day after, commonly called Black Friday, a practice of gratefulness?

Black Friday is supposed to be the official start of the Christmas Season. It's commonly the day a guy dressed as Santa lights the Christmas Tree, and there is the Thanksgiving Day Parades led by guys dressed as Santa. Sure it makes sense to have a ceremony to launch a period of other ceremonies leading up to a major celebration. But, just what part of Christs story does Santa come from? Just what part of Christs story do Christmas trees come from? And most importantly just what part of Christs story implies we should shop til we drop and engage in an orgy of consumption?

Buy Nothing Day is organized by Adbusters. It is observed on the day following Thanksgiving, the day commonly known as Black Friday, and the idea is to engage in activities other than shopping. Part of the message of Buy Nothing Day is the above points and others I'll be making below. I believe the purpose Adbusters has in mind behind Buy Nothing Day is to interrupt the practice of overconsumption tied into Black Friday and the way Christmas is currently practiced in the prevailing paradigm.

There are a lot of videos on youtube about Buy Nothing Day, just search for them. Some are linked below.

Buy Nothing Day is important to me for several reasons. One is the subversion or destruction of the real meaning of Christmas discussed above. Christmas is supposed to be a celebration of the birth of a great spiritual teacher, and it is supposed to be symbolic of the awakening within us of attributes taught by that spiritual teacher (Jesus Christ). But think about how Christmas is celebrated and the common symbols. Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, Santa Claus, the Nutcracker, Good King Wenceslaus, the Christmas tree, candy canes, elves, the orgy of presents bought and gifted, and on and on. None of this has a single thing to do with celebrating the birth of this great spiritual teacher. Not a thing.

Still, those things are the focus of most activities related to Christmas. And it is Black Friday which starts off the orgy of buying.

Another reason BND is important has to do with the ecological impact of the economics of this orgy of buying. Our Capitalistic system is driven by Consumerism. You hear it pretty plainly in the news if you care to listen. They talk about "Consumer Confidence" which is gobbledygook for measuring how much people are spending. The more we spend the more confident we are, supposedly. The news during Christmas season is full of analysis over how much we spend, and it is Christmas spending that keeps the economy going.

What this means is that rates of consumption drive rates of economic activity which drive rates of production which drives rates of mining resources to build this stuff. Often it's stuff that isn't truly needed, and in any case is produced for a celebration that's a subversion of a very real tradition our society has had with over 1000 years of history behind it. That very real tradition of Christmas has been destroyed and replaced by a fake mockery pretending to be the real tradition, but instead is a total and complete sham.

This sham is harming our traditions and harming our environment.

TechnoSanity #35: Buy Nothing Day

References: 

What did you do for Buy Nothing Day?

References: 

The battle for christmas

TechnoSanity #34: Our collective responsibility as consumers for the things we consume

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What is the extent of responsibility we have when we buy a thing? In this podcast I suggest we have a lot of responsibility over the cradle-to-grave effects over the thing we buy, as well as the packaging that comes with the thing. Our purchases set in motion a bewildering array of activities aimed at fulfilling the desire we expressed through that purchase. Bags are made so we can carry home the purchase, the gizmo is made, the packaging to hold the gizmo is made, trucks and airplanes and cargo ships are made, forests are cut down, minerals mined, and on and on, all so we can have a plethora of stuff in the stores to buy.

This evening I went to the store to buy a few kitchen gizmos. Each were packaged primarily in cardboard boxes but then came the question at the counter, "Do you want this in a bag?" At least he asked, often the clerks don't ask and just start getting a bag ready causing me to say "I don't need a bag" but this time the number of items was enough to actually need a bag. But the whole situation brought my mind back to a common line of thinking. I'm responsible, now, for the existence of that bag, and what the heck do I do with that bag once I've used it to carry things home?

Maybe this seems overly anal to think that, hey, I'm responsible for the manufacture of this bag. But if I hadn't allowed the clerk to put those gizmos into the bag, then the store would have used one fewer bag that day, and their weekly purchase of bags would have been smaller. In other words because the gizmos were put in a plastic bag the store had to buy another bag to replace the one I used, something for which I am clearly directly responsible.

And, it doesn't stop there. It's of course not just the bag but also the gizmos I bought as well as the packaging the gizmos were contained in.

The responsibility includes the full lifetime of the gizmo, the packaging, the bags, and all the materials that went into making all those things. The gizmo you buy in the store would not exist unless all those materials were mined and manufactured into gizmos, packaging and bags.

The gizmo, the packaging and the bag, they all will eventually be disposed somewhere. They'll wear out or something and you'll want to throw the thing away. For example the plastic bag isn't terribly useful so most people wad up their bags and throw them in the trash. I tend to use whatever plastic bags I receive as trash can liners instead of buying normal trash bags.

The plastic bag is an interesting artifact. The plastic doesn't break down readily so assuming it ends up in a landfill it'll stay in that form for who knows how many thousands of years. Ponder that for a moment .. the bag I received tonight, I used it once to carry those gizmos home, I'll use it again as a trash can liner, and then it'll be taking up space in a landfull for a thousand years or more. How completely NUTS is that???

TechnoSanity #34: Our collective responsibility as consumers for the things we consume

TechnoSanity #34: Our collective responsibility as consumers for the things we consume

You are missing some Flash content that should appear here! Perhaps your browser cannot display it, or maybe it did not initialize correctly.

What is the extent of responsibility we have when we buy a thing? In this podcast I suggest we have a lot of responsibility over the cradle-to-grave effects over the thing we buy, as well as the packaging that comes with the thing. Our purchases set in motion a bewildering array of activities aimed at fulfilling the desire we expressed through that purchase. Bags are made so we can carry home the purchase, the gizmo is made, the packaging to hold the gizmo is made, trucks and airplanes and cargo ships are made, forests are cut down, minerals mined, and on and on, all so we can have a plethora of stuff in the stores to buy.

This evening I went to the store to buy a few kitchen gizmos. Each were packaged primarily in cardboard boxes but then came the question at the counter, "Do you want this in a bag?" At least he asked, often the clerks don't ask and just start getting a bag ready causing me to say "I don't need a bag" but this time the number of items was enough to actually need a bag. But the whole situation brought my mind back to a common line of thinking. I'm responsible, now, for the existence of that bag, and what the heck do I do with that bag once I've used it to carry things home?

Maybe this seems overly anal to think that, hey, I'm responsible for the manufacture of this bag. But if I hadn't allowed the clerk to put those gizmos into the bag, then the store would have used one fewer bag that day, and their weekly purchase of bags would have been smaller. In other words because the gizmos were put in a plastic bag the store had to buy another bag to replace the one I used, something for which I am clearly directly responsible.

And, it doesn't stop there. It's of course not just the bag but also the gizmos I bought as well as the packaging the gizmos were contained in.

The responsibility includes the full lifetime of the gizmo, the packaging, the bags, and all the materials that went into making all those things. The gizmo you buy in the store would not exist unless all those materials were mined and manufactured into gizmos, packaging and bags.

The gizmo, the packaging and the bag, they all will eventually be disposed somewhere. They'll wear out or something and you'll want to throw the thing away. For example the plastic bag isn't terribly useful so most people wad up their bags and throw them in the trash. I tend to use whatever plastic bags I receive as trash can liners instead of buying normal trash bags.

The plastic bag is an interesting artifact. The plastic doesn't break down readily so assuming it ends up in a landfill it'll stay in that form for who knows how many thousands of years. Ponder that for a moment .. the bag I received tonight, I used it once to carry those gizmos home, I'll use it again as a trash can liner, and then it'll be taking up space in a landfull for a thousand years or more. How completely NUTS is that???

TechnoSanity #34: Our collective responsibility as consumers for the things we consume

Carbon Nanotube Membrane Elements for Energy Efficient and Low Cost Reverse Osmosis

NanOasis Technologies has received $2 million in DOE funding in the ARPA-E program to develop "Carbon nanotubes for reverse osmosis membranes that require less energy and have many times higher flux. Could dramatically reduce the cost and energy required for desalination to supply fresh water for our crops and communities." Water supplies in most of the world are threatened and finding supplies of fresh clean water is a critical worldwide need.

They are one of several companies pioneering the use of carbon nanotubes in reverse osmosis membranes. They claim their technology "substantially lowers energy use, size and capital requirements for desalination, and other water purification and fluid separations applications." The technology is based on work by Dr. Jason Holt, co-founder of NanOasis, following his work at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

NanOasis membranes consist of a thin, dense polymer film having carbon nanotube pores (or holes) atop a highly porous support. The super smooth inside of the nanotubes allow liquids and gases to rapidly flow through, while the tiny pore size can block larger molecules. By filtering out larger molecules it automagically purifies water.

Membranes that have carbon nanotubes as pores could be used in desalination and demineralization. Salt removal from water, commonly performed through reverse osmosis, uses less permeable membranes, requires large amounts of pressure and is quite expensive. However, these more permeable nanotube membranes could reduce the energy costs of desalination by up to 75 percent compared to conventional membranes used in reverse osmosis.

One of the main problems with reverse osmosis desalination tech to date has been that the basic process of pumping water and forcing it through a membrane to separate out the salt is highly energy-intensive, making for a high cost. The energy (electricity primarily) is used to pump water at high pressure through membranes. That electricity accounts for perhaps 44 percent of the cost of reverse osmosis desalination. The LLNL announcement of Dr. Holt's earlier work claims "these more permeable nanotube membranes could reduce the energy costs of desalination by up to 75 percent compared to conventional membranes used in reverse osmosis."

NanOasis Technologies

Nanotube membranes offer possibility of cheaper desalination

Cheap Drinking Water from the Ocean

Beyond Salt: Desalination Startup NanOasis Eyes Wider World of Clean Water

References: 

Review: Flow: For Love of Water (2007)

What to do with my old Haier HDT18PA countertop dishwasher? e-waste concerns

I've had this HDT18PA dishwasher for a few years. The space crunch in a small cottage in downtown mountain view caused me to get this compact dishwasher. It fits with the idea of living in a house no bigger than one needs, to use appliances that are no bigger than one needs. The reasoning goes that if we can get our life accomplished with smaller scale housing and other gizmos smaller scale house, that it would make a positive environmental impact by reducing the negative impact of our life.

However this phase of the saga of my HDT18PA is illustrative of some problems with modern gizmos. Namely - gizmos one might buy in an effort to save energy, live with less impact, etc, can negate the hoped for savings by breaking earlier than desired.

The HDT18PA dishwasher worked well for seven years or so. It provided nearly flawless service, the only quibble I have with it is its small size means it doesn't work well for large items like the big frying pan or with large pots. Those however are easily washed in the sink anyway. There are several models of Portable Dishwashers (on amazon.com) on the market, I just happened to have bought this one.

While browsing (recently) the portable dishwasher pages on amazon.com I noticed several customers grumbled that theirs leaked like crazy. This was true for several brands and models. This is what happened with my HDT18PA - after 7 years, that is.

I noticed, hey, the floor is wet. Noticed, hey, there's a bunch of water coming out the bottom of the dishwasher. Hey, why isn't it making huge sparks and electrocuting itself to have all that water pouring out? Yeah, that's the amazing part of this episode is the amount of water pouring out of the dishwasher without any electrical malfunction.

My first step was to take it apart to see if it could be fixed. In retrospect that was a long waste of time but it does illustrate a desirable thing to do. Why aren't more appliances fixable by regular people? And why isn't it more commonplace to repair gizmos rather than just throw them away to get a new one? I'll talk further below about the repair attempts.

This particular gizmo was purchased to aid my quest to be greener than average. But here I am only 7 years later having replaced it (the upright HDT18PA above is the new one) and looking at how to properly dispose of it. Ideally appliances like dishwashers will last essentially forever and 7 years is a short lifetime.

One unfortunate aspect is that the parts for HDT18PA's are unavailable. I searched through several parts catalogs online. There is an amazing set of appliance parts stores online some of whom have parts diagrams to help you know you're picking the correct part etc. Unfortunately parts for the HDT18PA have been discontinued. The repair would have been very easy to fix (as can be seen below) if the replacement part were buyable. Unfortunately the part wasn't available.

I found a used HDT18PA on eBay (the new one pictured above) and had an idea to strip the old one of any useful parts. But that raised the question of how to dispose of the carcass of the old HDT18PA.

My local area includes Palo Alto and Mountain View, both of which have enough green conscious people that there are excellent e-waste recycling programs. Here's a bit that I found while searching:-

Green Citizen is a commercial e-waste recycling business with several locations in the area. They have services for recycling "electronics" but don't make it clear whether they include "appliances" in the category of "electronics". If they were to accept my old dishwasher it would have cost me $0.50 per pound which would have been a $20 or so fee. BTW the Green Citizen website has some excellent resources about e-waste etc.

eRecycle.org is a general information site about e-waste. The information is extensive and excellent. They have a search thingymajig to help you find a recycling facility, but the categories you search for does not include appliances like this. The categories include several kinds of computers, TV or computer displays, PDA's, etc. This is why I asked above whether the definition of "electronics" includes appliances of this sort.

Recycle Works is a program of San Mateo County. It has a bunch of information about programs and whatnot. It includes a search widget to aid finding a recycling program, and their search thingymajig includes a category for small appliances. The search results include not just safe disposal locations but places to donate the gizmo so others can directly reuse it.

The City of Palo Alto Recycling Center is excellent and does take a variety of things like appliances. I've emailed them a query about accepting my dishwasher and they've not responded yet.

Mountain View's e-Waste program is also excellent. As that is where I live, I called them up for information. Turns out as a Mtn View resident I can, three times a year, schedule for disposal of large items. They'll take it somewhere for safe disposal. This is the choice I've taken. Just put it on the curb next to the trash and they send around a special truck for pickup.

I asked on twitter what to do and got back a couple responses. One was if it still has life in it (this doesn't) that Freecycle is an excellent way to hand the object off to someone else. Other ideas like this is the places Green Citizen recommended like Goodwill or other charity organizations. Another place would be the "Free" section of Craigslist.

Repair attempts

Can't find a picture of the malfunctioning part, but here's a picture of one of the repair attempts.

This plastic objects performs a tube-like function. It's made of two pieces of plastic fused together and it forms a channel that carries water from a pipe that comes up the back of the dishwasher, sending that water to the top sprayer. It's a pretty ingenious way to make the dishwasher more compact but it unfortunately can break easily. In this case the two halves split a little, allowing water to leak out in massive quantities.

The amazing part is again, the water leaking from this top tube was pouring over some of the wiring and not causing any electrical mishaps. That to me says some good things about Haier's design.

What I tried was several ways of gluing this together. The hope was to get this part sealed up so it wouldn't leak, put the dishwasher back together, and get another seven years use out of it. No joy even after trying several kinds of glue which promised they were extra strong, or would weld plastic together, or were for plumbing use.

This is the gap which had to be filled. The black tube on the left comes up the back of the dishwasher, and the plastic thingymajig connects from the black tube to that hole in the middle. One idea I had was to simply block the tube and not use the upper sprayer at all. However after having watched this dishwasher in action several times, it's amazing how much pressure builds in the upper tube. The reason all the repair attempts failed was because of the high pressure. Most would work for awhile then spring a leak somewhere. The zip ties in the earlier picture were an attempt to hold it together with all that pressure. Nothing worked.

The new one in place being happily used. But given that I know parts for this have been discontinued, I'll be surprised if this one lasts very long. Fortunately I already know what to do with it once it dies and is unrepairable.