Chuck Hall

A Terrorist-Proof Power Grid?


A Terrorist-Proof Power Grid?


America is an energy-hungry nation. The current power demand in the United States is growing at about 25 percent faster than the existing power grid

A Greener Christmas Tree


A Greener Christmas Tree


The holiday season is upon us once again. For those of you who celebrate Christmas, here are a few ideas to make decorating your tree a little greener this year.


Let

Microwind Turbines


Microwind Turbines


The power grid in the United States is ancient and in serious need of repair. One of the challenges facing President-elect Obama is what to do about an energy grid in danger of collapse. A recent study by the Department of Energy demonstrates that the demand for power in the United States is growing 25 percent faster than the power grid. This will spell out disaster in the coming years.


One option for fixing this problem is to conduct a massive re-build of the nation

Building Ecotopia: Conclusion


Building Ecotopia: Conclusion


In finishing up this series on Building Ecotopia, I

Green Burial, Part 3


Green Burial, Part 3


If you have decided that green burial is an option, there are a few considerations to address when selecting cemeteries and planning funeral services.


I

Green Burial: Part 2


Green Burial: Part 2


If you are considering a green burial, remember that most bodies that are not embalmed are placed in cold storage for some period of time until funeral arrangements may be made. Evidence suggests that prolonged periods of refrigeration greatly reduce or eliminate altogether many pathogens. Refrigeration helps to minimize the risk of such contamination.


If your green burial site is also a natural preserve, it is kept in as natural a state as possible, with little disturbance. This means that there is no use of fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides and other chemicals that are routinely employed in the landscaping of the more commercial cemeteries. Such chemicals pollute the groundwater far more than any natural decomposition of human remains would. Also, in a natural preserve cemetery, no water is used for irrigation of lawns or shrubs and other plants. And of course, since green burial sites use no embalming, there is no danger of such chemicals escaping into the groundwater.


Some people are concerned that in a natural preserve, the wild animals might disturb the bodies. There

Green Burial


Green Burial


There was a time, not so long ago, when a loved one

Sustainable America


Sustainable America


Two recent news items caught my attention this week. The first was the $800-plus billion bailout that the U.S. Congress just passed in an attempt to forestall the inevitable economic recession brought on by eight years of failed economic policies. The other news item was quite a bit more obscure. It involved a man, Chip Paillex, who planted a 30-foot by 30-foot garden at his new country home to help feed his family of four. By the end of the growing season, this 30 x 30 plot had produced far more vegetables than his family could eat. The end result was that his family wound up donating over a hundred pounds of surplus vegetables that year to families in need. This led to the creation of a nonprofit organization, Grow-a-Row, which now takes in over 250,000 pounds of home-grown, donated vegetables per year for charity.


What struck me about these two stories is the contrast in worldviews they present.


Wall Street America is driven by the gilded version of the American Dream: rampant consumerism at all cost. This mentality has led to yet another debt and drain on the American taxpayers to the tune of somewhere between $5,000-$10,000 for every man, woman and child in the United States. Many of my neighbors are pondering what this means for the economic future of the country. They worry about losing their plastic cracker box palaces and their SUVs. They worry about the rising cost of Big Macs and gasoline. It

Intentional Communities, Part 4


Intentional Communities, Part 4


If you are considering making an intentional community your home, there are many benefits to such a decision, and such a lifestyle brings many rewards for those who wish to live closer to nature and to their neighbors. We

Intentional Communities, Part 3


Intentional Communities, Part 3


One of the reasons that intentional communities with an ecological theme aren

Intentional Communities, Part 2


Intentional Communities, Part 2


If you are interested in joining an intentional community, you might want to first meet as many of the people there as possible. Make sure you can get along with everyone first before making a commitment. Over half of intentional communities fail within a year of their founding, largely because of differences among members, so a little tolerance goes a long way. When shopping for communities, watch out for people who don

Building Ecotopia: Intentional Communities, Part 1


Building Ecotopia: Intentional Communities, Part 1


“Once I was in Victoria, and I saw a very large house. They told me it was a bank and that the white men place their money there to be taken care of, and that by and by they got it back with interest. We are Indians and we have no such bank; but when we have plenty of money or blankets, we give them away to other chiefs and people, and by and by they return them with interest, and our hearts feel good. Our way of giving is our bank.”


Building Ecotopia: Living Without Electricity, Part 6


Building Ecotopia: Living Without Electricity, Part 6


When living without electricity, one of the most basic needs is home lighting. There are many options for home lighting that don

Living Without Electricity, Part 4


Living Without Electricity, Part 4


If you

Living Without Electricity, Part 3


Living Without Electricity, Part 3


If you

Living Without Electricity – Part 2


Living Without Electricity – Part 2


One way to live off-the-grid is to do without a source of AC power altogether. This doesn

Living Without Electricity, Part I


Living Without Electricity, Part I


The ultimate in energy independence is to live without electricity, just as humankind did for thousands of years before Thomas Edison came along. Some groups, like the Amish, have always lived without electricity. Others “dropped out” in the 1970s during the “back to nature” movement. Still more have come to more recent decisions to live off-the-grid by living without electricity. Today it

Electric Vehicles


Electric Vehicles


There

Alternative Fuels


Alternative Fuels


As fuel prices rise around the world, entrepreneurs everywhere are looking for alternative fuels and alternative energy.


Personally, I don

Building Ecotopia: Green Honeymoons


Building Ecotopia: Green Honeymoons


The final phase of any wedding is of course the honeymoon. You can make your honeymoon a trip to remember by looking into ecological tourism, also known as ecotourism. Ecotourism is a relatively new idea in vacationing. According to the International Ecotourism Society <http://www.ecotourism.org>,

November 2024
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