Biofuels - blessing or curse?

As fossil fuels become increasingly scarce, Biofuels such as ethanol or biodiesel (made from soybeans or other seeds) are often hailed as the rescue for our society's fuel needs.

I, too, used to draw a lot of hope from these phantasies: that we Western societies can grow enough grain or oil-seeds to satisfy the hunger of our SUVs.

Sadly, I have come to realize that 900 million wealthy motorists are competing for whatever little food there was left in the developing countries. Even in our supermarkets we feel the pinch: the price of eggs, milk cheese, meat, etc. have all increased sharply as growers have found a new market for their grains.

Will we really burn the last 10 inches of our topsoil in our SUVs?

Al Gore receives Nobel Price for Peace

So good ol' Al receives the Nobel Prices for Peace 2007.

While we congratulate Mr. Gore to his success, we reflect on what it takes to receive such an award.

Gone are the days when guerillas like YASSER ARAFAT and SHIMON PERES could receive this distinction for merely stop fighting. Or, as in 1993, NELSON MANDELA and his long time foe, the President of the Republic of South Africa FREDRIK WILLEM DE KLERK shared the prize.

What, we wonder, would a laureate-colleague of Mother Theresa's stature, who spent decades caring for the sick and dying in Calcutta, think about a yuppie-guy travelling the globe first class with a lap top and a power point presentation under his arm? What, we wonder, does awareness about CO2 in the atmosphere have to do with world peace? Don't they have an ecology prize? Where are the mothers that resisted war in Chechna or the men and women who risked their lives to protect refugees in 'Hotel Rwanda' in this selection? Where are all the many brave and selfless people who stand up against tyranny and injustice?

Having received the prize myself in 1988, I feel unworthy of this honor in the company of those brave and selfless people who stand up against tyranny and injustice.

I just looked at a list of nobel prize winners on the web - they are nowhere to be found in the company of those who merely stop fighting their own wars. Why not go all the way and nominate Rumsfeld or Bush or Ghadaffi? Perhaps they haven't caused enough bloodshed yet, so a peacedefined as 'absence of war' would not weigh in enough with the Nobel Institute.

Only LE DUC THO of the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam had the decency to decline the prize when he received it together with HENRY A. KISSINGER in 1973.

Now that's a man with integrity.

New Eco-Friendly Packaging Triggers Boom In Guilt-Free Littering

An interesting Painting

Came across an interesting lttle box in a side street in Palo Alto, CA, which I wanted to share here. I like the design of course, but I could not figure out the purpose of the box.

Can O Worm - fun for the whole family

Keeping wriggly pets is indeed a lot of fun for the whole family. There's always something going on in the Can O Worms worm box and it is quite astonishing how much kitchen garbage these friendly helpers devour every day.

Perhaps you, too, would like to recycle your kitchen waste into wonderful vermicompost?

Find out more about the Can O Worms on my homepage

http://www.topsoiljapan.com

Let's cure the bubonic plague with malaria!

We at Neighborhood Worm Farm are committed to act responsibly and think about how we can recycle valuable resources or reduce energy consumption.

Therefore we advocate reducing waste in the household. To us it makes sense to recycle any waste on the spot, right where it is produced, to eliminate further transportation or handling elsewhere. We believe keeping worms are ideal to deal with kitchen garbage. They are easy to handle, 100% biologic and instead of consuming energy, they supply you with the best fertilizer nature has to offer.

Now here is industry's answer to reducing garbage: Companies like National Panasonic and Hitachi came up with a brilliant gadget that purportedly transfers kitchen garbage into compost within hours. It almost looks like a rice cooker, only bigger, and has a chamber which receives the kitchen garbage. You can dump up to 700 g of organic waste at a time. Close the lid, push a button, and magic will run its course. 105 minutes and 1.75 KWh later you will find all garbage reduced to 1/7 of its original volume, burned down to a miserable little, almost odorless pile. Let's feel good about it! We've reduced 700 grams of garbage to 100 grams, saving 600 g space in the municipal landfill. And it does not smell as bad as garbage.

But at what cost?

Not only did we fork out 70,000 Yen [ USD 583] for the equipment (subsidized by cities for up to 20,000 yen!! [USD 166]), we've also consumed 1.75 KWh electricity in half an afternoon. To produce this amount of electricity, approximately 1 kg CO2 was added to the atmosphere - negligible, you might think, until you multiply this amount by a million households [only 1 in 40] and 365 days per year: Collectively, that reduction in kitchen waste a la Hitachi burdened the environment with an additional 251,038.40 tons of CO2, not counting the energy needed to produce and distribute the million so called home-composters.

Can you really cure the bubonic plague with malaria?


To add a little more insult, NEC markets its home-composters under the "ECO" predicate; a cute leafy logo that assures the house wife everything is well thought out and ecologically sound.

We certainly disagree.

Shipment of Can O Worms arrived in Kobe

Received my 1st shipment of COWs from Australia to satisfy growing demand for worm boxes in Japan.


Eva is having fun helping!