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http://evergreenenergy.wordpress.com
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: coup d'etat, filibuster, honduras, revolution, Riots, roatan, William Walker
Updates about the Honduran Coup are posted at:http://evergreenenergy.wordpress.com
I’ll try to keep it as up to date as I can.
Will
Filed under: Political | Tags: solar, roatan, solar power, willgrip4food, evergreenroatan, utila, splitzvillefarm, Guanaja, howtogogreen, paper, rock, mitart, terraskin, art, business, ecoproducts, environment, politics, tree-free-paper, mineral-paper, ecospace, california, wordpress, red wood, UCLA, solar power evergreenroatan, solisto, sunwize, alternative power, independence, honduras map, USA, university, trees first, ecopreneur, ecopreneurist, green cleaning companies, green find, green thanskgiving, green week, green your routine, greenhouse gases, healthy living consultant, NBC, NBC stations, NBC Universal, sustainable food producers, The Office, Riots, carbon tax, tropical independence, Media and the Arts, Alternative Power lifestyle, sun jar, earth cup, bamboo shoots, kenya, bamboo farm
Honduran President Manuel Zelaya’s push to rewrite the constitution, and pave the way for his potential re-election, has plunged one of Latin America’s poorest countries into a potentially violent political crisis. A day after Mr. Zelaya fired the head of the country’s armed forces, hundreds of troops on Thursday deployed around the Congress, presidential palace and airport in Tegucigalpa, the country’s capital. It wasn’t clear whether the troops were responding to orders from Mr. Zelaya, or Honduras’ other civilian and military powers, all of which oppose the president. View Full Image Agence France-Presse/Getty Images Honduras’s president dismissed military chief General Romeo Vasquez, center, who refused to distribute ballots aimed at rewriting the constitution. Mr. Zelaya, a populist and close ally of Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez and Cuba’s retired dictator Fidel Castro, wants to hold a referendum on Sunday aimed at allowing voters in the country’s November presidential election to also vote on rewriting the constitution. Mr. Zelaya says the current constitution favors the country’s elites. The country’s Supreme Court, top electoral body, and human-rights ombudsman have all declared the planned referendum illegal. Many in the country fear the president primarily wants to change the constitution to end its ban on re-election, and use that to stay in power when his term ends in January. Other leftist Latin American leaders like Venezuela’s Mr. Chávez, Ecuador’s Rafael Correa and Bolivia’s Evo Morales have used referendums for a similar purpose. Latin America has a long history of leaders of all political stripes trying to stay in power. Colombia’s right-wing President Álvaro Uribe is trying to change the constitution to allow him a third term. The current crisis was sparked on Wednesday when the armed forces apparently told the president that they wouldn’t distribute the ballots for Sunday’s vote, a role the army traditionally plays, because of the court’s ruling. Mr. Zelaya responded by firing armed-forces chief Gen. Romeo Vásquez. The defense minister and heads of the navy and air force resigned later in the day. On Thursday, the Supreme Court ruled that Gen. Vásquez be reinstated, ramping up its conflict with the president. Mr. Zelaya refused and called the ruling “an embarrassment for Hondurans.” Meanwhile, Attorney General Luis Alberto Rubí asked Congress to oust Mr. Zelaya. Mr. Zelaya has few supporters among the country’s politicians, but is popular among the poor for his ramped-up social spending. His own Liberal Party has already chosen another candidate for the November election and asked the president to step aside. “Zelaya has provoked this institutional crisis,” said Michael Shifter, a Latin America analyst at Washington’s Inter-American Dialogue. “He seems to have a very strong appetite for power. He’s trying to be the victim, but he won’t get a lot of sympathy by defying the country’s institutions.” On Thursday, Honduras’s top electoral tribunal ordered authorities to pick up all the ballots and other electoral material, which was being held by the country’s air force. In response, Mr. Zelaya called his supporters on the streets and marched them over to the base to try to claim the voting materials. “No one is going to stop Sunday’s referendum,” he told a cheering crowd. He called on the army to obey his orders. “If an army rebels against a president, then we are back to the era of the cavemen, back to the darkest chapters in Honduran history.” Air force officers handed over the material without incident, according to local press reports. Write to José de Córdoba at jose.decordoba@wsj.com Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page A9
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The Kyoto Box, a $6 solar cooker made from cardboard, has won the Financial Times-sponsored Climate Change Challenge contest for innovative ways to decrease the human impact on the environment. Its capacity to not only cook food but also sterilize water could help three billion people reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. The Kenya-based Norwegian creator of the cooker, Jon Bøhmer, has been awarded $75,000 to put the idea into production.
Named after the United Nations’ Kyoto Protocol, the cooker is made from two cardboard boxes, one inside the other, with either paper or straw insulation placed in between; an acrylic cover on top lets in and traps sunlight. Black paint on the inner box, and silver foil on the outer one, help concentrate the heat. The trapped rays make the inside hot enough to cook casseroles, bake bread and boil water [CNN]. Covering the cooking pot with a transparent cover retains heat and water [BBC], and temperatures inside the pot can reach about 175 degrees Fahrenheit.
With as many as 3 billion people dependent on firewood for fuel, it is hoped that the cooker will eliminate the small-scale deforestation that has cumulatively become a major contributor to global warming worldwide. By allowing users to boil water, the simple device could also potentially save the millions of children who die from drinking unclean water [CNN]. The Kyoto Box was chosen from five finalists; the other four included a garlic-based feed additive to cut methane emissions from livestock, an indoor cooling system using hollow tiles, a cover for truck wheels to reduce fuel use and a “giant industrial microwave” for creating charcoal [Reuters].
The box can be produced in standard cardboard factories, and Bøhmer is already working with one factory in Nairobi. Bøhmer, who has started a design firm called Kyoto Energy, also designed a sturdier version made of recycled plastic, which he says would also be extremely cheap to produce. His next step is to conduct trials with 10,000 cookers in 10 countries, including India, Indonesia, South Africa, Kenya and Uganda [GreenBiz.com]. “We’re saving lives and saving trees” [Reuters], he said. “I don’t want to see another 80-year-old woman carrying 20 kilos of firewood on her back. Maybe we don’t have to” [CNN].
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The pattern created in a Swedish forest by logging tracks and trees downed by Hurricane Gudrun
in January 2005.
”It’s as if the heavens had sent a message to the forest industry reminding them that, in this area, deciduous trees would have withstood the winds much better than pine.”
—Joakim “Jocke” Berglund, who took this photograph from a Cessna aircraft
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: alternative power, Alternative Power lifestyle, art, bamboo farm, bamboo shoots, business, california, carbon tax, earth cup, ecopreneur, ecopreneurist, ecoproducts, ecospace, environment, evergreenroatan, green cleaning companies, green find, green thanskgiving, green week, green your routine, greenhouse gases, Guanaja, healthy living consultant, honduras map, howtogogreen, independence, kenya, Media and the Arts, mineral-paper, mitart, NBC, NBC stations, NBC Universal, paper, politics, red wood, Riots, roatan, rock, solar, solar power, solar power evergreenroatan, solisto, splitzvillefarm, sun jar, sunwize, sustainable food producers, terraskin, The Office, tree-free-paper, trees first, tropical independence, UCLA, university, USA, utila, willgrip4food, wordpress
If you’re looking for a greener alternative to washing your clothes, it doesn’t get much greener than our hand powered laundry machine (well, laundry washer, it’s not really a machine if you crank it yourself!).
This portable washing machine requires no electricity, which saves money in energy bills. It is also portable, which enables you to use in places that don’t have electricity.
When you’re in a hurry to wash a few items, this washing machine easily solves the problem of having to wait around for your electric or gas washing machine to complete a full load of laundry or feel bad about only washing a few items at a time.
Made of plastic with no mechanical parts, the hand powered washing machine comes assembled. Just attach the handle and go! It can last a lifetime and requires no maintenance.
Because this washing machine is so small, it’s easy to store and move from one place to another. This is an ideal washing machine to have with you in an RV, on road trips, at weekend sports tournaments, in apartments, especially those with limited access to laundry areas, on camping trips and those who want to make their lifestyle more energy efficient.
This small washing machine uses less water and powder detergent per load of laundry. The washing cycle is also extremely fast (from 10 seconds to 2 minutes) saving you an extraordinary amount of time.
If you work in the yard or outside frequently and don’t like to put your really dirty clothes in the wash with your other clothes, this washing machine allows you to easily separate them and get them thoroughly clean without staining other clothes.
How it works:
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CASE ONE
The other day I borrowed a 3000 watt portable generator from a friend. We are raising chickens, and at the time they were very small and needed a light on them 24 hours. The second day that I had the generator, the on/off switch popped off! It has worn out and as it was spring loaded it broke and popped off.
I sent a note off to Goss Industries in the GTA about it and I was shocked about a few things: 1) Bill Santo got back to me within a couple of days. 2) Offered to pop a new part in the mail. 3) Sent the right part to me, at no charge!
This is the best sort of conservation! This product, which would of been junk, or at least and expensive repair is now up and running, saving me from having to buy a new one!
http://www.gossindustries.com
CASE TWO
My friend Christina has a rotor tiller, in the spring my garden is always ready first so I borrow the tiller, then my friend Peter across the street uses it and takes it back to Christina’s. We share wood splitters, chain saws, whipper snippers, and car pool together.
To take this one step farther we all manage our gardens together so that we all don’t have to grow so many things.
CASE THREE
We are cutting our ties to the world, sort of! We are trying to wean ourselves off the paper newspaper. Martina misses the crossword, but we have found it all online. We have eliminated almost all of the cell phones, cable TV bills, and all of those pesky monthly bills.
CASE FOUR
We have taken a “FARM FIRST” attitude about our little oasis here. Planting tons of trees, expanding the gardens and putting more into them. We are making our own wine, beer and hooch as well! We are taking a 100% pro active approach to our lifestyle!
Come see us at www.splitzvillefarm.com
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Who Revived the Electric Car!
General Questions about the evMe
Where is the car made?
The car has been designed and assembled in Australia. Components for the car come from a variety of sources all over the world.
Is this an Australian car company if everything is made overseas?
Energetique is a wholly owned Australian company. The specialty electronic components that we import from our overseas suppliers is currently not manufactured in Australia. Our advanced technologies in system integration and vehicle management are proprietary to Energetique and differentiate us from being an importer of components.
Are there any government rebates or subsidies for purchasing an electric car in Australia?
Not at this time but Energetique is actively lobbying government to support cleaner more sustainable transport solutions.
How did you come up with the idea for evMe?
Founder Phil Coop had always been interested in issues of sustainability and regional economics. Phil was concerned that there were as yet no real alternatives to internal combustion vehicles and decided to purchase a Suzuki Mighty Boy that was converted to electric using an AC Induction motor and lead acid batteries. The vehicle had a long working life but was constrained by the conventional technologies it contained. Several years of research involving a small team of like minded, technology savvy individuals revealed that an energy efficient and environmentally friendly transport alternative for commuters was possible using state of the art technologies and that there was an opportunity to manufacture this type of vehicle in Australia. This background research also provided a wide range of associated technologies and applications that are currently being pursued through more formal research and development and ultimately commercialisation.
I want to add a link to the evMe website from my website, do you have any graphics?
Images can be downloaded from the media section of the evMe site here
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We are almost finished with the production of a short clip about how to grow Oyster mushrooms. 1) First one should find a Poplar tree and chop it down, cut the trunk into three – four ft piece.
2) Drill 1/2 inch holes throughout the log, each one about 2-3 inches deep, and about six inches apart.
3) fill the holes with mushroom spores.
4) cover holes with a layer of bees wax.
5) plant upright in the forest
6) Wait!
Wait til you see the video!
