The Greening of Gavin

Archives for June 2009

World’s Not Warming?

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To set the scene, I will explain a little politics 101. 

In Australia, we have a Federal Government that comprises of a Lower house of Parliament (House of Representatives) and an Upper house (Senate).  The Labor Party has the majority in the House of Reps and are currently in power.  However in the Senate, neither major party (Labor or Liberal) have the balance of power and rely on the vote of the Australian Greens, 1 Independent, and 1 Family First Senator to get legislation passed in the Senate.  It is this Family First Senator who will be the subject of my post today.

Senator Steve Fielding has just made up his mind that man made climate change is not real and that the planet is not warming.  He suggests that solar activity or sun cycles could be driving climate change instead.  He confirmed this by attending a climate sceptic’s conference in the US, held by the Heartland Institute.  Now, it is well know that the Heartland Institute has in the past been partially funded by …….. you guessed it…. ExxonMobil, to the tune of US$676,500 since 1998.  This Institute has been lobbying Washington hard to delay action on climate change since the start of the Bush Era.  It looks like they have taken on an international interest in distorting the truth in other countries as well.

Senator Fielding appears to be nothing but a stooge for right wing conservative politics and vested heavy polluting industries. So much for the kids of the future from the families he allegedly supports with is Family First party. The greater proportion of the world scientists are convinced that global warming is real, but of course Senator Fielding, who has no qualification in science whatsoever, knows better. I bet he is also good mates with Professor Ian Plimer!

So Steve, just so you get your facts right, here is a little primer from a layman who can grasp the simple science.  Of course it is energy from the sun that causes global warming. That much is not debated.  The energy from the Sun is trapped on Earth by greenhouse gases, and is called the Greenhouse Effect, which have increased since man began burning fossil fuels.  The higher their level, the more energy is trapped, causing higher temperatures before the Earth gains equilibrium again.

Even Al Gore knows that much!

Methane

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Hot off the tail of my Mad Max – Beyond Thunderdome review, I have been giving the methane issue a lot of thought since the weekend.  As I have probably mentioned before, Methane (CH4) is a greenhouse gas with a global warming potential of 25.  That means that it is 25 times more potent than Carbon dioxide (CO2) and is a massive contributor to climate change.

Now, we humans use methane all the time, although it is not labelled as such.  Natural gas is mainly methane, and this fossil fuel is used in most capital cities in Australia and indeed throughout the world.  We cook with it, heat our homes, manufacture fabrics, glass, steel, plastics, paint, fertiliser, and other products out of it.  Methane is also off gassed from sewage, swamps, manure, compost, worm farms, rotting vegetable matter, and decomposing animals.  It is all around us naturally as well.

When burnt it converts to CO2, and water vapour therefore reducing its greenhouse potential and serving a useful purpose.  However, by extracting the fossil fuel type natural gas, we are adding million year old stored carbon into the atmosphere and upsetting the normal carbon cycle, not to mention that we are quickly running out of natural gas in some parts of the world.  Peak Natural gas, one might say.  Certainly North America is very close, and Europe (except Russia) peaked years ago.

What if there was a better and greener way of getting our energy needs, one that was available to most of us, right under our noses and did not upset the carbon cycle?  Well, I reckon that there is.  It is Natural Biogas, and it is very easy to make at home.  All you have to build is a Methane digester.  So what is a Methane digester?  A Methane digester is a device used to capture methane from an organic slurry that is processed anaerobically (without oxygen), and could be used for everything that we use natural gas for today.  Have a look at the picture below to see how it works. 

I certainly have plenty of chicken manure and vegetable matter around the place, in fact I have so much chook poo that I have no room left in the compost bins, and have had to bag it up for future use in the garden.  India, some African and South American nations are using this technology in a big way to make biogas for villages.  This reduces the villagers dependence on wood for cooking and heating, and therefore preventing deforestation.  Yet another win for the environment!

So, hypothetically speaking (you can see where this is going by now), if I were to build a Methane digester, and produce a decent supply of methane, what could I use it for?  I could, if I chose to build one, convert a petrol generator and make electricity to run my pool pump.  I could use it to cook on my BBQ and never have to buy Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) ever again which would save me about $80 a year in LPG.  I could buy a compressor and store the methane into LPG bottles for future use.  If I was really good, I could buy an old LPG converted car and run it off of methane.  I could use it to heat our hot water when the sun is not shining.  The practical uses are endless.  Wherever you use natural gas and LPG today, you could substitute this all with natural biogas.

Check this guy out.  He made a simple digester out of two plastic barrels, for next to nothing.

The design could be as simple as this;

Or as complex as this;

Sounds like a very cool next project.  How good would it be to be independent of the natural gas grid.  Just think, no more gas bills!  Let me mull over it for a while and attempt to convince Kim that it is a good idea, and we will see what comes of it.  What do you think?

Who would like to come to my place for a biogas BBQ this summer?

Weekend Roundup

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As always, a full weekend has just been experienced on TGOG’s suburban farm!

Friday night is becoming well entrenched as Cheese making night, and I find that this regular routine not only helps me wind down after a long week at work, but is essential to building up the cheese stocks.  It is a very soothing therapy, and one that I look forward to by about Wednesday!  This Friday I made another wheel of Parmesan, which is a lot less intensive than making other hard cheeses.  The only thing that is difficult Parmesan is the long wait of 6 months before the initial sampling of it.  It will fully mature in 12 months!  So, here is a photo of the two wheels of Parmesan that I now have in the “Cheese Cave”.

Saturday morning, I collected Adam from his mates place and he helped me put another 3 fruit trees into the ground.  We planted a Satsuma and a Rosa Plum, and a Stella Cherry.  Isn’t it nice that someone gave each tree a name!  So in total I now have 8 fruit trees in the front yard with only two more to plant out.  I have a nectarine and a apricot and one large bed left.  How many people do you know that have a fruit orchard in their front yard?

Plum Santa Rosa

Cherry Stella

Plum Satsuma (blood)

In the afternoon we had meeting #6 of the Melton Sustainable Living Group at my house.  The theme was supposed to be about renewable energy, but because I couldn’t secure a guest speaker for the day, we just had general business and watched an episode of “It’s not easy being green”.  Very civilised with a herb and cheese scone made by Kim in one hand, and a glass of local red wine in the other.  All meetings should be this relaxed!

During the course of the evening, after the wonderful Chickpea and Potato Curry that I whipped up, I suggested to Kim that we could watch “Mad Max – Beyond Thunderdome”.  It has been many years since I have seen this post-apocalyptic classic and it was time for a refresh.  For those who have not seen it here is a brief synopsis;

The oil has run dry, and apparently there has been a nuclear war over the remaining resources.  Many years after the collapsed of civilisation, and the remnants of mankind had fought it out, smatterings of a low energy lifestyle have begun to form.  Anyway, Max (the hero of the tale played by Mel Gibson), stumbles upon BarterTown, which is a ram shackled gathering of survivors with apparent abundant energy, and is run by Aunty (Tina Turner).  The story goes on from there.

My biggest beef with the movie is that the towns electricity and gas comes from methane produced by a pig manure digester-generator.  Now with the town being in the middle of a desert, and not much plant life being present, my question is, where does the food or energy come from to feed the pigs.  The simple law of energy is that it is not created, but mealy transformed from another source, and in this case food turned into manure, which is turned into methane and sludge.  A big mistake in the plot if you ask me and one that many people make when thinking about alternate energy sources.

Sunday was Mold-ripened cheese course day, which I have described in the post “Stilton or I got the stinky blues”.  It was a great course, and when I arrived home, I decided to do a bit of work around the ‘farm’.  I weeded the veggie patch, fertilised it all with Powerfeed, and planted some Elephant leek seedlings that were now the right size.  I cleaned out the chicken house (did the run last week) and put all the manure into the compost bin.  I then harvested some spring onions, bok choy, capsicums (red & green), swiss chard, a couple of lemons, and a few herbs for dinner.  I then proceeded to whip up a chicken and black bean stir fry with all the greens I picked.  Then the entire family sat down at the dinner table and talked about our day.  It was a great way to wind down.

I am looking forward to next weekend, because I am sure that I can find somewhere else in the garden to plant some more snow peas, garlic, and purple podded peas!  Oh, and I still have the two fruit trees to put in.  And of course Cheese making Friday.  That should keep me busy.