The needs, drivers and tools to make life accessible, affordable and sustainable on earth are explained and described at “Sustain-Earth”. Take a cop of coffee or tea and explore what “Sustain-Earth” is ABOUT.
Our understanding of algae, their unique and rich diversity, is shifting more and more towards finding industrial applications for production of useful products, in particular, food (human food, fish food and animal food), energy and farmaceutical products. There are known methods and tools to extract oil and other valuable products from algae, also to change the genetic content and chemical composition of many algae.
Many and many organizations give lots of money for research for commercialization of algae. Research takes is typical path fuelled by society needs, human hopes for prosperity and fears from environmental threats. In this amazing journey of what we are right now and where we are heading to, there are several important facts to be known, e.g. benefits and threats. There are, also, key interests in understanding the potential of artificial photosynthesis as a new path, not yet fully understood, for production of energy.
Algae are “biochemical reactors” that can recycle carbon to produce organic compounds in different forms, which indeed is the origin of all the gas and oil reservoirs around the world. Multi-hundred-million dollar industries have invested in many products, e.g. sushi wrap, oils, dental impression, ice cream thickener, cosmetics, medical products, plastics… etc. They still invest more and more money for production of energy-rich food, biofuel from algae and use of wastewater to grow algae as well as for the extraction of other useful products like coloring agents and anti-oxidant, agro-culture business for production of food in the fish and shellfish industries.
Basic research is needed, and even imperative, to solve central bottleneck in algae processing technology ranging from cultivation, harvesting, extraction of desired products, processing and refining. Micro-algae are known to grow very fast and there is commercial potential in industrial microbiology where molecular biology in combination with aquaculture and marine farming can yield hybrid and novel technologies. Unlike industrial small-scale microbial technologies, e.g. cheese, beer, alcohol that are based on “closed systems” trying to cultivate algae on large-scale, i.e. in open systems, is a great challenge. Algae are now looked upon as the most sustainable known potential source of biofuel. The challenges are transferring the many different types of small-scale bioreactors to open systems for growing algae at large scale. Up-scaling of algae-based technology leads to emergent issues that are not fully controlled, e.g. competitor algae, predators and diseases (bacteria and viruses). Up-scaling to large-scale open systems, therefore, requires solving a wide-range of difficulties and threats including those arising from varying weather conditions, e.g temperature, and much work is still needed.
Earth – the blue planet: lots of water-lots of algae-lots of oxygen. The most important and oldest single cell plants on earth “The Algae” and the very reason of our existence. These single cells carry lots of secrets and many of them are still unknown to us though they played important roles in the evolution and development of life on earth. They have micro- and nano- devices with complex molecular structures and diversity of biochemical metabolic reactions, e.g. photosynthesis and nitrogen fixation, production of amino acids and lipids. Algae with thousands and thousands of species can be very small or very large in size with different colors and can be useful or harmful. Algae remains, diatoms, can be preserved in sediments for millions of years. The most important is that algae are the origin of gas and oil and recently that algae can be used for production and a source of biofuel!
Waste from animals and household can have negative and harmful impacts on the environment, i.e. land-water resources, as well as on health because of degradation of sanitation and living conditions. However, when sorted and treated can be useful sources conservation of natural resources, for improves economy, for producing energy, (biogas or electricity, and fertilizers e.g. different forms of organic fertilizers). It is simply because leftover food and animal manure are organic matter rich in carbon which is a basic element for production of biogas. Breakdown of organic matter in the absence of oxygen, i.e. anaerobic digestion with anaerobic bacteria, can produce biogas. Biogas can, also, be produced by fermentation of biodegradable materials such as manure, sewage, municipal and green waste, plants and crops.
Note: In order to get the best possible out-put from DIY “DO-It-Yourself” you are strongly encouraged to address questions, give comments and contribute in discussions. This will in addition to bringing more clarity, will also contribute in making modifications and further adjustment or even developments for better adaptation to local conditions, e.g. climate, mixture of waste, availability of construction material, running conditions and maintenance aspects.
Check the top 10 health benefits of eating Kale.
http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-4408/Top-10-Health-Benefits-of-Eating-Kale.html
Go organic and green, even better go straight to the queen of greens “KALE”. Anti-inflammatiry, anti-oxidants, more iron than beef, more calcium than milk, low calories, no fats, very rich in vitamin A, C and K. To be organic means that you remove the threats of residual pesticides.
http://marinahunley.com/2013/11/18/health-benefits-of-kale/
For those who are working in laboratories and/or in a way or another being exposed to indoor pollutants, there are guidelines for the exposure to such pollutants. In this document such guidelines for indoor air-quality are given for some selected indoor sources of pollutants (benzene, carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, naphthalene, nitrogen dioxide, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (especially benzo[a]pyrene), radon, trichloroethylene and tetrachloroethylene). These pollutants are known in respect of their hazardousness to health and are often found indoors in concentrations of health concern. For these pollutants information is given for their indoor sources, pathways of exposure, indoor concentrations, indoor–outdoor relationship, kinetics and metabolism, health effects, and health risk evaluations as well as other relavant explanations.
Air pollution has become the world’s single biggest environmental health risk. According to WHO it is linked to around 7 million death or nearly one in eight death in 2012. The new figures are more double previous estimates and suggest that outdoor pollution from traffic fumes and coal-burning, and indoor pollution from wood and coal stoves, kill more people than smoking, road death and diabetes combines.
The document is WHO’s Air Quality Guidelines Global Update 2005. These Guidelines offer guidance to policy-makers on reducing the effects on health of air pollution for the four most common air pollutants – particulate matter, ozone, nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide. Also, issues affecting the use of the guidelines in risk assessment and policy development.
This document contains Part (1) Application of air quality guidelines for policy development and risk reduction; Part (2) Risk assessment of selected pollutants (Particulate matter, Ozone, Nitrogen dioxide, Sulfur dioxide).
Air pollution is a worldwide problem especially in many big cities and industrial areas around the world. Emission of fine particulate matter (e.g. aerodynamic diameter ≤ 2.5 µm; PM2.5) , chemicals (e.g. biogenic VOC) and pollutants (e.g. heavy metals), and associated photo-chemical reactions (e.g. production of tropospheric ozone) in the atmosphere as well as in-cloud interactions (e.g. acid rain) experienced dramatic changes since the industrial revolutions. Concentrations of hazardous pollutants in global atmospheric air masses, dry and wet precipitates have been subject to gradual increasing reaching harmful levels for air-quality what regards human health (e.g. lung cancer, mortality) and the environment (e.g. negative impacts for forests and vegetation and quality of life in aquatic eco-systems) in many places around the world.
Climate change influences air quality through several mechanisms, including changes in photochemical reaction rates, biogenic emissions, deposition/re-suspension, and atmospheric circulation. Several techniques/approaches were used in such studies including atmospheric chemistry, climate model inter-comparison, high-resolution satellite observations together with a global atmospheric models and extensive compilation of surface measurements to better represent global air pollution exposure.
http://www.salon.com/2013/09/23/infographic_shows_air_pollution_deaths_around_the_world_newscred/
Climate Change impacts are moving fast towards a global dangerously heat up of the planet over the next 5 decades. Major cities around the world could become uninhabitable because of irreversible man-made climate change within the coming few decades. The changing temperatures could render some nations uninhabitable with uncontrollable migration across borders. Camilo Mora and his team predict that in about a decade, Kingston, Jamaica, will probably be off-the-charts hot — permanently, Singapore in 2028, Mexico City in 2031, Cairo in 2036, Phoenix and Honolulu in 2043 as global warming takes hold.
The study from the University of Hawaii published online Wednesday in the journal Nature predicts that even if we utilized all resources to stop and halt our current carbon emissions, the changes are irrevocable and can only be postponed. Climate Departure maps show the cities that will suffer from irrevocable climate change. Ecosystems across the world would, also, regularly experience never-seen heat environments, such results are based on about 150 years of record-keeping.
Necessity is the mother of invention. Where energy lacks there is much concern about finding it and using it with the most sustainable manner possible. This is why Iceland is among very few countries in the world where Renewable Energy Resources are managed with the best possible sustainable solutions. It is, also, possible that the availability and affordability of renewable energy in Iceland attracted Scandinavians to settle in Iceland sometime around the second half of the 9th century as in ancient cultures people sought living there were good possibilities to secure “WE-resources”. i.e. water and energy resources. The necessity and needs for survival are essential drivers for inventions and advances in science and technology. It is interesting to mention that 100% of the electricity production in Iceland is produced from renewable energy resources, i.e. hydropower and geothermal heat. Furthermore, 85% of total primary energy supply in Iceland is derived from domestically produced renewable energy sources.
So, we have something to learn from this country that in addition of being in the icy part of the world has a very long dark winter season. However, Iceland is not as cold as Minnesota (USA), for example, and not as dark as Tromso (Norway). That doesn’t mean that Island is some tropical paradise though.
To learn more about geothermal energy, please, visit: (1) http://cognitiveanomalies.com/what-is-geothermal-energy-what-are-geothermal-energy-advantages-and-disadvantages/ (2) http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2011/09/working-on-this-one-developers-warm-to-small-scale-geothermal
The dream of any nation is to provide its population with safety and security especially in most critical situations with severe disasters, tragedies and collective nightmare arising from fear, insecurity and uncertain future. The nuclear disaster and the national tragedy from Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan demonstrated how collective efforts, the neat national planning along with continuous and intensive hard-work brought about safety and security for almost all the population in Japan.
An amazing awareness and responsibility on all levels for the DE-COMTAMINATION of every single inch or centimeter of land, houses, school, hospitals, roads, trees and practically all environmental compartments. A national DE-COMTAMINATION strategy if followed by other nations much of pollutions and waste problems can be solved. Successful sustainable management is about providing future generations with secure and safe living conditions, it is a collective discipline, awareness and responsibility from all for all and by all including preparing and fostering future generation for how to handle national disasters and severe tragedies.
Geothermal energy is among potential “semi-global” natural energy resources, as it is only accessible and affordable in economic terms in hot and limited areas around the globe. It is also considered to be relatively user friendly, more energy-intensive in comparison to solar energy, has less threats in case of technical failure as compared to nuclear power, simple and more safe production-technology in terms of drift and above all more durable and lasing natural source. It is indeed a form of “fossil resource” as being a remainder from the Big Bang. However, unlike energy produced in stars such as in the sun (solar energy) through fusion-reactions, energy in planets such as the earth is being produced through decay processes of the primordial radio-activity. Actually, without the embedded sources of heat in the earth’s body, i.e. the energy emitted through the decay of natural radio-activity, e.g. the radio-active members of the U and Th series, and many other radio-active isotopes of other elements that can have half-lives much longer than the age of the universe itself, e.g. Te-128 of half-life of 2.2 exa millions (billion billion millions) of years.
The most interesting issue in energy production and use is that water in always involved in these processes with two main impacts what concerns WE-resources, i.e. Water and Energy. For energy we are consuming more energy resources and thereby less we are gradually facing less access to energy resources and as a consequence increasing prices of energy production. As energy production, use and consumption create more waste and pollution as well as bring water to more open systems and interactions there is continuous and gradual degradation in water quality and thereby increasing threats to all life forms on the earth.
So, production and use of geothermal energy can be, also, associated with negative impacts on water resources, environment and bio-diversity.
An important aspect for appropriate implementation of Sustainable Technologies is Sustainable Management. The fundamental question is How Sustainable is Sustainable? And what are the most appropriate solutions for Achieving the Best Socio-economic Sustainability? Among strategic long-term and large-scale policies for the MENA region, where arid and semi-arid conditions prevail, is Water Management because of its impacts on all involved sectors (energy, industry, agriculture and environment) in this region, life quality and bio-diversity. Unfortunately, existing literature still lack appropriate long-term and large-scale sustainability solutions as being based on “Business as Usual” without consideration to other possible and yet feasible alternatives.
Seawater desalination constitutes an important source for water supply for all sector activities and the population in the bordering the Arabian Gulf, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Red Sea. Desalination has advantages and disadvantages that may depend on the region, location, technology, impact and amount of fresh water production. Apart from the energy requirements for desalination, there are also other negative impacts in terms of waste management, fish production and quality of marine life in general. However, these impacts can be mitigated or even eliminated, by solutions other than those currently available.
Global warming is not only a matter of increasing temperature, ice melting, increasing sea water level and enhanced abnormalities in weather conditions. Changes in temperature, though might seem, as little as few degrees, will bring about major changes in the functioning and metabolism is global aquatic, ecological and land-water systems. Fish population in world oceans and seas will suffer major dynamic changes, in term of population, species and catch composition. Fish species will be forced to large-scale migration to adapt themselves for new living in suitable waters and some fish species are expected to disappear. Such major changes in fish species will also have other impacts on global ecology of other animal species.
http://www.publicaffairs.ubc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/CheungGraphic_web.jpg
Asbestosis is known to affect the tissue of lungs as a consequence of the inhalation and retention of asbestos fibers. This usually occurs after high intensity and/or long-term exposure to asbestos from mining, manufacturing, handling, or removal of asbestos. This is, also, the case for people in houses or areas contaminated by asbestos. Sufferers may experience severe dyspnea (shortness of breath) and are at an increased risk for certain malignancies, including lung cancer but especially mesothelioma.
As the damage to lungs occur from contaminated air, early investigation were carried out through measurements of asbestos levela in air samples, which is suspected to have caused asbestos-related lung problems.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wy-p_DvM6Jw&feature=youtu.be
Give your support to bio-diversity, environment and water issues and create public awareness to protect life from extinguision around the Great Ruaha River and the eventual the drying up of the river itself.
Ruaha Marathon, Irnga-Tanzania, is a social event which you can contribute in shaping it and improving its activities through not only being part of it but also by active initiatives and interactions. Social enterpreneurs can very well innovate in how they can be effective part of making this event move forward towards achieving sustainable socio-economic developments in Africa. All what Africa needs is INNOVATION, where people join together to share solutions. Life is about to serve and get served but do it with quality! Building up sound eco-tourism and green-awareness part supporting rural communities in Africa.
Life on earth, and its origin, has been a puzzle and still. Classically humans believed that the essential “elements” upon which the constitution and fundamental powers of anything are based are: Earth, Air, Fire and Water. In the past the concept of Energy was unknown to humans though fire was very much needed for life. It is as early as in stone-ages where humans discovered how to make fire, it came by accident. People at that time both appreciated and hated fire, however from that time humans went on to explore the whole range of energy forms, including production and consumption. Full benefits of Water and Energy resources for life on earth required/requires the other two “elements”, i.e. earth and air. However, there are specific requirement for the properties and qualities of earth and air for the life to exist. Even for humans, the full benefits of energy and water were/are only possible through earth and air with given specifications and qualities.
Through science and technology the classical four “elements” were developed and expanded to an enormous amount and spectra of knowledge that allowed all possible application and inventions. The most common feature of modern educated and intelligent humans and stone-age illiterate humans is how to solve the dilemma of mastering energy and water in sustainable matter. The difference is illiterate and ancient humans discovered energy “fire” by an accident but intelligent and modern humans will, at some stage, consume all energy resources on earth to a level that makes further life on earth difficult. Are we gradually moving to stone-ages?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChxvN4WjxWg&feature=youtu.be
Efficient heating and cooling technologies with little or no carbon dioxide within residential, commercial and public buildings can dramatically reduce the world energy consumption and thereby considerable saving can be achieved. This can generate positive feedback effects on energy prices, global warming and life quality. This will promote more sustainable developments worldwide.
However, strong policy and awareness actions on all levels, sectors and stakeholders are needed to bring coherent solutions in the fragmented building sectors. In this context, increased technology RD&D is necessary to bring about new and affordable solutions that are suitable for different climate zones along with the environmental, cultural, social and economic conditions during the life-cycle financial benefits.
http://www.renewableenergymagazine.com/article/new-report-sees-potential-for-dramatic-energy
Knowledge on the World Energy Resources “WER” is much more important to know as compared to the World Water Resources “WWR”. In both cases management policies in terms of quantity and quality are IMPERATIVE.
While knowledge about Climate Change is essential for implementation of sustainable long-term and long-term management policies of the Water Resources, there are relatively more aspects to be considered for the sustainable management of the Energy Resources. Humans cannot manipulate “WWR” or Global Water Resources “GWR” in terms of quantity. What we get, we will get, and we can do nothing about it. However, regarding the quality of GWR it is the responsibility of humans to keep track on quality at all levels and on different scales, i.e. in terms of location and occasion “spatio-temporal scales”. So, what regards “GWR” management policies, technology is primarily coupled to consumption priorities of sectors, stakeholders and users as well as waste and pollution issues with consideration to climatic issues.
Management of “WER” involves production, consumption, and waste and pollution issues taking in consideration sectors, stakeholders and users. But “WER” require global players for import-export of both raw material and processed energy as well and in both cases waste and pollution aspects are involved. The dynamic balance of fossil versus renewable energy resources are very much technology related. Even in this case, Climate Change is becoming an important factor regulating how the dynamic balance of fossil versus renewable energy should look like, i.e. on “spatio-tempral” scales.