Author: Adam Clare

Protecting England’s Topsoil

England’s topsoil contains a lot of carbon and if things go unchecked it may erode away.Thankfully, the British government is going to release a plan of action to make sure that the topsoil will be protected by a sustainable action plan. Of course, the soil is also good for growing corps and the protection of this soil is great for farmers.

The BBC can tell you a bit more about the plan.

Mr Benn said: “Soil is one of the building blocks of life. Good quality soils are essential for a thriving farming industry, a sustainable food supply, and a healthy environment.
“Britain’s soils hold more carbon than all the trees in Europe’s forests – and their protection is critical if we are to successfully combat climate change.
“This is an important step in increasing the value we place on soil, and will safeguard this vital resource now and in the future.”
A Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) spokesman said: “England’s soil has suffered over the last 200 years from the impacts of intensive farming and industrial pollution, and today is under threat from erosion by wind and rain, a loss of organic matter and nutrients, and pressure for development.”

A Tree Planting Genius

SM Raju has found a way to plant nearly one billion saplings in only one day: by hiring people who are below the poverty line in India to plant and then to protect trees. The plan is to pay people who would otherwise be unemployed to plant and grow trees as a family. Each year they would get some money to supplement other income sources.

The BBC has a good article on the smart tree planting scheme.

“The scheme has brought benefits to thousands of families since its implementation,” said a recent International Labour Organisation report.
But Mr Raju says that Bihar – being the poorest and most lawless state of India – has not been able to spend the allocated NREGA funds.
“This is because of a lack of awareness among officials about the scheme,” he said.
The poor monsoon this year has led to lower agricultural outputs, while flash floods in some northern districts has made the situation even worse, he said.
“So the idea struck to my mind, why not involve families below the poverty line in social forestry and give them employment under this scheme for 100 days?
“Under the scheme, each family can earn a minimum of 10,200 rupees ($210).”

Copenhagen to Build Bicycle Highway

The most bike-friendly city in the world is about to get better by building commuter highways designed for bicycles.

You can read all about it at Copenhagenize.

Currently 55% of the citizens in central Copenhagen ride a bicycle daily and the number is 37% for Greater Copenhagen. While in many other countries anybody who cycles to work is often considered a ‘bicycle commuter’, most of the 500,000 people who cycle to work or education in Copenhagen don’t fit into the Danish version of this statistical category.

A ‘commuter’ is loosely categorised as someone who travels more than 10 km to work. The City of Copenhagen and the surrounding towns are aiming to increase the trips by bike on the new routes. There is an efficient network of public transport throughout the region but just as any train passenger or motorist knows, it feels much quicker and is much quicker if you don’t have to stop all the time. The same principle applies to cycling to work and it is the key to the development of this new net of superhighways.

Just like anywhere, there are many people who cycle longer distances but the focus for the new plan is the ‘middle ground’ – the zone between 7 and 15 km from the city centre.

Solar Tower Provides Plenty of Power

Solar power continues to prove to the world that the sustainable energy choice is a good and efficient source of electricity generation. Solar towers that rely on mirrors aimed at the tower to produce heat are a great way to spin a turbine to provide power for a lot of homes, I don’t understand why places with lots of sun and a lot of land don’t use more of these types of power plants. I’m looking at you Australia.

Read more about concentrated solar towers.

UBS Wealth Management, moreover, is predicting that the relatively small market for concentrated solar power tends to expand, with projected growth of almost 20 gigawatts in new capacity over the next decade. UBS analysts Gianrento Gamboni and Christoph Hugi, refers to the new projects in the United States and Spain as they say “After a long period of stagnation, the market is evolving more dynamically.”

What is a solar power tower?
One square kilometer of land holds the capacity – depending on the specifities of location – to generate as much as 100 gigawatt hours (GWh) of electricity per year through solar thermal technology. To make it clear, this amount is enough to run 50,000 residents.

One option to produce this energy is the solar power tower, which is a type of solar thermal plant that uses a tower to receive the sunlight, focused upon it via an array of flat, movable mirrors (ie. heliostats). These focused rays heats the water and the steam produced powers a turbine. As you see, no pollutants are emitted in producing the electricity.

Today liquid sodium is commonly used instead of water to store the energy during brief interruptions in sunlight or in night time.

A Craigslist for Vegetables

Almost everyone knows about the online classified site cragislist, but did you know that there’s now a craigslist for vegetables called VeggieTrader?

This is a great idea for people who enjoy local produce – even better for those who have their own vegetable garden. You can use the site to trade surplus produce from your garden with someone who has a surplus of another type of produce. This means that your local garden can be stretched a little further by finding and trading with other gardeners.

It’s local, affordable and sustainable, but we’ve noticed a lot of it goes to waste. You plant too many tomatoes, or your plum tree has a bumper crop, most of which is enjoyed by the sidewalk and the grass…

Wish you could turn your excess plums into lemons, or maybe
even a little cash? Use this site to find neighbors to swap with
or sell your excess produce to. Or if you specialize in growing tomatoes, find neighbors who specialize in other produce and
form networks to share in the variety. Even if you don’t have a garden, Veggie Trader is your place for finding local food near you