Are You a Socially-Minded Gardener? A Master Composter at Heart? How Good is Your Recycling Strategy for Both Your Kitchen Scraps and Yard Trimmings and Yes – Your Career?

What is “Composting” you may ask? One definition is that it is the “Controlled” biological decomposition of carbon-containing matter by fungi and bacteria into a stable and useful humus material – or – fertilizer. It is a process that allows decomposed materials to be reused as a nutritious supplement for your garden, lawn, and house plants. The most common materials used for composting is leaves, grass, weeds, and kitchen scraps such as fruit and vegetable peels, coffee grounds, tea bags, pizza crusts, bread, crackers, beans, rice, cereal, pasta, nuts, herbs, spices, and egg shells.

But “composting” is more than a process – it is a strategy – a way to manage the reduction of solid municipal waste. The same idea holds true for the recycling of one’s career – it is a strategy for overcoming professional hurdles such as company downsizing, restructuring, or mergers. I liken it to a three-pronged strategy for finding that next job, for tapping into team-building resources, and for gaining momentum up the corporate ladder. In addition, the recycling of one’s career is also a process – an individual self-assessment of one’s own unique talents and work experiences to date – broken down to its smallest components – recyclable skills such as writing, planning, researching, conceptualizing, negotiating and promoting.

So in essence, whatever recycling strategy you choose – whether it’s for your lawn or your career – the outcome is sure to enrich your life and the lives of others. Test yourself then with these trivia questions and see if you are up to the 21st century challenge of recycling both personally and professionally.

1- Which U.S. state has the oldest “Compost School” in the nation providing training experiences and interactive opportunities to farmers, businessmen, and government workers who are involved with medium and large-scale composting operations?
A) New Jersey B) Virginia C) Massachusetts D) Maine

2- Currently, in the USA, 33.8% of municipal solid waste is recovered, recycled or composted, 11.9% is burned at combustion facilities, and the remaining 54.3% is disposed of in landfills. Which U.S. island is a leader in the “Zero Waste” movement which ideally seeks to eliminate all waste being shipped to landfills by way of recycling, reusing, and composting strategies?
A) Jekyll Island B) Nantucket C) Mackinac Island D) San Juan Islands

3- Achieving the correct moisture content in a compost pile is an important factor in keeping it working efficiently. Biological activity will stop completely if the pile dries out. Thus the ideal percentage rate for measuring compost water content is which percentage – 30%, 50%, 70%, or 85%?

4- Large-scale “vermicomposting” is practiced in the USA, Canada, Japan, Italy, Malaysia, and the Philippines. What special animal expedites this process of breaking down compost materials? A) Squirrels B) Mice C) Wild Rabbits D) Worms

5- Which cool compost-heated thing has not been invented yet? A) Compost-heated greenhouse B) Compost-heated Japanese Tea Room C) Compost-heated car fuel D) Compost-heated outdoor shower E) None of the Above – All Have Been Invented

6- Recycling activity can create anywhere from 4 to 10 more jobs for every 1 job created in the waste management and disposal industries. True or False?

7- Curbside composting in large urban environments has skyrocketed over the last three years. There are now more than 90 cities with such a program. One major reason for the program is that landfills across the nation have reached their maximum capacity as Americans generate 250 million tons of garbage per year. True or False?

8- Which city is the top composting city in America? It has the largest compost collection program in the U.S. including restaurants and food-related establishments. A) Seattle B) New York City C) San Francisco D) Los Angeles

9- The demand for sustainable planning consultants is high – seven times higher than for all other industries. Their role is to provide businesses with tools and information to minimize environmental impact. Which of the following recyclable skills are essential for such a career path? A) Problem-solving skills B) Organizational skills C) Analytical skills D) Client-Oriented Service Skills E) All of the Above

10- Do you have what it takes to be a socially ‘green’ entrepreneur? Here are two examples: One is a two year old Utah-based company called “EcoScraps”. Their business model – they collect leftover food from grocery stores, Costco stores and produce wholesalers – turn it into bags of compost mix – and then sell these bags thru home improvement stores like Home Depot. The second example is a three year old Florida-based foundation called “Clean the World” which is now the largest recycler of hotel amenities in the world. Their business model – they collect leftover hotel soaps, shampoos, conditioners, lotions, and gels – recycle them for distribution to communities and countries in need of better hygiene and sanitation – and thereby help to fight the global spread of preventable diseases. In just three years of operation, they have managed to distribute more than 11 million bars of recycled soap to children and families in Haiti, Canada, the U.S. and 40 other countries worldwide.

Answers: (1) D – Maine (2) B – Nantucket (3) 50% (4) D – Worms (5) E -None of the Above-All Have Been Invented (6) True (7) True (8) C – San Francisco (9) E – All of the Above (10) I am hopeful that the answer is YES!

Finding “Da Vinci Innovation” in Today’s Wind and Solar Energy Designs!

When artistry is mixed with science and technology, I am at once reminded of the creative genius of Leonardo Da Vinci’s own inventions back in the 15th century – and his conceptualized drawings of helicopters, parachutes, armored tanks, revolving bridges, and yes, concentrated solar power. But what advancements have been made in today’s mixture of art and alternative energy?

First, let’s take a look at the aesthetics of solar energy.  Instead of rack-mounted, aluminum-framed solar panels, solar manufacturers are now on a race to create frameless photovoltaic systems that seamlessly blend into traditional roofing materials and appear as semi-transparent skylights, solar shingles and solar tiles.  And at Swansea University in Wales, researchers have actually developed a “solar paint” which can be brushed directly onto your roof.  But perhaps the biggest transformation has been the application of solar cells into fabrics  – better known as “smart fabrics” or “wearable technology”.  Solarmer Energy Inc. based in El Monte, California is one such company that is re-inventing the idea of recyclable solar-powered fabrics in its textile products i.e. uniforms, jackets and vests, tents, awnings, and sails, and bags, backpacks, and suitcases.

As for wind energy and the traditional three-bladed horizontal axis wind turbines that make up almost of all today’s wind farms – they are now being fashioned with an entirely new array of looks that range from an ‘inflatable high altitude wind turbine blimp’ released by Altaeros Energies, an MIT and Harvard alumni-based company in Massachusetts to a ‘versatile wind harvester with rotating horizontal aerofoils’ now being developed by the founder of Wind Power Innovations Ltd. together with Nottingham Trent University in England.

Other extraordinary wind turbine designs now revolutionizing the alternative energy sector include the following:

1-    A new wind turbine that captures wind energy and fresh water out of thin air  – Produced by the French-based eco-energy company, “Eole Water”.

2-    A wind turbine with a revolutionary blade design showcasing protuberances or ridges on the blades called “tubercle technology” (inspired by the bumps found on humpback whale flns) – Produced by Canadian-based “WhalePower Corporation” in Toronto.

3-    The world’s most advanced silent wind turbine called “Eco-Whisper Turbine”, a unique 30 blade design shaped in a cowl/ring design – Produced by “Renewable Energy Solutions Australia” based in Brisbane.

4-    A spinning spire-shaped wind turbine with vertical airfoils aptly called “Windspire Wind Turbines” – Produced by Nevada-based “Windspire Energy Inc.” in Reno.

5-    A new gracefully-bent parapet-mounted wind turbine called “Architectural Micro Wind Turbine” that both produces electricity and enhances the building structure – Produced by California-based “AeroVironment Inc”. in Monrovia  – the world leader in rooftop wind technology.

6-  Another non-traditional wind turbine, the “Honeywell Wind Turbine”, features gearless magnetic blades and stator coils surrounding its outer ring  – Produced by “Windtronics Inc.” in Windsor, Ontario, Canada.

But perhaps most interesting still is the appearance of a new ‘Da Vinci-esque’  art form appropriately named “renewable energy sculpture”.  One such artist is Deedee Morrison from Birmingham, Alabama whose very public artwork “Sun-Catcher Sculpture” in downtown Clearwater, Florida combines aesthetics and solar power in its construction comprised of recycled aluminum, lemon yellow lucite panels, and solar panels.  Another fantastic artist/engineer known for his recyclable “kinetic art”, is Theo Jansen from Holland whose whimsical wind-powered sculpture, named “Strandbeest”,  a “beach beast” automaton (See http://www.strandbeest.com/) is able to strut its legs across seaside sands made only of yellow pcv piping, sails, and recycled plastic bottles and genetic algorithms.  Speaking of sands, there is tidal art for the “everyman”, where any person can create their own sculpture on the beach using the natural objects left by the last high tide.  By the way, did I mention Leonardo da Vinci invented scuba diving gear as well – on paper?

Long Before the US Navy Rolled Out The World’s First Hybrid Warship and Algae-Run Riverine Boats — There Were the Vikings!

Yes, that’s right – the fearsome but fearless Vikings of Middle Ages yore were indeed the world’s first eco-amphibious special operations team – precursors of today’s “United States Navy Seals” – both in their ability to navigate covertly and scout out landing beaches and their success in raiding and recycling coastal defenses.   Our argument is based on four recent scientific discoveries: 1) Their use of calcite crystals in open-sea navigation 2) Their recycling of broken and captured metal weapons 3) Their portable reuse of local building and boating designs and materials and 4) Their reliance on animals for land intelligence and land mobility.  Let us now look at these eco-elements of Viking warfare and travel.

1-    Icelandic Spar – Ancient Norse legends tell of Vikings sailing the seas using a mysterious ‘sunstone’ to navigate by night and day.  Now, an international team of researchers from the University of Rennes in Brittany, France believe they have found the answer to this age-old myth in the form of a transparent calcite crystal called “Icelandic Spar” – commonly found in Iceland and Scandinavia.  In this case, the crystal was found aboard an Elizabethan military shipwreck that had sunk in the English Channel during the time of the Spanish Armada in 1592.  Because a large cannon on board the vessel would have interfered with a magnetic compass, this crystal was used instead.  When light passes thru the crystal, the light is split in two and by rotating the spar towards the sky for a point where the beams line up, one is able to ascertain the position of the sun within a few degrees even when there is thick cloud cover.  Hence, this clear Icelandic spar crystal with optical bi-polarization properties allowed Vikings to navigate and sail around the world without having a magnetic compass or being able to see the sun with the naked eye.

2-    A Viking DIY Recycling Center – On Sept. 20, 1066, in the village of Fulford, located just on the outskirts of York, England, Viking King Harald Hardrada of Norway along with 10,000 of his men battled their way against the Anglo-Saxon Northern Earls of Edwin and Morcar and violently throttled them.  Fate completely reversed itself when five days later King Harold Godwinson of England and his fast-moving army defeated these very same Viking invaders at the Battle of Stamford Bridge.  The question then arises – what was the Viking army doing between battles to better prepare themselves as archaeologists have found hundreds of pieces of swords, axe heads, arrowheads left lying around the vicinity of Fulford as well as several “smithing hearths”?  Experts now believe that the unearthed metal artifacts had been purposely gathered together by Viking iron workers and blacksmiths after the first battle had ceased and were now in the process of recycling these metal objects when suddenly they had to drop everything to rush to Stamford Bridge on the border of North and East Yorkshire.

3-    Viking Longships and Longhouses – Whether on land or sea, Vikings were master craftsmen of wood – especially in the art of joinery.  Just as benches were used to run alongside the planked walls of their rectangular-shaped longhouses, the standard ‘clinker’ designed longship of up to 30 rowing benches were the pride of Viking Kings and Earls.  Indeed the lightweight design and structure of these long-shaped raiding machines with their shallow-draft hulls and symmetrical curves of bow and stern allowed any longship to land on any beach, penetrate any waterway in Europe yet be carried over portages, and reverse direction quickly without having to turn around the ship.  Note: that on expeditionary voyages to regions where wood supply was limited, Viking longhouses were made of turf or peat as can be seen in the new “Settlement Exhibition” in Reykjavik, Iceland or in some cases stone slabs were used for construction materials as in the newly discovered Viking longhouse on Orkney’s West Mainland at the Bay of Skaill.

4-    Viking Land Intelligence & Mobility – Just as the Viking god, Odin, the god of Warriors and Battle, used two talking ravens to gather information about news of the wide world, Viking mariners carried and released caged ravens on their ships when they were out of sight of land.  These birds would instinctively head for land giving the sailors a course to steer.  The Vikings also used their collective knowledge to identify where they were by the types of seaweed floating on the ocean, the types of seabirds flying overhead and the presence of whales and seals. They also carried with them an impressive array of animal-based modes of transport for when they landed – live horses in some cases, and Viking skates, skis, and sledges made from the foot bones of horses, cows, and elk for frozen terrain.  And once on land, with their formidable single-grip shields, swords, spears, and axes, the Viking raider’s goal was to grab as much valuable booty as possible before an effective defense could be raised.  Thus their hit-and-run tactics presaged our American amphibious assault procedures by over eight hundred years.

Ten of the Most Fascinating Forces Pushing the Computer Industry Towards Going Green!!

If you are like me, my laptop -and my desktop computer and printer -are integral pieces of my middle class way of living here in the USA. I use these appurtenances of electronic–based hardware daily for business and personal communication and for purchasing transactions. Moreover, I am conscious of my monitor’s automatic screensaver that activates a virus scan when it’s not in use. What I was not aware of though – are the social, economic, and environmental changes that are pushing the computer industry towards “green computing”. Summarized below then, are ten of some of the most interesting forces behind this push to revolutionize the technological designs, manufacturing processes, and general use and disposal of our nifty computer systems and components.

1- World Population Growth – Today’s world population is 7 billion. Projected World population is expected to be 9.2 billion by 2050. Thus the demand for computer products is expected to grow
dramatically.
2- Hazardous Landfill Growth – Computers are difficult to recycle. Much of what’s inside computers is toxic such as non-degradable amounts of lead, cadmium, brominated fired retardants, PVC’s, and other plastics made of crude oil products.
3- Precious Metals Scarcity – Rare earth metals are crucial in advanced manufacturing of computer disk drives. Right now, China produces some 97% of the world’s supply of rare earth metals.
4- Electrical-Powered Inefficiencies – $250 billion is spent globally each year powering computers – 85% of that energy is wasted idling. Also, newer computers are more “electricity-hungry” – The electricity consumption for high-performance desktop computers with gaming processors and graphic cards are the most energy-guzzling appliances in homes.
5- Shorter Computer Life Cycle – The sophistication of today’s marketing for the newest, latest models affects consumer behavior – people are now changing their computers more often than they did a few years ago making the life expectancy of the average computer much shorter.
6- Government Legislation – European Union Legislation was passed in 2005 nicknamed the ‘Ecodesign Directive’ – for establishing a framework of ecodesign requirements – the main objective of which is “to bring about improvements in the environmental performance of energy-related products throughout their life cycle from mining of the raw material through to recycling at end-of-life.”
7- Int’l Standards Growth – The internationally recognized ‘Energy Star’ Logo for rating energy efficient consumer products was originally conceived as a voluntary labeling program in the early 1990’s by the United States Environmental Protection Agency – but now, Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Taiwan and the European Union have also adopted this standard and Sweden has expanded the standard to include ergonomics.
8- Alternative-Energy Sources Growth – VIA Technologies, a Taiwanese company, is aiming to offer the world’s first certified carbon free personal computer products. In partnership with Motech – a solar cell manufacturing industry leader located in China – part of VIA’s Green Computing Initiative is developing alternative solar panel-powered computers for multiple applications from remote locations to urban centers.
9- Global Warming – (Known also as Anthropogenic Climate Change) – Average temperatures have climbed 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit around the world since 1880 according to NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies. And the rate of warming is increasing. The 20th century’s last two decades were the hottest in 400 years. The Arctic ice is rapidly disappearing and the region may have its first completely ice-free summer by 2040. Glaciers and mountain snows are rapidly melting. Glacier National Park has 27 glaciers compared to 150 in 1910. Coral reefs are dying off in record numbers with some areas seeing bleach rates of 70%. Lastly, there is an upsurge in the amount of extreme weather events – wildfires, heat waves and strong tropical storms. Causes – greater concentrations of water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide are pouring into the atmosphere – commonly referred to as greenhouse gases. These gases help to trap heat near the Earth’s surface due in part to industrialization, deforestation, and pollution.
10- Green News Growth – The overwhelming majority of Americans (92%) use multiple platforms (online and offline sources) to get news on a typical day – including national TV, local TV, the internet, local newspapers, national newspapers, their cell phones, and the radio. Most use four to six platforms daily. But nowhere is the expansiveness of the green news landscape more evident than on the internet where one can find hundreds of eco-friendly websites, blogs, and businesses including industry news leaders, Huffington Post, Treehugger.com, Greenbiz.com and Green.alltop.com which highlights the top green news and headlines across the web.

Perhaps because of all these factors, there has been a tremendous growth in awareness by personal computer users like myself to use recycling centers for their old computers and ink cartridges. So next time you are on the web, check out earth911.com and ecosquid.com to decide whether you want to resell, recycle, or donate your old computer products. Welcome to the world of ecycling!

Super-Green Yachts, Electric Bamboo Bikes, Solar-Powered Roads, & Airport Wildlife Runway Zones? What Next? – a Trotting Horse-Propelled Treadmill-Driven Eco-Car?

It’s been over 20 years since I last saw the cartoon-animated sitcom, ‘The Jetsons”, about a futuristic American family living in a space-age ‘Skypad Apartment’ whose home rises and falls vertically on an adjustable column in the year 2062.  But being a kid back then growing up in a traditional cookie cutter suburban environment, what I wanted to copy most was this television show’s family ‘aerocar’ – a fast flying saucer-shaped car with a transparent bubble top that my own mother could use to drive me to school and YMCA swimming classes.  I wasn’t thinking of eco-friendly and sustainable transport back then – rather I was always thinking of excuses to get my parents to drive me to ‘fun’ places with the least amount of fuss.

Well today’s ‘fuss’ is all about new types of ‘environmentally sustainable transport’ now being developed for public consumption – transport energy based on electricity, natural gas, and biofuels rather than petroleum or a combination of the two as seen in ‘hybrid electric trains’ and ‘plug-in hybrid cars’.  Some of the really neat alternative energy vehicles include a newly tested electric bamboo bike that combines pedal power and electric power in a lightweight bamboo frame – a versatile grass that grows everywhere throughout the Philippines.   And at Yellowstone National Park, clean green snowmobiles are being tested that use biomass alternative fuels to cut hydrocarbon emissions by 90% and noise pollution by 50%. And at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Department of Aeronautics & Astronautics, a green airplane has just been developed which uses 70% less fuel than conventional airplanes in addition to reducing noise and nitrogen oxide emissions. But perhaps the most interesting development on the ‘leisure landscape scene’ is that of a “super-green superyacht” designed recently by Alastair Callender, a then 23 year old student at Coventry University in England.  His eco-friendly luxury yacht design utilizes solar, wind, and hybrid marine power by incorporating 600 square meters of solar panels on the exterior of the boat and giant fully automated rigid “wings” that function like solar-sails.

Not to be outdone, Italy’s newest transport construction has just been officially opened to the public on January 1, 2011 – this the world’s first solar-powered highway!  This two mile addition to Sicily’s existing 600km highway network features 80,000 photovoltaic panels to power 100% of the highway’s needs – “including tunnel fans, lights, road signs, emergency telephones, and more.”  It is expected that 10,000 tons worth of CO2 emissions and 31,000 tons of oil will be saved in one year’s time. Meanwhile the cruise ship terminal at the port of Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada (known for its famous Alaskan coastline cruises) has gone green! It is the first port in Canada and the third in the world to install an electrical ‘plug-in’ system for docked cruise ships whereby electrical shore power connections have replaced the need for diesel engines running idly.  It is estimated that during last year’s 2010 season alone, greenhouse emissions were reduced by 1500 tons.

But perhaps the most visible displays of transport infrastructure going green are at the world’s busiest airports!  Indeed seven of the twelve greenest airports in the world are right here in the USA:

1)          Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, California

2)          Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport in central Texas

3)          Denver International Airport in Denver, Colorado

4)          Logan International Airport in Boston, Massachusetts

5)          Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport in Panama City Beach, Florida

6)          San Francisco International Airport in northern California

7)          Stevens Point Airport in Stevens Point, Wisconsin

The other globally-located greenest airports in the world include: the Beijing Capital International Airport in China, the East Midlands Airport in England, the Munich Airport in Germany, the Toronto Pearson International Airport in eastern Canada and THE SUPER-GREENEST AIRPORT OF THEM ALL – the ZURICH AIRPORT IN ZURICH, SWITZERLAND!  In addition to utilizing geothermal energy for heating and cooling, rainwater for flushing airport toilets, an on-site compressed-natural-gas station that powers its airport cars, trucks, and machinery and solar cells for its daily operations, the Zurich Airport has an adjoining nature conservation zone for over 50 species of flora and fauna between two of its main runways!  So in addition to ‘planespotting’, and ‘nature gazing’, visitors to the airport can also ‘rent airport bikes’ around its 22 kilometers of bike-path-paved airfields to fill up their waiting time!

But not all green forms of transport energy and transport infrastructure are utilizing the newest technologies of today.  My favorite exception is the newly patented ‘Naturmobil’ – a vehicle run by a horse jogging on a treadmill – invented by a clever Iranian engineer. Yes, instead of using the centuries old method of having a horse pull a wagon or sleigh – the horse is inside the motor-driven vehicle working out on a treadmill which then charges the batteries that power the vehicle.  Like today’s cars, it is controlled by a human driver in the front seat with room for one passenger.  But unlike ‘George Jetsons’ aerocar, it can only cruise at about 12 miles per hour with a top speed of about 50 miles per hour and the ‘Naturmobil’ can only work on paved roads.  Now if only we can get it to fly!  Stay Tuned for Next Week’s Episode!

“What To Do On Your Next Stay-cation? How About Eco-Musing at Your Local Art Museum and Following the Trail of Mistletoes, Chestnuts, and Sunflowers?”

Money is tight for me this summer and my home state, Texas, is suffering from one of the worst droughts on record.  So rather than spinning off to the lushness of Hawaii or traipsing the local countryside, I decided to spend my vacation at home – taking day trips to nearby art museums – what is commonly referred to nowadays as a ‘Stay-cation”!  Luckily for me, the Dallas-Fort Worth area has some of the best art museums in the country and fortunately this year it is host to some of the world’s most iconic traveling exhibitions.

So with audio tape recorder in hand, following the numbered ‘beeps’ of my art gallery guide, I made the rounds of the most prominent museums – wandering through rooms full of paintings and collections of Modern art, Asian art, Western art, African art and more till suddenly – I hit upon the idea of following my own trail – the trail of mistletoes, chestnuts, and sunflowers.   Feeling like a member of Kit Carson’s scouting party, I soon encountered sprinkles of ‘mistletoe’ popping up in Norman Rockwell prints and avenues of ‘chestnuts’ melting across the distant horizon in Alfred Sisley’s  landscape paintings until after a long trek across the dusty plains, I saw in the dim light of a nearby campfire – a circle of packs and saddles huddled around the glow of  flames – it was Vincent Van Gogh’s still life sentinel – his seminal ‘sunflower’!

Used by artists and astrologers alike in their interpretation of life’s imagery- mistletoes, chestnuts, and sunflowers are dreamy symbols of ‘affection’, ‘abundance‘, and ‘adoration’.   For me they are seasonal symbols of  ‘good times’ past: winter scenes of Christmas kisses and Christmas songs with mistletoe lyrics and “chestnuts roasting on an open fire” – and – summer scenes filled with sunflower farms, spring-fed mudholes, and sunbathing girls from the city.  But what of the scientific eco-truths behind mistletoes, chestnuts, and sunflowers?

Long misunderstood as a parasitic pest that killed trees and destroyed habitats, ‘mistletoe’ has now been rehabilitated in the scientific world as an essential eco- element of forests and woodlands.  Various birds make their nests in mistletoes and many butterfly species are attracted by its nutrients.  So it is that the greater the amount of mistletoes in an ecosystem, the greater the biodiversity of animals.

Similarly, chestnuts are an important food source for squirrels, deer, jays, pigeons, and wild boar and many insects feed on its seeds. Note: There is a huge difference between ‘horse’ chestnuts and ‘sweet’ chestnuts.  Horse chestnuts are toxic if eaten raw whereas sweet chestnuts can be used to make a whole host of cooking products:

1)  They can be dried and milled into flour which then can be used to make breads, cakes, pancakes, and pastas.

2)  They can be ground up and used as a thickener for soups, stews, and sauces or to make a delicious chestnut stuffing.

3)   They can be boiled and brewed into an exotic form of beer or a coffee-like drink and –

4)  They can be grilled, roasted, or candied as a nice snack food.  Indeed chestnuts were the ‘energy bars’ of the Greek and Roman periods having twice as much starch as potatoes.  Alexander the Great planted chestnut trees all across Europe on his various campaigns and Roman soldiers were given chestnut porridge before battle.

And long before Native Americans were harvesting corn – they were harvesting sunflowers as far back as 8000 years ago!  Today’s oilseed sunflowers are commercial hybrids and are the number two crop in the world for vegetable oil production world wide – second only to soybeans.   Their counterpart, the confectionary sunflowers, produce large black and white seeds that are roasted and sold for snacks or baked in breads or grounded up into ‘sunbutter’.  They are also the preferred food for a wide variety of birds.  But for me, the most amazing eco-fact about sunflowers is their innate ability to remove toxic waste from the soil with their extensive root systems – toxins like lead, arsenic, uranium, Cesium-137, and Strontium-90.  Indeed hundreds of acres of sunflowers are now being planted around the fallout zone of the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan to help decontaminate the radioactive soil that resulted from a massive earthquake and tsunami last March.  And now a new technology has emerged that revolves around sunflowers called  ‘rhizo-filtration’ – “a form of bioremediation that involves filtering water through a mass of roots to remove toxic substances or excess nutrients”.  To date, 95% of the residual radiation in ponds surrounding the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the Ukraine (whose #4 reactor exploded back in 1986) has been extracted by floating rafts of sunflowers.

But the sunflower’s ecological importance does not stop here – in Holland, the fibrous roots of sunflowers have been used to reclaim marshy land areas and turn these areas into farmland.  And their dried stems have also been used to produce fuel – hydrogen fuel and vegetable-oil based fuel which burn 75% cleaner than standard petroleum based diesel products.

As for Vincent Van Gogh, sunflowers were symbolically a vibrant source of happiness.   In spite of his mood swings and great depression, he continued to paint them.  I wonder now if Van Gogh was onto something greater – addressing the needs of future generations – perhaps our own “green pursuit of happiness”?

The New GoldSmiths of Today–-Eco-Metallurgists & Solarcell Smithies–The Guilded Craftsmen of our Micro Generation

It’s funny how things are passed down thru the family tree – poetry, passions, proclivities, and possessions and my younger brother’s penchant for metal parts in toy robots, trucks, and trains, and G.I. Joe Die-Cast Metal toys – but funnier still is how craft guilds of the medieval ages have re-germinated and indeed exploded in today’s “Micro Generation” i.e. ‘Micro Breweries’ (like Moab Brewery in Utah, K-hole in Montana, and Clipper City Brewing Co. in Maryland); and ‘Micro Farming’, (the Code word for ‘Slow Foods’, ‘Sustainable Agriculture’ and its ‘Locavore’ devotees); and ‘Micro Living’, (Magazine issues synonymous with dozens of clever Do-It-Yourself Makeovers in small residential places); and ‘Microventures’ and ‘Micro Loan Investing’, (Buzz words for Venture Capital and Angel sources of funding); and ‘Micro-Manufacturing’, (exemplified by the e-commerce website ‘etsy.com’, where hundreds of artisans sell their unique handmade arts and crafts and vintage wares on the internet).

But perhaps less publicized in today’s ‘Micro Generation’ is the ‘Micropower Movement’ – the quiet but inventive engineering craftsmenship of today’s green energy systems being deployed on small-scale, decentralized locations thru community-sponsored solar rooftop programs that encourage ‘solar electricity panels’ and ‘solar hot water panels’ and thru private investments such as Brooklyn-based ‘Solar Ivy’ – whose unique modular design combines photovoltaic technology and piezoelectrics with eco-art — a customized leafy-like arrangement of solar collectors “that draw inspiration from ivy growing on a building”. Other manifestations of this ‘Micropower Movement’ include private investments in underwater tidal turbines in state waterways like the type being installed in New York City’s East River, and thru wind turbine farms, the largest of which can be found in Texas and California and soon to be constructed – America’s first offshore wind farm on Nantucket Sound. This materials challenge for developing renewable energy systems using eco-friendly processes and recyclable metallic materials, ceramics, composites, powders, and thin films is what might be called the modern-day equivalent of the ‘Quest for the Holy Grail’ – the idea being that our civilization is in the middle of a huge transformational shift that will reshape the world we now live in – where the association of guilded craftsmen will give way to “eco-smithies” – and their “eco-breakthrough technologies” – new technologies that will reduce CO2 emissions and convert waste into useful fuels – increase energy-efficiency and boost environmental strategies around the world.

No where is this more evident than at ‘Ecotech Institute’ in Aurora, Colorado which just opened up its doors for the first time on July 7, 2010. As their brochure states, this is the “first and only college entirely focused on preparing graduates for careers in the rapidly growing fields of renewable energy, sustainable design, and energy efficiency.” And at the Rocky Mountain Institute in Snowmass, Colorado, a new business model is being used to accommodate and boost “eco-smithies” for the “Next Industrial Revolution”. Just as the blacksmiths, tinsmiths, silversmiths, and goldsmiths were the locally grown ‘agents of change’ in their day – so too are today’s ‘ecosmiths’ – except their domain is the whole planet – its ecological systems and energy sources in addition to specialty material technologies.

But I rather think that we perhaps have come full circle rather than adjusted our eco-priorities – for my younger gifted brother, like his knightly sword-smithing ancestors before him, works on super alloys – in search of a new type of ‘Excalibur’. Surely no legendary eco-craftsman is as powerful on the imagination as that of the medieval imagery of the Lady of the Lake who bequeaths to King Arthur his mythical sword – forged by the mystical realms on the Isle of Avalon and imbued with such magical powers as great as nature itself. That story more than any other medieval tale, speaks to us metaphorically about the ecological consequences of a broken sword in a way that makes the guilded craftsmen of that time and place– as relevant today – as they were in King Arthur’s time. And surely no truer eco-knight ever lived!