Category — Eco-Conscious Coaching

As we get closer to Earth Day I keep an eye out for interesting projects. Tis one in my own community caught my eye and I felt it would be good to make it public on my blog

April 13, 2009, Santa Barbara
Written by MATT BLOISE

The future home of Lisa and Bryana Camarillo is quickly taking shape in the park at the corner of Santa Barbara and East Sola streets. The structure displays green features and fire safety provisions for the public to see.

The house is a unique project, combining private philanthropy, public awareness and environmental technology to create a home for a family displaced from the Tea Fire. At the same time, it showcases construction features that can make future homes more energy efficient.

John Heffner, project coordinator at the construction site, said “a pretty good portion” of the house will be completed by Earth Day, almost a week away. The first phase of construction will complete 80 percent of the home, built in just over a week, using largely donated materials and labor to raise the home in the park. Exterior and interior work — including cabinetry, front hall and back half — should be completed by that time, he said, and will also be framed and insulated. Donations from members of the community have also help build the house, he said.

Up where the former Camarillo residence once was, the foundation was also being laid for the new home, added Mr. Heffner, which would be ready to install by the time the house is done. The Tuesday after Earth Day, it will be shipped in two halves, and Mr. Heffner said that within a month and a half, the mother and daughter should be able to live in it.

Many of the visitors to the park had come to see the green technology at work. “We are doing some work on our house, and we’re interested in green (approaches),” said an onlooker. “If we’re doing something in the house or making modifications, we want it to be green.”
The house will be designed to be as fire-proof as possible “in all ways” in a mountainous region prone to fires. “Fire will always find the chink in the armor,” Mr. Heffner said.

Scott Coffman, a retired firefighter from Carpinteria who responded to the Tea Fire, explained some of the features that will protect the house from fires. The siding will be fiber-cement, a fire-resistant material that will not ignite if fire is lit next to it. The house will have eaves — the portion of the roof that hangs down over the walls — that will be boxed in, so that any embers cannot fly up to the roof and start a fire there. The roof will be recycled steel that will also be fire-retardant and will be Class A, the highest level of fire protection. Additionally, the house will have a 100-foot defensible space, meaning that there will not be sufficient vegetation around the home to fuel a fire if embers spread into the area.

“There were some houses that we saved because they had defensible space,” said Mr. Coffman. “If you can keep the fuels away from the house, you can save the house. Without defensible space, you’re in a world of hurt.”

Mr. Coffman said that while he had faced larger fires, during the Tea Fire the forest was filled with a wave of embers — tiny flaming pieces of wood or vegetation that flew in the air — and that could settle in any piece of a house and start a fire. “The intensity was unbelievable, probably about as intense as anything we’ve ever seen,” he said. These embers contributed to the greatest destruction. The house being built will also avoid a ventilation system above ground, so that embers cannot travel through the vents to start a fire.

Mr. Coffman predicted future homes in the area will be built with an eye to preventing the infiltration of embers. He expects many residents of the area will embrace fire safety approaches and green technology.

Before getting into today’s article, please do me a favor, scroll down the page and become a friend on Google Friend Connect on the left side. This will help you link to here and help me link with you. Thanks

Do you sometimes get messages from a well meaning friend or someone who is looking for answers to urgent problems? I do.

Recently I received a message on Facebook form a friend there. She forwarded information a family member had received about the way to solve our energy and fuel problems once and for all without having to go to any Arab country or anywhere away form the US.

I thought she would tell me about a new technology that was found or a new invention that would soon allow us to become independent. Instead the news was about large oil fields discovered in the Dakotas, called “The Bakken”

Here is my response and below you find the original message I received

Thanks Friend (to protect the innocent)
I think it is true. What I heard about it is that it is very complex to recover this oil. Under good circumstances, the oil industry recovers about 3% of a field. That is under good conditions. When it is complicated, like is probably the case with these finds, they probably don’t get much more than 1%. Even that would still be substantial.

South Dakota

What is really the flaw in all of this is the approach itself. If a formula would have been found in 1910 that would have allowed to raise, grow and sustain horses that would have been stringer, eat less than normal horses, and don’t create a much poop as typical horses, while costing no more than what we were used to, do you think we should have all gone back to horse buggies?

The main point is that this oil is basically a huge carbon storage field. If it is brought to the surface and burned, the carbon will be released and our climate will get worse even faster than it already is.

Oil Pipeline

There are still a few people who don’t want to believe that we are living in a time of rapid climate change. They point to snow in New York and Washington this year as a sign that the scientists are all fools. When we review the larger studies being done on a regular basis, we can clearly find that the plant is changing. Yes, we can wait to see if it is really the carbon. I think we should rather go with Tee Boone Pickens and find alternatives. The oil we preserve should be used for the things nobody is talking about, like all the plastics we use, the creams and cosmetics we apply, and many many more things made on oil based components.

Yes we should all write to our congressmen and women, but to tell them that now is the time to take us into a new future, where we are not dependable on foreign oil because we use the wind, and the sun, and the warmth in our soils to generate more than we need.

Here is a plan that would actually work and get us into a new era of energy independence while leaving the carbon storage places, like Bakken, where they are.

I think that’s a better plan. Good thing we both try to find ways to get the country independent from foreign oil and foreign radical influence.

Axel

“The Green Leadership Coach”

AEM.EDBD

Here is the original message from my friend. Tell me what you think about it

If there is any truth to this, then we should all be writing our Congressmen. I tried to check it out on truthorfiction.com, but all I could get were references to Bakken Oil sites. Given the state of our government at this moment, it is probably true. Interesting reading, regardless. I’ve written to all of our Oklahoma congressmen, but they are essentially useless, so doubt that they will even bother to read it.

The U. S. Geological Service issued a report in April (’08) that only scientists and oil men knew was coming, but man was it big. It was a revised report (hadn’t been updated since ‘95) on how much oil was in this area of the western 2/3 of North Dakota; western South Dakota; and extreme eastern Montana …… check THIS out:

The Bakken is the largest domestic oil discovery since Alaska ’s Prudhoe Bay, and has the potential to eliminate all American dependence on foreign oil. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates it at 503 billion barrels.. Even if just 10% of the oil is recoverable… at $107 a barrel, we’re looking at a resource base worth more than $5.3 trillion.

‘When I first briefed legislators on this, you could practically see their jaws hit the floor. They had no idea.’ says Terry Johnson, the Montana Legislature’s financial analyst.

‘This sizable find is now the highest-producing onshore oil field found in the past 56 years.’ reports, The Pittsburgh Post Gazette. It’s a formation known as the Williston Basin, but is more commonly referred to as the ‘Bakken.’ And it stretches from Northern Montana, through North Dakota and into Canada. For years, U. S. oil exploration has been considered a dead end. Even the ‘Big Oil’ companies gave up searching for major oil wells decades ago. However, a recent technological breakthrough has opened up the Bakken’s massive reserves…. and we now have access of up to 500 billion barrels. And because this is light, sweet oil, those billions of barrels will cost Americans just $16 PER BARREL!

That’s enough crude to fully fuel the American economy for 41 years straight.
2. And if THAT didn’t throw you on the floor, then this next one should - because it’s from TWO YEARS AGO!

U. S. Oil Discovery- Largest Reserve in the World!
Stansberry Report Online - 4/20/2006
Hidden 1,000 feet beneath the surface of the Rocky Mountains lies the largest untapped oil reserve in the world. It is more than 2 TRILLION barrels. On August 8, 2005 President Bush mandated its extraction. In three and a half years of high oil prices none has been extracted. With this motherload of oil why are we still fighting over off-shore drilling?

They reported this stunning news: We have more oil inside our borders, than all the other proven reserves on earth. Here are the official estimates:

- 8-times as much oil as Saudi Arabia
- 18-times as much oil as Iraq
- 21-times as much oil as Kuwait
- 22-times as much oil as Iran
- 500-times as much oil as Yemen
- and it’s all right here in the Western United States .

HOW can this BE? HOW can we NOT BE extracting this? Because the environmentalists and others have blocked all efforts to help America become independent of foreign oil! Again, we are letting a small group of people dictate our lives and our economy….WHY?

James Bartis, lead researcher with the study says we’ve got more oil in this very compact area than the entire Middle East -more than 2 TRILLION barrels untapped. That’s more than all the proven oil reserves of crude oil in the world today, reports The Denver Post.

Don’t think ‘ OPEC’ will drop its price - even with this find? Think again! It’s all about the competitive marketplace, - it has to. Think OPEC just might be funding the environmentalists?

Got your attention/ire up yet? Hope so! Now, while you’re thinking about it …. and hopefully P.O’d, do this:

3. Pass this along. If you don’t take a little time to do this, then you should stifle yourself the next time you want to complain about gas prices … because by doing NOTHING, you’ve forfeited your right to complain.

The media during 2009 is mainly focusing on gloomy news about the economy, the failing financial systems and the initiatives the US government and other governments around the world are starting to get back to more prosperous times. While the election of Barrack Obama has brought a lot of hope for change to the world, many people are wondering how these changes are actually going to materialize for them.

Whenever there is a moment in time where we have the opportunity to reorder things, make a fresh start, apply lots of money to a cause, and fundamentally change our approaches, it is important to identify the most important areas. One of these areas is the requirement to change our behavior towards the environment we live in.

The US government plans to use a significant portion of its stimulus funds to create “green jobs” and begin a path away form the dependence from foreign oil. A carbon trading system has been proposed, in which corporation with the need to emit significant amounts of carbon emissions can buy credits from other organizations that actually reduce the carbon footprint compared to an established average. This is supposed to encourage companies and industry in general to look for clean energy sources to support their product and service creation.

These are measures on a large scale that will help the United States to hopefully move from being one of the single largest polluters of this planet to a responsible member of the green revolution we need to avoid a complete collapse of our environment. In a recent article Simon U. Ford asks if it is enough for individuals to donate to environmental causes. He is challenging his readers to contemplate if making a financial contribution to a seemingly good cause is enough to help the environment. The full article, titled “How can we help the Earth?” can be found at:

http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=613848537#/note.php?note_id=131352405290&id=613848537&index=1

Simon speaks about his good fortune in business, his success, leading to a point in his life where he has the freedom to decide what he wants to do with his wealth. That leads him to state:

“To me, just joining a cause, signing a petition, donating some money doesn’t quite cut it. You see, those are just blind contributions where you cannot see the outcome of your efforts, as such. Somehow, I wish we could collectively do more as a group – rather than doing our little bits individually.”

For many people it is very clear that we need change in this world. To achieve this change we need new leadership that is willing to see the bigger picture and solve the problems of the planet together, rather than gaining power by waging wars. The question becomes: How can we as individuals participate in this revolution?

One way is by providing money to those organizations that have identified one part of the big puzzle that is the Green Revolution. As Simon Ford says, we have to be careful that we don’t just satisfy our guilt by giving some money to worthwhile causes.

What guilt, you ask? The guilt of driving more than we needed to; the guilt of using materials we know to be hard to recycle,; the guilt to spend money on things we really don’t need when we could spend it on things that would help us all live a better life, the guilt of having sinned in one way or another.

Normally when we need to correct a mistake or error, it hurts. Giving money is a relatively painless way of compensation. Regarding the Green Revolution, Thomas Friedman in his most recent book titled “Hot, Flat, and Crowded”, proclaims that a revolution is only a real revolution when it hurts and causes pain. Anybody who likes to learn more about Friedman’s arguments can check out a great lecture he recently gave using this link: http://tinyurl.com/green-revolution

If joining a cause, signing a petition, and donating some money doesn’t quite cut it, what are we really to do? I believe we need to first learn and than educate others to achieve a new level of awareness and behavior.

For a Green Revolution to occur, we need to be the ones who know what it takes in every part of our lives to make a difference. Our daily actions should be guided by the questions: “Does this action hurt or help the earth?” When we decide to donate money, join a cause or get involved, the questions should be: “Does this action hurt or help the earth?” When we vote for a new initiative, the question needs to be “Does this vote hurt or help the earth?”

As always when changing a behavior, the goal is achieved when it becomes second nature; when we don’t need to label things to be “green”, or “organic”, or “natural”, or environmentally friendly” anymore. We will know that we made a difference when we have educated everyone we can touch to a point that any action or involvement not supportive of the earth feels wrong, ill-headed and stupid.

Individuals and groups alone will not be able to do all this work of change by themselves. Those in power who have the money, the ability to change the laws and rules, and support all initiatives that are actually good for the earth need to be willing to do their part.

History has taught us once in recent history that a revolution can occur successfully without one shot being fired. That happened in front of most of our eyes when the Berlin Wall came down and the people of Eastern Germany streamed across the borders to rejoin their brothers and sisters in the West. A people had successfully rejected a system and all its rules, organizations, parties, and systems and elected to change the world. Within a few months the Soviet Union fell and the old fight between the Democracies of the Western World and the Communism of the East ceased to exists.

A revolution by the people is possible when individuals form groups and decide that they demand a better life in a better environment supported by better environmental and economic conditions. Every person counts in such an effort, even if it feels like it’s a proposition of David-vs-Goliath.

In the long run, the right ideas to safe the world will prevail. Those of us who can do more than joining a cause, signing a petition, and donating some money, it will be fulfilling to do what they can to help us all reach the level of awareness we need to create a better world. For everybody else, it is of utmost importance to get involved and be open to change.

The willingness to change is the first step to a successful green Revolution that leads to a world where we all know what we need to do to contribute our part to guarantee clean water, clean air, clean fuels, and a prosperous future for all of us. As we get involved, each in our own way and to the level we can afford, we will become part of a larger movement that can revolutionize the planet.

Donella Meadows once wrote about the situation we find ourselves in when it comes to evading catastrophe: “We have exactly enough time, starting now.” To me that is a clear encouragement to join causes, sign petitions, donate money, and if you can, do all the other great things we need to do to have a peaceful but powerful Green Revolution – Now!

Axel Meierhoefer
AEM.EDBD

Todays post is actually my first video for the blog. Just click on the link below, enjoy the movie and let me know what you think about it.

Thanks

Axel Meierhoefer