14 gallons a flush!

Coming to Madison Square Park: Relief at a Quarter a Flush

Excerpt:

Generations of New Yorkers have mastered the act of nonchalantly slinking through restaurants and hotel lobbies where they have no business in search of a toilet. But the furtive quest for relief in public may become a fading art starting this summer, now that the city has settled on a site for the first of 20 long-awaited pay toilets.

After decades of fits and starts, the city will begin a two-year rollout of 25-cents-a-flush public toilets with the first being installed in Madison Square Park in June, said Kerry Gould, who is overseeing the project for the city’s Department of Transportation.

The department hopes to have nine more pay toilets in use by the end of the year, with the second probably going to the Bronx, Ms. Gould said.



Greetings, Earthlings. Your New Restroom Is Ready

Excerpt:

When the green light marked “vacant” is lit, 25 cents — coins only, no bills — starts the visit.

What follows is possibly the longest and most awkward 20 to 30 seconds of a person’s day. The door slips open like an elevator, but then it stays open, to accommodate those who need extra time getting in. Meanwhile, men and women in suits walk past. It is very difficult to look inconspicuous in a bathroom on a sidewalk in New York with the door open. There is just nothing to do but stand there. And the delay will not please those who are in distress.

A Toilet That Uses 14 Gallons? ‘Oh Gosh!’

Excerpt:

Some City Room readers were understandably perplexed by the 14 gallons of water consumed by each use of the spiffy new pay toilet at Madison Square Park. So we will break it down for you, according to what Cemusa, the Spanish advertising conglomerate that runs the toilets, told us:

1. Toilet flush: 1.29 gallons
   
2. Basin auto-cleaning: 1.2 gallons
   
3. Toilet auto-cleaning: 3.85 gallons
   
4. Floor auto-cleaning 7.71 gallons
   

Total (not including any hand-washing) is 14 gallons give or take.



Comment: Sounds like a nice idea until one considers the waste of water! Don't tarry ... after 15 minutes the door opens ready or not!

Sacrifice your SUV

Edwards: Americans need to give up their SUVs

Excerpt:

When asked whether Americans should actually give up their SUVs, Edwards' response was an adamant "yes." Despite the bold assertion, Edwards was very popular with the crowd. He also won a lot of favor when he revealed his desire to return production of America's military needs, such as tanks, rifles and ammunition to American soil.

Other initiatives he mentioned during the speech included a proposal to place a national cap on carbon dioxide emissions and reduce this limit on a year-by-year basis. It's funny hearing Edwards talk about sacrifice when he's living in a 28,000 square-foot mansion, but the politician makes no apologies for his lifestyle explaining that he had worked hard for it. No doubt, which is why he should be able to buy any car he wants, even an SUV.



John Edwards Says America Needs To Give Up Sport Utility Vehicles (SUV)

Excerpt:

Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards told a labor group he would ask Americans to make a big sacrifice: their sport utility vehicles.

The former North Carolina senator told a forum by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, yesterday he thinks Americans are willing to sacrifice.

Edwards says Americans should be asked to drive more fuel efficient vehicles. He says he would ask them to give up SUVs.

Comments: I am not a fan of the SUV and I do not own one myself! But I'm for the government staying out of my car-buying decision! Anyone who buys an SUV knows they pay multiple premiums: higher purchased price, higher insurance, probably higher maintenance (think 4 W/D or AWD), and higher fuel costs. Below is a pic of Edwards getting into a Cadillac SUV:

HT: Ben Smith: Edwards vs. the SUV

Bottled tap water

More on where Aquafina is sourced (at least in St Louis):

Water intake tower

The secret is out -- bottler gets its water from the Missouri River

Excerpt:

So the water in a 20-ounce bottle of Aquafina that sells for $1.25 comes from the Missouri River.

St. Louis officials calculate that residents can buy about 10 gallons of city water for 1.5 cents.

Comment: For lunch, Wifie packs me a 20 oz thermos of cold tap water from our home! Picture is from The City of St. Louis Water Division. Meanwhile a Chicago Alderman wants to slap a 25 ¢ tax on bottled water!

In Praise of Tap Water

In Praise of Tap Water



Excerpt:

... almost all municipal water in America is so good that nobody needs to import a single bottle from Italy or France or the Fiji Islands. Meanwhile, if you choose to get your recommended eight glasses a day from bottled water, you could spend up to $1,400 annually. The same amount of tap water would cost about 49 cents.

Next, there’s the environment. Water bottles, like other containers, are made from natural gas and petroleum. The Earth Policy Institute in Washington has estimated that it takes about 1.5 million barrels of oil to make the water bottles Americans use each year. That could fuel 100,000 cars a year instead. And, only about 23 percent of those bottles are recycled, in part because water bottles are often not included in local redemption plans that accept beer and soda cans. Add in the substantial amount of fuel used in transporting water, which is extremely heavy, and the impact on the environment is anything but refreshing.

Comments:

1. Image from Multimedia Gallery based in London, England.
   
2. City of Plymouth, MN Water Report (PDF)
   

Is Environmentalism a religion?

Environmentalism and Christianity

Comments: Good read from Challies! The "Live Earth" (think Al Gore) organization is AKA "SOS" = "Save Our Selves!

Excerpt from Challies:

... environmentalism is fast becoming a religion in its own right. It has many of the elements of a religion, many of which even bear a passing resemblance to aspects of Christianity. Here are a few of the ways environmentalism has religious overtones: there is a deity (most often the earth itself), a heavenly state (the earth in its natural state before humans came along), a fall into sin (when man began to destroy the earth, particularly through industrialization), sinners (human beings), penance (carbon offsets and credits), redemption (a return to the earth's heavenly or natural state when man finally gets it right or when man is eradicated). It has its leaders and sages, men like Al Gore (or in Canada, David Suzuki). It demands full adherence and scorns those who disagree, even suggesting that such people do not deserve a voice in public discourse. It is becoming a worldview unto itself and a worldview built upon a Darwinian understanding of the world's origins. It may acknowledge some kind of deity beyond the earth itself, but certainly not the God of the Bible. In short, it is a religion and, like all false religions, an idolatrous one. It is the religion of choice for many and perhaps even most people in our culture today.

Saved by blood, not Gore

Blood, Gore and global warming

Conclusion:

Let's take care of the earth, protect the natural order. But let's remember that the world is not ultimately rescued by politicians or musicians or filmmakers or scientists. The world is saved by blood, not Gore.

Comment: Interesting read and a reminder that "The universe is cursed, and the universe groans under the burden of this curse (Romans 8:19-22)."

Environmentally friendly kudzu eradication

In Tennessee, Goats Eat the ‘Vine That Ate the South’

National
In Tennessee, Goats Eat the ‘Vine That Ate the South’
By THEO EMERY
Published: June 5, 2007
Chattanooga’s goats have become the city’s weapon against kudzu, the fast-growing vine that throttles the Southern landscape.

Excerpt:

Kudzu, which is native to Asia, was introduced in the United States in 1876 at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition, according to the United States Forest Service. It arrived in the South several years later, becoming a popular ornamental vine, then a forage and erosion-control crop. In the Great Depression, the federal government paid farmers to plant it.

First called “the miracle vine,” kudzu eventually came to be known as “the vine that ate the South.” It grows at an astonishing rate of a foot a day, smothering flora, swallowing houses and blanketing the landscape.


Grazing Goats May Provide Solution To Widespread Kudzu Problem Here

Wiki Kudzu

Comment: Kudzu makes me glad I live in the frigid North where it does not grow - yet?! Good pictures of Kudzu in the Wiki article.

Greywater Guerrillas

The Dirty Water Underground: Greywater Guerrillas

Excerpt:

LAURA ALLEN’S modest gray house in the Oakland flatlands would give a building inspector nightmares. Jerry-built pipes protrude at odd angles from the back and sides of the nearly century-old house, running into a cascading series of bathtubs filled with gravel and cattails. White PVC pipe, buckets, milk crates and hoses are strewn about the lot. Inside, there is mysterious — and illegal — plumbing in every room.

Ms. Allen, 30, is one of the Greywater Guerrillas, a team focused on promoting and installing clandestine plumbing systems that recycle gray water — the effluent of sinks, showers and washing machines — to flush toilets or irrigate gardens.


Comment: Be sure to check out the pictures associated with the NYTimes article. The following comments are from Gray Water Central

Question: What is graywater?
Answer: Any water that has been used in the home, except water from toilets, is called graywater . Dish, shower, sink, and laundry water comprise 50-80% of residential "waste" water. This may be reused for other purposes, especially landscape irrigation.

Question: Why use graywater ?
Answer: It's a waste to irrigate with great quantities of drinking water when plants thrive on used water containing small bits of compost. Unlike a lot of ecological stopgap measures, graywater reuse is a part of the fundamental solution to many ecological problems and will probably remain essentially unchanged in the distant future. The benefits of graywater recycling include:

1. Lower fresh water use
   
2. Less strain on failing septic tank or treatment plant
   
3. Graywater treatment in topsoil is highly effective
   
4. Ability to build in areas unsuitable for conventional treatment
   
5. Less energy and chemical use
   
6. Groundwater recharge
   
7. Plant growth
   
8. Reclamation of otherwise wasted nutrients
   

George Will: Fuzzy climate math

Fuzzy climate math

Excerpt:

The Prius hybrid is, of course, fuel-efficient. There are, however, environmental costs to mining and smelting (in Canada) 1,000 tons a year of zinc for the battery-powered second motor, and the shipping of the zinc 10,000 miles — trailing a cloud of carbon dioxide — to Wales for refining and then to China for turning it into the component that is then sent to a battery factory in Japan.

Opinions differ as to whether acid rain from the Canadian mining and smelting operation is killing vegetation that once absorbed carbon dioxide. But a report from CNW Marketing Research ("Dust to Dust: The Energy Cost of New Vehicles from Concept to Disposal") concludes that in "dollars per lifetime mile," a Prius (expected life: 109,000 miles) costs $3.25, compared with $1.95 for a Hummer H3 (expected life: 207,000 miles).

The CNW report states that a hybrid makes economic and environmental sense for a purchaser living in the Los Angeles basin, where fuel costs are high and smog is worrisome. But environmental costs of the hybrid are exported from the basin.

Comment: I don't see myself ever buying an SUV (the Hummer H3!). I'm actually pretty impressed with the Prius. Dave P. at church has one and is impressed with it. But until they perfect the hybrid battery so that it has a lifetime of 200,000 miles, I probably won't buy one. Here's the link to the study: CNW's 'Dust to Dust' Automotive Energy Report. Be sure to scroll down to the attachments. I read these two and they are very interesting: "Why 100,000 miles for the Prius" & "DUST PDF VERSION".

Assuaging our environmental consciences

Can we buy our way to a greener world?

Excerpt:

When Jennifer Brown of Cottage Grove bought a personal computer from Dell last month, she did something unheard of until recently: She also donated $6 to the company to plant trees that could help nullify the pollution that she's created by running the computer.

BeGreenNow.com of Austin, Texas, is one of many carbon-offset suppliers to offer a one-stop shop for consumers. Plug numbers into the online carbon calculator -- electricity and natural gas usage, miles traveled on land and by air -- and users get their estimated carbon footprint and the cost to offset it. Consumers can use a credit card to pay for tree planting, wind turbine investment and other projects to make up for transgressions

Comment: Save the environment one choice at a time

1. Drive less
   
2. Turn off the lights
   
3. Turn down the furnace