Hanh mitakuyapi. Yesterday was the official Earth Day here in the U.S.A. Here are some of my thoughts on it.
Every day is Earth Day, April 22 is simply a day set aside for official recognition of that fact. Why is every day Earth Day? Because we only get one earth to live on. If we humans foul this one up - and global warming says we are fast approaching the State of Fubar in this matter - we have no place to go. We are literally in a "save the game or die" situation.
I went to the local Earth Day Celebration (in Bismarck, ND) - all 4 hours of it out of the 24 hours that make up any day. There were demonstrations, a proclamation by the governor that we could all sign, and 4 talks. The 2 talks I went to were good; I learned things. This is how I judge the value of a presentation. There should have been at least 8 hours of "celebration" and many more talks.
The "celebration" had something like 20 booths. I noticed that the Sierra Club did not have a booth there. Neither did any of the major conservation organizations, such as Ducks Unlimited, which is headquartered at Bismarck, ND. I cannot help but wonder why not. Preservation and restoration of the potholes where ducks breed is excellent activity for helping our Holy Mother the Earth.
At one of the booths, there were trees being given away. We were offered a sheet with the names of 5 kinds of trees on it. The trees we were given were not labelled, so I have no idea what I got, other than that it was some member of the pine family. Had it been chokecherry, which is the ND State Tree, and holy to my People (the Lakota), I would have been happier, but I will find this tree a home and take care of it and pray that it grows. ND is high plains prairie, so trees are not common here, except along creek- and river-bottoms. This 'pine family' tree is not something we would expect to find growing in a river bottom, so now I have to do some homework to find out where best to put it. I find this lack of attention to detail bothering.
There was absolutely nothing about bale buildings or green roofs. I asked the state forester about green roofs, and he said he had heard of them, but didn't know anything about them or where to find information. Given that many square miles of the earth's surface are covered with blacktop, concrete, and buildings daily, thus taking out many square miles of plants that process carbon dioxide (CO2) out of the atmosphere and so reduce global warming, I believe he should have been knowledgeable about bale buildings and green roofs. Don't you?
I made some good contacts which will enable the organizations I head - one for-profit and one non-profit - to become greener than they already are (and have been for more than 30 years).
I pointed out to the people handing out CFL bulbs that incandescent bulbs are an excellent source of heat in our houses and businesses in the winter time, and that I have made sure that we burn incandescents in the winter to take advantage of this, while burning CFLs in the non-heating months when we don't need to heat. Tain't many such months in ND, but there are some. (They bulb-handers said they hadn't thought of making use of the heat from incandescent bulbs, but realized that this is a good idea..)
I visited at length with the man from Waste Management Corporation, and told him that they need to do more advertising, since I didn't know what to do with plastic bottles, there being no known place to take them for recycling here. I also told him that since we had lots of such bottles and didn't know what else to do with them, I had our people save them in bags and when it got cold in the fall, we fired up a hammermill shredder and shredded the bottles and made packing out of them. It's excellent packing. We continue to look for other uses for it. He liked that we do that, and said he will see about more advertising of the fact that WM takes plastic.
Since I am already greatly overloaded with work, networking is something I don't do tons of. "Should", but it takes time I don't have. Still - there was not one booth that talked about solar heating, alternative energy, insulation, or any other such subjects. This is a major failing in my view. Next year, my company will have a booth at the Earth Day celebration, we believe, and we will talk about solar heating (we make a passive solar heater which can also be used for passive solar cooling in some buildings), bale buildings, and green roofs.
I Sun Dance, and I am the woman who Dances The Four Winds, which is a prayer to heal the Sacred Hoop of the world. My question in this regard is, "What have you done today to help heal the Sacred Hoop, of which you, too, are a part?" Ask yourself this question daily and keep track of your answers. That is what Earth Day is about....
Showing posts with label passive solar heaters. Show all posts
Showing posts with label passive solar heaters. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Insight vs Elephant in Living Room
We all know about the elephant in the living room.. I realized a couple of days ago that I've been tripping over one for nearly 2 years now. This is more than a tad embarrassing, mitakuyapi..
I design things all the time. Beadwork patterns, powwow outfits, solar heaters, ways to improve the mileage of vehicles while cutting emissions without computers, bale buildings, and on & on. More than one person has asked if my mind ever shuts down.. The answer is, probably not. I know I'm a restless sleeper.. High energy people are like that, I guess. Regardless, I am.
About 2 years ago, I doodled a design for a passive solar heater that would hang on the outside of a wall. I built some for myself, then filed it under "the 2-year plan", which means I might get to "doing something positive" with it in 2 years or so, or I might never, or somewhere in between. This was before $2 and $3 / gallon fuel, obviously.
Then about a year ago, I read an article on someone else's design for a passive solar heater that hangs on the outside of a wall, and while it felt awfully familiar, it didn't ring any loud bells for me. Until a couple of days ago, when I was looking for something else, and came across my old design doodles in my files.
Em-barr-ass-ing! No wonder the article and the design of the units seemed awfully familiar.
Not to mention - I've been racking my brain for ways to get the tiny company I founded in 2000 back in the market we had to withdraw from due to inability to meet demand for our product with the equipment we had, and insufficient money to build or buy the equipment we need to meet demand.
It has never been a matter of "need to make market" with us; it has always been a matter of "how to meet demand". Yes, lucky us on one hand, and pity us on the t'other. Funding Indn projects is not popular in the U.S, no matter what the hype says.
Please, don't say "write a grant" - I'm a good grant writer, but we've struck out repeatedly with that approach of late because we insist we plan to hire non-drinking, non-doping people with a strong bent towards other ITI (Indigenous Turtle Islanders. You call us Indns or "Natives"). Indn Preference is federally mandated and there are gobs of incentives for it, not to mention, if we don't preferentially hire our own the way majority-culture types preferentially hire whites, I believe we're kicking ourselves in the shins. That's stupid, so we try hard not to do that.
I've been out of work since early November 2007, and out of 'spare' cash since about mid-January, 2008. I've heard more ridiculous excuses for not hiring me than I can shake a stick at. My current favorite is, "we don't want to hire you because you have a college education, and our process is patented. Our belief is we must do everything we can to protect our patented process from thieves." Takoszja, I don't want to work for any company that believes 'everyone else is a thief', and that includes me..
Personally, I - like nearly everyone else - find the making of windows to be supremely boring work. I want a job, not a career, so I can pay my bills & build the equipment I need to get 'my' company - with one food product and two non-food products - back in the marketplace. Period. I could give a flying damn about stealing anything; especially something as expensive as a patent. They have an offensive - and stupid - attitude. There's a lot of that around of recent times, as we all know.
I was searching through my notebooks for an old design the other day and found my design for passive solar heaters. Bells rang, things banged, and I saw the elephant! Right there where it had always been, smack in the middle of my living room! Or in this case, my office.
I had recently figured my personal carbon footprint at an online site, and found it to be between 6,000 and 7,000 lbs. of carbon per year (compared to an average of 20,500 lbs/ year for most people in the U.S.).
The passive solar heater would not only cut that for me, but it would cut the carbon footprint of everyone who heats. Lessee, now, that's most of the country, sooner or later, isn't it? I believe it is. Up here in the northern tier states, it's 5-6 months of every year.
Now this is exciting, takoszja! For about $500, I can put together a web site, information brochure (preferably email, not paper), and manufacture and sell enough units to get my tiny little company back in the market(s)! We can support the 501c3 I also head at a level it has only dreamed about for the 35 years of its existence. We can make a Difference!
I am a Sun Dancer, therefore, a Pipe Carrier. The prayer that orients my Channunpa, and therefore, my entire life, is called the Prayer of The Four Winds. I am the woman who Dances The Four Winds. This prayer is a prayer to heal the Sacred Hoop of the world. If anything would help heal the Sacred Hoop of the world, it would be something like these passive solar heaters, which cut the carbon footprint of everyone who uses them because they cut the amount of fuel needed to heat a building - be it a house, a shop, a chicken coop, a trailer / mobile home, or an apartment.
Now all I have to do is get a job so I can put the $500 or so together & get this out there. I find this so exciting I don't feel embarrassed any more for having not seen the elephant in my living room (OK, office) for so doggoned long. All of this will happen because I doodle and I save the doodles. Pilamiyaye! Wopila tanka!, Takuskanskan.
I design things all the time. Beadwork patterns, powwow outfits, solar heaters, ways to improve the mileage of vehicles while cutting emissions without computers, bale buildings, and on & on. More than one person has asked if my mind ever shuts down.. The answer is, probably not. I know I'm a restless sleeper.. High energy people are like that, I guess. Regardless, I am.
About 2 years ago, I doodled a design for a passive solar heater that would hang on the outside of a wall. I built some for myself, then filed it under "the 2-year plan", which means I might get to "doing something positive" with it in 2 years or so, or I might never, or somewhere in between. This was before $2 and $3 / gallon fuel, obviously.
Then about a year ago, I read an article on someone else's design for a passive solar heater that hangs on the outside of a wall, and while it felt awfully familiar, it didn't ring any loud bells for me. Until a couple of days ago, when I was looking for something else, and came across my old design doodles in my files.
Em-barr-ass-ing! No wonder the article and the design of the units seemed awfully familiar.
Not to mention - I've been racking my brain for ways to get the tiny company I founded in 2000 back in the market we had to withdraw from due to inability to meet demand for our product with the equipment we had, and insufficient money to build or buy the equipment we need to meet demand.
It has never been a matter of "need to make market" with us; it has always been a matter of "how to meet demand". Yes, lucky us on one hand, and pity us on the t'other. Funding Indn projects is not popular in the U.S, no matter what the hype says.
Please, don't say "write a grant" - I'm a good grant writer, but we've struck out repeatedly with that approach of late because we insist we plan to hire non-drinking, non-doping people with a strong bent towards other ITI (Indigenous Turtle Islanders. You call us Indns or "Natives"). Indn Preference is federally mandated and there are gobs of incentives for it, not to mention, if we don't preferentially hire our own the way majority-culture types preferentially hire whites, I believe we're kicking ourselves in the shins. That's stupid, so we try hard not to do that.
I've been out of work since early November 2007, and out of 'spare' cash since about mid-January, 2008. I've heard more ridiculous excuses for not hiring me than I can shake a stick at. My current favorite is, "we don't want to hire you because you have a college education, and our process is patented. Our belief is we must do everything we can to protect our patented process from thieves." Takoszja, I don't want to work for any company that believes 'everyone else is a thief', and that includes me..
Personally, I - like nearly everyone else - find the making of windows to be supremely boring work. I want a job, not a career, so I can pay my bills & build the equipment I need to get 'my' company - with one food product and two non-food products - back in the marketplace. Period. I could give a flying damn about stealing anything; especially something as expensive as a patent. They have an offensive - and stupid - attitude. There's a lot of that around of recent times, as we all know.
I was searching through my notebooks for an old design the other day and found my design for passive solar heaters. Bells rang, things banged, and I saw the elephant! Right there where it had always been, smack in the middle of my living room! Or in this case, my office.
I had recently figured my personal carbon footprint at an online site, and found it to be between 6,000 and 7,000 lbs. of carbon per year (compared to an average of 20,500 lbs/ year for most people in the U.S.).
The passive solar heater would not only cut that for me, but it would cut the carbon footprint of everyone who heats. Lessee, now, that's most of the country, sooner or later, isn't it? I believe it is. Up here in the northern tier states, it's 5-6 months of every year.
Now this is exciting, takoszja! For about $500, I can put together a web site, information brochure (preferably email, not paper), and manufacture and sell enough units to get my tiny little company back in the market(s)! We can support the 501c3 I also head at a level it has only dreamed about for the 35 years of its existence. We can make a Difference!
I am a Sun Dancer, therefore, a Pipe Carrier. The prayer that orients my Channunpa, and therefore, my entire life, is called the Prayer of The Four Winds. I am the woman who Dances The Four Winds. This prayer is a prayer to heal the Sacred Hoop of the world. If anything would help heal the Sacred Hoop of the world, it would be something like these passive solar heaters, which cut the carbon footprint of everyone who uses them because they cut the amount of fuel needed to heat a building - be it a house, a shop, a chicken coop, a trailer / mobile home, or an apartment.
Now all I have to do is get a job so I can put the $500 or so together & get this out there. I find this so exciting I don't feel embarrassed any more for having not seen the elephant in my living room (OK, office) for so doggoned long. All of this will happen because I doodle and I save the doodles. Pilamiyaye! Wopila tanka!, Takuskanskan.
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