Homestead mailing list

[Gerald Brittell <gabrittell AT gmail.com>]

 > That's good to know.  Now maybe all those islands that have sunk or are
> sinking and the permafrost that has melted in Alaska will all return to
> their normal state.  I mean, if all the data is faked, then all those
> pesky
> little details should go away, right?

Can we now have our 'normal' weather back, too? I don't like setting new
weather records all the time...every garden year is completely different the
last few years.

Lynn Wigglesworth
Tioga Co. PA


Hi Lynn, and gang,

Yep.  Same here in Virginia.

Several years back now, I placed several sheets of clear lexan over some
2x's and six recycled panel door sections. A strange and unexplainable thing
happens every time the sun shines. The temperature under the thing gets much
hotter than the air outside it!  Now who would be dumb enough to think that
me, a piss-ant human, could influence the sun or the temperature on the
surface of this great-wide earth.  Must be some galactic conversion or some
erratic, hitherto undiscovered natural cycle. Guess I'll make a run to town
in the SUV, to pick up a beer.  It's thirty+ miles there and back, but I
don't have anything much else to do and I got a full tank of gas.   Maybe
I'll get this figured out yet.

The point of this bit of sarcasm ( we have no SUV and feel guilty enough
driving our nifty little Toyota Tacoma pickup)  is:

For the life of me and the rest of us, why do otherwise seemingly
intelligent persons ignore the well established and quantified facts and
figures about the effect of the jump from 280 ppm to 390 ppm of the equally
quantifed amount of hydrocarbons that man has introduced into the atmosphere
in sundry ways since the 1800's.  It is such a no-brainer, to me. These
figures alone can account for the climate changes, even if other influences
and cycles were uncovered.  Those who make it their interest to learn and
measure such things were able to accurately predict the temperature on Venus
based mainly  on the amount of CO2 in it's atmosphere,  years before
sucessfully sending machines all the way there.  It is quite a bit easier to
make the measurements right here, don't you think?. Surely they deserve an
ear.

I have read IF the relatively low concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere
were somehow converted to dry ice and spread evenly over the entire surface
of the earth, it would amout to a layer only about one tenth of inch think.
Of course the dynamics are a little different between CO2 gas and clear
plastics and glass, but it illustrates how such huge effects can indeed be
attributed to mans doing.  The one-third increase over the last 100 or so
years amounts to another blanket over the planet.

There are already available very viable, well understood ways to, in a
relatively short time, sequesture this extra blanket of carbon back into the
soils. Field/ management practices such as used by Joel Salatin and the ever
growing numbers of experts on managed grasslands and livestock cropping are
beginning to be heard about and spread. I have enjoyed reading about Rob's
pasture development and it's use by his animals.  Rob W, are you familiar
with Salatin, another Virginian, and say, the work of  Yeomans or  Dr.
Christine Jones, both Argentinians?  She has a lot of articles on the web on
this 'new' horticulture.  http://creatingnewsoil.blogspot.com/ is an
example. http://www.carboncoalition.com.au/#soils_save_world also contains
other links to her and other articles on the topic.of soil development and
animal culture.  I suppose the mega industries of the day will fight this to
their death, spreading disinformation to prevent it, but grass roots farmers
such as yourself can obviously play an active part. I am even using some of
the techniques in my garden plots.

It now it has become possible even to manufacture the second most used
material by man (next to water), cement and aggragates, out of the emmisions
of coal plants, of all things.  Until other sources of energy are developed,
especially locally as Leslie writes, this too can help.  Perhaps some here
would be interested in getting a preview
http://youtube.com/user/josejesus52#p/a/f/2J4Unt7MRsV4<http://www.youtube.com/user/josejesus52#p/a/f/2/J4Unt7MRsV4>
This is a lecture by Brent Constanz, the biochemist/oceanographer who has
developed the new cements already used in every hospital for bone repairs.

 I can't wait to get my hands on this cement, produced in a similar to the
way corals *use* to make reefs (all oceans are now already too acidic ... a
thing of the past). I want some bags to form my earth-sheltered structures.
The combined effects of this sequesturing C in Ca/Mg Carbonates, the
reduction in emmisions by replacing Portland cements and the reduction of
one of the greatest uses of energy, our homes, might have some effect.  In
time to help avoid total extinction which I think is a possibility as we now
are headed?  Who knows? But possibly more life will survive than otherwise
if we all only do what we know and can do.  Yep, it surely won't hurt

Jerry B