Your daily java may one day be fueling your trip to the office.

Scientists at the University of Nevada in Reno have been conducting research into the possible use of spent coffee grounds as a biofuel source.

Dr Narasimharao Kondamudi of the Materials Science & Engineering department was kind enough to share his published findings with me after I stumbled across a report on an internet site.

The world produces around 16 billion pounds of coffee a year. Dr. Kondamudi and his colleagues experimented with a process to extract the oil content from spent coffee grounds, and successfully converted it to biodiesel which could easily be used as an alternative to regular, petroleum-based diesel fuel. The team estimated that, using this method, it would be possible to add around 340 million gallons of biodiesel to the current world supplies from what is currently a waste material. And all of that without having to plant a single extra acre to special oil-bearing crops or convert traditional food crops to fuel use.

In terms of its environmental impact, like any combustible fuel it does produce greenhouse gas emissions, but is regarded as carbon neutral because it is derived from plant-based sources that are already in existence.

Many feedstocks for biodiesel like corn and soy are expensive and that has limited the investment in (and resultant growth) of the biodiesel industry. Coffee grounds usually end up in the landfill, so it would just be a matter of finding a cost effective way to collect them and deliver them to processing points.

To produce one litre of oil would take around 42 to 56 pounds of spent coffee depending on the oil content which can range anywhere from 15 to 20%. The research team’s preliminary estimated cost for a gallon of biodiesel is $1.00 (US). That’s a lot cheaper than current diesel prices, particularly in Europe, where fuel tends to be at least double what it is at North American pumps.

Would you be prepared to save your spent coffee grinds to in turn help save the planet?

I might even have to switch from tea just to help out!

Have you ever stopped to think what would happen if you went to the grocery store tomorrow and the shelves were virtually empty? Chances are you would have walked there, (assuming you are living in an urban centre), as your allotted ration of gasoline has to be saved for an urgent medical appointment across town for your mother.

Having walked for almost an hour you now have to join the bread line that is starting to shuffle and grumble about the delivery truck being late. Most of these people have been waiting since dawn and they aren’t amused because most of them also have to hit the drinking water, egg and milk lines yet. And stop at the community garden before all the fresh produce has been distributed.

And it’s getting pretty rancid in the line because this is the peak of July and it hasn’t rained for a couple of weeks. So the rainwater collection system hasn’t been able to provide that precious surplus for showering for a few days now.

The restless shifting in the crowd becomes more aggressive and an undercurrent of malignant impatience starts to make many glance defensively around them. Suddenly the faces beside you seem a little more sinister and the eyes are roving the packages in your arms that you instinctively draw to you and hug as if they were a child. Emotions start to sizzle in the heat and a few scattered disagreements turn ugly and violent and the whole scene erupts into chaos – again.

What happens next? Well that depends on the post-consumerism scenarios you happen to think will evolve.

What do I mean by post-consumerism?

A time in the not-too-distant future when we are no longer going to be able to rely on centralised distribution systems, that had been based on depleted oil and gas resources, to fulfill our daily needs.

It could be a much better scenario than the one I just took such poetic licence with above. It will, however require that we will wake ourselves up from our collective dreaming in time to make proactive (rather than reactive) changes to our lifestyles and habits of consumption.

Food, water and shelter (habitat) are the things that support all life and we had better start paying attention to how we can sustainably access all three into the future, using community resources and energies.

The key word here is community. There are all kinds of terrific ideas out there around co-operative ways to grow food, generate and distribute local power, self-sustaining closed-loop waste recycling systems for fuels and an emphasis placed firmly back on proximity living.

We need to start exploring them systematically and seriously instead of always waiting for governments to kick us up the butt with some new “sin” tax – a point in case here being new levies on tipping fees for municipal waste that are soon to be in effect.
Wouldn’t it be nice to be proactive for a change? Share you comments right here……….

Arvind here reflecting on a stunning image he was sent yesterday as part of a chain email.

The photo is the 1994 “Pulitzer Prize” winning photo, taken in 1993 during the Sudan famine. The picture depicts a famine stricken child crawling towards a United Nations food camp.

The vulture is waiting for the child to die so that it can eat it. This picture shocked the whole world. And though various stories have arisen about this picture, no one knows what happened to the child, including the photographer Kevin Carter who supposedly left the place as soon as the photograph was taken.

Three months later, Kevin Carter committed suicide due to depression, supposedly brought about by his various experiences as a photojournalist around South Africa and other places.

A picture paints a thousand words and 15 years after this picture was taken, parts of the world are still ravaged by famine whereas there is an abundance of food elsewhere. The chain email I received aimed to get one to stop complaining about food and wasting it.

Indeed some recent statistics in the UK showed that we waste around a quarter of all the food we buy! This has obvious huge implications for food production, distribution, carbon emissions, wasted resources, packaging etc. And I am sure for other nations such as the USA, the figure for food wastage must be around the same, if not higher.

So what does an image like this do for you? Are we doing enough for such children around the world?

And do you complain or waste food yourself? If so, when will you stop?

I know Climate Change has been done to death and to be quite frank about it I am over it.

Yep totally sick of Climate change being used as an excuse for our own selfish needs, oil, economics, and just plain greed.  I thought I had heard it, until I read something today which shocked me to say the least.

DID YOU KNOW GLOBAL WARMING WAS FIRST NOTICED IN 1827. No this is NOT a typo….

1827: French polymath Jean-Baptiste Fourier predicts an atmospheric effect keeping the Earth warmer than it would otherwise be. He is the first to use a greenhouse analogy.

I thought the issue was relatively new given the talks have been around for about 30 years… dam hippies again hey Urban… but no this was not true…

For a full run down of all the latest facts, results etc, such as the fact that Oceans are warming at rate 50% higher than previously thought (is a bit of an under estimate dont you think) all links to the data, and full story is at Aussie Cynic.

But a short question is How much time do we need?

After all isnt 141 years long enough……?

Some of you may remember my post of the Tamar Valley Pulp Mill, being proposed and approved without due process, which is an integral part of our planning process, from a few months back.

Well it made the news again this week, with a major bank pulling out its $2 billion funding for the Pulp Mill. Followed closely by the New State Premiere withdrawing Government funding of $60 million to pay for the water pipeline to supply the mill with water which we do not have. I have posted a full post at I Want To Breathe, including video from 60 minutes (Australian not the American program) which will give you full and frank information from both sides ofthe argument. I hope the Flowers will take this opportunity to have a look at what is happening in my garden.

I ask you: “have you seen in your part of the Planet, a shift in the environmental and social conscience of Corporation?”

Or is this just, as many believe, “a marketing ploy to gain green customers and dispatch less green competitors?”

Clean and Green = the Environment

Clean and Green = the Dollar

Your thoughts

You may have heard the Tasmanian Devils have been upgraded from Vulnerable to Endangered.

But what you might not know is the causes of their plight. It is more than the Tumors and is a wide spread problem. Problems of Chemicals, logging and general apathy within Tasmania and the mainland. For the full details please go to Aussie have a look at what they are doing to this pristine (what a joke) environment.

Why do people continue to swallow the propaganda, even in the face of the truths being put right in front of them. After all when you see a Ancient Forest being cut down and burned out in front of you and the company is saying “no we aren’t doing that!” just as their trucks drive past you full of logs, it is pretty hard not realise, where the truth lies.

This pic shows the areas in Tasmania Currently being logged. Yet Gunns claims they are protecting the Natural Habitat of the Endangered Species. with the Population of Devils dropping by more 60% on the East Coast it is difficult to deny the impact it is having on them.

The population of Devils on the West-coast is healthy does not have the Facial tumors, and is not in decline and if you look at the map is not under-threat from logging.

What do you think:

Has the time come when People and the environment must start taking priority over the need for profits at all cost. Should companies be made to account for their impact on the Environment?

After all we have had all sorts of health issues from various products, chemicals and other toxins.

With todays technology we should know better shouldn’t we?

Just the other night while I was setting up a new site (I’m excited!!) which I will let you into shortly, I was following my twitters (I believe twitter is banned in Dubai so I grabbed a screenshot) when this site grabbed my attention.

This image will take you to the Story of Stuff site where you can watch a fast paced 20 minute very informative and educational interactive movie about consumerism and why we buy stuff and where it all goes when we are done with it, or not. Watch and see what I mean. Then tell me what makes you purchase the stuff you do and if you have to keep up with the Jones’ and why?