PeakOil is You
by bart » Tue 08 Feb 2005, 14:38:37
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ludi', '
')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('bart', '
')but a fast solution is to import enough soil so your garden is a foot or more deep.
')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('bart', '
')but a fast solution is to import enough soil so your garden is a foot or more deep.
Just curious about where this soil would come from....
Right now, it's easy to get soil trucked in ready to garden. Amendments, etc. are cheap in the quantities needed for gardening.
In a post-peak world it won't be so easy, as you point out. Transporting a bulky item like soil is a hassle. Even so, I don't think soil is a limiting factor for gardening. You can only garden so much land intensively before you are overwhelmed.
Sand and clay are what the land surface of the earth is made up of, so we won't run out of these. The problem is getting them in the right proportions, and having enough nutrients and organic material in the soil.
For starters, we could start directing our waste stream into compost instead of to landfills and rivers. We would need:
Carbon sources: paper, wood, brush, clippings.
Nitrogen sources: food scraps, vegetation that's still green, urine, animal manure, etc.
As long as there is plant and animal life, we won't run out of these.
Organic farmers and gardeners are creating compost and soil now. On a national basis, Cuba is doing it. Over the millenia, farmers in China and other traditional cultures did it. Our ancestors did it.
Once we get over our cultural hangups, we will do it too.
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bart - Tar Sands
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Re: Correction: Hetch Hetchy power production
by johnmarkos » Sat 12 Feb 2005, 18:30:09
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('johnmarkos', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('johnmarkos', '
')1.6 Gwh/year -- nothing to sneeze at and comparable to the annual power use of the city of San Francisco. Of course, the entire Bay Area relies on this system but it is still a nice resource.
')1.6 Gwh/year -- nothing to sneeze at and comparable to the annual power use of the city of San Francisco. Of course, the entire Bay Area relies on this system but it is still a nice resource.
Wow, I'm surprised nobody called me on this one. I was off by over three orders of magnitude. San Francisco's annual power use is roughly six terawatt hours. 1.6 Gwh is enough to power the city for about three hours. Nonetheless, it may be enough to make the pumps go.
I was wrong again. The initial figure of 1.6 Gwh/year was 1000 times too small. The Hetch Hetchy system produces "1.6 billion kilowatt hours a year." That's 1.6 terawatt hours.
Then there's The Geysers geothermal field near Santa Rosa, California, which produces, "Around 2,000 megawatts in 1988, enough electricity for about two cities the size of San Francisco."
http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/LivingWith/Pl ... ermal.html
Given that this region has already developed significant sources of renewable energy and that we have many other untapped potential sources of power (solar, tidal), I'm beginning to return to my initial sentiment that the SF Bay Area could fare relatively well post-peak.
Enough about my little corner of the world. Back to the general discussion of "sustainable life in an urban environment." It seems to me that city-dwellers should find out what existing and potential forms of renewable energy exist within a reasonable distance from their homes. Then, they should figure out where food is produced nearby. If the city is relying heavily on imports (of food, energy, or both) from a far-away region, they may want to consider moving.
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johnmarkos - Tar Sands
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