2006-09-15

Commercial Composting Toilets

Sun-Mar Composting Toilets
Sun-Mar offers toilets that are quick to install and easy to use with models that require no water and no plumbing. Sun-Mar toilets range from $249 for a toilet (which is combined with Sun-Mar Central Composting Systems, which start from $1,299) to $1,299-1,599 for their complete composting toilets. Sun-Mar composting toilets recycle through decomposition and evaporation. Water content is evaporated and released into the atmosphere through a vent system, the rest of the material composted through natural decomposition.

Sun-Mar toilets use three separate chambers. The drum, the evaporation chamber and the finishing drawer. The drum works to compost waste in a warm and moist environment with the organic material and oxygen needed to promote the work of aerobic microbials (found in the topsoil that is added to the compost) for decomposition. A peat mix is used as a bulking material. You must mix this with the waste by periodically by rotating the drum 4-6 full turns via a handle, which will also ensure aeration of the contents. Turning the drum should be done 3 times a week when the toilet is in use.

Emptying the drum into the finishing drawer is a mater of releasing the drum locker and rotating it backwards when it is 1/2 to 2/3 of the way full. The drum also maintains optimal moisture content for the aerobic microbials. When moisture rises above 60%, liquid is drained into the evaporation chamber through a screen at the bottom of the drum. Sun-Mar ensures moisture content in the drum for composting by not applying direct heat to the compost. Sun-Mar's electric units include a base heater, which they say supports the heat generated by the microbes.

The evaporation tray in Sun-Mar's electric units work with a 110 Volt heating element controlled by a thermostat, heating the floor of the evaporating chamber without drying the compost. In non-electric units, excess liquid is evaporated through passive venting and through overflow drains. The finishing drawer completes the composting process, ensuring the compost is not contaminated with fresh waste and is sanitized. The compost drops into the drawer when the drum is rotated backwards and is surrounded by a stream of drying air to dry it until it is ready for removal. The contents of the drawer should be left to age for 3 to 4 weeks. The drawer should be removed and/or emptied of compost before more compost is deposited from the drum.

Sun-Mar toilets are free of odour. Then environment created in Sun-Mar's toilets promote aerobic decomposition which produces no bad smells, as opposed to anaerobic decomposition. In addition to this, electric models include a fan that draws air in, creating a partial vacuum that ensures no smell escapes the unit. Non-electric models do this through a vent chimney, placed over the evaporating chamber, as is the fan in electric models. They suggest adding peat to the drum at a rate of one cup per person per day.

Rota-Loo
The system of the Rota-Loo requires no water to transport your deposits in the toilet and sits directly below your toilet room. The system is made of polyethylene and contains 6 removable compost bins housed on a turntable. When one bin is full, the turntable is manually rotated so a fresh bin is under the toilet. These bins remain inside the system where the composting process continues until all of the other bins have been filled and it comes full circle, full of humus. You just pull the bin out, empty it and replace it inside the system to be filled again. If all of the bins in the system fill up before the first bin is finished composting, you can remove the bin to a safe place for the composting to finish and put a spare bin in its place within the system.

Each composting bin has a geo-textile filter in the bottom that has a porous rate of around 300 litres/second/square meter and a mesh density of 175 microns, allowing liquids and oxygen to pass through and no solids larger than 0.175mm. This is supposed to assure an aerobic process with minimised smell. You may also add a far to the system to avoid having too high a moisture content if this is a problem. Any odours in the toilet room are said to be taken down the waste chute, due to air being continually pulled through the vent. The air inlet is placed as close to the base of the system as possible with the vent coming off close to the top, allowing for air to pass directly over any liquid drained through the bin to be stored under the base turntable.
Rota-Loos come from a 65cm tall/120cm diameter system that will cater to 4-5 people, designed for holiday homes, to a 95cm tall/120cm diameter system that will cater to up to 8 people and can accommodate 2 pedestal toilets as opposed to 1.

Clivus Multrum
This system comes in many convenient sizes, taking into consideration how many people will be using it, how much space there is for the composting system; ranging from a small system suitable for small homes or holiday houses, to a much larger system suitable for high-traffic public areas. Any but the smallest of these systems can support more than one toilet room if they are located beside each other. If the toilet rooms are located at some distance from each other, however, they will each require their own composting system.

Since aerobic composting requires warmth, additional insulation around the system may be required in areas where the temperature is cooler to ensure that the heat generated by the aerobic microbials is kept inside. This system needs to be placed under the floor of the toilet room, like that of the Rota-Loo. This system allows you to connect two toilets on different floors to one system simply by extending the length of the chute that connects to the toilet on the second floor, so long as the toilet room is located close to the toilet room below it.

The Clivus Multrum uses electricity to run, with a solar power package available to run the fan during daylight hours, or 24 hours. If neither is desired, or available, continuous odourless operation is not guaranteed. A normal 240V power point is required near the fan housing in a weatherproof location, with a 12V transformer plugged into it if a smaller fan is to be used. This system has three fans available to it, from 12V/5Watts (2.5Watts for solar installations) to 240V, used with commercial installations.

You may also use worms with this system, if this is desired. If you are going to add worms to the system, then you need to take special care to ensure adequate moisture, good pH and a balance of carbon/nitrogen, as well as plenty of food.

Envirolet
Envirolet toilets range in cost from $1,450 to $1,995. Models are waterless with or without electricity requirements, with a low-water system that uses 1 pint of water to flush. They offer a self-contained system as well as the style used by the previously mentioned Rota-Loo and Clivus Multrum.

The self-contained system is recommended for use in ground-level homes, or for cottages and cabins. They are constructed of polyethylene plastic and have UV protection, available for 12VCD battery, 120VAC electric, and non-electric. The electric models have a switch control for fans and/or heating systems. These self-contained systems also contain a built-in Rake-Bar and a collecting tray to make emptying the compost easy and a Mulcherator to occasionally assist in the composting process. The non-electric model with service 2 people full-time and 4 people if used as a vacation toilet. The battery operated toilet will service 4-6, while the electric model will service 6-8. They are fitted with a filter drain and require a proper drain site; a vertical vent system. Costs range from $1,450 to $1,650.

The waterless remote system is made from HDPE plastic and is comprised of a toilet with a remote waste treatment center that is installed directly underneath the toilet, below the floor. This system has the highest capacity, servicing up to 10 people per day with occasional guests. The system is ideal for cold-weather use and, like the self-contained system; electric models come with a switch control for fans and/or heating systems. The non-electric model will service 4 people full time and 6 people if used as a vacation toilet. The 12VCD model will service 6-8, and the 120VAC model 8-10 (with occasional guests). These models also require a proper drain site and a vertical vent system. Costs range from $1,795 to $1,995.

The low-water remote system is made of porcelain and comes with the same features as the self-contained systems and the waterless remote systems. Additionally, natural organic products may be added to the treatment center via a service port. This system requires good insulation if used in cold weather and will service the same number of people as the waterless remote models (minus the occasional guests on the 120VAC model, apparently). These systems cost no more than the waterless remote systems, although you have the added cost of the pint of water being flushed down the toilet every time Wink

Cotuit Dry Toilets
Cotuit toilets use a separate urinal to keep the compost bin from becoming anaerobic due to excess liquid. Excess liquid shouldn't be a problem though if you just keep an adequate cover of clean organic material. Generally, you may find the need to add moisture, not reduce it. Their toilets use no mechanical devices to turn the contents of the compost bin. They stress the importance of cleaning all surfaces that come into contact with manure to remove any fly larva, which should only be the composting bin itself in these toilets, lending cotuit one of the highest in terms of toilet management demands.

Cotuit toilets run in two modes:
They maintain that nitrogen conversion into ammonia will be inhibited by the closing of an inner hatch after every use to cut off the supply of air, limit moisture build-up and inhibit insects. They suggest the use of a power vent as well as insecticides or diatomaceous earth once a month to further inhibit insect development in hot weather.
The second mode is one of dehydration through the continuous use of a vent, rendering the end product hard instead of decomposed compost and potentially doubling the capacity of the chamber. Manure coming from their system has a generally mild odour and it is recommended that it is used in an ornamental garden underneath a layer of mulch, keeping it away from possible contact with people or animals.
Another suggestion is to add it with other organic materials to a compost bin, but for all that, you might as well just build yourself a cheap sawdust toilet Wink

Cotuit also maintain that urine is free of pathogens so long as it does not come into contact with feces, which is why it is so important to urinate in a separate area from your composting toilet. Suggesting that this urine is therefore free of all pathogens, they say you can use it straight on your vegetable garden and the vegetables will still be safe to be eaten raw.

Cotuit dry toilet sells for $850 with additional supplies ranging from $5 (for a scoop) to $260 (for a flush toilet interchange vent kit).

2006-09-12

A Simple Solution

Whether you want to invest in a composting toilet for the good of the environment but don't want to spent $1000+ on the available toilets or you just want to stop flushing so much cash down your toilet, here is a simple solution. With just a non-corrodible and waterproof bucket with a 5 gallon capacity, you can put together a very simple, and very cost-effective, composting toilet. This could be a plastic bucket, or a clay urn for example. You can also collect your food scraps in the same bucket, or you can collect those separately. If a full five gallon bucket is too heavy for you to carry, simply empty it when it is half full instead of full. The downside to this toilet is that it takes a little more management than your average commercially available composting toilet and does require space for a compost bin. Outdoor space with direct contact to the ground is best to allow your worms to come and go as needed throughout the composting process, but is not necessary. A completely isolated compost bin can work just as well, and can even be kept indoors. Just be sure to add your worms at the proper time, or use a bin that allows the worms escape when the temperatures get too high.

Make sure you keep the contents of the toilet covered with clean organic material. This material could be grass clippings, hay, leaf mould, peat moss, rice hulls, sawdust, straw, weeds, etc. If you are using sawdust, rotted sawdust from a sawmill, which has some moisture content, is recommended over kiln-dried sawdust from a carpenter's shop. Kiln-dried sawdust is too light and airy to be really effective as cover material, and may contain hazardous chemical poisons, especially if it comes from "pressure-treated" lumber. You should always avoid putting materials in your compost that have been treated with toxic chemicals. You do not need to collect urine separately from your feces; it can go in the same bucket. Just be sure to keep the contents covered with whatever clean organic material you have readily available for your use, which will prevent odours and the attraction of flies. This cover will also absorb the urine. If the liquid surface rises, just use more cover material.

It is preferable, for convenience and aesthetic reasons, to keep a lid on the toilet. This lid need only be your standard, hinged toilet seat, which will cost you around $10 or less (unless you want to get fancy about it, in which case it can cost you up to $1,000 or more). It is a good idea to keep 4 five gallon buckets around, with lids. Since buckets vary in height, width and shape, these buckets should be exactly the same so that they fit your toilet. If you have a large number of people to compost for, you may want more buckets. As a recommendation, use one bucket under the toilet seat and keep two set aside in the toilet room, covered with a lid. When the first bucket is full, take it out of the toilet and replace it with one of the empty ones. You can set the full bucket to the side with a lid on top. When the second bucket is filled, replace it with the third. It is just as easy to empty two buckets onto the compost pile as it is to empty one bucket. Keeping extra buckets on hand also eliminates the need to empty a full bucket and prep it for use again while someone is waiting to use the toilet (or while you, yourself, are in need of the toilet). The extra buckets are also useful to avoid a shortage of toilet capacity when you have guests, unexpected or not. This way, you will have buckets on hand to replace full buckets without the need to empty them while your company is present.

The top of the bucket should be taller than the toilet cabinet and have contact with the bottom of a standard toilet seat. This will help make sure that all organic material goes inside the bucket and not elsewhere. Since all buckets tend to be of slightly different height and diameter, it is suggested that you buy your buckets at once and of one style. Your toilet should be made to fit the size of your bucket.

To make this simple toilet, you will need: 2 plywood boards that measure 3/4"x10"x18", 2 plywood boards that measure 3/4"x10"x20.5", 1 plywood board that measures 3/4"x18"x18" and 1 plywood board that measures 3/4"x18"x3", 4 plywood boards that measure 3/4"x3"x12", 2 hinges, 4 identical 5 gallon buckets (more or less, as you desire), 1 standard toilet seat

~Cut a hole the size of your bucket in the 18"x18" board
~Hinge the 18"x18" and the 18"x3" boards together
~Screw together the 10"x18" and 10"x20.5" boards to form a box that is 10" deep, 18" wide and 21" long
~Screw the 18"x3" board to the box, leaving the 18"x18" board loose (you can attach the 18"x18" board if you desire, and create a toilet you lift away from the bucket, instead of a hinged seat)
~Screw the 4 3"x12" legs to the inside of the box, in the corners (you should adjust the height of the legs so that your bucket can protrude through the top of the box by 1/2"
~Swivel the plastic bumpers on the bottom of your toilet seat so that they will fit around your bucket
~Place the toilet seat over the 18"x18" top and mark the holes for the toilet seat's attachment
~Drill the holes and attach your toilet seat to the top of the box
To put a final touch to your composting toilet, you can be as creative as you like with your box and stylize it with stains, varnishes, paint, etc. Be creative, make it your own. It can be attractive as well as functional. If you want a few examples or are just curious to see what other people have done, this page has many examples of homemade composting toilets.

This toilet is one part of a system. The second part is your compost pile and don't forget that clean organic material! In the end, you aren't flushing it anymore, but make sure to keep it covered! This will prevent the smells. Compost it and keep the compost covered! Here are instructions to your composting toilet.

You may, for added convenience, wish to locate your toilet room by a door that allows direct access outside to your composting area. When the bucket is full (or half full, as you will), carry it out to your composting area and deposit it on the top center of the pile. Digging a slight depression in the top center of the pile helps to keep the fresh deposit in the hotter center of the thermophilic compost. Just rake (or shovel) the cover material on top of the pile aside, dump your toilet contents in the space you just created and rake the cover material back over the deposit. Don't forget to cover the area with fresh cover material (straw, leaves, weeds, etc) to eliminate odours and trap in essential oxygen. Prefer pictures and step-by-step instructions? This page should help you with that.

After that is done, scrub your bucket thoroughly with a small quantity of water and a little bit of biodegradable soap (if desired); a thorough rinsing is adequate. If you do decide to use soap, make sure it is not anti-bacterial soap, you don't want to kill the bacteria in your compost pile, after all. Pour your soiled water on top of the pile and not on the ground. Once done, the bucket can be placed back inside your toilet area with the inside of the bucket dusted with sawdust (or whatever material you are using). With an inch or two of cover material at the bottom of the bucket, it is once again ready for use.

"After about ten years, the plastic bucket may begin to develop an odour, even after a thorough washing. Replace odorous buckets with new ones in order to maintain an odour-free system. The old buckets will lose their odour if left to soak in clean, soapy water for a lengthy period (perhaps weeks), rinsed, sun-dried, and perhaps soaked again, after which they can be used for utility purposes (or, if you really have a shortage of buckets, they can be used in the toilet again)." (Humanure Handbook: Chapter 8: The Sawdust Toilet)

If you want an even cheaper solution, try Cab
ela's "Luggable Loo".

2006-09-09

An Introduction to Composting Toilets.

There are different types of composting toilets commercially available on the market today, or you have your homemade options. There are the toilets that compost human manure inside the toilet itself, under the toilet on a separate floor, or toilets where you move the manure to a separate composting area. The commercially available composting toilets usually compost at low temperatures, though there are some that do thermophilic composting.

The cheapest and most easily attainable of composting toilets for any culture and people of low-income is simply to collect your manure in a toilet and add it to your compost pile. This also makes it rather easier to
create proper and thriving thermophilic composting conditions.

To have an od
orless, waterless and environmentally friendly toilet for one person for two weeks, all you need is two 5 gallon buckets and a large bag of either peat moss, sawdust, or just shredded junk mail (the junk mail should be shredded to facilitate decomposition). Add in a compost bin and a steady supply of peat moss, sawdust, etc, and that toilet would last for decades. While the cheapest, this type of toilet requires more work than most commercial composting toilets as you need to regularly empty buckets of your compost onto your pile and manage the pile to prevent unpleasant odours and promote thermophilic conditions.

A homemade composting toilet would be a more costly, but a usually cheaper alternative to the commercially available composting toilets. Homemade toilets usually have the compost bin under the toilet and require p
roper management, like the addition of sawdust, peat moss, straw, hay, or weeds to ensure a good carbon/nitrogen balance. A homemade toilet also allows for personal creativity and usually requires no water or electricity. It is usually a permanent fixture in the home, or can be built as a free-standing outhouse.

Homemade composting toilets usually have two chambers underneath. One is used until it is full and then the other is used while the first matures for at least two years. After two years of nothing being added, the first chamber can be emptied. Some of these toilets collect manure and urine separately to cut down on the amount of moisture and nitrogen being gathered in the chamber. This is unnecessary so long as one adds enough clean organic material that is high in carb
on in order to balance out the nitrogen, which also promotes thermophilic composting.

Commercial composting toilets sometimes require water or electricity, both or neither. They are usually made of plastic or fibreglass and come in many different shapes and sizes, different types and are available in different price ranges. Commercial composting toilets commonly use a fan located near the top of the system and a vent located near the bottom of the system to aerate the compost. This will suck out any unpleasant smell if the compost isn't properly thermophilic, although it will run the risk of dr
ying out your compost, further promoting anaerobic decomposition. Another common problem with improperly managed commercial composting toilets is that the compost becomes drowned in liquid, which drowns the aerobic bacteria and promotes the growth of anaerobic bacteria. This last should be no problem if the toilet's management instructions are followed. It would probably be helpful for a member of the household to take the responsibility to ensure proper management, especially if there are young children around.

All of these different composting toilets need proper management in order to be successful and not breed problems. The level of management needed depends on the toilet you use. Instead of creating pollution and paying someone to take care of the waste you flush down a toilet with clean drinking water every single time you go to the bathroom, you can get useful compost with a little bit of effort. Most composting toilets will only require that you add clean organic material after every use, instead of flushing, to avoid unpleasant smells and make sure that the compost has all the oxygen it needs along with enough carbon to balance out the nitrogen. You must also make sure that you are not using the toilet beyond its capacity.

Composting toilets can be on the costly side; commercial toilets ranging from $850-1,995. A homemade composting toilet is more flexible, the costs depending on the materials used to make it and whether or not you hire a contractor to build it, etc. If you are really economical and resourceful about it, you could easily build one for under $50. Other costs would be the organic material needed in order to eliminate smell. In comparison, flush toilets start off at $150, with septic tanks ranging from $5,000-$20,000. Then you have maintenance costs, the cost of having the sewage you produce treated and the cost of the drinking water that toilet uses.

You can pay someone else to take care of your waste, or you can put in a little more effort than it takes to flush a toilet and get rich fertilizer in return. If you aren't going to use it in your own garden, someone else will and maybe they will pay you for it. Instead of creating more waste and paying for that waste, why not get paid yourself for using a valuable resource? And why waste the world's precious supply of good, clean, not to mention safer, drinking water?

This page has a list of commercial composting toilets along with contact information, listed by country. It also includes Owner built toilets and many other informational tools. In a later post, I will talk about some of the more well-known commercial composting toilets.

2006-09-06

Humans a Natural Disaster?

The history of this planet has seen 5 mass extinctions, suspected of being caused by natural disasters, such as asteroid strikes, volcanic eruptions or sudden shifts in the planet's climate. These extinctions happened 440, 375, 250, 205 and 65 million years ago. It is currently believed that humans are causing the 6th major extinction, larger than that of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. It is estimated that the current species loss of this planet is 1,000 times as great as it has ever been and is a direct result of human activities.


The World Conservation Union says that there are 844 plants and animals known to have gone extinct in the last 500 years, though they believe that this number is a large understatement. IUCN Red list says the number 784 with 65 species found only in captivity. Sadly, habitat change, habitat loss and the over-exploitation of resources directly cause loss of biodiversity, which shows no sign of abating and is, in fact, increasing. We have, over the years, placed 12% of the Earth's land surface under protected areas, but only 0.6% of the Earth's oceans and we are still grossly abusing our fresh water and timber. Between 1990-2000, we were losing 8.9 million hectares of forest a year, which we have slightly reduced the last 5 years to 7.3 million hectares a year (which is an area about the size of Ireland). We still do not know just how many plant, animal and insect species share this planet with us, but it is believed that 1/5 of them will be extinct in the next 30 years and the number of known threatened species has reached 16,119 from 2003's 12,000 (a 15% increase from the 2002 red list, adding more than 2,000 species).


About 300 invasive species have been introduced into the Mediterranean since the late 19th century, coming in from the Red Sea since the opening of the Suez Canal. Half of the coastlines and nearly 60% of the coral reefs on the planet are threatened with overdevelopment, pollution, and overfishing. CO2 levels are not only increasing global temperatures, but are increasing the acidity of our seas. Naturally, the oceans have a pH of 8.2, but the rate of CO2 input is almost 50 times the normal rate and it is estimated that pH levels will drop to 7.7 in less than 100 years. CO2 levels are rising and dissolving into the oceans to create carbonic acid is happening so quickly that sea dwellers are unable to absorb it, increasing the acidity of the water. A little carbonic acid is beneficial and, in fact, is needed by coral and other species (like crabs, oysters and mussels) in order for them to build and repair their shells, but these shells are made of calcium carbonate (the same substance as chalk) and the building acidity actually dissolves this. These species may die out, unable to build or repair their shells. Some may be able to rebuild their shells, but it is doubtful that they would be able to reproduce. The loss of these spells trouble for the larger marine life, such as salmon, mackerel, herring, cod and baleen whales, who feed on those species most threatened by rising acidity.


Nearly 70% of fish species are either fully exploited or overexploited by humans. Mercury contamination has increased by a factor of five in the Baltic Sea and 85% of marine species have disappeared from the Black Sea due to humans using the oceans and other bodies of water as dumps for waste. In America, freshwater fish face a rate of extinction of 37%. That rate is 42% in Europe and 67% in South Africa. Over-fishing also affects the slow-growing species of our oceans. Of the 547 species of sharks and rays listed, 20% are threatened with extinction. Squatina squatina, the angel shark, has been declared extinct in the North Sea and the Dipturus batis, common skate, has become extremely scarce in the Irish and southern North Seas. Extending fisheries have reduced local populations of Centrophorus granulosus, the gulper shark, up to 95%. Of the 252 species of freshwater fish in the Mediterranean, 56% are threatened with extinction; higher than any other regional assessment of freshwater fish. Alburnus akili in Turkey and Telestes ukliva in Croatia are extinct. 1/3 (174 of the 564) species of dragonfly and damselfly are threatened with extinction. A study that took 10 years to complete says that 90% of all large fish have disappeared from the world's oceans in the past 50 years, due to industrial fishing.


More than 10% of all bird species, 25% of all mammals, and 50% of all primates are threatended with extinction. Out of an estimated 10,000 bird species, 1,100 are on the edge of extinction. Between 1992 and 1995, the Cape Sable sparrow population dropped by 60%, falling from a healthy 6,400 to 2,600 despite the fact that they inhabit a 1.5 million acre national park. However, water management companies feel that the drying Everglades are a nice place to dump excess water, which means that the nesting habits of the Cape Sable sparrow and of many other birds in the area are being disrupted by the increase of water. With global warming an increasing problem and summer sea ice expected to decrease between 50% to 100% in the next 100 years, the polar bear populations are expected to decline 30% in the next 45 years. For years, they have been conservation dependant, but they have been moved onto the list of threatened species. Retreating sea ice is also threatening the walrus populations. We pay little attention to the biodiversity of the Earth's deserts, but the Gazella dama population has decreased by 80% in the last ten years due to unregulated hunting and habitat degradation and may well follow the path of the Oryx dammah. Of the 625 species of known primates, it is estimated that 25% are likely to disappear in the next 20 years. Among the 5 most endangered primates are the golden-headed langur of Vietnam and the Hainan gibbon of China, whose populations numbering only in the dozens. There remain only a few thousand wild tigers in the world and Africa's lion population has seen a 90% decline in the past 20 years, going from an estimated 200,000 to 23,000. 1/5 of all the animals in the US are at risk of extinction.


Botanists say that 1 in 8 plants are at risk of becoming extinct, while fully 1/6 of plants in the US are threatened with extinction. Of 242,000 plant species surveyed by the World Conservation Union in 1997, one out of every 8 (so, 33,000 species) was threatened with extinction. Thousands of our known medicinal plants are being harvested into extinction. The Royal Botanic Gardens in London contains a collection of plants that have since gone extinct in the wild. It is hoped that some may be returned to their native habitat under favourable conditions, but, for some, that is impossible. I remember learning about the last remaining Tazmanian Devil in primary school, and how it died in captivity. The last remaining Encephalartos woodii currently lives in the Royal Botanic Gardens with no hope of restauring the species. There are few Encephalartos woodii trees alive today and all are a clone of the last remaining male specimen, with no female tree with which this species can naturally reproduce.


How many more species will suffer the same fate because of our actions? Biodiversity is known to be beneficial to all life. Take corn for example: The corn crop in the US was almost completely wiped out by a leaf fungus, but was saved by mixing it with a species of wild corn from Mexico. At the very least, we are depriving ourselves of medicines and cures, both known and as-yet-undiscovered. 47 of our major drugs were produced from flowering plants found in rain forests with an estimated 320 valuable drugs remaining undiscovered. On the consumption level: Historically, appriximately 7000 plant species have been used as food and today, 30 of these provide 95% of our food. Over 70,000 plant species are edible and many provide better nutrition than those 30 we rely on so heavily.


If the state of the planet doesn't concern you, perhaps the knowledge that you are causing yourself and your decendants harm by depriving them of the biodiversity needed for survival will make you stop and think a little. If we humans are the cause of this 6th mass extinction, then we have the power to avert it. We have the power to be the sollution and not the problem.

2006-09-03

Some Composting Necessities...or Not....

Thermophilic types of bacteria are responsible for the spontaneous heating of compost and can cause the compost pile to burst into flame if the pile is allowed to overheat. This happens if your pile becomes too dry, which makes the moisture content of your compost pile important to maintain. Compost requires 50-60% moisture for the micro-organisms to thrive and function properly. As composted materials lose water, it may be necessary to add 200-300 gallons of water for each cubic yard of finished compost. The compost pile is a living, breathing mass and should be kept with a moisture content equivalent to a squeezed-out sponge. The amount of water you need to add depends on the rainfall in your area, the size of your pile and the characteristics of your pile, but the moisture requirement should be easily met if the pile receives adequate rainfall and you include human urine. Water also comes from moist organic materials, like food scraps. If moisture is a problem, just collect rainwater or water from your household drains. Outside of a composting bin, it is recommended that your pile be at least 3 feet high and 3 feet wide to maintain moisture and warmth. If the pile is too small, you may find that only the middle remains moist and warm.

Freezing, which happens often during cold northern winters, will help destroy some potential pathogens and will also cause the micro-organisms in your compost pile to stop working. You can continue to add to your pile through the winter and the micro-organisms will just wake up and start to work up a steam after the thaw. Thermophilic types of bacteria thrive above 45°C (113°F), with some found to have optimum temperatures ranging from 55°C (131°F) to 105°C (221°F). Temperatures above 82°C (179.6°F) in the compost pile effectively stops biological activity. Actinomycetes tend to be absent in compost above 70°C (158°F), with fungi being absent in compost above 60°C (140°F), although most fungi cannot grow in temperatures above 50°C (122°F).

Anaerobic bacteria will decompose your pile in a slower and cooler process which stinks. To avoid such odours and ensure thermophilic decomposition of your compost pile, you want to cultivate aerobic bacteria. Aerobic bacteria suffer from a lack of oxygen and if your pile is too moist, you will drown them, promoting the growth of anaerobic bacteria. Also, if your pile is too compacted, there won't be enough air trapped inside to keep the aerobic bacteria happy. To further avoid any unpleasant odours, just be sure to cover anything that smells bad with clean and organic material, such as sawdust, peat, leaves, weeds, straw, hay, or even junk mail.

One way to achieve aeration is to use a fan and have a vent on the bottom to suck air out. This is generally more useful to large-scale composting and is good for keeping the pile from becoming too warm. Another way is to poke holes in the compost, or to physically turn the compost. If you build the pile so that air spaces are trapped in the compost then you don't need to do any of these things. You can trap air in your compost by using bulky material, like hay, straw, or weeds.

A common belief is that one must turn their compost piles. This is supposed to add oxygen to the pile which is good for aerobic micro-organisms. It is also supposed to prevent your pile from becoming anaerobic and smelly. Turning the pile is also supposed to ensure that the entire pile gets subjected to the pathogen-killing high internal heat. Turning the compost is supposed to make it look better for marketing purposes as it becomes chopped and mixed rather than coarse. Another reason why one might want to turn their compost pile is to speed up the composting process. The last two reasons really only matter if you are composting for marketability. Turning the pile actually dilutes the thermophilic top layer of the compost with the thermophilically spent layer that sinks lower and lower in the pile to be worked on by fungi, actinomycetes and earthworms, which can actually stop the thermophilic activity of your pile. If your pile is a continuous pile (that is, you are continuously adding new organic material), then, by turning the pile, you will be mixing the new material with the more composted material. If you turn your pile, it is suggested that you do batch composting, adding all your organic material at once.

Adding manure to your compost pile will help keep a good balance of nitrogen for all the carbon that comes from your organic garbage, which is necessary to keep your pile nice and hot. Most educators will tell you that old manure filled with straw or hay is good to add to your compost pile, but that you should never add human manure or the manure of cats and dogs due to the pathogens. Proper thermophilic composting, however, will readily destroy these as the temperatures are easily raised above that of the human body. "Hmmm. WHERE ca
n a large animal like a human being find manure? Gee, that's a tough one. Let's think real hard about that one. Perhaps with a little "ingenuity and a thorough search" we can come up with a source. Where IS that mirror, anyway? Might be a clue there." (Humanure Handbook: Chapter 3: Four Necessities for Good Compost) A good carbon/nitrogen ration is 20-35 parts carbon to 1 part nitrogen. If there is too much nitrogen, it will not be used by the micro-organisms digesting your compost pile and will be lost in the form of ammonia gas.

Some believe that you need to add lime to your compost pile, or other mineral additives. Lime is used to kill micro-organisms in sewage sludge, which you do not need to do in your compost pile. Bacteria do not digest lime and aged compost is not acidic, no matter how acidic the organic garbage added to the pile may have been. Your garden soil might want lime, but the micro-organisms in your compost pile don't want it and you shouldn't give them what they don't want. The addition of lime to neutralize acidity is rarely necessary in aerobic decomposition and may do more harm than good due to the loss of nitrogen in ammonia gas. Don't assume that you need to add lime to your compost. The pH of your finished compost should be slightly higher than 7. If the measured pH of your finished compost is consistently acidic, then you may want to add lime to your pile.

Another misconception is that one should never put certain materials in their compost pile. This list includes: meat, fish, butter, bones, animal carcasses, cheese, lard, mayonnaise, milk, oils, peanut butter, salad dressing, sour cream, weeds with seeds, diseased plants, citrus peels, rhubarb leaves, crab grass, pet manures and human manure. The list probably includes any other food dishes that included the above materials. But when a compost pile heats up, all these organic materials are quickly degraded. The materials listed above require thermophilic composting conditions to achieve the best results. A thermophilic environment should prevail if those ingredients are included with all the other composting materials you will likely throw in it, just maintain a good nitrogen balance and good moisture, which should mostly be taken care of with manure and urine.

Newspapers and junk mail can be added to your compost pile, though the glossy pages retard composting and should be kept to a minimum. Newspaper inks still come from ingredients that can be harmful to human health if accumulated, although quite a few newspapers are turning to soy-based inks instead. Old phone books can be readily added to your pile, though you may want shred the pages and remove the glossy cover for the reasons stated above with newspapers and junk mail. Sanitary napkins and disposable diapers can be composted as well, although should be avoided unless you don't mind sitting there and picking plastic strips out of your finished compost. Toilet paper and the cardboard tubes in their center can be composted rather well. Bones are one of the things that still do not compost very well, but they will do no harm in a compost pile. Toxic chemicals, however, should always be kept out of your backyard compost pile, including pressure treated lumber, or sawdust from the same. Eggshells and hair are two other things that do not compost well. Bones and eggshells can be put in a fire, or bones can be given to your cats or dogs. Hair can be left out for the birds who like to make nests out of it.

Comfrey leaves
, young weeds, grass cuttings, chicken and pigeon manure will all rot quickly and work as activators in your compost to get it started, but these will just decay and smell on their own. A good mix of ingredients is needed for this and you will find the best results through experience. You can also add wood ash, cardboard, paper towels, paper bags, cardboard tubes and egg boxes. Your compost will have a "balanced diet" if you include such things as fruit and vegetable scraps, tea bags, coffee grounds, old flowers, bedding plants, old straw and hay, the remains of vegetable plants, young hedge clippings, soft prunings, perennial weeds, or the bedding from your gerbils, hamsters and rabbits.

It is suggested that you keep two compost bins handy, about 5 feet by 5 feet. It should take about a year to fill the first, and it can be left to age for a year while you start to fill the second bin. After an initial two years, you will have a large batch of good compost for your use. Keeping a third bin in between these two will help ensure that material doesn't accidentally get dumped in the wrong bin. This third bin can be used to store your organic cover material, etc.

2006-08-31

So, Can You Tell me Why we are Flushing our Freshwater?

For many years, the developed world has used toilets as a means to dispose of our what we think of as our waste products (human feces and urine for the most part, though prescription drugs and other chemicals find their way down the same watery path). In the words of the author of the Humanure Handbook: "You take your dump into a large bowl of drinking water, then flush it." Why do humans do this when no other land animal will purposely dispose of their waste in water, much less in their drinking water? Remember, 97.2% of the Earth's water is saltwater and only 2.8% is freshwater. So.... Why do we take a dump in our drinking water and flush it away when 2/3 of that 2.8% is ice and much of the remaining 1/3 is otherwise unavailable to us?

And what if the entire population of the world took a dump in their drinking water supplies? Well, if the whole world took a dump in their water and then treated that water to make it "safe" again...well...it just plain couldn't be done. Older toilets (those installed before 1996), use about 5 gallons of water for every time you flush the toilet. If you have a leaky toilet, then you are using even more. Newer toilets have gotten better with this, but they still use 1.6-3 gallons of water per flush. The average person flushes the toilet 5 to 8 times a day. That means that each person uses between 8 and 40 gallons of water every day just to use the toilet. That means that each person uses between 2,920 and 14,600 gallons of water every year just to flush the toilet. And, "it takes between 1,000 and 2,000 tons of water at various stages in the process to flush one ton of humanure. In a world of just five billion people producing a conservative estimate of one million metric tons of human excrement daily, the amount of water required to flush it all would not be obtainable." (Humanure Handbook: Chapter 5: Global Sewers and Pet Turds)

Discarded human feces and urine allows for the transmission of diseases, is largely responsible for the world's water pollution and deprives us of much needed soil fertility. So...why don't we put our human waste to good use? Discarded, it is nothing more than waste and a dangerous pollutant to ourselves, our fellow cohabitants of Earth and to the Earth itself. However, if these by-products of our digestive system were recycled instead of thrown away, we would have a wonderful organic resource material that is rich in soil nutrients. It came from the soil, so why not give it back to the soil? This is something that can be done quite easily and readily, not to mention safely, through the process of composting.

Let's leave the title of human waste where it belongs: With the cigarette butts, the plastic six-pack rings from beer and soda cans, the un-recycled beer and soda cans, the tubes of toothpaste, the Styrofoam burger boxes, the disposable diapers, the worn out appliances, the old car tires, the old cars, the spent batteries, the nuclear contamination, all manner of food packaging and the plastic bags used to carry it all home from the store, the exhaust emissions, the toxic chemical dumps.... Most of us recycle our aluminum cans, tin cans, glass bottles and jars, the plastic containers that have been labeled as recyclable (which are turned into such things as park benches and fleece jackets). Some of us have started turning in our used major appliances, old television sets, old computers, tires, car batteries, and used motor oil, but these things are still largely thrown away, as are newspapers, magazines, corrugated cardboard, junk mail, yard wastes and kitchen scraps. So let's eliminate wasted office paper, newspapers, cardboard and junk mail from the list. Let's also remove the millions of tons of organic material we discard into the environment every year and the 5 billion gallons of drinking water we flush down our toilets every day from the list of human waste.

Composted human manure, as well as raw human manure, has been used throughout Asia for thousands of years. While raw human manure is not hygienically safe, it still succeeds in killing many human pathogens and is at least using a valuable organic resource rather than throwing it away as waste and polluting valuable freshwater supplies in the process. "Cities in China, South Korea, and Japan recycle night soil around their perimeters in greenbelts where vegetables are grown." (Humanure Handbook: Chapter 2: Waste vs. Manure) "Humanure can also be used to feed algae which can, in turn, feed fish for aquacultural enterprises. In Calcutta, such an aquaculture system produces 20, 000 kilograms of fresh fish daily. The city of Tainan, Taiwan, is well known for its fish, which are farmed in over 6, 000 hectares of fish farms fertilized by humanure."(Humanure Handbook: Chapter 2: Waste vs. Manure) Sadly, however, Asians are turning more and more to Western methods, using synthetic fertilisers on their fields and polluting their water with conventional flush toilets, sewage systems and sewage treatment plants. This is especially true in Japan.

Anything on the Earth's surface that was once alive, or that came from a living thing should be considered as material with which to make compost and not as trash that needs to be thrown away to be sealed and buried in a large hole. This means manure, urine, food scraps, animal carcasses, plants, leaves, sawdust, peat, straw, grass clippings, cotton clothing, wool rugs, rags, paper, cardboard, etc. Basically, anything that will rot can be composted and turned into humus (a brown or black substance resulting from the decay of organic refuse) to be used to nourish the soil. Humus doesn't attract pests and can be easily stored for future use if necessary.

While beneficial to the soil, human excrement should not be applied to the ground without being composted. Raw human manure does carry a significant potential for danger through disease pathogens, such as intestinal parasites, hepatitis, cholera and typhoid. These pathogens are destroyed through composting. This not only leaves you with a rich soil-building material, but it gives you rich humus that smells pleasant, not at all like the offending odour of sewage. To be considered safe, human excrement should be processed either in a composting pile of low temperature for two years, or in a much more timely fashion through a composting process that generates internal, biological heat.

Low temperature composting eliminates most disease organisms in a matter of months and eventually should eliminate human pathogens, creating a soil additive that is safe, at the very least, for ornamental gardens. Thermophilic composting, on the other hand, involves the cultivation of heat-loving micro-organisms in the composting process. This can create an environment which effectively destroys all pathogenic organisms and creates a soil additive that is safe for your food gardens. Adding in other organic materials such as food scraps, grass clippings, leaves, garden refuse, paper products and sawdust is necessary for proper composting and will give you a soil additive that is suitable for agricultural use as well as for use in personal food gardens.

Composting your manure and organic garbage eliminates the potential for danger through disease pathogens with the biological heat generated by the compost micro-organisms. But such isn't the sole factor in making your compost safe for use in food gardens. These pathogens need to compete for food with the compost micro-organisms who tend to produce an environment that inhibit the pathogenic organisms. Compost micro-organisms also produce antibiotics against pathogens and even consume some of these pathogens directly. This is achieved with a large and diverse microbial population; something that is best achieved by temperatures below 60°C (140°F), with a significant reduction in pathogen numbers
occurring in temperatures that have not gone over 40°C (104°F).

As mentioned earlier, the best way to ensure the death of possible pathogens is with thermophilic composting conditions. A low-temperature compost will still kill most pathogens if given enough time as pathogens have a limited time in which they can survive outside of a human host, but thermophilic conditions will achieve this faster and with better success if the temperature is allowed to rise significantly above the temperature of the human body. Most commercial and homemade composting toilets are designed for low-temperature composting, usually dehydrating the material collecting in the composting chamber in order to limit the frequency with which they need to be emptied. Low-temperature composting, as mentioned, will kill most pathogens in a few months time. However, the roundworm egg, being the most resilient, is estimated to live in soil from a couple of weeks up to ten years under certain conditions and soil types, which is why low-temperature composting is not recommended for use in food gardens. If you wish to ensure safety for use in food gardens, thermophilic composting is recommended as it will readily destroy roundworm eggs. That being said, the risks you face in using compost made from your own manure in a food garden is limited to the health of you and your family, or of anyone else using your toilet. For example, if you know you don't have roundworm and you know no one who uses/has used your toilet has roundworm, then you really don't have to worry about roundworm eggs surviving the composting process, if you catch my drift.

Furthermore, a protected compost pile keeps the material from drying out or prematurely cooling down. Whereas a pit may become waterlogged, which will rob your compost pile of oxygen and run the risk of leaching harmfully into the ground and any nearby supplies of groundwater unless the pit is lined with plastic or something similar. A pile, or compost bin, also makes it easier to cover the raw refuse you dump on it with a layer of clean organic material in order to eliminate any unpleasant stench and trap oxygen within the pile. Constructing a bin can be made from recycled wood, cement blocks, or even bales of straw. Wood would insulate the pile and prevent heat loss and frost in cooler temperatures. Leaching of liquids into the groundwater is not so real a problem in composting as many people fear, but covering the pile will prevent any leaching from a heavy rain.

2006-08-28

How Scarce is Earth's Fresh Water?

About 70% of the Earth is covered with water, equalling some 1,400,000,000 km3. 97.2% of the Earth's water is saltwater, leaving only 2.8% as freshwater: 0.022% is on the surface, 0.397% is in underground aquifers and wells, 0.001% is in the air and soil with 2/3 of the Earth's supply of freshwater locked in the polar ice caps and glaciers. So, 99.7% of all the water on Earth is unusable, being in the oceans, seas, atmosphere, or frozen in the ice caps and glaciers. That leaves 0.3% usable water, most of which is groundwater and out of our reach. The water we do use comes largely from our rivers and freshwater lakes, which represent a small portion of the Earth's freshwater sources.
http://water.usgs.gov/index.html

With such a small percentage of available freshwater, you would think that we would take care of it. The little water we have for our use is being polluted by the waste we create, most notably our sewage and the synthetic fertilizers and pesticides we douse our agricultural land and crops in. Add in the toxins, medications and pathogens from hospitals, or prescription medications that get dumped down toilets or sinks. Let's not forget about the petroleum, radioactive substances and all the other toxins that are dumped or get spilled in transportation.

Instead, much of our drinking water has to be heavily treated in order to make it safe for consumption again. We spend a lot of time and money to treat the sewage produced from sinks, toilets, and industrial processes and then put that treated water back into circulation. The quality of our water is declining in most regions, which not only affects us, but affects the diversity of our freshwater species and ecosystems. Estimates suggest that nearly 1.5 billion of the world's population does not have access to safe drinking water and many places are losing 30-40% of their water. But is our drinking water as safe as we think it is? These days, there is scarce any water that is safe to drink straight. Most of the water coming through our taps has been heavily treated to render polluted water "safe" again. This water often contains a lot of chlorine.

And what about those ice caps and glaciers? The ice cap on Greenland is moving toward the sea at a faster rate, with larger chunks of ice breaking off from the land to fall into the sea. Greenland's ice cap – which covers more than 650,000 square miles and stands up to 2 miles thick in places - is melting and moving at a much faster rate than previously estimated. In fact, Greenland's ice cap is moving toward the sea and melting at an exponential rate. The sea level is already rising with expansion brought on by higher temperatures and Greenland contributes to 1/6 of the rise in sea level, its southern glaciers are among the fastest moving in the world, and they have increased their flow rate to about 8 miles per year. 1 cubic mile of water is about five times the amount of water Los Angeles uses in a year. In 1996, Greenland dumped 90 times more ice and melt water into the sea than Los Angeles consumed, losing 22 cubic miles of ice and the frozen island is estimated to lose more than twice that much in 2006. Greenland poses a more immediate threat to the sea level than does Antarctica, but the melt water from Greenland greases the way for massive outflows of ice, which could unleash a chain of events bearing greater consequences than the current rise in sea level.

Sections of ice the size of small states from the Arctic and Antarctic are disintegrating into hundreds of tiny pieces. Large portions of Antarctica are melting, or breaking off to fall into the Southern Sea. The ice shelf that is sitting on land and is about ten times the size of Greenland's ice cap. The main cause for alarm here is the Western Antarctic Ice Shelf (WAIS) - which is about the size of Greenland's ice cap - but not because it is melting. The main danger from WAIS is that the ice sheet is actually sitting in an oceanic basin of slippery mud. WAIS has been protected by a veritable ice river. This sheer mass of ice prevents WAIS from much movement and it slows erosion by blocking the ocean waves, providing a very important benefit to the stability of the shelf. But those ice flows around the shelf are rapidly diminishing, both melting and moving away at a faster rate than before, aided by the melt water from Greenland. What if the water of the ocean were to slip under break up the slippery mud supporting WAIS, sending the ice shelf in a free float?

Ice, as in the ice covering the North and South poles', bounces back 90% of the sunlight and energy that hits it whereas water absorbs 90%. As the ice shrinks back, there is more water surface, which means that more energy gets retained and it gets warmer. This, in turn, means that the ice melts and shrinks faster than previously, each mile vanishing faster than the last.

We don't need to worry so much about the melting of the already floating glaciers as they have already displaced all the water they are going to and aren't going to cause the sea level to rise any more than it already has. Remember that 2/3 of the Earth's freshwater is locked in the polar ice caps and glaciers. One estimate says that the Antarctic has enough ice to raise sea levels more than 215 feet. WAIS itself could raise the sea level by 10-20 feet. Greenland's ice cap would cause sea levels to rise by about 20 feet. Dumping Greenland's ice into the sea would swallow large parts of Florida and most of low-lying Bangladesh. What if all the ice currently on land were to melt or fall into the sea? A one foot rise in sea levels will cost us up to 100 feet of land, depending on the land's altitude. That is a lot of land, especially to a growing population with shrinking resources.

2006-08-25

Introductory Post

The human race is showing a frightening trend of behaving like a disease. Humans act more like pathogenic organisms; not following the same laws that every other mammal (and reptile) on this planet adheres to (kind of like an animal who finds itself outside its normal habitat and becomes a pest) and we are fast on the path to destroying our host, the Earth. Our numbers are increasing at a great rate and so is our consumption of the Earth's resources: Like a pathogenic organism who overwhelms it's host, sucking out it's vitality and leaving poisonous wastes behind without a care. Similarly, we seem to multiply without regard for any limit; consume resources like there is no tomorrow and excrete waste products that harm our host grievously. There is one thing that a pathogenic organism has, however, that we do not, and that is the ability to move on to another host, which ensures that the organism does not completely die out with the exhausted host. Not only do we run the risk of destroying our host, but we will take many other species with us on the road to our own demise. Already, the threat of extinction hangs over an alarming number of our cohabitants of Earth. Our only hope lies in stopping this wasteful behaviour (or in finding a new planet to live on).


Since the 1950s, our rate of catching fish has increased from 19.3 million tons to 132.5 million tons in 2003; with 18.7 million tons and 90.2 million tons of fish being caught in the wild (respectively). Consumption of paper has increased five-fold, grain consumption has tripled, and atmospheric concentrations of CO2 have reached their highest levels in 650,000 years. CO2 is 30% higher at 377.4 ppm, with methane 130% higher than they have been at any other time. Total forest area in the world equals 4,000,000,000 hectare, but at the end of the 20th century, almost half of the world's forests are gone with 0.1% of forests disappearing each year (that's 13,000,000 hectare per year). We can replant forests and keep the same amount of hectare, but it will still take 30 years to support any life and 300 years to reach its previous culture. In fifteen years, between 1980 and 1995, we lost areas of forest larger than the area of Mexico. Water tables are falling between 2 to 6 meters per year on every continent. Wetlands are disappearing, rivers are dying and species are becoming extinct at an alarming rate. The human population is now increasing by 80 million people each year, which guarantees increased consumption as well as increased production of wastes. Startling fact: the 225 richest people in the world have as much acquired wealth as the poorest half of the entire human race. The wealth of the world's three richest people is equivalent to the total output of the poorest 48 countries. Americans account for only 1/20th of the world's total population and use 1/3rd of the world's resources.


Since the 1950s, more than 750 million tons of toxic chemical wastes have been dumped into the environment. Human-made synthetic organic chemicals linked to cancer had exceeded 200 billion pounds per year by the end of the 1980s. That is an increase of one hundred-fold in two generations. Over 435 billion pounds of carbon-based synthetic chemicals were being produced by 1992 in the US alone. Well over 1,000,000 tons of toxic chemicals were released into the environment in 1994, 177 million pounds of which were either known or suspected carcinogens. There are about 75,000 chemicals in commercial use today, 3,750-7,500 of which are thought to be carcinogenic to humans. Of the forty thousand most notorious dump sites and hazardous waste landfills, there are 1,231 "priority" sites with 40 million people living within four miles of one.


As a result, 40% of Americans can expect to contract cancer within their lifetimes. I personally know 5 people who have contracted cancer in the last year and 5 others who have died of it. The World Health Organization has concluded that at least 80% of all cancer is attributed to environmental influences. Industrialized countries have a lot more cancers than countries with little or no industry. Breast cancer rates are 30 times higher in the US than in parts of Africa. Since 1950, childhood cancers have risen by 1/3rd. 1 in every 4 hundred Americans can expect to develop cancer before the age of 15. Between 1950 and 1991, incidences of all types of cancer in the US have risen 49.3%. Cancer is the leading cause of death among Americans between the ages of 35-64 and the second leading cause of death overall.


Some of these pollutants mimic natural hormones and wreak havoc with the endocrine systems of humans and many other animals. Male fish are being found with female egg sacs, male alligators with shriveled penises, male human sperm counts are plummeting. These pollutants lodge in animal fat cells and travel up the food chain so that a higher concentration is found in the top predators (like humans).


Since 1950, 50 new diseases have emerged. Included in this list are Ebola, Lyme's Disease, Hantavirus, and HIV. With rising temperatures, researchers are warning of the epidemic potential of malaria carrying mosquito populations. There are epidemic levels of coastal algal blooms, some of which are highly toxic to humans and to fish and are directly linked to our excessive pollution. For those who think that it is ludicrous that a tiny organism such as humanity could affect something so large as Mother Earth; think about the tiny pathogenic organisms that can so affect our bodies.


An infected host fights back against the disease invading it. The Earth is reacting in the same ways as does a human being infected with a pathogenic organism. As our bodies raise temperatures to kill off the disease, so too is the Earth when one looks at global warming. Since 1980, we have recorded the 15 warmest years, with NASA scientists stating that "a new record by a wide margin," was set in 1998 with the highest ever recorded temperatures and the largest annual increase. In 1995, we saw the highest sea temperature in the North Atlantic, coincidentally the same year we had twice the usual number of tropical storms.


Instead of launching white blood cells, T-cells, and other bodily defenders against a disease, the Earth is showing us an increase of insect populations, new strains of deadly viruses and bacteria, as well as algae that is especially toxic to human beings.


With our rapidly growing human population, our non-sustainable habits are bringing us face to face with dire environmental problems that threaten our existence. It is time to change these wasteful and polluting old habits and turn to more sustainable means. It is time for us to get our act together and do our share toward more sustainable lifestyle choices. Nature holds the keys we need to a sustainable and harmonious existence on this planet, we just have to pay attention.


Either way, time is running out and humans have to collectively make a decision. Will we continue on this path and destroy the Earth and ourselves? Will we perhaps just destroy ourselves while the Earth overcomes our infection and survives to flourish another billion years? Or will we learn to live in a symbiotic relationship with our planet? Will we continue on a path similar to a disease-causing pathogen, or will we start a new path as dependent and respectful inhabitants?


What causes a planet to die? When does it fail completely? Did Mars fail to stabilize during one of its changes? Is Mars then an example of how a planet that possibly teemed with life, where rivers, long since dried, flowed on it's surface can get sick and die? And how did the Earth recover from previous massive changes and avoid death? We don't have answers to any except the last of these questions, buried under mountains of data and dirt.


If we survive long enough explore other planets, we might find out when they fail to regulate themselves and survive change. Our geological data (CO2, Temperature, Magnetic poles, water level, living species) points toward long term stability with extinctions and drastic effects whenever any value we examine goes higher than normal. Species diversity is critical to surviving changes, because in a living system, it is species that do the regulation, species that emit or absorb gases or compounds. Did Mars lack enough species to avoid its own planetary death?


With the help of Ian Smith.

Additional reference: State of the World 1999