10 Things You Can Do To Save the Earth
April 22, 2010 by Johnperkins
Filed under Recent Posts
As part of my participation in the national Earth Day action network I wanted to post this blog in full. I hope it inspires you take action too!
The hour is ours. It is now time for each and every one of us to step up to the task at hand, to ask the important questions, to search our souls for our own answers, and to take action.
1. Demand a world where the models for our children are the founders and managers of institutions that restore rain forests and polluted lakes, promote sustainability, and help starving people feed themselves — not the CEO‘s of irresponsible corporations, overpaid athletes and celebrities.
2. Break the pattern and rid our world of the viral form of predatory capitalism that has a stated goal of maximizing profits regardless of the social and environmental costs.
3. Bequeath a world to future generations that is headed toward sustainable, just and peaceful societies for all of us.
4. Join organizations that represent your passions, support them with your energy and/or money.
5. Use materials that are environmentally and socially responsible.
6. Support politicians who are in favor of the environment and will enact changes to protect it for future generations.
7. Vote in the marketplace for companies committed to doing the right thing environmentally and socially.
8. Let leaders know you want wholesome food, clean water and air; send emails — they do count, big-time.
9. Demand that every person on our planet has access to clean air and water, sufficient food, clothing and shelter, health care and a decent retirement.
10. Support companies that sell organic and local foods and operate on the basis of making profits but only while creating a sustainable, just, and peaceful world. .
We are poised to enter a new era. Growing numbers of us recognize that it is time to stop the craziness, to stop honoring people who perpetuate a greedy, materialistic mentality, to cease buying magazines that feature their faces on the covers, and to switch off TV programs that try to convince us that squandering resources is something to be admired. it is time to move from a militarized economy into one that produces goods and services that enhance life for all sentient beings.
Now is the time to turn the Fortune 500 into a list of only those corporations and NGOs that best serve the planet and future generations. YOU CAN DO IT.
Thank you for reading and taking time to comment. I know you will continue to spread the message as well!
All of the things that your books and interviews talk about are really interesting and actually very frightening too, everything’s true though. And its good to know that there is still people in this world who cares of our enviroment, specially when it comes to the natural impact that most of the things that we do could cause. Thank you very much for publicizing all that information through your books, and also for letting us know that there is also good and not only evil outside in that jungle that the economic world is. It’s also good to remind all your readers and audience to spread this message through all the possible ways, so many people can realize where we live and where are we going to.
Earth Healing Day is Aug. 15, 2010 to heal the Gulf of Mexico oil spill area. Please join us with millions around the globe from noon to 1 pm in your time zone for a meditation/chant to heal the Gulf of Mexico. Please see http://www.earthhealingday.com for more details.
MAKE THAT 14 THINGS WE CAN DO TO SAVE THE EARTH —–
A 4-PART TECHNOLOGICAL FOUNDATION FOR MITIGATING CLIMATE CHANGE**:
An enumerated list of cornerstone technologies required and can be made available to remediate carbon dioxide & particulates globally thus reversing the carbon cycle and reducing ambient CO2 relative to particulates by the same levels per any given volume of air. This writing also assumes that single molecules of other chemicals also trapped by water filtration are particulates.
CORNERSTONE #1.
Commercial Scale Production of Algae Based Drop-In Petroleum Replacements:
Using the only complete, purpose designed, sealed, modular and continuously harvesting growth system for microalgae of it’s kind anywhere. The ability of the system to consume CO2 & produce lipids etc. at full scale of 7,000 vertical tubes (of 30-45cm inside diameter, from 4-8 meters tall+) per acre if installed in the fan folded layout, the most concentrated footprint. This configuration has raw calculations for productivity well in excess of numbers that defy credibility.
We can’t tell you at this time. Not that we wouldn’t like to either. But we can’t tell what we don’t know for sure. Leaving myself seeking higher mathematical guidance. From the very beginning of the design stages for this iteration we have been consumed with the idea of under promising & over delivering. This is where it occurs economically. Algae based biofuels can easily be produced at or very near the point of use with our equipment designs as long as an adequate CO2 source is co-located or CO2 can be delivered by rail. Just install our “solar collector” portion of the system in a circuit immediately within the perimeter fence of airports, military bases & the like so long as a CO2 source is provided. PV solar & other technologies take care of the rest. The algae is harvested & processed under the parking lot or another suitable location within or adjacent to the facility site. This process was designed to consume the maximum amount of CO2 scrubbed from industrial sources which is why co-location with a CO2 source is mandatory, at least initially.
We have all IP for our algae cultivation & harvesting process protected by U.S. Patent Pending as well as our International patent placeholder having recently also been awarded. It is possible to generate algae oil (or green crude) for algae based biofuels in the tens, to thousands of tons per day depending on the number of PBR’s at a given facility. As long as geothermal energy also can be tapped on site, the latitude limits for algae cultivation, year-round, stretch past the U.S./Canadian border until photo-period simply won’t support growth. As luck would have it, we have a solution for that as well.
Acceptable (but not optimal) refining technologies are available for license to make some but not all commonly needed fuels. But some will make more than one. A more complete study, including the variable of the cost of licensing the refining technology is needed to be able to accurately answer question on the refining end of the value stream.
This exact same equipment can be used to grow on the same scale the algae species that produce Omega-3 & Omega-6 fatty acids which sells for $200+ gal. As well as astaxanthin an antioxidant 300x more powerful than Vitamin E with a value much higher than that of Omega-x fatty acids. Algae can produce feed stocks for many industries including plastics and cosmetics & more. It is precisely by dedicating a small portion of some facilities to the cultivation of higher value commodities that divorces the financial viability of our company from the daily spot price of petroleum crude oil which gives greater stability to the alternative fuels industry and by extension, the economy as a whole.
CORNERSTONE #2.
Comprehensive System for Bio-remediation of Eutrophic Water bodies & Watersheds*:
By using several different methods combined to make a whole, or in part during a portion of the year determined by photo-period & solar cycle which will use the existing nutrients leeching in and around the lake from their source. By growing plants on floating hydroponic “racks” where solar power and a small motor assure the rack’s shuttles in-turn from rooting to harvest along a dedicated path. This is to increase the mean value of, and smooth out the curve for the number of photons colliding with each plant cell. This is the primary key to maximizing the growth rate (production rate) of all plants started and harvested within the confines of a single “Lake Site”or watershed.
The specific plants are chosen based upon what contaminants are in the lake water cross-referenced by the species that already have rapidity of growth as well as needing trace elements matching entries on the contaminants list, which each different species will then consume directly from the environment.
For within the water itself there are “algal mats” which promote rapid algae growth with the exceptional property that the algae from the water will tend to stick to the algal mats and be removed from the lake with the mat. Removal of the mats occurs approximately 90 days after installation or, just before photo-period decreases sharply at Summer’s end. This means that the crash (die-off) of the algae bloom (overgrowth) that would then recycle those nutrients back into the water are instead taken up with the mats. This same paradigm is used with terrestrial plants around the lake’s shoreline and as far back as contamination, access and funding allow. To eliminate stratification & aerate the lake water, a device not dissimilar to Cornerstone #3 is part of this bioremediation system as well.
Many different techniques are initiated and discontinued in a very specific order, sequence and period which is then tested, plant species possibly adjusted then repeated annually for up to 40 years or more for very heavily contaminated areas with below average rain, wind and/or weather. After the first 2 or 3 years, water as dirty as Lake Elsinore in California would be walk-up drinkable year-round assuming it could be kept adequately full. By that time, contamination levels should decrease to allow more & different plants to be grown as feed-stocks for other industries to be clean enough to sell to industry offsetting the systems cost substantially. There are over 500 lakes in the southwest U.S. alone on EPA clean-up lists with funding waiting in vane, until now. It is a most important connection to make between Scipio Biofuels & the high level EPA as soon as possible.
*This bioremediation system is to an entire watershed, what the four cornerstones combined are to the ecosphere as a whole.
CORNERSTONE #3.
Restoring pH Levels of the Oceans:
With the deployment of a TBD number of specifically designed, mechanical compressors, each affixed to an anchored barge or anchored high stability floating platform anywhere on the ocean near where the Mississippi River Estuary there is virtually no sea life due to cumulative affects of eutrophism from the Mississippi River. Our machines will make the greatest impacts in the shortest time with the lowest cost over time without any artificial power sources offsetting the effectiveness. In order to both arrest the growth of most all algae species who survive and thrive in theses conditions the oxygen levels must be raised by enough to support small fish etc. This machine would alsobe helpful in assisting nature’s processes to clean up the Gulf.
The output air from the compressor is directed down to no deeper than 65′ and out the ends of hollow radial arms tipped with solid copper bubblers to make the finest bubbles possible at low wind speeds and a pressure relief valve to release larger bubbles and adequate volume at higher wind speeds. A flywheel brake will also be required for the impellor. Moving the columns of bubbles outward from the immediate underside of the floating platform far enough to assure the bubbling water doesn’t cause a “catastrophic loss of buoyancy” merely from it’s own normal operation.
By strategically anchoring a TBD number of these machines around the Globe and heavily dotting all areas similar to the Mississippi Estuary and shoreline for several miles inland as well as several miles out to sea, the increased oxygen levels overall from currents moving the aerated water, will attract sea life. The artificially induced “simulated wave action” that is expressed by the rising columns of bubbles destratifying and oxygenating the ocean as crashing waves do. This device will definitely do wind-powered wonders for the condition of the seas in general, especially considering the crude oil spilled everywhere. This machine will release from the salty seas large volumes of fresh water vapor being finessed by the bubbles themselves as they rise to the surface.
As the relative humidity of the atmosphere increases, eventually this extra water vapor in the atmosphere will cool. Logically increasing rainfall on the ocean surface as well as everywhere else. It is this added fresh water rain that is the true agent of change to the oceans. For when carbonic acid touches pure H2O, the CO2 molecule is released and the carbonic acid is no more thus raising the pH and releasing a molecule of CO2 to be pushed around on the surface of the ocean by winds until the CO2 molecule in question ends up entering the next and last of the four technology schema required to remove & sequester contaminants to have a positive effect Climate Change conditions. Simply stated, to make it rain more often like it did in decades past and the oceans will deacidify themselves.
CORNERSTONE #4.
Passively Removing CO2 and Particulates 100% from Ambient Air:
For the sake of brevity I’m going to describe the system using common objects for analogy
based on the physical dynamics of each.
Please imagine if you will a fair sized solar powered Hooka. Where the “dirty” ambient air is drawn in through an inlet from outside a sealed, evacuated space where a tube directs the incoming air toward the hooka’s (15 ft. x 40 ft. deep cylinder) reservoir and releases the air down half-way to the bottom of the fluid. The fluid is lime-water either warmed by PV solar as will power the pumps or chilled due to ground temperatures. A determination of the most efficient operating temperature vs. available lime will be made and reviewed on an annual basis.
During the Civil War the crew of the Confederate States Submarine, the CSS Hunley assigned one crewman the duty of constantly scrubbing the CO2 from the ambient air within the sub using this exact same method, except he used a hand pump and a 10 gallon tank of lime-water For our purposes PV solar, renewable batteries & a high volume vacuum pump serve the same function just on a much larger scale.
Required is an automated method for sensing & adjustment of both the water level and the lime concentration in the water as well. When unfiltered ambient air is bubbled through lime-water, the CO2 reacts with the lime-water causing a white solid precipitate (calcium carbonate) to settle to the bottom along with dust, dirt, pollen, and all else drawn in by the system’s intake orafice. At the hemispherically shaped bottom of the reservoir, besides a drain is the equivalent of a heavy duty, caustics resistant automatic swimming pool cleaning device. The function of the swimming pool cleaner in this context is to gather, strain, filter and deposit calcium carbonate and concentrated particulate “mud” into bins for collection of the calcium carbonate (precipitate above) which can be sold for everything from roadbeds to Sheetrock. A separate sub-system filters out finer contaminants from the lime-water after straining the larger calcium carbonate from the lime-water. Being hypo-allergenic there are zero possibilities of allergic reactions or other health concerns from the calcium carbonate. This is unlike the gypsum currently used to make Sheetrock (or “dry-wall”). This air scrubbing system is intended for wide deployment. Within highway over-crossing ramparts, clover-leaf interchanges and similar locations which are closest to the contaminant’s mobile sources anywhere adequate area exists. This means the system can be installed everywhere there is modern highway development.
Not being a Chemist, and having plenty of higher priority items on my agenda the only question regarding these four technology schema thatreally seems to matter is whether or not if lime production itself can be manipulated due to the possibility that the needed extra lime production could severely affect the beneficial nature of our systems. This consumption can easily be adjusted to the capacity of the source by building more PBR’s and producing even more biofuels in the process. Saving ourselves from Climate Change concieveably has the ability to make algae based biofuels in the future rather inexpensive as capacity should not be measured in gallons per year produced, but in Millions of Tons of CO2 consumed per year divided by the amount emitted by industry.
We’re looking for funding to get all of this started. We’re at the proving stage now. We are dying to demonstrate what we can do for academia to validate. We just need to get there from here ASAP, Summer Sun is a wastin’!
Matt Snyder
President/Director
Scipio Biofuels Inc.
** As in all cases of “techno-scientific rumination”, I reserve the right to be incorrect. I am only human.
#1 thing to do to ’save the earth’? The single most simple, important and by far effective thing we can do – especially women – to leave some space on the planet?
Use birth control!
Everything else is a feel good bandaid.
That great elephant in the room – the direct cause of the vast majority of environmental problems – too many human beings – is ignored over and over and over again.
Is it because so many high profile ‘environmentalists’ have 4/5 kids and aren’t honest enough to face their hypocrisy? Or because the environmental movement itself is too cowardly to tackle the topic and all the barbaric attitudes around it? Or because the PC position of talking about the West’s disproportionate consumption of resources is enough to make us feel righteous in our arguments and keep us safely off the delicate topic of the disastrous tsunami of population exploding across the earth?
Bottom line – it doesn’t matter how many plastic bags you don’t use or how many energy conscious lightbulbs you change or you many gas efficient cars you drive – anybody who has more than two unadopted children is part of the problem.
Mr Perkins (any relation to the Perkins chain of restaurants?):
Read your comments in the video, “The End of Poverty” with interest. But I have one question: What does a poor guy do in North America until the revolution comes? You know I have to provide a living for me and my family now and not just when justice comes. And I read those ten Things above. Any ideas on how I can break out now? Thanks greatly and have a nice day. Robert
i am regular citizen in panama but i live in volcan, chiriqui and have been participating recently to fight the corruption in the dam projects. so i am very very worried about their environmental, social, economic and legal effects in our little country that is about to feed with electricity the rest of the countries up north!
just learned about you through a friend last night. are any of your books in spanish? in the chiriqui river our panamanian goverment is planning to make 26 dam porjects. they might as well put fire to the entire chiriqui province! we are trying everything, even beggin president martinelli to meet with me. thank you for your courage, laura pedreschi
hola….Johnperkins eso . intentooooooo ,,,, pero creo qeu ya la mafia…. me esta matando …. i manipulando a tda colomvia y a pises enteros … para maaataaaaaarmee… ……… …. Johnperkins