Going Green

My employer, a few months before I was hired, quietly initiated an voluntary environmental management system known as ISO 14001. This past Tuesday, after a week long audit, we have been recommended to be certified as ISO 14001. That is usually just a small formality-for the most part, we can say that we are ISO 14001 certified, or at least, we soon will be, but for the purposes of this blog, I will assume we already are.

We are now the only commercial flooring adhesive manufacturer in the US to be ISO certified. This is HUGE, and I am proud to say that I intend to play a more important role in this program in the future as anyone who knows me knows how much I care about the Earth, the interconnected nature of living things-Gaia, and environmental issues in general. Our environmental policy is straight in line with my personal belief set and green goals-conserving energy, reducing my footprint, becoming self sufficient and striving to live in harmony with nature. I also hope to become more active in the GreenBuilding community in the coming years.

http://www.usgbc.org/
http://www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage.aspx?CMSPageID=222

My dream home is a passive solar earth sheltered home in the back pasture at the ridge line. Green Building, rather, sustainable building, is not new to me. It is a rare find to work in a place where your personal ethics and environmental concerns are shared by upper management. One day soon, our company will be building a new lab and office. I saw the architect's plans and WOW, would you believe that the building will be a LEED certified passive solar building with louvers to control the light and other energy saving features?!? How cool is that?

For those who aren't familiar with ISO 14001, you can learn more from the links below, and hopefully, for the sake of our planet, you can convince your employer and/or your community to follow suit. It can make a real difference, both for your organization, and for the Earth.

http://www.iso.org/iso/management_standards.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_14000

To quote Wiki, "The aim of the standard is to reduce the environmental footprint of a business and to decrease the pollution and waste a business produces."

And this could only be the beginning. We, as a business, could go even further, making even more voluntary changes that would benefit the company's bottom line and the environment. In fact, one such program that we could probably benefit from is called Six Sigma. Motorola invented this strategy for consistent business improvement back in the 1980's, and since then, other large, successful companies like GE and Honeywell have developed Six Sigma programs. It is really all about statistics-(I really, really wish I had taken more statistical studies in college). The Greek letter sigma, "σ" or "Σ", is equivalent to our "s" or "S". Sigma is the mathematical sign for standard deviations and there is a mathematical model that states that if there are six standard deviations between the process mean(the average in a data set) and the nearest specification limit, practically no items will fail to meet specifications. It is a process, and if your business operates within the process, then you will make less errors, 3.4 errors per one million opportunities, to be exact. In other words, if you put a system like this in place, and you make a million products a year, you can expect less than 4 product issues as a result of production or business error per million units. It is actually pretty interesting how far math can take you these days. Who knew that statistics would ever be so important in something other than baseball? ;)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Sigma
http://www.ge.com/en/company/companyinfo/quality/whatis.htm

It is an insane world. I'm beginning to sound like a broken record, but it sure is nice to work for a company that morally and ethically tries to do what is right. They get it. In a world where no one can agree on the cause of global warming, whether or not it exists, and what should be done about it, if anything, I have found an oasis of green common sense in my workplace. It is refreshing. I only wish I hadn't wandered around in the desert for so long.

Ch..Ch..Ch..Ch..Changes

I survived my first week back in the workforce after a year of being at home. I did not have any real problem getting up for work(I know that surprises some of you!), but I am definitely feeling the job in my feet. I don't yet have a desk and have been mostly standing all week long. My computer came in Friday(it is a nice looking Dell), but without a desk or workspace, obviously I can't use it. I thought my foot was 100% healed after the surgery, but I have discovered otherwise. There wasn't too much walking to the job, and certainly no exertion, just standing.

The best part of the 'new job experience' is the people. My co-workers all seem competent and seem to have a good work ethic. I've seen no slackers, no idiots. That's a good thing as I can't stand to be the only one working while everyone else surfs the internet or plays games on their phone or makes personal phone calls, etc. That kind of stuff drives me crazy. It is a good group of folks to work with, and I think that can make or break any job. Even if you love your job, if you can't stand the ones you work with, you can be miserable.

This past week, I've been 'training' with the QC guy. Instead of filling a position, I'll be carving out a niche for myself in the lab. I'll start with taking over some of the more mundane tasks, clerical minutia, that are weighing down the other chemists-things like recording spec data and filing certificates, MSDS sheets, etc. I'll fill in for the QC guy and probably perform some testing for the R&D guys. I'll probably do more bench work as I gain more experience, but for now, I'm
just learning the products and their applications and specs. There are probably 65 or 70 formulas or more, many sold under more than one label, so it can be confusing. In addition, I'm not familiar with many of the raw materials, so there is a LOT to learn before I start mixing anything! I'm still not sure whether or not I will be working more in QC or in R&D, but there is always the possibility of doing both. The company is growing and I'll have options. It is SO much better than the last place I worked. They are like night and day.

On the homefront, I did not make it into the garden at all this past week, so this morning I had lots of beans and okra to pick and process. I got almost two gallons of beans, which isn't bad considering the fact that it is October. I made some fresh guacamole with the few tomatoes I picked, and sliced and froze the okra for frying later. I did take about 20 of the smallest pods and tossed them into a pickle jar. I had a hankering for pickled okra, but since the fridge is already full, I did not want to open a new jar. I had a jar of pickles that only had a few pickles in the brine, so I tossed the okra, some cayenne peppers and some garlic into the jar, shook it, and tomorrow I'll start snacking on the okra. In three weeks, I go back to get my cholesterol checked, and okra is a wonder food for lowering cholesterol. I'll eat a lot of it in the coming weeks. Tomorrow, I'll can a small jar of Anaheims and Poblanos for use in burritos or beans, and I have a 9 cubic foot wheelbarrow full of peanut vines to process. I'll remove the peanuts from the vine, brush off the dirt, and allow them to dry a few more days in the house. They have been in the wheelbarrow on the porch, which isn't ideal for drying and curing, but with the rain last week, it was the best I could do. I did not want to lose my peanut crop to mice, rats, or squirrels.

Skyguy spent the day bleaching and pressure washing the deck and the front of the house. He'll probably spend the better part of tomorrow finishing the job. We were going to try to wait until Spring to replace the kitchen window, but I'm afraid it won't last through the winter and I really think we need to replace it now. I think we can get energy credits if we do it before November, too. First is the pressure washing, then the window replacement, then the house gets a new paint job. Next weekend we have a 5 year NWGAA anniversary event here at the farm, and I really did not want our guests to wonder if the algea would attack them while they ate. The house and deck face north, and with all the rain this year, everything is green and slimy. The deck was a safety hazard.

Thursday, Skyguy and I celebrated (and I use that term loosely) 25 years of marriage. We had plans to eat out, but that night we were both tired and decided to just go home and have a normal evening. After all, it was 'Survivor' night, and we had to watch evil Russell scheme and plot his way to through the game. We decided that we would celebrate on Friday and would rent our 'Jacuzzi room' at the Hampton Inn. We started doing that years ago when we did not have TV and had limited water supply. It was nice to take a hot shower of unlimited length, enjoy heat without loading a log into the stove, lounge around in the Jacuzzi, and watch TV, hopefully some boxing or ultimate fighting or maybe a Formula One race. We would try to do that once a year, at least, just to relax and enjoy things that most folks take for granted. Even though we now have satellite TV and a new well so we don't run out of water, we still like to go to "our room"at the Hampton. So on Friday after work, we grabbed dinner at Ruby Tuesday's and went to the hotel to check in. As it turns out, 'our' room is no longer there. Apparently the hotel removed the jacuzzi due to a leak, and now the only room with a jacuzzi is actually a room where the whirlpool is in the bathroom and you can't watch television from the bathroom. It was disappointing, the end of a tradition, but we rightly decided not to waste money on that anymore, so we stopped by Home Depot and drove home where we were greeted by a couple of very happy dogs. I spent a few hours last night looking for another 'Jacuzzi room', and I did find a hotel in Dalton, but I just don't know. It is so tempting to just take the credit card and just buy a damned hot tub for the deck. With that, I never need to leave home. I have dreamed about that for close to twenty years now.

Food in the Future

My new friend Dave has asked my opinion of the prediction of higher energy and food costs, possible shortages ahead, etc. All I can say is that I believe that to be true with every ounce of my being. I've long believed that we would see much hardship in my lifetime. I've tried to prepare by living simply, learning skills, and being frugal. I grow and preserve what I can, we hunt and fish, and we try to live close to the land. I've tried to learn about native plants and herbs in the event that medicines are scarce or non-available. For a while, I raised dairy goats and learned to make cheese and process milk. We've raised rabbits, pigs, goats, sheep and all manner of critters except cattle. Many people have asked why I don't sell my farm products, and the simple answer is that people will not pay enough to offset costs. I justify my own costs with the knowledge that I know what I am eating, how it was grown or raised, etc. I think I eat healthier than most people, even though I eat a fat-laden diet. I know that I am not poisoning myself with pesticides or herbicides.

The plight of farmers is all over the news. California may have happy cows, but the farmers are going out of business. Equipment costs, testing, transportation, and the cost of growing food for the cows all add up to drive the cost of a gallon of milk through the roof. Patented seed and chemicals have made Monsanto et. al. rich and left farmers poor. The rising price of oil and fuel has put a hurtin' on large agribusiness farmers who need specialized equipment to grow and harvest crops, and on the the truckers who transport the food to the processor and then on to grocery stores.

It is a no-brainer that we are headed for hard times. When I was born, the world population was about 3 billion, the US population was about 180 million, and the population of the county that I grew up in was 114,000. Today, world population is 6.6 billion+, US population is about 300 million+, and Cobb County has about 700,000 people. My local population increased five fold, and the world population doubled. By contrast, natural resources are diminishing, not growing. It is a train wreck that will have a gory outcome, and no one wants to think about it. To make matters worse, I believe there will be people, an elite class, that profit from the suffering of the general population. I believe that the decline has already begun. And no, I don't think it has much to do with politics or any particular politician. It is a global problem that no one is trying in earnest to solve. The only thing I can do is to try to reduce my dependence on utilities and purchased goods and live close to the vest. The Earth cannot afford too many of us living extravagantly, and far too many people in this country live above their means, which in the end will only increase their suffering. We have chosen a home away from city conveniences, a home that is modest and heated only by wood. Our water is from a well, and we protect the well because it is the life-blood of this land. Georgia and Tennessee are already battling over Georgia's claim to a spot on the Tennessee River, and that is child's play compared to western states' battles over water. I think, in my lifetime, we will see wars fought over water rights and development rights for production of electricity. Water rights are already a key issue in solving the Palestinian/Israeli conflict. It is a problem which will only get worse. Yeah, I believe that food shortages are coming.

Non-trivial Science related Trivia

I have this list of useless, but interesting random trivia, so for something different, I thought I would share the list with you. As you might expect, most have a science bent....Big surprise on that one as you all know, Bev is Earth.

Pavement on land creates "expressways" for oil and other pollutants to run into the ocean. "Every eight months, nearly 11 million gallons of oil run off our streets and driveways into our waters -- the equivalent of the Exxon Valdez oil spill," --- from the Pew Oceans Commission in 2003

That's why I like my gravel driveway. Yeah, it is rut filled and gets the vehicles muddy, but at least I know that my pollutants stay here and do not become someone else's problem downstream in the watershed.

The quest of alchemists—to change base metals into gold—was achieved to a certain degree in Soviet nuclear reactors, where radioactivity transformed some lead nuclei into gold.

The largest reservoirs of gold on Earth, about 10 billion tons, are the oceans. Unfortunately, there is no practical way to get it out. Gold is also plentiful elsewhere in the solar system. In 1999, the NEAR spacecraft showed that a single asteroid, Eros, contains more gold than has ever been mined on Earth.

That's a WOW from me. I heard the other day on TV that all the gold ever mined in the history of human mining would fill only two Olympic sized swimming pools. Same show informed me that a gold bar weighs about 27 pounds.

Kevlar, superglue, cellophane tape, Teflon, Post-it notes, photographs, and the phonograph: All were laboratory blunders. Chinese alchemists were trying to make an elixir of immortality and made gunpowder instead.

Speaking of Kevlar... the International Space Station is covered with a foot-thick blanket of Kevlar to protect it from over 100,000 meteoroids that will slam into it over a 20 year period. Of course, every day, up to 4 billion meteoroids fall to Earth, most of them insanely small, but you never know when a killer rock might slip in undetected.

Life on earth began about 3.8 billion years ago, but sex did not evolve until more than 2 billion years later. Asexual reproduction is a better evolutionary strategy in many important ways, so it is unclear why sexual reproduction developed.

The hermaphroditic earthworm Dendrobaena rubida has both male and female genitalia. If it cannot find a mate, the worm doubles up so that its female bits and male bits can go to town.

Some fish and reptiles can 'change sex'. In marine environments near coral reefs, most fish change sex at least once in their life, and they can have both male and female organs at the same time, like the worm.

Homosexual behavior is found in at least 1,500 species of mammal, fish, reptile, bird, and even invertebrates.
In the animal world, there doesn't seem to be a choice, just an adaption. Nature wins.


Burials in America deposit 827,060 gallons of embalming fluid, formaldehyde, methanol, and ethanol, into the soil each year. Cremation pumps dioxins, hydrochloric acid, sulfur dioxide, and carbon dioxide into the air.

Americans generate 472 billion pounds of trash every year, including 96 billion pounds of food trash—more than 300 pounds per person, wasted.

Food waste is only 2 percent of the total waste. The rest is industrial refuse, including mine tailings, agricultural waste, construction debris, and chemicals

One quart of motor oil, improperly disposed of, can pollute 250,000 gallons of drinking water.
WOW!


Each year, consumers in the United States spread 300 million pounds of chemical insecticides, including compounds that the EPA says may impair the nervous system, disrupt hormones in the body, or cause cancer.
Not me, not me-I'm getting greener all the time!


Landfills are actually the No. 1 human-generated source of methane, belching 7 million tons into the atmosphere each year.
Those poor cows and pigs have really gotten a bum rap.

Fresh Kills Landfill on Staten Island in New York, which closed in 2001, is the world's largest city dump, covering about 2,200 acres

Baking Day, Part II

My foot is good and swollen tonight after two days of standing in the kitchen baking. Today, I made 3 more pizza crusts, some cheese breadsticks (see picture), a zucchini nut bread and zucchini pecan muffins. I did not get around to making the saltines. The cream cheese pound cake I made is excellent, but the vanilla one is overcooked. I sliced off the crusts and have saved the guts of the cake. I'll freeze it for a special occasion, then make some type of tort dessert, layers of pound cake, berries, and whipped cream.

At any rate, I like batch cooking, especially batch baking. I find that if I know I have 2 dozen muffins, then I don't crave them. By baking my pizza crusts in advance, I can make pizza in less than 30 minutes for a quick dinner. I made my own pizza sauce, too. The bread machine does all the hard work, and in less than 3 hours, I have 5 crusts ready to load up with good food, a head start on 5 dinners. Other big advantages to batch cooking, in addition to simply saving time and for the convenience on a night when you are too tired to cook, is that you can have a ready meal when you are too sick to cook for yourself. I make and can homemade soups just for this purpose. Also, by baking cakes and making casseroles in advance, you just pull something out of the freezer to take to a neighbor's house in the event there is a death or they need help cooking, etc. It's a good thing.

Skyguy and I miscommunicated on dinner this evening. He was being sweet and brought home KFC, but I had already cooked spaghetti sauce with some grated squash added, not to mention the breadsticks. I suppose we will eat that tomorrow for dinner. I haven't had KFC in a while, mainly because we don't eat out much, and secondly because the local KFC has been closed for remodeling after a fire. It just reopened a few weeks ago. It has probably been a year since I ate KFC fried chicken, and maybe it is just me, but it wasn't good. The extra crispy crust wasn't crispy at all, nor did it have the flavor I expected. I don't know what kind of change they've made, but Harlan Sanders would roll over in his grave if he tasted that. My favorite is Church's Chicken, but there isn't a store near here. Bojangles will have to do, because I certainly don't want KFC again. I probably should just start frying it at home. I did pretty good on the last batch, but I just don't fry that much. I do love fried chicken though, and I know that I can do better than the crap we got from KFC tonight.

Skyguy also picked up a couple seed packets of bush beans since we had low germination on the Blue Lake and Contender beans from 2006. I think we have just enough time to get another batch of beans in before frost. We are getting beans, and this morning I finally picked enough to can, but I think I will freeze them instead. Hopefully, in a few months, we will still be eating beans from the Royal Burgundy and the Asparagus beans so I will be able to can the Blue Lakes I will plant tomorrow. Pressure canning is such a pain for me because my stove doesn't get hot enough and because pressure canners scare me. I usually do this on the propane burner outside, just in case of an explosion. I can do 7 quarts at a time, and canning like that, in the heat, just drags on and on. Blanching and freezing is much faster, and I actually have room in the freezer for a few quarts of beans. But, I've been trying to can more and freeze less, so that I can eliminate one of my freezers and save on the power bill and reduce my demand for energy in general. The other day I came across a list of things you can do to save money and energy, and I'd like to pass them on to you.

1. When you buy gasoline, make your purchase at night. At night, temperatures are cooler and that makes gasoline more dense. Since the pumps measure gas by volume, you will actually get more gas—it will be cheaper overall.

2. On long trips, keep your windows closed at high speeds—drag from open windows reduces a car’s fuel efficiency by 10 percent. If your truck gets 15 miles to the gallon, you could get 16.5 miles to the gallon. Over a year's time, the savings add up.

3. Cleaning 100 pounds of junk from your car will get you up to 2 percent more miles per gallon. That is like getting a free tank of gas over the span of a year.

4. If you are going to be baking at 350 degrees, and the oven is not packed full, wrap and bake some potatoes for quick meals, lunches, and snacks. Or, use stale bread to make and freeze garlic toast for those nights when you just want bread with your pork chops or salad. Just as you should run full loads of laundry and dishes, try to fill the oven as well.

Inspirational stuff

http://www.afrigadget.com/

I was mesmerized by this site, alternating between extreme heartache over the living conditions of the people, and profound admiration for not only their intelligence and ingenuity, but for their determination to find a way to make something work. I could spend hours reading this site and exploring the various related links. This is homesteading in it's purest form, making do with what you have, innovation showing no bounds. I've fallen in love with this work ethic motto from the site:

"Never expect magic from no where"

Be sure and click on the categories at the right margin. The 'gadget' category is a good place to start. Some stories crossover into multiple category tags.

In the same vein, I found a few other sites which are also worth your time to look at for ideas and ways to improve your homestead or live in a more sustainable way.

http://www.downsizer.net/

This page from that site discussed scythe ownership, something a few of us discussed recently:

http://tinyurl.com/lbecz6

http://kickstart.org/home/index.html

http://www.tfsr.org/

This site even has a manual for rebuilding and refurbishing Singer sewing machines like the one I have-the one I love:

http://tinyurl.com/2lmo6r

http://makezine.com/ http://timbuktuchronicles.blogspot.com/

http://www.farmingsolutions.org/

It seems strange that our culture here in the US only gives lipservice to sustainable living. The wealthy and supposedly educated simply are not interested in finding earth friendly solutions or reducing their carbon footprint by reducing our need to energy and conserving resources. Anyone who is truly interested in a more simple lifestyle has to look to the poor, developing countries in Africa, India, or Southeast Asia for innovative ideas. It is an insane world.

The Mother of All Disasters

One hundred and fifty years ago on August 27, 1859, the world witnessed beautiful auroras that were seen as far south as the equator. This amazing light show continued for eight nights until September 7. In England, Richard Carrington, an amateur astronomer, was one of the first scientists to notice the intensely bright white light originating from a group of sunspots. Carrington also noted that the local magnetometers were erratic and off the scale. (A magnetometer measures the strength and direction of magnetic fields. They are useful in finding buried or submerged objects like shipwrecks or even submarines, and are standard equipment on spacecraft. In 1859, there were magnetometers at telegraph stations because the telegraph operated via electromagnetism.) Carrington correctly correlated this sunspot activity with the geomagnetic anomalies that were being recorded on magnometers as long distance communiques died and telegraph networks failed worldwide. Today, we refer to those eight days in 1859 as the Carrington Event. More recently, in 1989 in Quebec, there was another 'warning' solar event. Then, a brief plasma burst from the sun overwhelmed the power grid and high voltage current created a meltdown of the copper in the grid; Eastern Canada went dark. Luckily the storm was short-lived and US power companies helped restart the Canadian system.

You are probably wondering why the Carrington Event and the Quebec blackout is a big deal. Undoubtedly, the Earth has been bombarded with similar solar storms and we as a people and a planet have come through them just fine. However, if the Carrington Event happened again tomorrow, and it could, it is not an exaggeration to say that millions would die. It would be the planet's worst natural disaster in history.

How could that be in this interconnected global technological age? It is simple; our reliance on technology weakens us for this type of disaster. Here is what actually happens: During periods of increased solar/sunspot activity, the sun's coronal gases spit forth a plasma ball called a Coronal Mass Ejection or CME. CME's hurl through space like a gust of wind, and if they are directed at the Earth, the plasma interacts with the Earth's magnetosphere and atmosphere to create beautiful auroras and if it is powerful enough, some really nasty magnetic effects. To understand CME's, think of a small creek. During normal times, the creek slowly trickles on, like the solar wind does. Sometimes, during dry spells, the creek dries up and there is no flow whatsoever. Sometimes, there are flash floods that appear suddenly and do not last very long. That would be analogous to what happened during the Quebec incident. It was brief in duration and regional in effect. Sometimes, the flooding raises the water level and the flood continues for days. That would be analogous to the Carrington Event. As the Earth spun around, it was bombarded continuously by the CME from the sun, and telegraphs around the world were disabled as the storm lasted eight days.

The first casualties of an Earth directed CME will be satellites that are in Earth orbit. The plasma blasts disrupt gyroscopes on satellites making them unable to maintain orbital position. Once they lose Earth-lock, they lose the ability to transmit data, and there is no way scientists on the ground can communicate with the satellite, so they have to be abandoned. Secondly, high energy atomic particles bombard and fry electrical systems. Finally, as the upper atmosphere heats up from the plasma bombardment, the density of the lower atmosphere changes and that creates drag on satellites. Any or all of these things can happen to varying degrees in solar storms. Satellites would begin tumbling and would quickly lose orbital height. Communications would be lost. If GPS satellites are lost, oil platforms, aircraft navigation, cell phones, and other equipment that use GPS would become useless. The loss of communications and global positioning satellites alone would be an economic disaster. Solar disturbances wreak havoc on satellites quite frequently, much like earthquakes cause damage on Earth. However, one day, we will experience another Carrington Event-the equivalent of The Big One.

Within a minute and a half of the plasma burst hitting the atmosphere, power grids would fail from high energy particles like electrons overloading the lines which will heat up and melt essential grid hubs. In North America, there are about 300 key transformer hubs and if they are lost, the continental grid fails. These large currents will travel through the system like a massive lightning bolt, frying the electronics of anything not hardened in a Faraday cage. The world now relies so heavily on technology that the loss of power and equipment would have devastating consequences. Without power for control, drinking water treatment plants, sewage pumping stations, gasoline stations, supermarket refrigeration, medical equipment and other vital equipment will become non-functional.

Financial markets will plummet and the world's economy will flip-flop with the most technologically dependent countries taking the worst fall. For safety reasons, power plants are programmed to shut down with grid disruptions, so until the physical grid itself is restored, there would be no power generation. Nothing would change for months, probably years as melted transformers and hubs can only be replaced, not repaired. The few spare transformers kept in reserve would quickly be used, It takes a year to make one, and with high demand worldwide, obtaining more transformers would be nearly impossible in the short term. Government studies have suggested that if a large CME disabled the power grid in the United States, that power might not be restored for 4 to 10 years. YEARS.

Even when some systems are capable of receiving power again, there is no guarantee there will be any electricity to deliver. Almost all natural gas and fuel pipelines require electricity to operate. Coal-fired power stations usually keep coal reserves to last 30 days, but they rely on trains for coal delivery, and of course the trains are dependent on GPS and electrical switching and fuel pumping. Nuclear plants would be taken off line for safety reasons during the first minutes of the storm when the grid was lost and would be locked out until a consistent power source could be restored. After a period of say five years and millions of deaths, would there even be enough trained and knowledgeable people to operate the equipment?

Within minutes of the initial power loss, people would realize that without electricity, there is no clean drinking water or sewer service. That would soon lead to bacterial diseases like cholera and dysentery. Within a few days, there would be no food in the stores, because due to the inability to pump gasoline, no deliveries are made. Backup generators for medical care would last a few days, but after that, medical care loses 150 years of progress without lighting, lasers, sanitizers, diagnostic and monitoring equipment, etc. etc. With only rudimentary medical treatment, untold numbers would die. Of course, there would be no power for heating, cooling, or industry. After a few weeks, the supplies of medicine would run out, and without industry, there would be no way of making more or delivering the supplies where they are needed. In the course of several years, millions would die-from accidents and disease, from starvation and exposure, from criminal acts, and probably from war.

Other developed countries would be equally reduced to third world status. China's power grid system is even at a higher risk of failure due to the way the voltage is regulated, and European countries are so interdependent that a domino effect would incapacitate the continent almost immediately. The internet would survive in a diminished capacity, but only the military and governments would have hardened assets and battery capability to exchange information on a global scale. During solar storms, even shortwave radio is not reliable.

In the best of all possible worlds, our only hope is the ACE solar orbiting satellite(Advanced Composition Explorer) which could possibly give us 15 to 45 minutes of warning, depending on the speed of the ejection and the position of the satellite. If power companies have 15 minutes of warning, they can sometimes prevent damage or at least attempt to isolate grids to prevent a cascading loss. The problem is that ACE is already operating beyond it's expected lifespan-it was launched to study the solar wind back in 1997-and as it ages, it's detectors become less sensitive. It was not designed to measure a massive plasma ejection. The second and more serious problem is that previous large CME's, like the ones that precipitated the Carrington Event and the Quebec grid failure, traveled much faster than anticipated and arrived at Earth in less than 10 minutes. Even if ACE had been out there during those CME's, it would detect the particles, but not provide enough warning time to power companies or satellite controllers to take emergency measures.

In the worst of all possible worlds, the CME comes during a period of heightened solar activity, like what is projected to occur in 2012, near the Spring or Fall equinox. At the time of the equinoxes, Earth is oriented in such a way that the protective magnetic field is weakened and vulnerable to plasma strikes. Also, during this time of year, there is little demand for heating and cooling- it is 'off peak' if you will, and computers monitor the equipment on the grid. It is a time of year when manpower is minimal and should a spike occur, there may not be staff on hand to take immediate action before the plasma overwhelms the circuits.

What can you do to prepare? It is easy. Stay healthy and become more self sufficient. Reduce your dependency on technology and especially electricity. If a large CME does take out the power grid, power restoration will be sporadic at best, perhaps even managed as a rolling grid, where a certain area might have power one day a week or perhaps for one hour a day. Learn to grow your own food. Learn to hunt or fish. Learn which plants can be used as medicine. Go low tech whenever possible, for example, bike instead of drive. Learn to build a fire so that you can boil water. Most importantly, believe that it can happen, but don't panic if it does. Millions of humans before you survived just fine. Millions will die, but it doesn't have to be you.

Light Pollution, Globe at Night

The International Dark-Sky Association defines light pollution as: “Any adverse effect of artificial light including sky glow, glare, light trespass, light clutter, decreased visibility at night, and energy waste."

Light trespass occurs when unwanted light enters one's property, for instance, your neighbor's security light that is not switched. Over-illumination is the excessive use of light. How many lights really need to be on in a skyscraper at night? Over-illumination wastes two million barrels of oil per day. (DOE stats) Glare is often the result of excessive contrast between bright and dark areas in the field of view. If you drive at night, you understand glare. Light clutter refers to excessive groupings of lights. Streetlight and sign lighting is often the culprit here. Finally, my pet peeve, sky glow, refers to the "glow" effect that can be seen over populated areas. It is the reflected light from all the pollution fixtures and practices listed above. The same effect (the Rayleigh effect) that makes the sky various shades of blue in the daytime will make the night sky various shades of gray/black. If the night sky is too light, too gray or white, then no stars can be seen. For astronomers, this is a real problem. As populations increase with urban and suburban sprawl, combined with cheap lighting and poor practices, more and more places are losing the stars, so to speak.

It is a common problem that few are aware of and yet, easy to eliminate. We simply must become more frugal and aware of the dangers of too much light. Lighting uses 25% of the world's energy, and one way to save energy and fiscal budgets is to turn out the lights.

Recently there was an article in the news stating the in the UK, the government will be paying women survivors of breast cancer if they worked at night. While some studies have shown an association between shift work and cancer, it is still under study. Mostly, it has to do with the hormones and chemicals, like melatonin, that our body uses or makes in the dark-at night. When the chemistry is off, diseases look for the chinks in the armor. Nighttime light pollution also affects people more directly. Night vision and visual acuity may deteriorate. Too much light gives some people migraines. The light itself is a subconscious reminder that people out there are moving, busying themselves in fun or work, and that knowledge can actually raise your blood pressure. Fatigue, stress, and even sexual dysfunction and infertility have all been tied to the health effects of light pollution. Even indoor fluorescent lighting can be considered light pollution, and it's effects have been documented in a number of studies.

Naturalists are concerned about how light pollution disrupts the natural cycles of light and dark and the negative effect on non-human animals is being documented worldwide. The artificial light disrupts animal navigation, changes predator-prey relationships, and alters the biochemistry of species. Here are some examples:

1) Studies suggest that light pollution around lakes prevents plankton, such as Daphnia, from eating surface algae, helping cause algal blooms that kill off plants and lower water quality.
2) Sea turtle hatchlings emerge from nests on beaches and move inland instead of out to sea. They don't really navigate by the moon, but they move to the lighter area by contrast. For millions of years, the dunes behind them were darker than the ocean before them. That is not true any longer. This is endangering to many species of turtles.
3) Migrating birds can be disoriented by lights on tall structures. Millions of birds are killed every year by flying into skyscrapers.
4) Night blooming flowers that depend on moths and nocturnal insects for pollination may be affected by night lighting. This can lead to species decline of plants that are unable to reproduce, and change the ecosystem.
5) Light pollution can negatively impact the migratory and breeding behaviour of frogs and salamanders, the canaries in the coalmine of our own world.

I wonder, too, if light pollution, especially sky glow, is responsible death of certain coral reefs.

The first thing you can do is to make yourself aware of your own situation. Globe at Night has easy charts so that you can compare the sky you see to what is really there. Between now and March 28th, people are observing the skies in their locations and then they will objectively report their location and the condition of the pollution. It is fun to participate. Hopefully it will open your eyes and make you aware of what you are missing. Once you have the facts, contact your local city council and try to get lighting changed or have special ordinances instated. You can do this!

In the meantime, participate in Earth Hour, which is on March 28. With observation and compliance, cities, corporations, and individuals around the world will collectively turn off the lights for one hour to save energy and protect the environment. Tell your neighbors and co-workers.

You can learn more here:
http://www.globe.gov/GaN/
http://www.globe.gov/GaN/observe_magnitude.html
http://www.darksky.org/mc/page.do