Timothy Larkins

Concrete has a notoriously large carbon emissions footprint and as such any alternatives that can have the durability and cheap material requirements for large scale operations would be a great boon for the environment. That being said, the two most notable ones that interested me were fly ash blocks that are composed of fly ash from burning coal and blocks made from jute or hemp. Both have similar press resistance as a concrete block would but also tend to have high temperature endurances which means they are less prone to cracking or splitting. However they do have some downsides, for one, they still need a binding agent which often times has to be a synthetic products which means it loses its not as environmentally friendly as could be, and secondly the jute or hemp blocks are more expensive then a traditional concrete block.

Honestly I'm doing pretty good on the sustainable fishing standpoint, I take maybe two salmon a year when I go fishing and every other time I go fishing, I catch and release. I never buy seafood in stores, the only time I eat seafood is when I can personally buy tags and go out to catch them myself. Besides when catching and eating a fish from a river there are guidelines you have to follow, such as you can only keep fish that were born in a fishery, by following the regulations I ensure that future generations may have the joy of hours of hard working paying off.

Well for starters switching to self sustainable power is a start, I believe most towns in the area around me are at least partially powered by renewable energy. The problem is how do you renovate a towns eco friendliness without having it jack up the price of the housing and living substantially, my argument would be some sort of government placed cap on housing and living costs because gentrification is a huge equity problem that seems unavoidable with huge leaps in eco-friendly techniques. 

Running was my main sport in high school and continues to be my main exercise past high school, so I ran 10 miles and called it good for this activity, I will say it is much more enjoyable due to the fact that I live in the country and as such I can run down country roads enjoying the view and wildlife flying around that being said, the roads could be much nicer because the amount of potholes on our roads is crazy when compared to our military budget.

While yes geothermal energy is produced at only a sixth of the CO2 output, there are a host of problems in all three forms(dry steam, flash, and Binary), mainly they produce massive amounts of hydrogen sulphide and sulphur dioxide. Hydrogen sulphide has many of the same health effects in small doses as heavy exposure to CO2 emissions will cause, however it also has the added benefit of being lethal in much smaller doses. While yes it would dissipate into the atmosphere and breakdown, the people closest to the plants still may not like having the pollutant in the air while it takes the 18 hours to dissipate. Another problem with geothermal is that it is very location dependant, the wells have to be placed over subterranean vents that push up hot air and water from beneath the earth's crust, and as such the wells must be placed on tectonic plates where natural fissures allow the energy to seep into the crust. The cherry on top though, is that much like how fracking creates earthquakes due to the nature of disrupting the tectonic plates, so too does geothermal energy sourcing. To be completely straight, I don't see much a future in geothermal energy unless it is heavily worked on because beyond a niche application where it is super useful only in certain regions, there are too many downsides that may create more problems then they solve. I still think nuclear or a combination of wind and solar is the way too go(even if they have their own problems).

SilvoPasture is an interesting concept that has plenty of merit in the fact that by integrating forestry with livestock we would see sweeping benefits to the biosphere and an uptick in tree counts. However it is a flawed idea in my opinion because of the money and time it would cost many small time farmers who would have to renovate their fields. There's also the fact that certain types of forests would match certain types of animals better than others, example being that oak  is not as beneficial  for a cow or sheep as an apple orchard might be, due to the fruit versus nuts. Also keep in mind that silvo pastures would be done by small farmers, not large scale farming operations who make the most pollution. Especially since the large scale farms would have to spend millions on creating a biosphere when they could just stick the animals in large scale concrete building for housing, cruel but much cheaper. 

SilvoPasture is an interesting concept that has plenty of merit in the fact that by integrating forestry with livestock we would see sweeping benefits to the biosphere and an uptick in tree counts. However it is a flawed idea in my opinion because of the money and time it would cost many small time farmers who would have to renovate their fields. There's also the fact that certain types of forests would match certain types of animals better than others, example being that oak  is not as beneficial  for a cow or sheep as an apple orchard might be, due to the fruit versus nuts. Also keep in mind that silvo pastures would be done by small farmers, not large scale farming operations who make the most pollution. Especially since the large scale farms would have to spend millions on creating a biosphere when they could just stick the animals in large scale concrete building for housing, cruel but much cheaper. 

A question about my carbon footprint was predominately already answered in last weeks questions about our impact on the ecosystem. As stated before my household is out in the country and as such depends on propane for heating and electricity from the grid for everything else. Solar panels aren't realistic because of the tree coverage which would prevent direct sun light for all but two hours of the day. If anyone has some ideas for better heating options that would  be great to look into, because propane isn't really cheap or energy efficient, but its the best we can do out here.

It was interesting to read about how much of a effect the meat industry has on our planet. I definitely will be slimming down the amount of meat I eat from 5 days a week to 1 or 2, but it will be really hard because the alternatives for protein are foods I don't eat everyday. So any suggestions for recipes will be greatly appreciated. Also they say nuts are a great alternative, but I see reems of articles talking about how water inefficient grow nuts are, so I'm at a loss of what would be best. Here's to lab grown meats in the future.     

Man all I got to say is why is this not being funded. Biochar seems like such a clean simple way to lower atmospheric CO2 levels that we have known about for more than a thousand years, and it replenishes nutrients into the soil. The biggest drawbacks that I could find in my research was the fact that the biochar tends to absorb pesticides and heavy metals that can poison the soil the biochar is put in. However, could further research and development not lead to improvements in order to get rid of the drawbacks?