Wind power's recycling problem- a report from :Adam Vaughan at New Scientist ; However there is a solution!

For an industry that wants to present itself as green, wind power’s problem can be summed up in one word: blades. Most of the mass of a wind turbine, about 90 per cent, is relatively easily recycled, including the steel that compromises the tower. The blades aren’t. The waste generated by those blades might not seem like a huge problem today, but Europe is only just starting to reach serious numbers of turbines nearing the end of their lives. Come 2025, an estimated 30,000 tonnes of blade waste will be generated in Europe. By 2030, the figure is expected to have doubled.   That’s why today’s Fix the Planet is all about efforts to make blades recyclable, starting with this week’s news that recyclable blades have been deployed for the first time on a commercial wind farm.

Several recyclable blades before being installed in a German wind farm. Photo: Siemens Gamesa

Why are blades so difficult to recycle? 
They’re typically made up of several materials, which, like crisp packets , makes them hard to recycle. The interior of the blade is a frame made from balsa wood. The material you see on the outside is usually a composite of glass fibres, carbon fibres and epoxy resin that acts as the glue holding it all together. It’s what’s known as a thermoset material because it’s bonded using heat. This is great for durability, rigidity with enough flexibility and making the blades lightweight. Unfortunately, those chemical bonds are so strong they’re a massive headache to break up. “It’s not impossible, but it is difficult,” says Alexander Vandenberghe at trade body WindEurope. A handful of blades get incorporated into playgrounds and bridges, but most end up in landfill.

What’s new?
Siemens Gamesa, one of Europe’s biggest turbine manufacturers, has gone from announcing plans to make recyclable blades less than a year ago to deploying them last month on a wind farm in Germany. The nine blades across three turbines are a small fraction of the Kaskasi project in the German North Sea, owned by energy giant RWE. But they are also the first of their kind on a commercial wind farm. “We've done it because we work in green energy. We try to provide solutions that are less harmful to the climate than what we've seen in earlier times,” says Jakob Maennchen at Siemens Gamesa. “As a wind turbine manufacturer, I think it hurts all of us deep inside when we see these pictures of the [blades in] landfill, because we want to create something that's positive,” he adds. Some of those pictures are a bit dystopian, in a Blade Runner 2049 fashion.

How are these ones easy to recycle?
The new material is thermoset in the same way, but a supplier based in India and Thailand has added a “link” in the chemistry. When the blade is put in acetic acid at 80°C for about 4 hours, the link is activated, allowing all the component materials to be separated. For now, the number of blades being made this way is small. Beyond the German wind farm, nine recyclable blades will be deployed across three turbines on Vattenfall’s Hollandse Kust Zuid project in the Netherlands. It will take until around 2024 or 2025 before Siemens Gamesa can reach the point where all its blades are made this way, Maennchen expects. There should be no limit on the size of the blades that can be made recyclable.

What will the recycled materials be made into?
This is the big unanswered piece of the puzzle. When the composite material has been recovered in pellet form in the past (as opposed to breaking it down into its constituent parts as can happen now) it has been for “lower grade” uses – in bathroom furniture, for example. Breaking the material down into its component parts will usually mean some form of “downcycling” for another use. “There is always some degradation in any recycling process,” says Vandenberghe. Siemens Gamesa sees a few possible candidates, such as making furniture, surfboards or soundproofing. But the world only needs so many surfboards. Potentially, the fibreglass could one day even be reprocessed to be used in new blades. That’s an unattractive prospect today because virgin fibreglass is “dirt cheap”, says Maennchen. But he says the situation for materials may look different in 25 years’ time.

What are other companies doing? 
Another turbine manufacturer, LM Wind Power, announced earlier this year that it has produced a prototype recyclable blade using a similar approach. Vestas, the huge Danish turbine-maker, is taking a different tack, focusing on a target of creating a blade by 2030 that can be recycled into new blades rather than downcycled into other products. Allan Poulsen at Vestas says this is a vital distinction. “We are pursuing our own idea of making a resin recyclable. But not only recyclable, but also circular,” he says. Making blades into blades is important, he says, because recycling blades into materials that have no use risks creating a new problem. “If there’s no demand, then we're just making a new challenge, aren't we? We need to figure out what to do with these materials. I'm not saying it's easy – it's a really tough ambition.”

Will recyclable blades push up the cost of wind power?
The cost of incentivising new wind farms keeps falling to record lows, pointing the way out of the current energy price crisis facing many European countries. So no one wants to make wind power far more expensive. The new blades do cost more than conventional ones, but Siemens Gamesa says only by a single digit percentage.

What’s next? 
For Siemens Gamesa, it’s all about scaling up production and the supply chain. Vestas is working on its longer-term goal. At a broader level, Vandenberghe says WindEurope is pressing the European Commission to introduce a date on banning blades from being put into landfill. No progress has been made since the idea was first raised last year, but he hopes there might be headway in the coming year, with a ban implemented by the end of 2025. There are a lot of ifs, but a ban could drive investment in better recycling.

In the meantime, what do we do about existing blades?
There are no great answers today, but several ideas are being explored. One cement plant in Germany is burning blade waste to generate heat. Some blades are being shredded so the material can be used in construction materials. Finally, there is pyrolysis, where the material is heated in the absence of oxygen to break polymers apart. But that’s far from a mature process for blades. “I would like to see other industries, the chemical industry, think circularity into their products instead of just making materials as they’ve always done. That’s my big ambition, my big dream,” says Poulsen.

 

This has been one of my concerns, all this stuff is great when it is new, what happens when it gets old?  Unfortunately having seen some of the abandoned solar farms in a lot of countries going to ruin and nothing happening it looked like nothing was going to be done about it.  This report is brilliant and gives hope! We cannot go on like we are, things need to change. 

The blog song for today is: " Dreamer" by Supertramp.

TTFN

 

5 surprising things we learned from the biggest ever household plastic count - a report from https://www.greenpeace.org.uk

Greenpeace UK

5 surprising things we learned from the biggest ever household plastic count

(dated :13th July 2022)

After weeks of number crunching, The Big Plastic Count results are finally here!

Nearly a quarter of a million people counted their household plastic packaging waste for one week, and the results are fascinating. Here are the most surprising things we’ve learnt…

1. UK households throw away approximately 96 billion pieces of plastic packaging a year

That’s a mindblowing, absurd number. It’s so difficult to imagine just how big 96 billion is, but it works out around 11 million piece of plastic per hour, or 3,000 every second. It’s staggering.

Participants in The Big Plastic Count threw away 6,437,813 pieces of plastic packaging in just one week, which means on average each household threw away 66 pieces. This amounts to 3,432 pieces a year, and we arrive at 96 billion pieces a year for the whole country by applying this average to all UK households.

The message couldn’t be clearer: too much plastic waste is leaving our homes.

2. The vast majority of it is food and drink packaging

83% of the plastic packaging waste we throw away comes from food and drink packaging.

If you’re a supermarket shopper, maybe this doesn’t come as a surprise, as the shelves are so overflowing with single-use plastic packaging that it’s very difficult to avoid it. This is especially the case for anyone with a disability or restricted mobility who may rely on pre-prepared food for their independence and quality of life.

Supermarket giants sell most of our groceries, so it’s safe to say that they are responsible for an awful lot of our plastic packaging waste. We’ve had many promises from supermarkets to reduce their plastic footprint, but this actually increased across the top ten supermarkets between 2017 and 2019.

Voluntary commitments are not working.

3. Just 12% of our household plastic packaging waste is recycled

Millions of us do our bit by recycling – it’s part of everyday life in the UK. But we estimate that only 12% of our household plastic packaging waste is actually recycled in the UK. A minority.

This number might be disheartening, but it’s still important to recycle and we should all continue to do so. But we can’t avoid the fact that recycling alone won’t solve the plastic crisis – we are throwing away so much, we’ll never be able to recycle it all, and much of it is never recyclable in the first place.

It’s vital that we reduce the amount of plastic produced at source by turning off the plastic tap, and rapidly transitioning to reusable packaging which caters to everyone’s needs, including those with disabilities.

4. The rest is burned, landfilled or exported

The vast majority of the UK’s household plastic packaging waste is either shipped overseas, or landfilled or incinerated in the UK.

How can the UK claim to be a world leader in managing our waste while this is happening?

We’re producing so much plastic packaging waste that we can’t cope with it ourselves, so 17% of it is exported to other countries to deal with. Greenpeace investigators have previously revealed how this waste may be dumped and burned illegally, creating environmental and human health crises in countries around the world. It’s waste colonialism.

A quarter of our waste ends up in landfill, where it slowly degrades and releases toxins and microplastics, which can pollute the air and waterways – with grave consequences for neighboring communities and natural environments.

And almost half (46%) is burnt in incinerators, which also place local people at risk from the toxic gasses released. And we can’t forget that plastic is made from fossil fuels, so burning it releases greenhouse gasses that are fueling the climate crisis.

We wouldn’t need to rely upon these dirty, polluting methods of disposing of plastic packaging waste if we didn’t produce so much of it in the first place.

5. The majority of plastic we throw away is soft plastic

Just over half of the pieces of plastic thrown away during The Big Plastic Count were soft plastics and plastic film – used in everyday items like crisp packets, bread bags and toilet roll wrap. Soft plastic is notoriously difficult to recycle – meaning just 13% of local authorities collect it.

Supermarkets have tried to fill this gap, through the recent nationwide roll-out of soft plastic take-back schemes. These allow shoppers to drop off plastic waste in-store for recycling, and have proved popular (but are not always accessible for people with disabilities or mobility issues who are unable to visit a store in person). However, an investigation into Tesco’s take-back scheme revealed that some plastic was being exported for incineration or landfill, rather than being recycled. Our recycling systems cannot effectively deal with soft plastics.

What next?

These results paint a dire picture of the UK’s plastic use and waste management systems.

The UK’s plastic crisis is even worse than anyone imagined – we cannot cope with the amount of plastic waste generated – and too much focus has been placed on recycling to solve it. We’re never going to be able to recycle our way out of this mess, and pretending that recycling is a silver bullet is simply industry greenwash.

The government must step in with tough measures to drive a reduction in plastic production and a transition to a circular economy built around materials that can be reused and recycled many times over. This means they need to:

• Set an ambitious, legally binding single-use plastic reduction target under the environment act, to cut single-use plastic by 50% by 2025. All reusable alternatives to single-use plastic must be universally designed to work for everyone’s needs, and decisions must be informed by the disabled community
• Immediately implement an all-in Deposit Return Scheme for plastic bottles, to encourage reuse, and set new Extended Producer Responsibility Requirements to incentivise a transition to reusable packaging

At the same time, the government must tackle the catastrophic social and environmental consequences of waste exports and incineration, by:

• Banning all plastic waste exports by 2025.
• Setting an immediate moratorium on building new incinerators or upgrades of old ones.

The Big Plastic Count has provided overwhelming evidence of the UK’s plastic crisis. Neither this evidence, nor the 248,957 people who gathered it can be ignored. It is time for the government to act.

So there it is in black and white,what a lot of us have been screaming about for it seems like forever! It is the work of everyone, not just people at the bottom end of the chain,trying to do the right thing and not getting as far as would be liked.

This plastic count was done in the UK, but there is no doubt in my mind the same applies here in Menorca, all of Spain, Europe and the rest of the world.  What is it going to take to get things changed?

We are all to blame, but the onus must be placed on the producers of the items to use suitable packaging, yes we can change to glass but as you may have seen in one or two of my blogs there are not many alternatives, at the moment. We, as consumers can also stop buying so much of these items, I am sure 2 litres of a fizzy drink is not absolutely essential to live (for example).

The blog song for today is: " Can't get it out of my head" by ELO

TTFN

 

Recycling isn’t the ‘panacea’ that saves oceans from plastic - a report from https://www.nationalobserver.com

 

Recycling isn’t the ‘panacea’ that saves oceans from plastic

By Rochelle Baker | News, Island Insider | June 30th 2022

Greenpeace volunteers do a plastics audit at a 2018 beach cleanup in Vancouver. Photo by Amy Scaife / Greenpeace

Canada has the opportunity to position itself as a leader in tackling the world’s marine plastics problem at this week’s UN Ocean Conference, experts say.

However, to effect real change, Canada and its international partners will have to aggressively wean themselves off unnecessary plastics and accelerate the development of a global circular economy to make sure plastic pollution doesn't end up in oceans.

“There’s no question the world faces a bit of an existential crisis over how best to proceed on the plastic economy front,” said Peter Ross, senior scientist and director of water pollution at Raincoast Conservation Foundation.

Big or small, plastics are ingested by virtually every creature in the marine food chain, causing harm to animals from zooplankton to whales, Ross said.

Marine plastic pollution exacerbates the decline of marine biodiversity, a crisis already made worse by global warming, with more than 800 marine and coastal species suffering impacts from the ingestion, entanglement and absorption of the petroleum product.

A baby turtle grapples with plastic on a Sumatra beach. Photo by Paul Hilton / Greenpeace

Plastic has no half-life

There’s no getting rid of it, said Ross, a former researcher with Fisheries and Oceans Canada — plastic only breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces.

“The reality is recycling is not going to be the panacea that saves the world's ocean,” said @Raincoast scientist Peter Ross about dealing with marine plastic pollution as Canada participates in the #UNOceanConference.

“It breaks down physically but not chemically. It has basically no half-life,” Ross said.

Beyond being permanent pollutants, virtually all plastics are made from fossil fuels and contribute significantly to the greenhouse gas emissions driving climate change. In a business-as-usual scenario, emissions from plastic production, use and disposal in 2040 would eat up 19 per cent of the world’s carbon budget under the UN Paris Agreement to limit global warming to 1.5 C.

The vast majority of plastic pollution in oceans comes from sources on land that then finds a way into water systems, Ross explained.

“We are creating a geological layer for future archeologists and anthropologists to sift through the rubble and find this layer of plastic around planet Earth.”

Forums on marine plastics pollution at the conference emphasized the global scale of the problem. Some 11 million tonnes of plastic waste flow annually into oceans — a volume that may triple by 2040 if the status quo continues.

A week before the UN gathering, Canada put into action a phased ban on six single-use plastics, including checkout bags, non-recyclable takeout containers, straws, stir sticks, cutlery, and the yokes or plastic rings on six-packs of beverage cans. The new rules come with timelines to restrict the import, production, sale and export of these items.

Canada also helped secure an international agreement by 175 countries to develop a groundbreaking, legally binding international plastics treaty by 2024 that aims to address the full life cycle of the product and create a circular plastics economy.

But whether the plastics treaty is truly a watershed moment will depend on political will, said Ross.

“I think it's good that Canada is positioning itself for kind of a leadership role on the file,” he said.

“But with all the grand aspirations of the UN Ocean Conference … as we look ahead, the question is how do we have a blue economy?”

To halt the “moving train” of vested corporate interest in plastics production, the treaty needs to include significant improvements on the recyclability of plastics and a carrot-and-stick approach to push companies to redesign products and find innovations and alternatives in the private sector, he said.

More research on the effective monitoring of waterways, oceans and wastewater discharges is also needed to identify and tackle the most significant problems, Ross said.

Raincoast Conservation Foundation senior scientist Peter Ross says recycling does not abate marine plastics pollution. Photo by Alex Harris / Raincoast Conservation Foundation

It's a myth that recycling plastics will stem ocean pollution

The idea that plastic recycling will curtail the waste stream into oceans is “fiction,” he said.

Plastic products are full of dyes and a variety of chemicals that make them virtually impossible to recycle.

“The reality is recycling is not going to be the panacea that saves the world's ocean,” he said.

Sarah King, Greenpeace Canada's oceans and plastics campaigner, agreed.

The vast majority of plastics in Canada — 87 per cent — end up in landfills or the environment, with the packaging sector alone the source of nearly half of that garbage.

At best, Canada only has the capacity to recycle 17 per cent of its plastic waste, and the federal phaseout of single-use plastics involves a mere three per cent of the plastic headed into landfills, she said.

“We really need to look at the source of the problem, which is we’re producing too much of it,” King said.

There needs to be concrete reduction in plastic production in Canada and across the globe, she said, or plastic pollution will continue to sabotage federal and international commitments to create low-carbon economies.

A Canada's National Observer investigation into the country's top carbon emitters found three plastics and petrochemical factories — two in Alberta and one in Ontario — collectively produced about 5.5 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions in 2019.

The fossil fuel industry is banking on plastics and expanding production to ensure its future, Greenpeace asserts. And without radical change, plastics use will nearly double in Canada and triple globally by 2060, a new Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) study shows.

Greenpeace Canada's oceans and plastics campaigner Sarah King (pictured in the Philippines) says the international community must set plastic waste reduction targets. Photo by Daniel Müller / Greenpeace

No country, including Canada, has concrete waste-reduction targets, King said.

To meet its net-zero plastics pledge by 2030, the federal government needs to phase out all non-essential plastics in short order, stop the production of single-use plastics and set timelines for reducing plastic production across various sectors, she said.

Canada needs to rapidly accelerate the transition to a reuse-and-refill economy, shifting to systems that don’t rely on single-use plastics to provide everyday goods and services, she said.

“We need truly zero-waste and circular systems,” she said, adding government investment will be necessary to help scale up innovation and infrastructure for the transition.

The federal government has shown leadership in calling for the plastics treaty to be ambitious and legally binding, King said.

But the concern is Canada isn’t going into international discussions, such as those underway at the ocean conference in Portugal, prioritizing a wind-down of the industry, she said.

The world is working to phase out oil and gas to combat climate change and must do the same for plastics, which is the flip side of the same coin, she said.

“They go hand in hand,” King said.

“This is definitely where governments need to come together and agree to a cap and phasedown of plastic production globally.”

We are all in a position to demand the reduction in plastic production. If we can switch to alternative packaging in even a small way it will have a significant change.  The main responsibility is on the large companies to use different packaging. Everyone needs to get on board. I saw an advertisement the other day on Sky tv (which has a part of sky news dedicated to the climate) advertising coca cola in a plastic bottle.  This has to change.

The blog song for today is:" Elected" by Alice Cooper

TTFN

Following the Money: Holding Financial Institutions Accountable , a report from : https://www.climaterealityproject.org

Following the Money: Holding Financial Institutions Accountable

The fight for climate justice will be long and hard, but we will continue to fight the expansion of the fossil fuel industry and hold financial institutions accountable together.

December 8, 2021

As the climate crisis worsens in magnitude and urgency, climate advocates are emerging with new targets and tactics to save our world. We do so because we no longer have a choice – business as usual is not working. The battle for climate justice must be approached from multiple angles.

When we think of those most responsible for perpetuating the climate crisis, many automatically think of the C-suite executives at fossil fuel companies. Corporate greed within the fossil fuel industry is indeed an enormous problem, but blaming the climate crisis on the actions of a few corporations alone fails to tell the whole story. 

The construction, transportation, refining, manufacturing, and more that support the fossil fuel industry requires financial backing via loans, insurance, and financial planning. Financial institutions provide these services to corporations that drive the maintenance and buildout of fossil fuel and petrochemical infrastructure. In doing so, they are largely responsible in perpetuating the climate crisis.

In this case, the “power of the purse” rests with numerous major banks and investment firms.

Activists Are Taking A Stand

Around the world, activists are recognizing the complacency and harm coming from the financial sector amid climate chaos, and they are taking a stand.

Youth climate justice advocates have taken an unapologetic lead in much of this work, recently landing an op-ed in Teen Vogue calling attention to the issue and calling for action. Targets included financial institutions with ties to the fossil fuel and petrochemical industry, including Chase Bank, JP Morgan Chase, Blackrock, the Federal Reserve, and many more.

Indeed, it would perhaps be easier to name the major financial institutions that are not passive or active supporters of industries that fuel the climate crisis than it would be the other way around.

Climate Reality is among the ranks of those calling for financial institutions to promote climate justice. Former Vice President Al Gore, our founder and chairman, is tackling this issue head-on, and has been doing so for years as chairman of Generation Investment Management, a sustainable investment fund.

Vice President Gore recently shared his thoughts with the Financial Times about the need for an “overhaul” of our current financial system to increase regulations and transparency in the financial sector and to force financial institutions to stop backing climate-destructive industries and projects.

Climate Reality chapters are also becoming active in the fight against fossil fuel finance.

The Climate Reality-Chicago Metro Chapter signed onto this petition, joining climate justice advocates around the world calling for an end to fossil fuel finance, using the activities of COP 26 as a launching point. The Climate Reality New Orleans Chapter has also stood in solidarity with their Gulf south community, calling on Bank of America and other financial institutions to defund the proposed Formosa Plastics facility in St. James Parish, a project rife with environmental racism and climate injustice.

Climate Reality’s Dallas Fort-Worth chapter has also joined global cries for climate justice and an end to fossil fuel finance, participating in the worldwide Fossil Free Future day of action, an initiative spearheaded by youth climate activists with Future Coalition to target financial institutions for their role in perpetuating the climate crisis. Dallas Fort-Worth chapter members protested and targeted the Federal Reserve for its complacency in fossil fuel finance, calling on them to hold banks like Chase and Wells Fargo accountable.

Climate Reality organizers in the Ohio River Valley were also eager to participate in this day of action as another way to tackle the proposed petrochemical buildout of the region.

The Ohio River Valley Has Had Enough

Climate Reality has been a long-time voice in the Ohio River Valley to halt the expansion of fossil fuels and petrochemicals.

In this fight, we have also joined the movement to hold financial institutions accountable. Two of our regional organizers joined forces with activists from the People Over Petro Coalition and other regional partners to also participate in the aforementioned Fossil Free Future day of action. Taking place just days before Halloween, the action tapped into the creative and theatrical spirit of the season, with participants dawning scary and gruesome costumes and holding signs and banners saying that fossil fuel finance “haunts” their region.

What You Can Do

The fight for climate justice will be a long, hard road, but our movement is demonstrating incredible adaptiveness and resiliency. We will continue to fight the expansion of the fossil fuel industry and hold financial institutions accountable. We are led by the guidance of incredible youth, BIPOC, and frontline organizers demanding environmental and climate justice. 

At least we are building momentum (at last) more and more people are waking up to the fact that it is not too late to make changes,they don't need to be big ones! and stop buying the products that we know are the worst ones for pollution and plastic waste.

The blog song for today is: "You don't even know me" by Al Stewart

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The 12 Arguments Every Climate Denier Uses – and How to Debunk Them - a report from: https://www.vice.com

 

The 12 Arguments Every Climate Denier Uses – and How to Debunk Them

"But what about China?"

by Imogen West-Knights

September 25, 2020, 10:15am

In Europe, you don’t often rub shoulders with someone who doesn’t believe in climate change. Although climate change denial is alive and well in America – not least in the White House – people here mostly accept that climate change is, to some degree, happening.

But that doesn’t mean climate denialism has gone away. Instead, according to new research from the University of Cardiff, it has simply changed shape, into something they call “discourses of delay”. These 12 arguments, favoured by politicians and industry figures, are a more subtle way of downplaying the need for action on climate change than full-on denialism, but no less corrosive to efforts to mitigate damaging climate effects. And they’re filtering into the public consciousness rapidly. Rather than arguing that climate change isn’t happening, now you hear people arguing that it’s too late, too difficult, too controversial, too unfair, too hasty, to take serious action on climate change.

How do you debunk these arguments when you hear them? Tackling these types of misinformation is no mean feat; often they’re put forward in good faith. But explaining to someone the fallacies behind these common discourses of delay can work as what Dr. William Lamb, one of the authors of the Cardiff paper, calls an “inoculation strategy” against future misinformation on climate change.

Here are their 12 discourses of delay, and what you can say to challenge them.

1. “Ultimately, it’s individuals and consumers who are responsible for taking action”

This narrative first came from the fossil fuel industry. “They funded carbon footprint calculators,” Dr John Cook, a research professor at the Centre for Climate Change Communication, tells me, “and my hat off to them for coming up with an incredibly effective PR strategy to distract the public from the real need, to transform how we create energy.”

It’s not pointless to try to avoid plastic, or to limit your meat consumption but we’ll never convince everybody to do that, plus there are socio-economic reasons why it isn’t possible for everyone. Even if we did, it would be like trying to drain the ocean with a pipette compared to systemic change in polluting industries. One hundred companies are responsible for 71 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions.

2. “The UK’s carbon footprint is tiny compared to China’s, so it doesn’t make sense for us to take action, at least until they do”

The report calls this “whataboutism”. The farming industry points the finger at the car industry, and vice versa. Politicians point out that their nation’s global carbon dioxide output is only small (in the UK it’s between 1 and 2 percent of the world total) and so justify inaction.

Firstly, every country could make a version of this argument, and if they did, there would be no hope to limit climate change. Secondly, that 1 to 2 percent figure is misleading, because per capita emissions in the UK are relatively high – about five times as high as India's, for instance. Thirdly, as a technologically and economically advanced nation, we are more able to take action than many other nations, and we have an additional historical responsibility to do so as a country that has polluted a great deal in the past.

3. “But if we start to reduce emissions, other countries will just take advantage of that to increase their emissions”

You can challenge the narrative that we are necessarily giving something up by lowering our carbon emissions. “There are a lot of benefits to be gained in our everyday lives from mitigating climate change, in terms of reducing local air pollution, more active travel, not spending so much money on fuel bills and so on,” says Lamb.

4. “People are developing new, green technology right now, we just need to wait for it”

If only. The aviation industry is particularly good at manipulating this argument, so good in fact that Matt Hancock recently claimed that “electric planes are on the horizon”. 

They aren’t. Or maybe they will be, in several decades time, but the IPCC finding is that we need to half our emissions in the next ten years. “You have to demonstrate that these technologies are going to be available in the timeframe that matters,” says Lamb, and at present, climate friendly planes are a pie in the sky.

5. “We’ve already declared a climate emergency and set ambitious targets”

Targets are emphatically not policies. As a global community, we are extremely bad at meeting environmental targets. Earlier this month, it was announced that humanity has missed every single one of the 2010 Aichi goals to protect world wildlife and ecosystems.

6. “We need to work with fossil fuel companies, their fuel is becoming more efficient and we’ll need them as a stopgap before widespread renewable energy use in the future”

This kind of greenwashing is “at the heart of industry pushback against regulation”, says the Cardiff report. It is not a foregone conclusion that we need fossil fuels for now in order to transition into using renewables in the future: “We can leapfrog it straight to renewables,” Cook tells me.

And we don’t have the time for a gentle climb down from fossil fuels: it’s ten years.

7. “People respond best to voluntary policies, and we shouldn’t try to force people to do anything”

Or in other words, what we need is carrots, not sticks. Things like funding high-speed rail to substitute flights, and not frequent flyer levies.

But restrictive measures are a normal and accepted part of life already. Seatbelts, for instance, are a restrictive measure enforced by law for the safety of drivers and their passengers, and the car industry pushed back against them hard when they were introduced. They also can and should be used in conjunction with incentives, it’s not an either/or.

8. “Taking action on climate change will generate huge social costs. The most vulnerable people in our society will suffer the most from increased taxation”

These are legitimate concerns if put forward in good faith. But, as Cook says, often this is “a straw man argument attacking a basically non-existent version of climate policies,” which are often designed with social justice in mind to ensure that this doesn't happen. 

In any case, you don’t have to increase taxation on the poorest people in society to mitigate climate change. Reducing the cost of train tickets is a good example. And frequent flier levies are a tax on the wealthiest people in our society, who by definition can afford it.

The most vulnerable in society are also the most negatively affected in terms of their health by continuing to burn fossil fuels – coal plants are near poorer parts of the country – and so in fact have the most to gain from green policy.

9. “Abandoning fossil fuels would slow the growth that has lifted billions of people out of poverty”

Unfortunately, this argument is often a leveraging of human suffering to protect the interests of fossil fuel giants. If we actually cared about the plight of these people, we would be providing renewable energy technology patent free. And fossil fuels are already causing drastic damage to lives in the global south. 

10. “We shouldn’t act until we’re sure we’ve got perfectly-crafted policies to address climate change”

We are more sure about the impacts and future risks of climate change than we are about cigarettes harming human health, and yet we enact policy to limit people smoking. We don’t need total certainty about outcomes to commit to climate policy, and we don’t require it in any other field of big government decisions, for example, going to war or, dare I say it, exiting the European Union. Taking decisive action on climate change is going to cause a great deal less suffering than either of those examples. 

11. “Any effective measure to reduce emissions would run counter to human nature and the way we live now, and so it would be impossible to implement in a democratic society”

This is a difficult one, to be fair. We have failed, so far, to change the way we live enough to avert climate disaster. But searching for a way through the challenges is not as impossible as this argument makes it seem. One way to counter this argument, Lamb says, is to look at historical analogies, social justice or civil rights movements, for instance, which have successfully “shifted opinion and shifted policies in the past”. 

12. “It’s too late to prevent catastrophic climate change and we should get ready to adapt or die”

Climate change is not a binary, of either having climate change or not. “We have already committed ourselves to some climate impacts” says Cook, “but it's not locked in just how bad it will be.” 

You could also argue that there’s a moral failing in taking this view. We in Western Europe, or North America aren’t the first or the most severely affected by climate change, and giving up is giving up on all the people who don’t happen to live where we do.

What a really good report, point 11 was really interesting, I agree it is difficult to make change, but with education we may start.  Everyone needs to do their part, make changes to what we buy,turn towards companies who are making changes, when the others start losing money (which really everything is about in this world) then maybe they will change too.

The eye grabber for me is:

One hundred companies are responsible for 71 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions.

The blog song for today is: " Aladdin Sane" by David Bowie

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Joe Manchin’s Final Betrayal: a report from the sierra club - https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/joe-manchin-s-final-betrayal

Joe Manchin’s Final Betrayal

It’s time at last to move on without him

By Josh Dorner | Jul 20 2022

Opinion
The opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the official position of the Sierra Club.

If you were creating a cartoon villain to play the leading role in the story of planetary destruction, it would be hard to top a literal coal baron who lives on a yacht, drives an Italian sports car, and rakes in hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from oil and gas executives and assorted billionaires. But here we are, with Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) single-handedly derailing our country’s (and perhaps humanity’s) last, best chance to finally pass climate legislation that will give us some hope of averting the most catastrophic effects of warming. 

How did we get here? After Manchin tanked Biden’s “Build Back Better” Act last December, it was he himself who proposed a slimmed-down version that he could live with. It would, he said, consist of tax increases on the wealthy and corporations, prescription drug pricing reforms, and major climate investments. “The climate thing is one that we probably could come to an agreement much easier than anything else,” he said in January. 

Not so much in July. Manchin’s excuse for sinking his own package last Friday, July 16—his latest in a series of excuses—is the red-hot rise in inflation that is squeezing family budgets. But inflationary  concerns simply don’t reflect economic reality. Raising taxes on the wealthy and corporations would have an anti-inflationary effect, and the bill’s climate investments—spread out over many years—would save families $500 a year on their energy bills. Besides, speeding up the transition to clean energy would also free us from our dependence on dirty, dangerous, and costly fossil fuels. The cheapest tank of gas is the one you never have to buy. 

Some point out that West Virginia is a deeply conservative, fossil-fuel-producing state. That’s true, but it’s also a state in desperate need of new investments and industries. The coal industry is dying, and there is really nothing Manchin or anyone else can do to change that. Clean energy is simply cheaper than fossil fuels, especially coal. A West Virginia University report (https://wvutoday.wvu.edu/stories/2020/12/14/report-renewable-energy-is-key-to-west-virginia-s-economic-future) found that the state could generate over 70 percent of its electricity from wind and solar by 2035, which would lead to a net increase in jobs. The state’s largest solar project is now being built on top of a former coal mine that went bankrupt in 2015.  

Senate Democrats had been reluctantly willing to go along with Manchin’s demands to boost fossil fuel production in the short-run and almost certainly would have given him even more concessions to secure his vote. “With his leverage, Manchin could have brought us anything—jobs, schools, restored mountains and rivers, opportunities. But he blew it,” wrote Mary Anne Hitt, a leading climate strategist (and former director of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign) who lives in West Virginia.  

So why did Manchin do it? Sometimes the answers are sitting out in plain sight. As The New York Times documented, Manchin became a millionaire by using his political influence to benefit his family’s coal business. Last year, he made more than $536,000 from the coal brokerage, which, as CNN noted, is more than three times his annual salary as a senator. In total, his interest in the coal business is worth millions of dollars. 

Manchin is also the single-largest recipient of campaign cash from the oil and gas industry. Tellingly, during a key moment in the Build Back Better negotiations last summer, he traveled to Texas for a fundraiser hosted by Republican donors from the oil and gas industry. Then this spring, reporters spotted him huddling with fracking billionaire Harold Hamm.

Manchin’s final betrayal united his party in outrage. “It seems odd that Manchin would choose as his legacy to be the one man who single-handedly doomed humanity,” said John Podesta, one of many Democrats who argued that Manchin should not be able to evade accountability. Undeterred, Manchin suggested on a West Virginia radio show that actually he was still possibly, maybe open to climate investments if Democrats give him until after the next inflation report is released in August to make up his mind. As climate policy expert Leah Stokes observed in The New York Times: “He simply doesn’t want to be held accountable for his actions. He has consistently said one thing and done another.”  

Where do we go from here? Perhaps the only positive consequence of Manchin’s betrayal is that President Biden is now free to take the kind of bold action he may have been holding back on for fear of upsetting Manchin during the course of these interminable negotiations. Biden is reportedly considering declaring a climate emergency as soon as this week. He needs to order the Environmental Protection Agency to act as quickly and boldly as possible to tackle climate pollution from power plants. On the other side of the coin, Biden needs to end new climate-killing fossil-fuel endeavors like ConocoPhillips’ Willow project in Alaska’s Western Arctic. It and other looming dirty and dangerous projects will do nothing to help families deal with gas prices today and are fundamentally incompatible with the president’s own ambitious climate change and public lands protection goals. 

It may sound trite, but the ultimate solution to this crisis—and many other serious challenges facing our country, like attacks on voting rights and reproductive freedom—will be up for a vote in November, when climate will be on top of the ballot. If we elect a couple more pro-climate-action senators, we’ll never have to worry about Joe Manchin again.   

Wow "this man" is really something else, unfortunately there are many more like "this man" who are in positions of authority.  Greed is a terrible thing, how much do they want? As long as people vote for people like him, the longer we will be in this awful mess.  We are all responsible and must take control.  Even a small change can make a difference.

It really is good to see more and more of these writers becoming more and more outspoken, wonderful, thank you!!

The blog song for today is: " On the border" by the wonderful Al Stewart

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Hugelkultur Gardens: No-Dig, Less Work, And Great Yields- a report from: https://gardenculturemagazine.com

 

Jul 8, 2022

by Catherine Sherriffs

Hugelkultur Gardens: No-Dig, Less Work, And Great Yields

Are you looking for a gardening method with no back-breaking work or expensive inputs? Then look no further than Hugelkultur! This no-dig technique has been around for centuries and involves creating thriving gardens from woody debris and other natural materials found around the yard. You’ll not only recycle logs, branches, and fallen leaves, but you’ll also be sequestering carbon and helping fight climate change. Go, you!     

What Is Hugelkultur?

Hugelkultur is a German word meaning “hill mound” or “mound culture”. And even though traditional practice involves building a hill or mound to grow on, you can also incorporate hugelkultur into raised beds and containers. The best part? It’s easy to do; gather soil and other woody debris from the yard and build your gardens on top of it. 

The Benefits of Hugelkultur

Before we learn how to build a hugelkultur garden, here are some of the benefits: 

• You’ll recycle and reuse naturally decomposing materials from around the yard.
• No-digging, saving precious soil life and your back! Need we say more?
• The natural materials will break down over time, continuously feeding the soil and your plants.
• The raw materials retain moisture, meaning less time wrestling with the hose.
• Natural decomposition keeps the earth warmer, perfect for growing in colder climates.
• The logs used at the bottom of the bed store carbon, meaning it won’t get released into the atmosphere.
• This technique works on rocky and compacted soil.

How To Build A Hugelkultur Garden

Making a hugelkultur garden bed is similar to making a lasagna; it involves a lot of layering.

First, select a site for the garden and be sure you won’t be moving it anytime soon. Remember, this bed is built to decompose over many years, up to 20, depending on the size you create. So you don’t want to be messing with it by changing locations. 

Once you’ve chosen your spot, walk around your landscape and collect some dead logs, twigs, and branches. Hardwood (maple, ash, oak, birch) is recommended because it takes longer to break down than softwood, but fallen poplar trees will work well too. 

Build a log pile anywhere between one and three feet tall. Make sure it’s nice and snug. You don’t want your garden to fall apart. Although hugelkultur is a no-dig method, some gardeners like to dig a trench to begin so the logs rest nicely at the bottom. If you’re using raised beds, there is no need to dig at all.  

Once you’ve placed your logs and branches, cover them with a layer of nitrogen-rich material, like grass clippings, sod (upside down), compost, seaweed, or aged manure. You can add some garden soil too. These will help begin the decomposition process with the logs. 

Cover the nitrogen layer with 6-12 inches of hay, straw, wood chips, or shredded leaves. This material will act as a mulch and help with water retention. 

Surrounding the mound or garden bed with rocks or logs will keep the soil from washing away.

Growing In Your Hugelkultur Garden

Now that you’ve created your garden, it’s time to start growing. 

If you have layered the above materials in a deep raised garden bed, you can plant as usual and reap the benefits of the slow decomposition. Doing this will save you a ton of money; you won’t have to order as much earth or compost to fill the bed. 

If you’ve created a hill or mound, remember that the top of the garden will be pretty dry, so plant crops that can tolerate arid conditions higher and thirsty crops toward the bottom of the hill. 

Remember that although you have a layer of nitrogen-rich material in the garden, it takes time to decompose. So, in your first year of hugelkultur, you’ll likely need to add more compost than usual. 

After year one, you won’t need to worry about this so much, but you’ll need to spread a thin layer of compost on the top before planting.  

Happy Hugelkultur Gardening! 

We love Charlie Nardozzi’s guide to hugelkultur gardening and no-dig techniques in general in :https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53020020-the-complete-guide-to-no-dig-gardening 

If you don't have a lot of space this seems like the ideal solution! 

The blog song for today is: " The only way is up" by Yazoo

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5 Helpful Tips to Reduce Your Plastic Use — And Why You Should - a report from: https://www.healthline.com

5 Helpful Tips to Reduce Your Plastic Use — And Why You Should

• Reusable bags
• Reusable silverware
• Food packaging
• Cosmetics
• Water bottles
• Bottom line

Plastic is one of the highest produced materials — and the least recycled. In 2018, only 8.6% of plastic created was recycled.

With everything from your shampoo to your bag of lettuce being wrapped in plastic, it might seem impossible to avoid it. But there are a number of ways to reduce the amount of plastic that you use on a regular basis.

If you’re looking to reduce your plastic waste to protect the environment and even save some of your hard-earned cash, try some of these helpful tips.

Cutting back on plastic can preserve reduce waste and limit emissions

Environmental and human health are affected at each stage of plastic production: the extraction of the raw materials needed to make it, the processing of plastics, and the release of microplastics into the air and water.

And, since the world produces over 400 million tons of plastic each year, there are a lot of resources being used and pollution created. In the United States, it’s estimated that each person generates more than 286 pounds of plastic waste each year.

One concern all that waste poses? Microplastics.(https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/microplastics)

Microplastics are plastic particles less than 5 millimeters in size that can be found in the water, in the air, and on land. This pollution is detrimental to the environment, animals, and human health.

Plus, making plastic requires the use of non-renewable fossil fuels. Burning fossil fuels sends poisonous gasses like nitrogen and ammonia into the atmosphere, contributing to smog and acid rain.

Not to mention, making plastic drains our planet’s natural resources.

Four percent of the world’s petroleum is used to make plastic, and another 4% is used to power the manufacturing of that plastic. With single-use plastic making up 40% of all plastic produced, the waste of resources adds up quickly.

Since plastic isn’t biodegradable, the only ways to get rid of it is to let it sit in landfills — where it heats up and breaks down into microplastics, polluting the air and water — or to burn it.

Burning plastic emits toxic gasses into the environment, which then settle into waterways, crops, and eventually our bodies.

Using less plastic reduces the need to create plastic, preserves fossil fuels, limits the emissions of dangerous gasses, and keeps waste from ending up in the air, waterways, and land.

Global corporations contribute to plastic waste, too

While it’s a great idea to curb your plastic use and engage in other sustainability efforts at home, remember that individual consumers aren’t solely to blame for plastic overconsumption and other issues affecting the Earth.

A 2019 report found that just 20 corporations produced more than half of the planet’s single-use plastic waste. What’s more, many international banks and world governments support these companies’ practices.

Activists argue that making eco-friendly changes in our daily lives is a great start — especially since shifting our habits may encourage companies to adjust their practices — but ultimately insufficient. They say we need to hold leaders accountable for protecting the planet.

Some ways to champion environmental protections include engaging with nonprofits dedicated to sustainability, divesting from companies that don’t align with your sustainable values, and urging elected representatives to take action.

1. Invest in reusable shopping bags

If your grocery haul comes with a surplus of plastic bags that inevitably end up in the trash, it might be time to invest in some alternatives.

It’s estimated that 5 trillion plastic bags are used each year.

The impact of plastic bags on the environment has become so severe that a number of states have imposed bans on single-use plastic bags. Several other states have focused on implementing more effective recycling programs.

Switch to a shopping bag that you can reuse over and over again. Reusable bags made from cotton, hemp, or burlap are the best choices, as they’re more easily up-cycled or recycled when their lifetime of hauling your groceries is over.

If you often buy loose fruits and vegetables, skip the plastic produce bags. Instead, use reusable mesh produce bags or make your own by sewing or pinning a flour sack into a make-shift bag.

2. Ditch disposables

If your trash can is filling up with plastic silverware, cups, straws, and plates, then you’re not only adding plastic to the landfills and waterways but throwing your money away with it.

Plastic disposables have been used for years as the ultimate convenience tool. Everything can just be tossed and forgotten about instead of washed and put away.

The 2019 International Coastal Cleanup organized by the Ocean Conservancy picked up 23,333,816 pounds of trash off of coasts and waterways. This included over 2.6 million pieces of plastic cutlery, cups, and plates.

The popularity of plastic disposables ramped up exponentially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Up to August 2021, there was an estimated 8.4 million tons of pandemic-associated plastic waste produced.

Because many businesses turned to disposables to avoid contamination from reusable utensils and plates, eating out led to more plastic waste than it had before.

Instead of buying one-time-use dinnerware, invest in cups, plates, straws, and silverware that can be washed and used again and again.

While doing the dishes or loading and unloading the dishwasher isn’t always fun, it keeps plastic out of landfills and off the beaches.

When eating out, pack a fork or chopsticks and a reusable straw in your bag. Just wrap it in a cloth to keep it clean and politely turn down any plastic options offered to you.

3. Pay attention to the packaging

In most grocery stores, it’s impossible to get away with a plastic-free trip. Unless you’re fortunate enough to live near a bulk foods store, your groceries — from produce to bread, meat, peanut butter, and cheese — all comes wrapped in plastic.

Plastic does make things more convenient when shopping, but the conveniences comes at the cost of extra waste.

When buying produce, choose loose items and pack them in your own reusable bag. And when given the choice between a loose head of lettuce or a bag of pre-chopped washed greens, consider the less convenient but plastic-free option.

When buying packaged foods, choose ones sold in glass, paper, or aluminum packaging if possible. These alternative food packages are more easily reused and recycled than plastic.

4. Green up your beauty routine

When it comes to your beauty routine, how much plastic is sitting in your drawers, on your bathroom counter, or in your shower?

The zero-waste and sustainable living movements have been building momentum in recent years and have brought with them a wave of more sustainable beauty and hygiene products.

Swap plastic soap and shampoo bottles for bars that come wrapped in paper (www.suubio.org). And, when that time of the month comes around, consider skipping the pads or tampons and investing in a reusable menstrual cup.

Not only do these swaps save on plastic waste, but they also add up to big money and space savings.

5. Bring your own bottle

If you’re getting your eight glasses a day from plastic bottles, your water habits — while good for you — could be harming the environment.

While bottled water can be a lifeline for people who otherwise don’t have access to safe water due to disaster, location, or other circumstances, it’s become an everyday consumable for many people that poses environmental risks.

There’s some evidence that water bottled in plastic might not be great for our bodies, either. Bottled water from 11 different brands, purchased from 19 different locations in 9 countries, was tested and discovered to contain microplastics.

The study authors said that while we don’t know a lot about how microplastic consumption may affect human health andt that more research is needed, there may be good reasons to limit bottled water use if possible.

With 70 million disposable water bottles being used and tossed each day, microplastics are continuously filling up landfills and waterways.

From manufacturing and shipping to the cost of waste, bottled water comes with an environmental price. Researchers in Spain found that the environmental impact of bottled water is 1400–3500 times greater than tap water.

To do your part, drink from the tap.

If you have concerns over the taste or safety of your water, have it checked by your municipal agency and install a filter or use a pitcher with a water filter attached. You’ll save plastic waste and have access to great-tasting water at your fingertips.

Consider investing in a water bottle that’s fun and easy to carry with you. Choose one slim enough to fit in your car or bike cup holder, that closes tight to prevent leaks, and has a handle to make carrying it easy.

If purchasing water on the go is a must, try an alternative like Boxed Water, which claims to have a 36% lower carbon footprint than plastic bottled water and can easily be refilled and reused.

The bottom line

While most plastic claims to be recyclable, the fact is that most of it ends up in landfills, the oceans, or other parts of the environment, contributing to plastic pollution.

You can do your part to fight plastic pollution by making small changes at home. For example, consider swapping single-use plastics like grocery bags and water bottles for reusable options.

Just one thing

Try this today: Microplastics are harmful to the environment, but you may wonder if they have the potential to harm your body as well. Learn more about microplastics and how they affect your health.

https://www.healthline.com/health-news/how-dangerous-are-microplastics-to-your-health

This was a very interesting article highlighting what I have been trying to get across!  Just a small action can make a lot of difference.  I am proud to say that I do make my own soap,shampoo,shower gels and other things.  The amount of plastic not used is very impressive. Not only do these things cut down on plastic,they are also good for the environment because it is only natural products that are being put down the drain! They are also great for us because they have no chemicals in them! It is a win win all around!

So to everyone of us out there keeping on with our battle, well done,we ARE making a difference.

The blog song for today is: " Since you've been gone" by Rainbow

TTFN

 

How Mushrooms And The Mycelium Network Are Healing The World- a report by : https://gardenculturemagazine.com

 

Jun 15, 2020

by Rich Hamilton

How Mushrooms And The Mycelium Network Are Healing The World.

Plants have been around for a long time; 700 million years to be exact. But fungi have been on Earth longer, making the first appearance on land 1,300 million years ago. Interestingly enough, the largest living organism in the world today is a honey fungus that measures 2.4 miles (3.8 km) in the Blue Mountains of Oregon. 

Fungi Facts

Fungi exist almost everywhere that moisture is present. They can be found as single-celled organisms that are invisible to the naked eye or as multiple-celled organisms, such as mushrooms.

Fungi do not reproduce through sexual reproduction, seed, or photosynthesis, but rather through spores. These spores germinate to produce a dense network of interweaved, single-cell structures known as hyphae, which collectively assemble with incredible precision into much more complex structures called mycelium. The word “mycelium” is derived from New Latin and Greek origins and means “more than one”. The growth of mycelium is rapid; they release enzymes that help break down matter into a more digestible form, which they take in as energy.

Fungi belong to a group of decomposers that includes bacteria, nematodes, snails, beetles, and earthworms. They help break down dead plant and animal matter into more soluble forms of simple sugars, nitrates, and phosphates that are used by other decomposers or for food by plants. Fungi are so numerous that they make up a large proportion of the biomass in all ecosystems. 

Essential To Life

The ecosystem and plants do not exist without fungi. Nutrients are rarely found in a soluble enough form for a plant’s roots to take up. Nitrogen, for example, the nutrient needed in the most significant amounts by plants, is usually trapped within proteins that cannot be easily accessed. That’s where fungi come in, metabolizing proteins and transforming them into more soluble nitrates.

A group of complex fungi exists that can form symbiotic (mutually beneficial) relationships with plants. Mycorrhizal fungi facilitate the transfer of nutrients from the soil into the plant roots, and in return, receive carbon from the plant.

These symbiotic relationships begin when mycorrhizal fungus colonize a plant’s root zone and then spread out densely into the medium, forming a massive web that increases the surface area of the roots and the capacity for absorption. This web hyphae or “mycelium” can increase root mass by 300-8000 times the original size. Hyphae are so small they can squeeze and push their way around rocks and other obstructions, making collecting nutrients for the plants an easy task. 

Picture This

Imagine the mycelium as if it is a giant sponge that is attached to plant roots, soaking up large amounts of water and nutrients. The plants, as a result, receive a much improved and increased take-up of all the essential nutrient elements, but especially elemental phosphorus (P) zinc ( Zn) manganese (Mn) copper (Cu) and water.

The mycelium of a single mycorrhiza can extend and connect multiple plants of different species. They form a hybrid underground system called a “common mycorrhizal network”. This network allows plants to communicate as they transport sugar supplies to one another when they are needed.

Networks can be extraordinarily vast or widespread. Mycelium can be hundreds or even thousands of miles long, all compacted into a tiny area. It is estimated that there can be at least 200km of hyphae in every kilogram of soil! 

Fungi And Human Health

Beyond plants, humans have also been successfully harnessing the incredible powers of fungi for thousands of years. For example, yeast, which is widely used for fermentation, produces countless products that we use every day. Medical science successfully applied the process of liquid fermentation to their research. In 1978, the first biosynthetic insulin using E. coli as a single-celled manufacturing plant was created and became one of the most compelling discoveries in the past 100 years.

Science has concentrated on learning about, cultivating, and manipulating fungi such as yeast, bacteria, and algae to its advantage. Fungi can be used in lifesaving drugs, bio-based fuels such as corn ethanol, fragrances, and other useful, small biological molecules.

Mycelium And Mushrooms

Mycelium has the potential to grow into much larger structures, also known as mushrooms. The mushrooms that we eat are just a small, visible part of the fungi organism. Like flowers, mushrooms bloom during certain times of the year when the conditions are just right; they are the fruit of these reproducing fungi. In nature, the chances of mushroom spores germinating and then producing a mushroom are quite slim. Environmental conditions have to be just right for a mushroom to grow. This explains why some species of mushrooms are so rare, sought after, and highly valued.

Mycologists can cultivate a specific species of mushroom as it forms in an environment where conditions are optimal. Under lab conditions, the mycelium can be persuaded to build a particular structure through the control of the variables of temperature, CO2, humidity, and airflow. The growth of mycelium fibers present as a visible speck after just a few hours. Within one week, it can transform into an 18”x12” sheet, 2” thick and weighing several pounds.

Mushroom Fibers Useful In So Many Ways

Much effort is put into recreating and manipulating the growth of mushroom fibers because they offer so many benefits to our lives. When used as a controlled technology, mycelium can help reduce the use of plastics. Mycelium is also used to produce materials for a wide range of items, including packaging, clothing, food, and construction materials. 

Mycelium is also a valid meat alternative; think plant-based steak. Eating more vegetarian foods has been found to have a minimal environmental footprint by reducing the greenhouse gas emissions and harmful effects on agricultural land commonly associated with raising cattle.

The production of mycelium-based, self-repairing structures, where you add water and watch them grow is a fantastic development that shows the possible potential of using fungi in new and exciting ways. There are also mycelium cultivation projects in development by DARPA, which see mycelium automatically produce antidotes when exposed to specific toxins. DARPA is an agency of the United States Department of Defense, responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military.

Self-assembling organisms maintain natural ecosystems. Fungi, its mycelium, and subsequent mushroom fruit play an integral role in sustaining all plant life and natural processes. With natural and raw resources being overused and wasted, it makes perfect sense that we should use anything we can to steer and repair our stressed environment. 

So Much Left To Learn

Biological technology is a powerful and untapped resource. With appropriate research and development, we can put it to good use. Previously put into the same culinary box as vegetables and herbs, mushrooms and fungi have a much higher worth than what they were originally thought to possess. We are only now starting to unlock their true potential and special magic.

I find this topic extremely interesting in so many different ways!  I will be looking into this subject more in the future!  I have heard that mycelium can be used to clear up oil spills! It can eat anything (except for our supreme enemy plastic, but apparantly they have discovered a bug that eats it)

Watch this space!

The blog song for today is: " Mellow Yellow"by Donovan

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