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quote:
Originally posted by james weatherford
quote:
Originally posted by ironyak
One last try, to fulfill my interest in the topic:
James - what are your specific ideas for sustainability in Pahoa's future and how do they relate to the architecture and design of the town?
For starters, buildings and other 'built environment' that use energy and water in a conservative manner that leaves plenty for the future, and that are, overall less destructive to living systems through extraction, toxicity, and depletion.
It is the outcome that is important, not the input.
That is feel-good nonsense. Go into any building in old Pahoa and the business owners already have most of the lights turned off and good luck finding anything but a restaurant that lets one use the restroom.
In fact, I am not even sure that any of the restaurants even have hot water available to wash your hands with, in the restrooms.
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"destructive to living systems through extraction, toxicity, and depletion."
You can't find a more toxic industry than solar pv panels.
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there is very little of old plantation Keaau left and it was a community decision to not preserve
The "free-range arsenic contamination preserve" has been left in is natural state...
You can't find a more toxic industry than solar pv panels.
Manufacturing moved to China where there are no environmental protection regulations which artificially increase the cost. Fortunately for us, all this pollution is in China where it can't possibly affect our lifestyle here; we just harvest the pristine electricity, no emissions at all.
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Well if you ignore the facts that the Chinese can't produce copper fast enough and that they are importing it from Chile and Peru and Oh Yeh the USA is the number 4 producer in the world and the copper wire you use to hook up you panels may be killing children in Utah because of emissions from Kennecott Copper.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kennecott_Utah_Copper
Puna relevance,We have a pollution free resource here that a minority protests when we try to use it !
Please look at that link and compare those pictures to PGV.
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Hate to break it to some people but what happens in China doesn't stay in China, and it directly impacts Hawaii. This is a map of carbon monoxide clouds heading out into the Pacific. Generally, they tend north but sometimes dips down to Hawaii.
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Natural...p?id=10531
So, the element silicon is starting to be noticed. Sand is mostly silicon and it takes the purest sand to manufacture solar cells. Then why not just melt some sand and have a solar cell? Because the silicon has to be doped to be an electron carrier. And just so happens, higher efficiency solar panels need more and different combinations of rare earth elements. Extracting rare earth elements is very complex, power gobbling and uses huge amounts of water, which is why the major US suppliers quit a few decades ago, plus they ran into their insurmountable problem back then, unmanageable amounts of radioactive thorium as waste from the extraction process. In China, they don't have any of these problems, to keep driving the prices down. Here is what they do with their rare earth extraction waste.
http://a.abcnews.com/images/Internationa...x3_992.jpg
Let's get that solar panel plant in Pohoiki now.
"Aloha also means goodbye. Aloha!"
*Japanese tourist on bus through Pahoa, "Is this still America?*
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We could go back to whale oil.
Assume the best and ask questions.
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@Rob - Or lamps from kukui nut oil - nuts are a little easier to grow and less messy to harvest than whales.
@Obie - And pray tell how does that electricity reach from PGV to your home? Through the ether? If you have electricity, you're using copper and play your part in its extraction.
Unless of course you're a mad genius like Tesla?
http://www.damninteresting.com/teslas-tower-of-power/
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Yeah but whales are like shopping at Costco. Everybody loves Costco.
Assume the best and ask questions.
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LOL - that we do.
Would be interested in your opinion of the topic at hand. Another approach to sustainability is longevity of materials and structures of course. Any thoughts on that approach as applied to Pahoa (re)development?
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Yeah, most simple analysis of "sustainability" ignores lifespan. If one structure lasts 35 years and another lasts 150 years the issue of embodied energy tends to diminish for the longer life structure.
In 1940 the YBA built a spectacular 2 story building, Japanese craftsmanship to the hilt, where the current YBA hall is now across from the old Pahoa fire house/Community Center. The building was demolished in 1975 because it was riddled with termites. Structurally unsound. The replacement structure, nowhere near as elegant, is cinder block. The YBA learned its lesson.
Assume the best and ask questions.
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