[LINK] Scientists offered cash to dispute climate study

[Kim Holburn]

On 2007/Feb/06, at 1:33 AM, Stewart Fist wrote:
> Kim writes
>
>> Yes but it also pays to watch the money-trail of global warming  
>> deniers.
>
> Let's not be too one-sided about this.   As in most of the  
> ecological and
> health arguments, there is often a money trail on both sides.
>
> In this case, clearly most of the money is with denial at present, but
> there's a growing amount of profit in promoting wind-turbines,  
> solar cells,
> and the like, and I'll bet they are also being generous to their  
> friends.

Good point but at the moment the deniers have vastly more money than  
the wind-turbine/solar camp though.

> I've just written a long piece on the eco-friendly idea of drinking  
> recycled
> sewage (ie Toowoomba) and the money trail here was decided with the
> ecologists, as were the politicians and the media.

Yeah I can see how in that case the eco-business side would have no  
businesses allied against them so it would be money on just one side.

> In fact it was a battle between those who thought any measure to  
> save water
> was justified, and those who though any restriction to prevent health
> epidemics was even more important.
>
> Like most civil wars between activists who are normally allies,  
> this fight
> got very nasty.
>
> The media, in its simplistic way, just saw the No voters as Luddites.

Yeah?  I guess that the problem is that if something goes wrong in  
your poo to table cycle and you can get health problems.

It amazes me that we in Australia still only look at the problem as  
all water supplied to houses must be best quality drinking water.  In  
Hong Kong they have two water systems, drinking water and flushing  
water which is just sea water.  Granted they are a small, very  
densely populated spot but surely we could start looking at other  
options.

An architect friend of mine was describing a modern grey water  
recycling system and said you used it for flushing.  We could start  
encouraging this.  Also there was a very interesting article about  
separating toilets in the New scientist a while back.

http://environment.newscientist.com/channel/earth/mg19225831.600- 
peecycling.html

> Pee-cycling
>
>     * 20 December 2006
>     * Graham Lawton
> From issue 2583 of New Scientist magazine, 20 December 2006, page  
> 45-47

> You recycle your household waste. You buy locally grown food, fit  
> low-energy light bulbs and try not to use the car unnecessarily.  
> Maybe you even irrigate the garden with your bath water. But you've  
> still got an environmental monster in your house. Your toilet is  
> wrecking the planet.
>
> Before you point to the brick you've put in the cistern, it's not  
> about the water - well, not entirely. The big problem is pee. Your  
> pee. Do you flush it away without a second thought? Tsk, tsk. Lose  
> the green halo.
>
> At first sight urine looks like an unlikely environmental menace.  
> What harm could come from flushing away a fluid that is mostly  
> water, plus a smidge of proteins and salts? Surprisingly, the  
> answer is "a lot".
>
> The problem with urine is that it is the main source of some of the  
> chemical nutrients that have to be removed in sewage treatment  
> plants if they are not to wreck ecosystems downstream. Despite  
> making up only 1 per cent of the volume of waste water, urine  
> contributes about 80 per cent of the nitrogen and 45 per cent of  
> all the phosphate. Peeing into the pan immediately dilutes these  
> chemicals with vast quantities of water, making the removal process  
> unnecessarily inefficient.
>
> To be fair, if you use conventional western plumbing there's not an  
> awful lot you can do about your personal pee-print right now. A  
> lucky few, however, live or work in one of the buildings in  
> continental Europe where you can find a future must-have eco- 
> accessory: the urine separation toilet. These devices divert urine  
> away from the main sewage stream, allowing the nutrients to be  
> recycled rather than treated as waste. They could solve all the  
> environmental problems associated with urine and even turn sewage  
> plants into net producers of green, clean energy.


--
Kim Holburn
IT Network & Security Consultant
Ph: +39 06 855 4294  M: +39 3342707610
mailto:kim at holburn.net  aim://kimholburn
skype://kholburn - PGP Public Key on request

Democracy imposed from without is the severest form of tyranny.
                           -- Lloyd Biggle, Jr. Analog, Apr 1961