How about a thread...................

[indygal]

I LOVE this story!!! This is how one person can make a huge impact.

Little Soaps Satisfy Big Demand in Haiti
Non-Profit Helps Country Combat Spread of Disease With Donations of Slightly Used Soap Bars From American Hotels
By Seth Doane

CBS)  With all this worry over the H1N1 flu virus, there's a lot of talk about hygiene. Even President Obama has urged us to wash our hands. But this simple act is a global problem when one in five people live without clean water, and 5 percent live without adequate sanitation.

It's too often the case in Haiti where a worldly offering sets off a scramble. It's not for free food or medicine but soap.

Precious here, the handouts would've been trash in the United States if not for Shawn Seipler.

"I thought there would be anxiety or desperation for it, but not nearly to the degree I just saw," Seipler told CBS News Correspondent Seth Doane.

This mission to Haiti was born almost a year ago, when Seipler and his colleague Paul Till were salesmen sporting six-figure salaries.

They got to wondering about those little bars of hotel soap, which most of us use just once.

"There are 4.6 million hotel rooms across the United States," Seipler said. "We started doing the math and figured that's a lot of soap that's being tossed out."

He estimates that's 1.5 million bars hitting American landfills every day, a number so staggering it inspired them to quit their jobs and launch a non-profit called Clean the World.

They collect soap from 80 Orlando, Fla., hotels, use restaurant steamers to remove impurities and repackage the bars for shipment. Most hotels jumped right on board.

"We had this 900 room hotel that needed a place to put its slightly used amenities," said Marshall Kelberman, director of the rooms department for Orlando's Peabody Hotel. "It just felt like it was a match made in heaven."

It's a shoestring operation with an ambitious goal.

"Yes, it's about recycling," Seipler said. "It's about preventing landfill waste ... but it's also about taking those items ... and handing them to people who are dying because they don't have soap."

In Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, disease spreads easily.

Garbage clogs gutters, fills rivers and seems to suffocate life.

Worldwide, 2 million people die every year from diarrhea, often caused by poor sanitation. Most are under the age of five, 8,000 children in Haiti alone.

Studies suggest simple hand washing could cut those deaths by up to 30 percent. But that's not as simple as it sounds.

In a market in Cap-Haitien, a woman sells soap for a little less than a dollar a bar, which doesn't sound like much, but you've got to consider that three-quarters of Haiti's population lives on less than $2 a day.

Some students here may sing about soap, but their school's headmaster says those lessons are often lost at home.

"Because it's just too expensive?" Doane asked headmaster Jayce Dortelus.

"It is; they can't afford it," Dortelus said.

So far, Clean the World has distributed 60,000 bars.

While it's only a dent, it's had a big impact on Seipler's spirit.

"It was crystal clear," Seipler said while tapping his head. "But it wasn't until we came here until it really got into the heart."

Hope by the handful in a place where just a sliver is reason to cheer.

[indygal]

The windmill builder used a nail fastened to a corncob as a screw driver. This is a story of determination, ingenuity and focus that tells me not all is lost for humanity, there is still hope. Thanks for sharing, Pam!

[sixdogsmom]

Indy, I heard the soap story on NPR yesterday as I drove to Independence. It reminds me of the little girl in NY a few years back who began collecting odd gloves and mittens to pass out to the homeless she saw on the cold winter streets. People all over the country started sending her odd gloves.

[pamsback]

'Imagineer' touts geothermal energy invention
By Azadeh Ansari
CNN
     
(CNN) -- Hidden under a quaint resort 60 miles northeast of Fairbanks, Alaska, lies a treasure trove of potential energy that's free and available 24/7.


"Imagineer" Bernie Karl and his wife, Connie, own Chena Hot Springs Resort near Fairbanks, Alaska.

Karl, 56, likes to call himself an "imagineer."

Using imagination to fuel his engineering ambitions, this tenacious thinker and self-starter has figured out a way to generate electricity using water that's the temperature of a cup of coffee -- about 165 degrees Fahrenheit.

"There's more opportunity now than there has ever been in the history of man, but we have to reinvent ourselves," Karl said.

Karl was determined to reinvent the way he consumed energy after he and his wife, Connie, purchased the Chena Hot Springs Resort from the state of Alaska in 1998.

"After we purchased the hot spring, I couldn't believe it, the swimming pool and the hot spring were being heated by diesel fuel, 1,000 gallons every month!" Karl said.

To slash costs and to use resources that were right under his nose, Karl invented a portable geothermal power plant.

In a little more than three years, Karl and his wife have severed the facility's dependence on diesel fuel and have saved $625,000, he said.

He says he's partnered with the Department of Energy to fund half of a $1.4 million exploration project to find and characterize the geothermal resources at Chena Hot Springs, he said.

"It's a model for what you can do," said Karl.

Karl developed his tenacity from growing up as the sixth child of 16 siblings on a farm outside of Peoria, Illinois.

He said his parents taught him hard work, how to recycle his clothes and shoes, and how to compost food and farm wastes.

In the late 1970s, Karl was active in gold mining in Alaska's Central District, and he established the state's largest recycling facility in 1984, he said.

Many of his ideas stem from finding alternative ways to use and reuse resources he already has at his fingertips.

After acquiring the 400-acre resort, Karl began trapping water from the underground hot springs, which produce enough power to heat the facility's greenhouses year-round.

Most recently, Karl has turned his invention into a separate business by contracting with Peppermill hotel and casino in Reno, Nevada, to build a similar system there.

His portable geothermal generator units cost from $350,000 to $375,000, each with the potential to generate enough power for 250 average American homes per year.

'Hot taps'

His energy-generating machine lies on a flatbed truck and can be hooked up to oil and gas wells or other heat-emitting sources to generate electricity.

Karl adds a branch connection to an oil or gas pipeline, and the process begins when he "hot taps" into waste water coming through the pipes.

The hot water enters the tubes of an evaporator encased in a common refrigerant found in many air conditioning systems.

As the hot water passes through the evaporator, it begins to boil the refrigerant in the casing surrounding the tubes. The heat given off by the boiling refrigerant then causes an attached turbine to spin, which jump-starts a generator, producing electrical power.

Next, cooling water enters from another source, recondensing the vapor refrigerant into a liquid.

A pump pushes the liquid refrigerant back to the evaporator, so the cycle can start again.

The difference in temperatures drives the entire "binary system." This setup works exactly the opposite of a refrigerator.

"Chena Hot Springs is home to the lowest-temperature geothermal resource to be used for commercial power production in the world," Karl said.

"Oil companies don't drill wells for water, but they have some 5,000 kilowatts of geothermal power at their disposal in unused oil wells. Let's pick the low-hanging fruit and use the wells we have for oil for geothermal power," he said.

Citing a 2007 Massachusetts Institute of Technology study, Karl said harnessing just 2 percent of Earth's internal energy could provide 2,000 times more energy than the entire planet currently consumes -- all free of polluting greenhouse gas emissions.

"Everything goes back, there is no pollution, no smokestack," he said. "We are going to go recycle oil wells and recycle water and put it back in the ground."

Sizzle from the center of the Earth

Though Karl's lower-temperature approach is new, for more than a century, people have been trying to generate electricity from the heat that sizzles from the center of the Earth -- using it to cook, bathe and for electricity.

In fact, the word "geothermal" comes from the Greek words geo (Earth) and therme (heat).

"We've determined that heat mining can be economical in the short term, based on a global analysis of existing geothermal systems, an assessment of the total U.S. resource and continuing improvements in deep-drilling and reservoir stimulation technology," said MIT professor Jefferson W. Tester.

In a 2007 study, professors at MIT found that mining the huge amounts of heat that reside as stored thermal energy in the Earth's hard rock crust could supply a substantial portion of the electricity the United States will need in the future, probably at competitive prices and with minimal environmental impact.

"... if we just drill deep enough, most of the U.S. can be transformed into a huge geothermal power zone while drastically reducing the nation's carbon footprint," the MIT report said.

Widespread geothermal power fuels electricity in a couple dozen countries, with the small island nation of Iceland leading the pack.

An unusual abundance of geothermal sources creates 30 percent of Iceland's energy, according to its National Energy Authority.

"Imagination is so important," said Karl, whose resort houses 65 employees and can house 210 guests at maximum capacity.

"If Bernie Karl, one of the smallest mom-and-pop operators in the world, can do these things, then why can't all of us?"

[Diane Amberg]

Been there, seen the hot springs. Rustic and nice. He had a great idea, but ya gotta have the natural resource to make it work.

[redcliffsw]

Speaking of resources, the guy partnered with Dept of Energy for $1.4 million.
Well folks, that $700,000 that the gov't had no business giving away, no matter
how good the project sounded.  

There's a lot of gov't money being spent on alternative energy sources even
though oil & natural gas are available and easy to use.      

[pamsback]

 

[pamsback]

Been there, seen the hot springs. Rustic and nice. He had a great idea, but ya gotta have the natural resource to make it work.

My intent is more about showing how people are takin advantage of their INDIVIDUAL handy resources to make a difference instead of pushin one or the other Diane. I'm tired of the crotchety, negative on the other threads and wanted to let a little positive in so it ain't so oppressive in here. Red, I don't give a shit what the government is or isn't "supporting" that isn't what this is about either.

That's why I chose this one..I have heard a lot about these "subscription" farms and was researchin it. I think it is a good idea.

Community Supported Agriculture in the Ozarks
By Katherine L. Adam
NCAT Agriculture Specialist
kadam@ncatark.uark.edu
   
Community Supported Agriculture, or CSA, represents a direct connection between the consumer and a local, small farm. A community of individuals pledge support to a farm so that the farmland becomes, either legally or spiritually, the community's farm, with growers and consumers providing mutual support and sharing the risks and benefits of food production. Members or shareholders of the farm or garden pledge in advance to cover anticipated costs of the farm operation and farmer's salary. In return, they receive shares in the farm's production throughout the growing season, as well as satisfaction gained from reconnecting to the land. Members also share in risks, including poor harvest due to unfavorable weather or pests.

In the Ozarks, typically, small farmers solicit customers for a CSA, rather than a group of customers hiring a farmer and renting land. Shares are typically secured well before the growing season begins.

In the Northwest Arkansas part of the Ozarks are three CSA farms: Wildfire Farm, operated by Marcie Brewster and Diane Schumacher, at Huntsville (Madison County); Charlotte's Ranch, operated by Mark and Linda Scarano, in Fayetteville (Washington County), west of I-540; and the Heifer Ranch, operated near Perryville by the non-profit Heifer Project International, on the fringes of the Ozarks, near the Arkansas River, Little Rock, and Conway.

Wildfire Farm has been in business several years and serves Carroll, Madison, and Washington counties. Experienced gardeners Marcie Brewster and Diane Schumacher provide seasonal vegetables to 10 shareholders. Fayetteville shareholders pick up weekly at a designated central location. Shareholders are welcome to come out and visit the remote, isolated farm to view the gardens, swim, or perhaps spend the night in a yurt. E-mail at wildfirefarm@mailcity.com

Charlotte's Ranch, operated for the past two years by Mark Scarano and Linda Tichenor with assistance this year from Sarah Spurrier, provides produce twice weekly from May to October (about 26 weeks). Shareholders pick up at the farm, located on the historic Cato Springs Road in SW Fayetteville, in the shadow of Mt. Kessler. Share prices begin with a half share ($250) for one person all the way to the El Grande share (7 to 10 people) at $570/season. A Benton County pick-up site is being arranged. Charlotte's Ranch is certified organic by Arkansas Certified Organic (Mountain View, AR 72560). See the website www.charlottesranch.com

The Heifer Ranch CSA, operated on the grounds of the Perryville headquarters of Heifer Project International under the direction of gardeners Chuck Crimmons and Andy Olson, serves the Little Rock and Conway areas. (I can personally attest that the site has the requisite rock outcroppings to qualify as still being in the Ozarks.) Area families or individuals can purchase a share or half-share of garden produce, which is then delivered to a local drop off spot in the central Arkansas area every week during the growing year (approx. 26 weeks of delivery, from late April to the end of October). Harvest includes organic vegetables, flowers and herbs, as well as a weekly garden newsletter with information and recipes. Shareholders can volunteer to work in the gardens and experience first hand the rewards of freshly grown produce for a reduced rate. Contact the gardener, Chuck, at Heifer Ranch for more information and how to sign up. (501-889-5124 x3650).

Sixteen CSA farms currently operate in Missouri, 2 of them in the Ozarks (southern MO). They include:

Autumn Lane Farm, Springfield, serving Greater Springfield, Greene, and Christian Counties, is operated by the Ison family. (417) 833-2072.

Berger Bluff Farm, Berger, MO, is in its 12th year of subscription farming (CSA), serving families in the St. Louis area. This is a certified organic farm with historic log buildings on-site. Bbfarm@fidonet.com

Other CSA farms in Missouri serve St. Louis, Columbia, Jefferson City, Kirksville, Greater Kansas City, and north central Missouri.

See USDA's National Agricultural Library website www.nal.usda.gov/afsic/csa for a national database of CSA farms. See the Robyn van En Center website www.csacenter.org for further information on the CSA concept.
 

[Tobina+1]

Cool idea, Pam.  My parents are involved in a "food coop" group.  I don't know all the details, but basically people from the city put food orders in, and the group of farmers that are involved then fill the order and deliver it.  The list of food items they can order from will differ based on season and availability, but it's a good way for farmers to band together to offer many types of products.  Heck, my parents even sold a bunch of their squash this summer!

[Diane Amberg]

Pam, I was agreeing with you totally! Every area that has a specific resource should use it. There can't be one "fix" for everyone. Where they exist, thermal resources are wonderful, but not everyone can tap into it affordably. For some, solar power will become even more important, as will wind and water power. Like it or not,for some areas it will need to be nuclear and for some coal and oil  will still be important for as long as there is any than can be affordably tapped.