See the video.

I loved the idea of urban skyscraper farms. I loved it so much I called the professor in New York who invented the plans for them. We had a nice chat about his retirement and I accepted his sales pitch to purchase his book on the topic.

Links to illustration design detail shown above is here and is called “The Living Tower” by SOA Architects.

Columbia University professor Dickson Despommier instructed his students to design solutions to the impending world hunger crisis.  His motivation to take agriculture indoors in order to allow the land to heal is a result of the notion that the earth’s soils are too toxic and abused. By growing fish, poultry, vegetables, and  fruit in buildings using aeroponic, hydroponic, and other energy greenhouse technologies, his designs would be equipped to feed about 50,000 people regularly. Designs are multi-purpose and house residential units, recreation facilities,  and business offices.

Construction and design firms, scientists, and engineers bought into the idea and presented models all over the world to implement this expensive undertaking. The first was to open in Las Vegas in 2010. However, none have been constructed. They are very costly to build.

A concern is that in urban areas where such skyscrapers would address a multitude of healthy food challenges, in addition to eliminating the transport of foods to cities, is that without subsidies these units would only be affordable for the wealthy. Food would still be sold to the community by wealthy stakeholders, and in terms of reducing overall food costs, I am skeptical. There’s no evidence that  this alternative agriculture would allow middle and low income communities to benefit financially.

I attended the lecture the other day.. The speaker was Ft Worth’s Director of Transportation and Public Works, Douglas Weirsig.

My understanding of sustainability that evening was not enhanced by the notion of cost being the major constraint for any project except the buttons in the roads. Those are expensive but people like them. I did learn al lot about city operations and projects. Here’s a summary:

He talked about the affects of changing curbs in the medians from straight to mountable styles and shrinking them in order to reduce vehicle and road damage leading to more maintenance. Also, placing trees in medians look nice but create road damage as the roots suck up water, create cavities under the roads, and crack the cement or asphalt.

The asphalt roads do reduce noise pollution but is not as sturdy as the smoother cement. They have gaps between the pebbles that suck in noise. The larger the gaps, the more noise it reduces, but also the less permanent the covering is.

Other topics included signage and multi-municipality cooperation. School zones have multiple signs: One indicating the zone and then another indicating the change in speed limits. This can be combined to save money. When roads cross over into other municipalities, a lot of haggling over construction and maintenance might occur, but it is up to the departments involved to hash it out depending on available funds.

Traffic circles reduce gas consumption because traffic flows easier if the circle is large enough. Circles too small are ineffective and restricts traffic flow. The department is looking to install more traffic circles in the city.

Source: http://resilientambassadors.com/2011/07/do-your-grocery-shopping-from-the-train-station/

Using your bar code app on your smart phone, while in the subway in South Korea, you can snap a pic of the product you want delivered to your home after work.

It’s a hit, claims grocer Tesco: Homeplus. Over 10,000 new online shoppers signed up and new registered members rose by 76%. Online sales increased 130%. Globally, they have over 500,000  customers in 14 countries, however the South Korea subway adventure is a first for them. But they are not alone.

Giant Food Stores parent company, Ahold, USA, installed 15 poster shopping stores in Philadelphia rail stations. Shoppers can download the shopping app and begin shopping on the spot.

Obvious challenges are working with wifi spaces. If this virtual grocery-store is to take off, public spaces will require either a free wifi service or some type of intranet for users to download apps and transmit their orders. Space requirements for posters are needed for the digital market spaces. Woolworth virtual stores in Sydney, Australia may sometimes offer table top touch screens to explore product information and make purchases as well. Interactive ads allow users to “like” and “dislike” product offerings on social networks.

Source: http://grabyourfork.blogspot.com/2010/08/mizuya-sydney.html

Other than bringing quality groceries into existing ‘food deserts’,  environmental benefits to virtual shopping include reducing carbon footprints created by transportation, material and fuel waste reductions, and reduces over-consumption. Land use planners can change parking lot designs and leave shopping areas greener. An abundance of economic benefits include insurance savings, overhead costs, inventory reductions, and gives suppliers the ability to fill order from local sources. Shopping posters eliminate the need for paper advertisements.

What could go wrong?
Many shoppers are unaware that they have the right to return unwanted purchases. 60% of shoppers in a recent UK KNOW YOUR RIGHTS survey were unlikely to return goods purchased online. Reading return policies is always a good idea.

carstations.com

Coulomb’s ChargePoint America Program now has over 4500 electric car charging stations in ten regions.  Additionally, if you purchase a Chevrolet Volt, Ford Transit Connect Navistar eStar® Electric Truck, Ford Focus Electric, BMW ActiveE, Nissan LEAF™, smart fortwo electric drive or Fisker Karma, you may be able to receive a home charge station at no charge made possible by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Users may

Some of the charging stations, delivering between 250 to 500 volts of DC current,  use one of three connectors and/or a charging option without the use of a physical connection  using parking spaces equipped with a charge mat. Charging at home using a standard electric socket might take about 10 hours but the charging station can fully charge a vehicle in less than 30 minutes.

The deployment of charging stations is a massive infrastructure undertaking. However, the environmental benefits are far reaching. Traditional petroleum gas stations are classified as brownfields because of the presence of underground storage tanks. The tanks  potentially leak and are therefore automatically classified as potential hazardous clean-up sites. Brownfields are classified by the EPA as potentially harmful physical sites that may contain contaminants, hazardous substances,  or pollutants.

The downside of EV’s and the charging stations is the use of lead-acid batteries in the vehicles. Leaks can expose passengers and by-standers to dangerous accumulations of lead poisoning. Lead poisoning is known to impair development in children and in severe cases, cause coma, convulsions, and death. Lead particles can travel long distances. Other technologies to produce batteries with substitute materials is currently hampered by power demands in vehicles.

Rather than pumping up the old jalopy with unleaded gasoline, we look forward to charging stations fueling her  unleaded batteries.

http://www.afdc.energy.gov/afdc/locator/stations/

Source: http://200billionscandal.typepad.com

Like a modern day medieval alchemist, Texas A&M distinguished professor John Bockris spent some time meddling with cold fusion and transitioning metals into gold. In 1993, his colleagues petitioned the university to strip him of his title and to have him removed from the department. Fortunately, his academic freedom defense worked. By 1998 he’d received the Nobel Prize in physics for his work with cold fusion, and the Jules Verne award for hydrogen energy research. In 1970, he coined the term ‘hydrogen economy’ in a speech given at General Motors while discussing new ways to deliver energy.

A hydrogen fuel cell is not the ideal Carnot Engine where zero heat is lost, or better understood as 100% efficient. In fact, it is thought to achieve 38% efficiency. A typical hybrid gas/electric car is about 30% efficient. So why don’t we convert? It’s expensive.

Harvesting enough hydrogen, storing adequate amounts of it in vehicles, and constructing a delivery infrastructure are the major constraints. Current production methods use fossil fuels to decompose water, releasing carbon dioxide. Often, the energy yield from the available hydrogen is less than the energy it took to produce it. Technology can lower those costs with more research and investments, but the carbon problem remains.

Supporters claim that carbon sequestering and carbon capture at production sites can address the CO2 issue. Water can be dissociated using high heat, and this can be achieved through concentrated solar power.

On March 13, 2012, The Department of Energy donated $2 million for hydrogen energy research. The money is meant to support research for commercial fuel cells, storage facilities, and delivery tanks. Other decent proposals that avoid fossil fuel consumption study wind-to-hydrogen methods.