Personal Power Production: Solar from Civil Defense to Swadeshi

by gmoke

US and NATO forces have distributed more than 700,000 solar/dynamo am/fm/sw radios in Afghanistan since before our invasion of 2001 and that a simple modification to that solar/dynamo adds battery charging capabilities to each of them (circuit diagram at http://www.dailykos.com/... ).  

US AID is distributing 250,000 solar/dynamo radios in Sudan over the next few years.  Again, those solar/dynamos can not now charge extra AA or other size batteries although with a connection to a battery bay from the cell phone charger output they certainly could.  The combination of a few square inches of solar electric, photovoltaic, PV power with a hand-crank or pedal power generator provides a modicum of electric power day or night, by sunlight or muscle power.  It also allows battery switching, charging one set of batteries while using another.  This is practical personal power production and the technology is deployed in the field in Afghanistan and Sudan or available off the shelf right now for $30 from LL Bean and many others, if you are willing to do a little tinkering.

The same technology is also a Solar Civil Defense.

continued at Daily Kos....

Climate Dominoes

by Stranded Wind

 The floods in Pakistan are now believed to have affected twenty million people, fully 11% of the population. The case can be made that Islamic extremism hot spots Afghanistan and Somalia, both under pressure of drought in the years before their implosion, were actually the first to tumble. Pakistan appears to be the next climate domino set to fall.

 Already our Pentagon, driven by profiteering defense contractors, has begun to apply the rhetorical devices of the Cold War to describe the consequences of climate change. See my clever title? Yes, indeed, we need to expand defense spending to be ready for the War On Climate Change(tm).

Or we can extract our heads from our hindquarters and come up with a rational response.

continued at Daily Kos....

Methane Cycle: Gas Production and Gas Release

by gmoke

Methane (CH4) is a much more effective greenhouse gas than CO2.  Methane is also fuel, natural gas.  Methane can be made from animal and human dung as well as other kinds of waste.
In Nepal, it is known as Gobar Gas:

“Gobar” is the Nepali word for cow dung. The “Gas” refers to biogas derived from the natural decay of dung, other waste products, and any biomass. In Nepal, villagers use buffalo, cow, human, and other waste products for biogas production. Pig and chicken dung are used in some places, as are raw kitchen wastes, including rotted vegetation....

The Nepalese government built nearly 200 small biogas plants in 1975/6, but decentralized methane digestion truly took off in 1992 when the Dutch group, SNV, launched a large program, including subsidy mechanisms and microfinance schemes, which led to the installation of approximately 204,000 units to date.
Michael Yon wonders if this could also work in Afghanistan.


continued at Daily Kos....