What should you do with your next car? Although we have found out what we will not do with our next car, the answer is not absolute.

What we would not do is get an ethanol or flex fuel car. Ethanol as it is today loses about 30% efficiency to purchase a fuel that costs just as much as current gas does now, and it does not have any better emissions. There are new technologies that are coming about right now but they are not any better of a solution. Clearly not the right choice for an alternative fuel car.

So biodiesel or hybrid? That answer is a little more foggy. Our first choice would be to get a Veggie Oil and Biodeisel combination car over a hybrid, but only because it fits our style and goals better.

Hybrids have the upper hand when you are driving around town or commuting. The hybrid does well in stopping and starting and trip durations under an hour.

If your battery goes bad the replacement will cost you between $3,000 and $7,500 depending on the make of the vehicle. Fortunately the batteries are made to last the life of the car, about 150,000 to 200,000 miles. Once the battery is unusable anymore the disposal may be a problem. But car companies are aware of this and Toyota offers a $200 reward for proper disposal.

For us the choice is straight vegetable oil. We are trekking, meaning we are taking long trips to see the united states, and eventually the world. There are a lot of really cool people here with a lot of really good solutions for us. Biodiesel is expensive. It costs Sam at Full Circle Fuels “nearly $5.00 a gallon” which of course he needs to pass on to is customers. So at $5.00 a gallon it seems that biodiesel is not very cost effective either. It is not, but straight vegetable oil (SVO) is.

So for our style of travel, and what we want to do SVO is the way to go. It is free for the most part. Many restaurants are happy for you tot take their fry oil as they have to pay to have it removed otherwise.

‘Aren’t there too many people doing it already’ we are asked a lot. No. That is not the case. There is plenty of fuel available. It is also a great way to recycle. Not only do we recycle the used fry oil we recycle the heat from the engine to warm the oil to proper operating temperature before it is sent to the engine. It makes the engine more efficient.

Hot SVO does not hurt diesel engines at all, but there is a little more process that needs to be done. SVO needs to be filtered throughly before it can be used.

So before you purchase your next Alternative Fuel Automobile decide what you will be using it for. It may not be quite as easy as just going out to buy the best looking car, but you will be helping the environment and eventually saving money.

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When it comes to the problems in the world there are complainers and there are doers. We are not trekking to find the problems in this country. We are fully aware that we have many that need to be dealt with. What we are trekking for is to find solutions. We want to know what people are doing now to help solve our Nations problems.

Sam at Full Circle Fuels has a solution.

Many people have switched and are switching to biodiesel and straight vegetable oil (SVO) to run their diesel engines. Sam can help you do this. Using the existing technology from Golden Fuel Systems, a lot of knowledge, and a whole heap of enthusiasm Sam can install a conversion kit for straight vegetable oil on anything.

“We will work on whatever you have, we’ll figure it out” he says.

We believe him. After 140 conversions and growing I think that he has the ability to say that he can install an SVO system in nearly every car, truck, or RV. Sam custom designs every installation so that is works more efficient for your engine and meets your needs.

Full Circle Fuels currently does about two conversions a week and is scheduling new installs 4 weeks in advance. Business is good in the $3.50 a gallon gas, and $4.00 a gallon diesel economy.

Oh did we mention that First fuel also sells SVO straight out of the pump. Yes that is right. Instead of having to pump your own fuel out of a dirty container in the back of a restaurant you can buy pre-filtered SVO for $2.50 a gallon. Wow that is a savings of $1.50 a gallon.

The rumors about losing horse power with SVO in your engine? False. That is for ethanol. There is considerable debate about he horse power in an SVO engine. Some say that due to the increased lubrication properties of SVO engines actually increase power (5-10 horse power). Some say that the extra parts involved in the conversion reduce efficiency (the same 5-10 horse power). Whet is agreed upon by both is that it is hardly enough to notice a difference.

So what does it take to turn your diesel engine into a SVO engine? Believe it or not it has very little to do with the engine. What Sam and the gang at Full Circle Fuels does is install a parallel fuel system that is vegetable oil.

They first install a separate fuel tank. They even have available a tank made specifically for SVO made out of the same material as white water kayaks (trekker tanks). After that he installs a triple hose system that warms the oil to operating temperature and delivers the fuel through a separate Raycore filter system, then straight into the engine. In basic terms that is it. There are some safety gages and a switch that has to be installed into the system but those are the details that is the difference of a professional installation and a back yard installation. If you want it done right use a professional.

It is very exciting to see an enthusiastic intelligent individual doing something to solve the problems that we face with increasing fuel prices and an obvious dependence on foreign oil. Feel like you are too far away? Don’t. Full Circle Fuels gets many of its customers from an average of 4 hours away. Give them a call and see what they can do for you.

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There are zones in the Ocean that are dead due to lack of oxygen. These spots are due to a condition called Hypoxia. Hypoxia or Anoxic areas of the ocean mean that there are very low or non existent oxygen levels on the Ocean Floor. Because of this life cannot live and the area or zone is considered dead.

Is this something to be worried about? The answer is not that clear.

Anoxic areas occur very naturally throughout the world. The one most prevalent in the United states is off the coast of New Jersey and in the Gulf at the mouth of the Mississippi river. The naturally occurring zones occur due to nutrient rich warm river waters that flow over deeper colder Ocean waters. This causes algal and micro bacteria growth on the upper levels. The growth blocks sunlight and reduces oxygen levels on the bottom layer. Living organisms either escape or die out causing decay. The bacteria from the decay use up the oxygen and give off a lot of carbon monoxide. It is actually a very simple process.

So why the concern over a naturally occurring thing? These areas are beginning to grow and shift. The growth may be due to nutrients that are not natural.

A big concern is with farmers pesticides and fertilizers. The excess runs off into watersheds and eventually rivers (see Your Effects on the Ocean ). This extra supply of non-natural material can grow a dead zone and even shift a dead zone.

Since these dead zones occur near shorelines a small shift can begin to effect coal reefs. Coral reefs are known as the oceans nurseries. These are the breeding grounds for many ocean animals and they also feed much of the ocean population. They are very important to the health of our planet.

So what can you do? You can support organic farms and farmers. You do this by buying their goods. The more in demand organic food is, the more farmers will farm without the use of pesticides and extra fertilizer. There have been recent studies that show that pesticides and fertilizer is becoming less effective as the plants and pests have become nearly immune to the effects (more on this at a later date).

Sources for more information

Creeping Dead Zones (http://daac.gsfc.nasa.gov/oceancolor/scifocus/oceanColor/dead_zones.shtml)
Hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico (http://toxics.usgs.gov/hypoxia/hypoxic_zone.html)
What is Hypoxia (great graphic here) (http://www.epa.gov/msbasin/taskforce/hypoxia.htm)

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Getting involved in organizations and your community is always a great way to meet people, especially others that share the same interests as you. It is a safe environment so bring the whole family along. These educational excursions are always a great teaching tool for the kids but what could be better than a family pitching in to help the environment and having fun at the same time.

All too often we leave the “getting involved for a cause” to the advocates. Helping others and your earth does not always have to be a serious event. Here are some suggestions for involvement:

1. Make it a class project
2. Birthday party
3. Go on a date
4. Church event/youth group
5. Family vacation- we all take those week long trips to the beach, spend one of those days with a local beach clean-up group

We found several organizations focused on making a difference in marine ecology:

Mainly on the West Coast-

Also click on their gear store - All profits from this store will be donated to the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation

Worldwide International Coastal Cleanup- Great photos available from past clean up events

NEW ENGLAND- click on the 2008 cleanup calender, lots of great events for Earth Day

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What happens when nature cares? Miracles? No just good old Mother Nature taking care of her Earth. Watch as Moko the dolphin helps rescue two whales in Australia.

Dolphin Rescues Whales

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Fun Dolphin Facts

What are baby dolphins called?

• A baby dolphins is called a calf.
• Mother dolphins stay with their young 2-3 years after birth.
• Dolphins are born tail first.

How high can a dolphin jump?

• Dolphins can jump as high as 20 feet out of the water.

How do dolphins sleep?

• Dolphins have to be conscious to breath. This means that they cannot go into a full deep sleep, because then they would suffocate.
• A dolphin’s behavior when sleeping
  1. swim slowly and surface every now and then for a breath
  2. rest at the surface with their blowhole exposed
  3. rest on the bottom (in shallow water) and rise to the surface every now and then to breath.

How much do dolphins eat?

• An adult dolphin may consume 30 pounds of fish or more in a single day.
• Dolphins swallow fish whole, despite the 100 teeth in their mouths. The teeth are used to grasp prey.

How long do dolphins live?

• In the wild, dolphins can live to be 50 years old, although the average age is 17 years.

How many different species of dolphin are there?

• There are 32 different dolphin species.
• The most ‘familiar’ dolphin species is the bottlenose dolphin.
• The largest member of the dolphin family is the killer whale, which can grow to 30 feet long.

Fun Dolphin Facts brought to you by

http://animal.discovery.com/features/dolphins/facts/facts.html and

http://www.dolphinear.com/data/dolphins.htm

Click here to donate to the Dolphin Research Center

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Coral reefs are known as the rain forests of the ocean. They may just be the most important living structure in the world.

10 Things you can do to help the Coral Reefs

1. Recycle. Recycling is always the first step in conservation. If there is no recycling program around you find a group and start one. Many groups look for community service projects.
2. Speak with your wallet. Support reef friendly businesses. Check ahead, the Internet is a beautiful thing. Find dive shops, boating stores, tour operators, hotels, and other businesses that have pledged to helping support the reefs.
3. Support conservation organizations. Many of them have coral reef programs, and they all need your help.
4. Volunteer for a coral reef cleanup. If you are taking a vacation, take one with a purpose. Enjoy yourself with an eco-friendly vacation centered around coral reef conservation.
5. Don’t anchor on a reef. Many reefs have mooring buoy systems available close by. You wouldn’t want to hurt the thing that you are trying to visit.
6. When you dive or snorkel don’t touch. Keep your fin’s, fingers, and other gear away from the coral. It may look strong and bony but it is delicate.
7. Don’t pollute. Never ever dump garbage or human waste into the water. Please don’t leave trash on the beach. It will eventually make it into the water.
8. Even if you live thousands of miles from a coral reef runoff from pesticides and fertilizers make their way into watersheds and eventually the ocean. Be careful and don’t use more than you need. You will only be wasting your money and hurting the environment.
9. Conserve water. The more you use the less clean water is available to them.
10. Support the creation and maintenance of marine parks and reserves!

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Why worry about the oceans? Because everything we do is connected with the oceans.

How? No matter where you are the simple way of putting it is this: If something goes on the ground it stays there until it rains (non organic material, plastic to toxic chemicals). When it rains it gets washed away. So its gone right? Not so fast.

The rain washes it into a creek, or tributary. That creek or tributary connects with other creeks and tributaries until it reaches a river. This rain runoff (http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/runoff.html) is called a watershed (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surface_runoff). Once the watershed reaches a river it then runs into an ocean. Simple as that and a nice little delivery system that mother nature has made us.

So what can you do. There are a few things that we can all do to help the environment and protect our water.

The best way to make a statement is with your pocket book. Spend your money on things that are environmentally friendly and they will continue to get cheaper and better. The way you spend your money is the best way to tell companies what you want. So buy environmentally friendly products. Look for the recycle symbol. Find things that have as few chemicals in it as possible.

Pick up after yourself. Most people do a good job at this but there are still some places that are very bad. I was surprised when I moved from Michigan to Tennessee how much more trash was on the sides of the roads, and in so called green ways. I can’t believe how people here just throw things on the side of the road. This is a sure way to increase pollution and reduce your living condition.

No matter where you are if you truly care you can do your part. Join a weekend collection where people go out and pick up trash. Adopt a highway with an organization . Subscribe to our feed. We will be updating frequently on how you can do better for the environment.

The point is that no matter where you are you can help the oceans by doing very simple things.

Visit The USGS site and the EPA for more information on water Runoff and Watersheds.

http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/runoff.html

http://www.epa.gov/weatherchannel/stormwater.html

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The Oceans are incredibly important to the world. Here are some fun facts about our oceans.

• The oceans cover 71% of the Earth’s surface, about 140 million square miles (362 million sq km), and contain 97% of the Earth’s water. Less than 1% is fresh water, and 2-3% is contained in glaciers and ice caps.
• An estimated 80% of all life on earth is found under the ocean surface and the oceans contain 99% of the living space on the planet. Less than 10% of that space has been explored by humans. 85% of the area and 90% of the volume constitute the dark, cold environment we call the deep sea.
• The average depth of the ocean is 3,795 m (12,200 feet ). The average height of the land is 840 m (2755 feet). The deepest point: 36,198 feet (11,033 m) in the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific.
• The average depth of the Atlantic Ocean, with its adjacent seas, is 3,332 m (10931 feet); without them it is 3,926 m (12880 feet). The greatest depth, 8,381 m (27496 feet), is in the Puerto Rico Trench.
• The Pacific Ocean, the world’s largest water body, occupies a third of the Earth’s surface. The Pacific contains about 25,000 islands (more than the total number in the rest of the world’s oceans combined), almost all of which are found south of the equator. The Pacific covers an area of 179.7 million sq km (69382 557 sq mi).
• The pressure at the deepest point in the ocean is more than 11,318 tons/sq m, or the equivalent of one person trying to support 50 jumbo jets.
• The record for the deepest free dive is held by Jacques Mayol. He dove to an astounding depth of 86 m (282 feet) without any breathing equipment.
• Antarctica has as much ice as the Atlantic Ocean has water.
• The Arctic produces 10,000-50,000 icebergs annually. The amount produced in the Antarctic regions is inestimable. Icebergs normally have a four-year life-span; they begin entering shipping lanes after about three years.
• The speed of sound in water is 1,435 m/sec - nearly five times faster than the speed of sound in air.
• The highest tides in the world are at the Bay of Fundy, which separates New Brunswick from Nova Scotia. At some times of the year the difference between high and low tide is 16.3 m (53 feet), taller than a three-story building.
• Earth’s longest mountain range is the Mid-Ocean Ridge more than 50,000 km (31 068 mi) in length, which winds around the globe from the Arctic Ocean to the Atlantic, skirting Africa, Asia and Australia, and crossing the Pacific to the west coast of North America. It is four times longer than the Andes, Rockies, and Himalayas combined.
• The Highest Mountain is Mauna Kea, Hawaii, rises 33,474 feet (10,203 m) from its base on the ocean floor; only 13,680 feet (4,170 m) are above sea level.
• The lowest known point on Earth, called the Challenger Deep, is11,034 m (36200 feet) deep, in the Marianas Trench in the western Pacific. To get an idea of how deep that is, if you could take Mt. Everest and place it at the bottom of the trench there would still be over a mile of ocean above it. The Dead Sea is the Earth’s lowest land point with an elevation of 396 m (1299 feet) below sea level.
• The Kuroshio Current, off the shores of Japan, is the largest current. It can travel between 40-121 km/day at 1.6-4.8 kph, and extends some 1,006 m deep. The Gulf Stream is close to this current’s speed. The Gulf Stream is a well known current of warm water in the Atlantic Ocean. At a speed of 97 km/day, the Gulf Stream moves a 100 times as much water as all the rivers on earth and flows at a rate 300 times faster than the Amazon, which is the world’s largest river.
• A given area in an ocean upwelling zone or deep estuary is as productive as the same area in rain forests, most crops and intensive agriculture. They all produce between 150-500 grams of Carbon per square meter per year.
• A swallow of seawater may contain millions of bacterial cells, hundreds of thousands of phytoplankton and tens of thousands of zooplankton
• The Great Barrier Reef, measuring 1,243 miles, is the largest living structure on Earth. It can be seen from the Moon.
• More oil reaches the oceans each year as a result of leaking automobiles and other non-point sources than was spilled in Prince William Sound by the Exxon Valdez.
• Canada has the longest coastline of any country, at 56,453 miles or around 15 percent of the world’s 372,384 miles of coastlines.
• The volume of the Earth’s moon is the same as the volume of the Pacific Ocean.

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Can the waves power a boat? How do waves power a boat?

First the technology. Kenichi Horie a Japanese mariner has developed a way to harness the near endless power of waves in the ocean with his boat the SUNTORY Mermaid No. 2. The 69 year old adventurer and inventor uses foils, or simple wings, to produce dolphin like kicks while the boat rides waves.

I am not exactly sure how this works but what I think happens is that when the boat rides up a wave the foil is pushed downward, or resists the rising motion. Once the boat reaches the top of the wave the tension is let off the foil. A spring now snaps the foil back in place giving it a kick on the way down. After a few of these passive up, and resistant down motions, the boat develops momentum in the forward direction.

Clearly this is an experimental craft and the 4,500 mile journey from Hawaii to Japan is to show that it can be done. The vessel travels at a top speed of about 4-6 knots. Very slow, but if the doomsdayers have their way the the ice caps melt then maybe Earth will look a little like WaterWorld. The wave runner will have its day. Until then practical applications may be lost. Or will it?

Although impractical for boats that want to go faster than a painted turtle what about creating an energy source in the water? Wave action has been researched but technology like this has yet to be implemented. Using Horie’s foil technology on a platform, or possibly tethered to the ocean floor may create energy through a simple exchange of force. If what I understand to be true of the action of the propulsion system, the passive ride up the wave creates stored energy. By capturing this stored energy we should be able to create GREEN electricity.

Whoa there were a lot of complicated and big words in that last statement. Let me make it more simple. The wave already has energy. Using the foil technology developed for his boat may make it possible to convert the wave energy to electrical energy. Green electricity all around!

The thing that we can learn from this is that the earth has a lot of stored energy. A tremendous amount of energy has gone into the creation of the Earth. Actually an endless supply of energy (to us not in a physics sense) sits trapped and ready to get out of the Earth. We have not even been able to penetrate the crust of the earth yet. Wind generation is OK but that is just a small part of the energy that weather stores.

We have a lot of good creative people on Earth. Lets focus on tapping into some of this great energy. Come on people we need your help!

Sources: Suntory Mermaid  EcoFuss Gas 2.0

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