Join us and help us restore our world's forests: The Most Elegant Solution to Saving the World's Forest we know
We can do it!
I worked for seven years with a machine which has the potential of bringing into communities around the world a way to recycle agricultural waste into fuel logs for cooking. I am convinced this technology can save the World's forests as the primary cause now of deforestation worldwide is the cutting of trees for cooking fuel. All we need is that the cost of compressing the agricultural waste into fuel logs be subsidized so the poor can utilize this fuel for cooking. In exchange they will reforest and protect the forests of the world. All energy sources including the electricity causing you to read this information is subsidized, less that for cooking fuel for the billions that cook with wood.
Fuel logs can be compressed of sugar cane bagasse, coffee pulp, rice chaff and sawdust. I estimate over a million tons of these materials are destroyed daily worldwide. Fuel logs are carbon neutral as they do not cause the destruction of carbon capturing trees.
If you are interested in helping me realize this dream of saving the world's forests and bringing balance to the world's water supply by so doing, contact me. Below is a picture of one of the thousands of machines compressing these logs worldwide. The fuel logs manufactured now are used exclusively for industry because the poor who cook with wood cannot afford to buy fuel logs when the trees are free for the taking. Billions gather wood every single day.
Go to this website's Energy page to read our funding proposal. I hope to work with this fuel log manufacturer below and others of his crew. Contact us at HeartMindAlliance@gmail.com for more information about this important proposal.
Fuel Logs from Agricultural Waste
Cooking Fuel and Forest Conservation Pilot Project
Santa Rosa, Bolivia
Brief Overview
Thousands of fuel log machines exist in the world today. They compress agricultural waste (bagasse, rice chaff, coffee pulp and sawdust) into fuel logs used for industrial purposes (caldrons, smelters) and decorative fireplaces in Europe and the United States of America.
As far as our research shows, none of this normally discarded and destroyed raw material is converted into fuel logs for cooking. The single greatest cause of worldwide deforestation is the gathering of firewood from trees being destroyed by the millions daily for cooking fuel. Billions of families gather wood every day.
All major fuels in the world are subsidized: nuclear, coal, oil, gas; but not fuel logs for cooking.
Billions of people search for cooking fuel each day. They are the people unable to afford even the subsidized gas for cooking. Our research shows that many others could afford the daily costs of natural gas, but cannot afford to purchase the initial gas tanks nor the cooking stove itself (more or less $100 total cost including the first filling of a gas tank). The trees are free. Setting flash fires to the forests guarantees dry wood for years. Approximately one hundred fires are “accidentally” started in the nation of El Salvador, for example, each year.
Cooking with electricity, for these poor, is out of the question.
If government subsidies helped cover the low costs to produce and distribute fuel logs made of agricultural waste, the poor would have no need to fell trees, girdle or burn trees to guarantee feeding their families.
We estimate, conservatively, that one million tons of agricultural waste (principally sugar cane bagasse from the making of sugar and the chaff from the processing of rice) are destroyed per day worldwide.
As an example, one thousand tons of bagasse (the cellulose "waste" from the making of sugar from sugar cane) per day in El Salvador, one of the most deforested countries in the world, are destroyed. Millions use forest wood for cooking and now, those who are able, purchase such logs from Guatemala. The forest reserves of Central America are constantly being set on fire to guarantee the future harvest of charred wood.
Imagine if the vast quantities of bagasse in the Dominican Republic were available as fuel logs for Haitians now using charcoal (made from trees) for cooking. Haiti is the most deforested country in the Western Hemisphere and thousands of Haitians work in horrible conditions as the labor force in the harvests of sugar cane in the Dominican Republic. For millions of Haitian families, paying for charcoal (made from trees) is the single greatest budget expense.
Imagine the contribution Brazil or South Africa or Asia could make to saving the forests of the world.
Studies show that compressed fuel logs release the same number of calories per kilo (approximately 4,000), more or less, as forest firewood (University of El Salvador, 2004).
The Univesity of El Salvador studies show less microparticulates in the fuel log smoke than in the smoke released by forest logs. The smoke is less damaging.
Fuel Log Proposal
With minor adminstrative financial support a non-profit organization of Santa Cruz, Bolivia, an umbrella organization for several institutions working with over 3,000 young men and women would involve its youth in the purchasing of fuel logs and in their distribution. Youth would also become involved in the design and implementation of the educational processes of a pilot fuel log program in which the community of Santa Rosa would receive subsidized fuel logs (a socio-economic study will determine those unable to purchase and those capable of contributing to the cost) in exchange for conserving the nearby rapidly disappearing forest and, also, restoring it through reforestation efforts.
This pilot program would last one year to prove that cooking fuel log subsidies are the most elegant solution to worldwide deforestation. Having worked with the production of cooking fuel logs for over seven years, Robert Dunsmore would accompany and oversee this project to assure its fulfilling the stated objectives and to keep the funding organization assessed as to on-going progress and developments.
We propose to teach a no-cost method of eliminating smoke from kitchens to reduce blindness and respiratory conditions impacting thousands of women and children spending many hours per day in unventilated kitchen spaces. Developed by peasants in Central America, the primary design modification after the installation of a chimney (made of mud or scrap roofing tin) is the introduction of a piece of scrap metal to create a damper (installed behind the firebox, just before the chimney) to reduce heat loss up the chimney and save up to two thirds the fuel needed for cooking. (The use of chimneys has been unsuccessful in previous programs due to the lack of dampers. Such inappropriate modifications increased the use of firewood for cooking.)
This will reduce even more the contamination from smoke and the contribution of greenhouse gases that accelerate global climate changes. It is important to remember that one of the most common ways in which the poor worldwide guarantee forest cooking fuel is to flash burn forest areas to justify cooking fuel harvests. This contributes tremendously to global warming, in itself, even before the charred wood is burned for cooking. Burning captured carbon in agricultural wastes is “carbon neutral” and having recipients of subsidized fuel logs (Fuel logs at least initially subsidized could become economically viable for profit once demand rises for “ecological” fireplace logs and barbeque fuels, for example) restore forests and maintain them for sustainable nut harvests, for example, is carbon sequestration at its best.
The CAISY Company of Santa Cruz operates a rice chaff fuel log compression machine for its own rice drying process. The company is interested in cooperating with such a pilot program as it is aware that the hundreds of thousands of homeless in the area due to the flooding of most of Eastern Bolivia this year are suffering hunger and disease and discomfort precisely as a result of deforestation in the higher areas, the foothills of the Andes.
This company has donated fuel logs of rice chaff for cooking experiments which have proven the logs to be an excellent fuel for cooking as they burn hot and slowly, much like charcoal.
Biomax Corporation of Sao Leopoldo, Brasil, is very interested in this project. It is one of the largest manufacturers in the world of the fuel log machines and provided the machine used by CAISY of Bolivia. It also maintains the machine. We have met with the CEO of this corporation who explained to us that his attempts to sell the fuel logs to the poorest, those most responsible for worldwide deforestation, failed as they could not afford the fuel logs, though being sold below the price for tree wood cooking fuel sold in Brasil and other countries. He agrees that governments should subsidize the cost of cooking fuels for the poor and in this way save the world's forests.
It is important to also note that many families are no longer cooking beans, the primary source of protein worldwide, due to the amount of fuel required. According the United Nations, only 3 percent of families taught to boil water can afford to do so due to the difficulty of gathering wood, something which is worsening exponentially. Because water borne pathogens are the number one cause of infant mortality worldwide, we believe the use of agricultural "wastes" could have a tremendous impact on the health of children worldwide.
If this project receives your support, we will be contacting individuals we know within the Bolivian government to help monitor the hoped for success of this project and to eventually convince the newly renewed Evo Morales administration to support it. As far as we know, this is the first such project worldwide and should garner much attention once underway.
Cooking Fuel and Forest Conservation Pilot Project
Santa Rosa, Bolivia
Brief Overview
Thousands of fuel log machines exist in the world today. They compress agricultural waste (bagasse, rice chaff, coffee pulp and sawdust) into fuel logs used for industrial purposes (caldrons, smelters) and decorative fireplaces in Europe and the United States of America.
As far as our research shows, none of this normally discarded and destroyed raw material is converted into fuel logs for cooking. The single greatest cause of worldwide deforestation is the gathering of firewood from trees being destroyed by the millions daily for cooking fuel. Billions of families gather wood every day.
All major fuels in the world are subsidized: nuclear, coal, oil, gas; but not fuel logs for cooking.
Billions of people search for cooking fuel each day. They are the people unable to afford even the subsidized gas for cooking. Our research shows that many others could afford the daily costs of natural gas, but cannot afford to purchase the initial gas tanks nor the cooking stove itself (more or less $100 total cost including the first filling of a gas tank). The trees are free. Setting flash fires to the forests guarantees dry wood for years. Approximately one hundred fires are “accidentally” started in the nation of El Salvador, for example, each year.
Cooking with electricity, for these poor, is out of the question.
If government subsidies helped cover the low costs to produce and distribute fuel logs made of agricultural waste, the poor would have no need to fell trees, girdle or burn trees to guarantee feeding their families.
We estimate, conservatively, that one million tons of agricultural waste (principally sugar cane bagasse from the making of sugar and the chaff from the processing of rice) are destroyed per day worldwide.
As an example, one thousand tons of bagasse (the cellulose "waste" from the making of sugar from sugar cane) per day in El Salvador, one of the most deforested countries in the world, are destroyed. Millions use forest wood for cooking and now, those who are able, purchase such logs from Guatemala. The forest reserves of Central America are constantly being set on fire to guarantee the future harvest of charred wood.
Imagine if the vast quantities of bagasse in the Dominican Republic were available as fuel logs for Haitians now using charcoal (made from trees) for cooking. Haiti is the most deforested country in the Western Hemisphere and thousands of Haitians work in horrible conditions as the labor force in the harvests of sugar cane in the Dominican Republic. For millions of Haitian families, paying for charcoal (made from trees) is the single greatest budget expense.
Imagine the contribution Brazil or South Africa or Asia could make to saving the forests of the world.
Studies show that compressed fuel logs release the same number of calories per kilo (approximately 4,000), more or less, as forest firewood (University of El Salvador, 2004).
The Univesity of El Salvador studies show less microparticulates in the fuel log smoke than in the smoke released by forest logs. The smoke is less damaging.
Fuel Log Proposal
With minor adminstrative financial support a non-profit organization of Santa Cruz, Bolivia, an umbrella organization for several institutions working with over 3,000 young men and women would involve its youth in the purchasing of fuel logs and in their distribution. Youth would also become involved in the design and implementation of the educational processes of a pilot fuel log program in which the community of Santa Rosa would receive subsidized fuel logs (a socio-economic study will determine those unable to purchase and those capable of contributing to the cost) in exchange for conserving the nearby rapidly disappearing forest and, also, restoring it through reforestation efforts.
This pilot program would last one year to prove that cooking fuel log subsidies are the most elegant solution to worldwide deforestation. Having worked with the production of cooking fuel logs for over seven years, Robert Dunsmore would accompany and oversee this project to assure its fulfilling the stated objectives and to keep the funding organization assessed as to on-going progress and developments.
We propose to teach a no-cost method of eliminating smoke from kitchens to reduce blindness and respiratory conditions impacting thousands of women and children spending many hours per day in unventilated kitchen spaces. Developed by peasants in Central America, the primary design modification after the installation of a chimney (made of mud or scrap roofing tin) is the introduction of a piece of scrap metal to create a damper (installed behind the firebox, just before the chimney) to reduce heat loss up the chimney and save up to two thirds the fuel needed for cooking. (The use of chimneys has been unsuccessful in previous programs due to the lack of dampers. Such inappropriate modifications increased the use of firewood for cooking.)
This will reduce even more the contamination from smoke and the contribution of greenhouse gases that accelerate global climate changes. It is important to remember that one of the most common ways in which the poor worldwide guarantee forest cooking fuel is to flash burn forest areas to justify cooking fuel harvests. This contributes tremendously to global warming, in itself, even before the charred wood is burned for cooking. Burning captured carbon in agricultural wastes is “carbon neutral” and having recipients of subsidized fuel logs (Fuel logs at least initially subsidized could become economically viable for profit once demand rises for “ecological” fireplace logs and barbeque fuels, for example) restore forests and maintain them for sustainable nut harvests, for example, is carbon sequestration at its best.
The CAISY Company of Santa Cruz operates a rice chaff fuel log compression machine for its own rice drying process. The company is interested in cooperating with such a pilot program as it is aware that the hundreds of thousands of homeless in the area due to the flooding of most of Eastern Bolivia this year are suffering hunger and disease and discomfort precisely as a result of deforestation in the higher areas, the foothills of the Andes.
This company has donated fuel logs of rice chaff for cooking experiments which have proven the logs to be an excellent fuel for cooking as they burn hot and slowly, much like charcoal.
Biomax Corporation of Sao Leopoldo, Brasil, is very interested in this project. It is one of the largest manufacturers in the world of the fuel log machines and provided the machine used by CAISY of Bolivia. It also maintains the machine. We have met with the CEO of this corporation who explained to us that his attempts to sell the fuel logs to the poorest, those most responsible for worldwide deforestation, failed as they could not afford the fuel logs, though being sold below the price for tree wood cooking fuel sold in Brasil and other countries. He agrees that governments should subsidize the cost of cooking fuels for the poor and in this way save the world's forests.
It is important to also note that many families are no longer cooking beans, the primary source of protein worldwide, due to the amount of fuel required. According the United Nations, only 3 percent of families taught to boil water can afford to do so due to the difficulty of gathering wood, something which is worsening exponentially. Because water borne pathogens are the number one cause of infant mortality worldwide, we believe the use of agricultural "wastes" could have a tremendous impact on the health of children worldwide.
If this project receives your support, we will be contacting individuals we know within the Bolivian government to help monitor the hoped for success of this project and to eventually convince the newly renewed Evo Morales administration to support it. As far as we know, this is the first such project worldwide and should garner much attention once underway.
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ENERGY
Pictured here is the powerful heart of what may be the most efficient water-powered motor for mechanical power. A technology that has been used in the same basic concept for thousands of years, has been now designed for community level workshop production by a good friend of mine. It has been modified so as to be extremely efficient and easy to use with four water jets. I will connect you with him if you are interested. Contact me to learn more about how you can use this simple device coupled with falling water to mill grains, compress air, saw lumber or create electricity. Visit Ron Davis' site www.watermotor.net and support the wonderful work of Ron Davis. |
I lived for seventeen years in the San Luis Valley of Colorado, often recording the coldest temperatures in the continental United States. Out of sheer necessity, I and hundreds more, learned to build our own home-made solar collectors to heat our homes and our water. We developed low cost collectors that out-performed (according to the Solar Energy Research Institute) the best commercial collectors five times more costly.
Today the San Luis Valley is the "most solar place in America" (New Shelter Magazine) and ready to pass along what we have learned to you. We can help you with low cost or no cost: Solar hot air collector construction "Porcupine" tank solar water heating Batch water heating Solar food dryers Solar greenhouses for home heating Sub-floor solar hot air heating for radiant floors in single wide trailers, adobe homes, frame homes, workshops, etc. Attic and Black Roof collector systems for heating and cooling (the hotter the sun the better the cooling of the building) Using a metal roof for whole house cooling and/or heating No cost evaporative cooling Since the 1970's we have learned from our mistakes and successes to offer you advice today that just may be the best in the world for low-cost, no-cost and do-it-yourself ideas and instruction. |
Water
Water is more precious than gold.
We must allow it to purify. It has that characteristic. It can purify itself and all it touches. It is baptism.
I can teach you the lowest cost method I know to capture and store this vital liquid. I can instruct you on how to build a ten thousand gallon water tank for just two hundred dollars, for example!) I have built such tanks (See picture below).
