First, in an article published at his Earth Policy Institute website ( www.earth-policy.org ), Lester R. Brown writes that a team of engineers from Stanford University believe that there is enough potential wind energy in the United States to provide all of the energy needs of this seemingly insatiable country! New wind turbine designs are capable of harnessing energy at much lower wind speeds than before, which greatly increases this potential, as does the consideration of offshore wind sites. Over the last decade wind energy generation capacity worldwide has increased sixfold, enough to power the electrical needs of some 40 million Europeans.

During the last two decades, the cost of wind power has dropped by a factor of 10, so that now it can be produced for about 4 cents per kilowatt-hour, and is expected to drop even more in the years to come. In the U. S. there are now 28 states where utility-scale wind farms are in operation. When you consider that wind is not only capable of generating electricity directly, but can produce storable hydrogen gas through the electrolysis of water, this may well be the dominant source of energy for our future.

The second development seems like a combination of science fiction and Rube Goldberg, but is apparently quite real and not only has the potential to both clean up and utilize the massive waste stream of our society, but produce valuable products as well. I am refering to a process called thermal depolymerization, which is designed to handle almost any waste product imaginable, including turkey offal, tires, plastic bottles, harbor-dredged muck, old computers, municipal garbage, cornstalks, paper-pulp effluent, infectious medical waste, oil-refinery residues, even biological weapons such as anthrax spores. According to representatives of Changing World Technologies ( www.changingworldtech.com ), waste goes in one end and comes out the other as three products, all valuable and environmentally benign: high-quality oil, clean-burning gas, and purified minerals that can be used as fuels, fertilizers, or specialty chemicals for manufacturing.

Imagine this: just converting all the U.S. agricultural waste into oil and gas would yield the energy equivalent of 4 billion barrels of oil annually, roughly equivalent to all the oil imported by the U.S. in 2001. Thermal depolymerization has proved to be 85 percent energy efficient for complex feedstocks, such as turkey offal. That means for every 100 Btus in the feedstock, only 15 Btus are used to run the process; the efficiency is even better for relatively dry raw materials, such as plastics.

The machinery to do this resembles oil refineries, where the waste material is super-hydrated, with temperatures around 500 degrees Fahrenheit and pressures of about 600 pounds for about 15 minutes. Once the organic soup is heated and partially depolymerized in the reactor vessel, the slurry is quickly dropped to a lower pressure which releases about 90 percent of the free water. Dehydration via depressurization is far cheaper in terms of energy consumed than is heating and boiling off the water. At this stage, the minerals are shunted to storage tanks and the remaining concentrated organic soup gushes into a second-stage reactor similar to the coke ovens used to refine oil into gasoline. The reactor heats the soup to about 900 degrees Fahrenheit to further break apart long molecular chains. Next, in vertical distillation columns, hot vapor flows up, condenses, and flows out from different levels: gases from the top of the column, light oils from the upper middle, heavier oils from the middle, water from the lower middle, and powdered carbon from the bottom. Gas is used on-site to heat the process, while the oil, minerals, and carbon are sold to the highest bidders.

I am pleased to announce the completion of a new 147-page ebook that I began writing last winter while on a trip to Mexico. Which Hobbit Lives Here? Reflections on Society and Sustainability reveals my very personal story of growing up as a Hobbit in Mormon country and how this shaped my perspective on the culture of Men. This is a book of art and poetry, reverence and compassion, invention and imagination, retrospection and prophesy, combined with solid information on how to build a sustainable house and future. Nearly every page is artfully illustrated with images that amplify the essence of the text, and is embellished with quotes from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings that tie directly to these topics.

I talk about my involvement with music, painting and drawing, photography, film, animation, video production, writing and website development. These arts have been central to my being. I also write about my personal relationship to love, nature, spirituality, science and technology.

Using my own “Hobbit hole” as an example, I write about sustainable architecture with reference to compact design, passive solar heating, advantages of earth-sheltering, forest conservation, use of local and natural materials, recycling, energy and water conservation, growing and storing food, and building for the long term. There is much specific guidance offered in these pages for those who would like to incorporate sustainable principles into their homes or house plans.

I tell about why I designed and built the “Sunmobile,” a two-person, four-wheeled solar vehicle that runs completely on solar or human power. The Sunmobile has gone hundreds of pollution-free miles; it is designed for utility, with lots of cargo space. This could be the basis for the next evolutionary stage in solar travel: the “SunVee,” which stands for Solar Utility Neighborhood Vehicle.

In a series of essays, I reflect on the nature of the culture of Men (especially Western culture.) The emphasis of this culture on competition, consumerism, capitalism, violence, patriotism, and militarism is evaluated for how it is dysfunctional. The way these traits combine with the popular media and the internalized stories that guide subconscious choice is shown to create an unhealthy political reality. I point out that if the direction of this culture is not fundamentally altered, the prognosis for a sustainable future is not good.

The final chapters examine the origins of Men and Hobbits, and speculate on our future. The messages left behind by previous cultures through edifice and story are examined for what they might teach us. The ultimate hope for a benign continuation of both mankind and hobbitkind lies within each of us. We have the opportunity and the responsibility to find those places within us that will allow for positive change to occur.

Hybrid Steel Quonset/Earthbag/Papercrete/Wood Carriage House
I have resumed work on this combination garage/workshop/library building; in fact the shell of it is nearly complete. The photo shows the front end, which was created with wood framing and siding materials. Most of this wood was either recycled from nearby building projects (taken from the dumpster), or bought as remnants. The cedar lap siding actually represents four different styles, so the fascade has a rather patchwork quality. The door and windows (except for the glass blocks) were all recycled as well.

I am quite pleased with how the steel quonset/earthbag/papercrete portion of the structure is worki

ng. I finished this part last fall, so it has wintered over with no apparent problems. Now that the heat of the summer is upon us, I can testify that the interior space is remaining deliciously cool, something that would not be expected with an un-insulated steel building. I believe that this method of construction has tremendous potential for residential use; it could even be earth-bermed successfully if desired.

The interior of the shell could be finished in a variety of ways, or even left with the steel showing, as I intend to do with this workshop. Cloth material could be draped over it, sheetrock could be scored on one side to allow it to curve to the shape of the vault, or wood tongue and grooved siding could be installed, to name a few possible surfaces.

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