racje’s Recent Comments

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  Pjrotary, You can't neutralize your carbon emissions by buying offsets. That's what Umbra tells us: just think of the "offsets" as a charitable contribution to make a little bit of green energy someplace. It won't erase your emissions. They will still be there in the atmosphere, warming it up. So, go ahead and offset your guilt--it will do some good--but don't think your emissions are compensated for. The only way to remove the effect of your emissions is not to emit them.On Ask Umbra on buying carbon offsets posted 4 weeks ago 11 Responses

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  Urine contains urea, a component of nitrogen fertilizers. A little bit is good for plants; a lot creates nitrogen burn. Carnivores' pee is more nitrogenous than omnivores or herbivores, so if you are vegan, your urine is more benign than a meat-eating dog.

  Highly fertilized lawns are more vulnerable to nitrogen overload than unfertilized lawns.

  The best place to pee outside would be your compost pile, especially if it is low in nitrogen. The composting process will even out the nitrogen content as well as destroy the odd hantavirus, and you can regulate how much you put on various parts of your garden.

  Or dilute, as the above poster suggests--but then, you're probably not actually peeing outside, are you?

  Putting waste matter into drinking water and flushing it away is insane. The recovery period is likely to be rocky. Meantime, avoid grossing everybody out: do as your hosts do.

  On Ask Umbra on public peeing posted 5 months, 2 weeks ago 20 Responses

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  If we all eat a lot less meat, eggs and dairy, the demand for corn, soy, and other grains in the food chain will go way down. Then, perhaps, the land the corn was grown on will be available to grow biofuels, with no demand to raze forests in the tropics.

  I don't know that meat consumption necessarily rises with affluence. It's a taste, a fashion, a class marker. It used to be desirable for rich folks to be soft, pale, and plump, to show they did not do physical labor, stayed indoors, and had enough to eat. Now the rich have time to tone themselves in the gym, tan in the tropics, and diet with personal coaches at elite spas, while the poor are pasty, corn-fed couch potatoes.

  Similarly, the idea that a slab of red meat shows wealth and status may soon wane, to be replaced with artisanal bread, hand-weeded arugula, dry-farmed tomatoes, and twelve-dollar-a-basket berries, while the animal-eating lower classes suffer from clogged arteries, hormonal derangement, and excess protein disorders. 

  Farmers will continue to work hard and earn little.

   

  On The EPA holds corn ethanol accountable ... sort of posted 6 months ago 18 Responses

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  I don't own a dishwasher; there is no room for one in my kitchen.

   

  I also don't leave the water running while I'm washing dishes. I use a wash pan and a rinse pan, each with about one and a half gallons of water. I scrape the dishes, pre-rinse them if necessary, replace the pre-rinse water with clean rinse water, wash in soapy water, rinse, and air dry. This (4.5 gallons total) is enough for a day's worth of dishes.

   

  The statistics Umbra cites come from a dishwasher manufacturer. They are biased. I don't think most people just leave the water running while they are doing the dishes. I wish Umbra would be more careful with her sources.

  On Umbra dishes on dishwashers vs washing by hand posted 6 months, 1 week ago 7 Responses

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  Thankes, Lifeforce. The first two references you cite do refer to influenza virus being carried by flies; the others are all about bacteria, which do not carry influenza.

  On Symptom: swine flu. Diagnosis: industrial agriculture? posted 6 months, 1 week ago 27 Responses