Fausta's Blog

American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

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Green and dirty

In order to “save the earth” apparently we must all give up basic sanitation.

Last year it was the Manhattan couple that stopped using toilet paper. Ugh.

This year it’s the fool feeling guilty about taking hot showers. After deluging us with statistics about how wasteful it is to run hot water, she advises us to “take a shower if you need it.”

Listen to me, and listen to me carefully:

Take a shower.
You need it.

As you have noticed, I’ve taken up tango recently, and there is nothing more unpleasant than to come in close contact with someone who has not showered. I even suggested that one of the organizers post one of those signs they have by public swimming pools that say “SHOWER BEFORE YOU ENTER.” You can offer people mints and gum for bad breath, but when you’re on the dance floor you can’t pull a soapy washcloth out of thin air and wash down someone who hasn’t showered. Worse yet, after you’re done dancing with that person, your nostrils hang on to the odor.

We live in the most technologically advanced society in the history of mankind. I urge you to please avail yourself of the most efficient water heater you can afford, and by all means, take a nice hot shower.

shower

Of course this trend towards skimping on basic sanitation goes well with people who think Cuba is a paradise. After all, there is no toilet paper in Cuba (h/t Babalu), and the average person does not have the financial means to own and maintain an efficient water heater. The chronic power shortages don’t help, either.

Living in green misery and living in a totalitarian society might go hand-in-hand. Take advantage and enjoy the benefits of a free capitalist society while you can, and shower on.

Your dance partner will thank you.

Now if you will excuse me I’ll go try to get some relief from this cold that’s making me miserable and take a hot shower.

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Don Surber and the great water scare

This story, AP IMPACT: Tons of released drugs taint US water, starts with the usual fearmongering one comes to expect from Associated Press:

U.S. manufacturers, including major drugmakers, have legally released at least 271 million pounds of pharmaceuticals into waterways that often provide drinking water — contamination the federal government has consistently overlooked, according to an Associated Press investigation.

Don Surber, however, took a closer look and found,

The numbers sound big — 271 million pounds per year of chemicals are released into the water.

That works out to 14 ounces per person per year, or 7 grams a day. With daily use at 69 gallons per family, those 7 grams are pretty diluted. Add to it that most of those 271 million pounds are placed in the entire water stream from which the water is taken — and only a small portion of the overall water stream winds up at the water treatment center.

AP tried to make it sound as if the pounds were mainly drugs. But it is not until Paragraph 15 — well after the story is cut off in most reports — that you learn that most of the “pollution” is phenol and hydrogen peroxide:

“Two common industrial chemicals that are also pharmaceuticals — the antiseptics phenol and hydrogen peroxide — account for 92 percent of the 271 million pounds identified as coming from drugmakers and other manufacturers. Both can be toxic and both are considered to be ubiquitous in the environment.”

Hydrogen peroxide is H2O2 — water with double the oxygen.

So you have 7 grams a day, but much of that is H2O2 and we are not really sure how much of that 7 grams winds up in your water treatment center to begin with.

Now the kicker: At best, you drink 2% of that water you use. Most of the water we use is used in our toilets, showers, washing machines and dishwashers.

By the way, there is Oxygen Water out there that you can buy and drink. A higher amount of oxygen in your drinking water won’t kill you, even when it’s a ripoff.

I was asking The Husband, who has a PhD in Chemistry, “what about the phenol? Would a regular filter take care of that?” The Husband says, yes, as long as it’s an activated charcoal filter, it will.

There you have it. No need to panic. Now excuse me while I get a glass of water.

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Yesterday’s podcast, and Gaddafi’s water

Yesterday Siggy and I had the pleasure of talking to Erik Svane of No Pasaran.

(Yes, every time I post Erik’s photo a couple of people email saying that he’s easy on the eyes, so I’m happy to oblige.)

You can listen to the podcast here.

We started by mentioning Eugene Schlanger’s excellent book of poems Wall Street Sonnets, which I highly recommend (and which you can buy at the Underbahn link if you live in the EU. American readers should buy it here). Underbahn is also the publisher of Houdna

Erik’s written three books, La Bannière Étalée, and two General Leonardo graphic novels, all of which I hope will be available in English soon. Don’t miss also Erik‘s essay on patriotism.

Erick recommends James W. Ceaser‘s book Reconstructing America: The Symbol of America in Modern Thought

But as the conversation turned to Gaddafi’s current trip to the EU, Siggy mentioned Gaddafi’s big water project. Mind you, this is not new – but it carries huge implications to the region.

Here are some links:
Libya’s Vast Pipe Dream Taps Into Desert’s Ice Age Water

From a 2004 article in the NYT: Libya’s Vast Pipe Dream Taps Into Desert’s Ice Age Water

In one of the largest construction projects in the world, engineers are trying to “mine” ice age rainfall, now locked in the sandstone beneath the Sahara, and convey it to Libyan cities and farms along a vast waterworks.

The project is almost invisible, except when something goes wrong.
…
But the option that Colonel Qaddafi chose — the extensive pipeline and pumping system that bores into the earth to draw down nonrenewable reserves of fossil water — is now about half completed on a landscape twice the size of Texas and has been delivering water for more than a decade, with occasional interruptions for repairs.

And 2006 at the BBC: Libya’s thirst for ‘fossil water’

Libya had oil money to pay for the project, but it did not have the technical or engineering expertise for such a massive undertaking.

Foreign companies from South Korea, Turkey, Germany, Japan, the Philippines and the UK were invited to help.

It is impossible not to be impressed with the scale of the project
In September 1993, Phase I water from eastern well-fields at Sarir and Tazerbo reached Benghazi. Three years later, Phase II, bringing water to Tripoli from western well-fields at Jebel Hassouna, was completed.

Phase III which links the first two Phases is still under construction.

Grand Omar Mukhtar (BBC)
When it’s finished, the Grand Omar Mukhtar will be Libya’s largest man-made reservoir.

Siggy will be posting on this later on, I hope.

For now, go listen to the podcast. I’m sure you will enjoy it!

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