SeaChar.org

How a village joined the green revolution

seachar_admin — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 03:25:53 +0000

Monday, 13 February 2012 08:06 Paul Tentena East African Business Week

KAMPALA, UGANDA – After completing her degree in Chemistry majoring in natural products, Angela Mbabazi did not sit home to look for a job, a common practice for many Ugandan graduates.
She devised means of creating employment and transforming rural societies from peasants to productive and innovative people.
Mbabazi, 26, has made a name in a Ugandan rural village by turning dry maize cobs, banana leaves, and bean pods, cassava sticks among others into green charcoal. This is in measure to ensure reduction in cutting trees for firewood or charcoal.
“Uganda and the world lose millions of tonnes of trees to wood fuel for household, commercial and industrial purposes.
“The number increases year after year due to population pressure. It’s prudent that new sources of energy are developed,” said Mbabazi while showing East African Business Week how she has transformed villagers in Kyampisi about 70km north east of Kampala city with the use of Green Charcoal.
Green Charcoal is made from all wastes, ranging from dry maize cobs, banana leaves, pass pallum, bean pods, and cassava sticks, and any other waste.
The process involves burning the wastes in a locally made burner referred to as a carboniser, which is later taken through a binding process using cassava starch, clay or silicate extracted from rice husks and other materials. They are passed through molds that determine its shape and size.
From the carboniser, according to Mbabazi, the wastes are harvested from the burner machine while sprinkling it with water to cool down. The cooled waste, termed as bio char is put on to a locally made grinding machine, which turns the bio char into powder.
“It is then mingled with soil, clay, cassava starch or silicate extracted from rice husks to make green charcoal,” she says.
She notes that it requires only four pieces of green charcoal to cook a meal that can be consumed by more than 10 people.
The National Forestry Authority, Uganda government forest management body projects that Uganda may import firewood by 2015, if alternative energy sources are not developed or fully utilized to reduce the cutting down of trees.
“It is already being felt because one time the cost of a charcoal over shot that of gas and firewood is becoming scarce and expensive,” adds Mbabazi.
Mbabazi, under the Rural Initiative for Development and Environment Management (RIDEM) project, believe that if many people are taught how to make green charcoal, their dependence on wood fuels will tremendously go down, hence a reduction in deforestation.
“This project is good for us. After learning, we make green charcoal which we sell at Ush1000 ($0.4) per bundle,” says Mr. Abdul Kayima a resident of Kyampisi village adding that “Even their women who used to spend some time gossiping” have utilized the project and time to do green charcoal to add/earn some money.
About 20 residents of Kyampisi village have taken up the green charcoal project, which they make and sell to fellow residents. Other green charcoal is transported and sold to urban residents and supermarkets. Mbabazi takes residents through a two month intensive training in how to make green charcoal, which skills they pass on to fellow residents.
“This is aimed at economically empowering the local community to make a living while preserving the environment,” she stresses.

CEC; New Grant Program,…

seachar_admin — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 04:45:40 +0000

NAPECA ;
The CEC Council has established a new grant program, the North American Partnership for Environmental Community Action (NAPECA) to support communities in their efforts to address environmental problems locally.

From The Climate Foundation;
Converting Municipal Solid Waste to Biochar in North America
http://www.cec.org/Page.asp?PageID=751&SiteNodeID=1084

Who the The Climate Foundation is;
http://www.climatefoundation.org/who-we-are-b

I really like this Foundation because they focus on two of my avocations; StrawBale Construction & Biochar;
http://www.climatefoundation.org/what-we-do-b/straw-retrofitting-education
In addition to the “reinvent the toilet” challenge; Stanford Gates RTTC Project

Home, Health, Energy & Climate………..the four horsemen of Sustainability :)

Biogas Cook Stoves and the Earth Healing Potential of Biochar

seachar_admin — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 21:12:21 +0000

Monday, February 06, 2012, 07:00pm – 09:00pm Biogas Cook Stoves and the Earth Healing Potential of Biochar On Monday, February 6th, Quimper Grange will host engineer and technology enthusiast, Francesco Tortorici. He will be talking about a revolutionary clean burning cook stove that can use anything from small twigs to peanut shells or even straw for fuel and he will also speak about biochar, the carbonaceous material formed by burning these fuels. Micro-gasifier stoves, as they are called, separate the generation of combustible gases from their subsequent combustion to create cooking heat. Heat is produced from burning gasses and vastly reduces emissions compared to conventional wood burning. Attendees will be given simple instructions on how to build a small efficient biogas stove from found materials and will see a demonstration of its use boiling water. Additionally they will learn about experiments being done locally using biochar as a soil amendment for growing organic crops, and will learn how biochar not only improves garden soil but can sequester carbon for up to a thousand years. Biogas stoves are a valuable addition to an emergency preparedness kit. Francesco‘s interest in appropriate technologies led him to attend the ETHOS (Engineers in Technical and Humanitarian Opportunities of Service) conference in Kirkland last year and through that experience he now works with several NGOs in the northwest that are focusing on promoting clean cook stoves. What Francesco finds most exciting about micro-gasifier stoves is that they are simple to build, easy to use, and can begin to address the issues of poor indoor air quality caused by cooking over open fires which is done by perhaps a third of the world’s population. The program starts at 7:30 pm and is preceded by a potluck dessert/fingerfood social half-hour from 7pm to 7:30pm. Suggested donation: $5-$10. For further information contact: Marla Streator at 385-6924. Location : Quimper Grange, 1219 Corona Street, Port Townsend, WA 98368 Contact : Charlotte Goldman, 360-385-3455, chargold@earthlink.net Event Sponsor : Quimper Grange Website: http://www.quimpergrange.blogspot.com

Spreading the good word of BioChar

seachar_admin — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 06:35:17 +0000

Two weeks ago, we kicked off the Estufa Finca Training program by cooking a great big pot of soup on the stoves with members from 18 BriBri households. All the participants came to ACOMUITA, the association of indigenous women’s chocolate, for the day to learn how to use the stoves and to save the biochar. Throughout the training we discussed issues of respiratory illnesses, deforestation, carbon sequestration, and the delicious flavor of foods cooked over a wood fire. We practiced cooking on the stoves and had a great time making lunch together.

Among the group are two wonderful BriBri women that will be the facilitators and promoters of the stove training program. Throughout the project, they will work in communities in the BriBri Indigenous Reservation to teach families how to use the stoves and to use the biochar that the stoves produce. We have been working hard together to get them ready to lead trainings for families. And they are already excelling.

One morning we were running late on our way to work with the promoters. When we arrived, they already had the stove lit and were making hot chocolate with cacao processed right there by the women’s association. On top of that, they were showing the association’s cook how to use the stove so she could make lunch on the Estufa Finca instead of on the gas stove. We had a delicious lunch of rice, chicken and plantains, all cooked on the stove and with biochar to show for it.

Photo Credit: Brian Cisneros

TLUD Workshop being offered prior to ETHOS Conference:

seachar_admin — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 03:43:26 +0000

TLUD Workshop being offered prior to ETHOS Conference:

Biomass Energy Foundation is offering a Workshop on the technical and practical concepts of its micro-gasification units. Dr. Paul Anderson aka “Dr TLUD” will provide an overview of the science and technology of the Top Lit Up Draft (TLUD) stove and its applications in meeting the cooking needs of local communities around the globe.

He will be assisted by Bob Fairchild, Krista Roth, and Kathy Nafie.

When: Friday, January 27th
9:00 am—1 :00 pm (Lunch included)

Where: Hydrovolts, Inc.
210 S Hudson St, #330 Seattle, WA 98134

Cost: $25/person
RSVP: biomassenergyfndn@yahoo.com by January 25th. Questions: Kathy Nafie @ 303-570-6868

Biomass Energy Foundation Stove Camp Initiative

The goal is to promote a new approach to implementing sustainable cook stove programs

in Developing Countries.

The Ultimate Success of this effort depends on introducing new practices into diverse established cultural settings, through careful attention to the following Tenets:

Culture: Observe, study, Listen, understand, Learn & respect existing practices
Fuel: Identify current fuel practices and overlooked waste fuels locally available; consider costs for pre-

processing waste biomass into higher performing fuels that could provide alternatives to existing fuels. Device: Optimizing the stove design to reflect aspects observed and learned: cultural, practical and fuels. Acceptance: Newdevicesandcookingmethodsareintegratedintothecommunityandpractices.

Biomass Energy Foundation is recognized as a 501(c)3 non profit organization. See our website: www.biomassenergyfndn.org

A New World is Being Born

seachar_admin — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 04:46:17 +0000

by Luis T. Gutiérrez, Editor

Journal of Sustainable Human Development

http://www.pelicanweb.org/solisustv07n12page1.html#editorial

According to Christian tradition, a baby was born to poor migrant parents about 2000 years ago in the outskirts of Bethlehem of Judea – an obscure town approximately 5 miles south of Jerusalem in what is now the occupied West Bank. It was dark and cold that night, and they could not afford to pay for a room to stay so ended up finding refuge in a stable where animals were kept.

It was there that the baby was born, just like every human baby is born. For Christians, this means that God became human flesh and, not insignificantly, via the womb of a woman. It means that God assumed all the limitations of the human condition, including ethnicity, gender identity, and all limitations of body and mind: like us in all things but sin.

The birth of this child, as described in the ancient texts that are now recognized by Christians as divinely inspired, is a paradoxical mix of darkness and light, fear and joy, simplicity and grandeur. The baby cried, and angels sang. As the mother was barely recovering, some illiterate shepherds came to visit. Then a group of rich and highly learned foreigners showed up to pay their respects. A bright new star appeared in the sky as a sign of hope in the midst of the oppressive violence that was common throughout the Roman empire. But some local authorities felt “threatened” by these “signs of the times” and conspired to kill the child, so the parents were forced to flee across the desert to find some measure of safety in Egypt.

Fast Forward to Christmas 2011 CE

Two thousand years later, we find ourselves living in a world that is as confusing and paradoxical, perhaps even more so. The Roman empire has given way to a globalized world in which some old “empires” remain and new ones emerge from time to time. There has been notable progress in many areas: slavery is no longer recognized as a valid institution, universal human rights have been defined, humans have traveled to the moon and back. The amount of human knowledge and the power of technology have grown so much that we may now be entering the Anthropocene, i.e., a new era in which human activity is capable of influencing the structure and dynamics of the human habitat. But such developments are also bringing about a global ecological crisis and a new era of anxiety and uncertainty about the future of humanity.

The world’s population is approximately 7 billion people. Global consumption of goods and services is approaching 60 trillion dollars, with 80% of commodities going to 20% of the population. Empirical data shows that consumption is growing faster than population, even though over one billion people remain in abject poverty. The global financial system is in total disarray, with banks refraining to lend money to legitimate small businesses but eager to engage in the trading of “derivatives” and various other financial instruments also known as “financial weapons of mass destruction.” Worldwide, the rich-poor gap is increasing increasingly. Billions of tons of minerals and fossil fuels are being extracted from the earth each year, and billions of tons of waste and pollutants are being dumped back into the environment. Climate change, induced by global warming, is already impacting some human communities. Sexism and the patriarchal mindset of control and domination still rule in most parts of the world, including all the major world religions. Old and new forms of violence are actually increasing as the way of settling conflicts at the local, national, and international levels.

Exclusivist Practices are Unsustainable

Religion is the hope of humanity, even though religious practices often distort religious insights and make them practically useless and even harmful. But the voice of God continues to resound in the events of history, always seeking what is good for people albeit in terms adapted to the “here and now.” At a time when human civilization is facing a crisis unlike anyone encountered before, it is instructive to reflect on the ageless lessons that have been preserved for us in sacred texts such as the Bible. The Christmas story is a timely example.

It is pointless to discuss the historicity of the various accidental details that serve to convey the wisdom encapsulated in these texts. It is the embedded wisdom that we need to reclaim and understand in terms applicable to our “here and now.” For instance, reflection on the Christmas narratives reveals a consistent pattern of darkness, promise, waiting, and light. It was in a dark night that the baby was born. It was in fear that the shepherds heard the good news. The bright start that had guided them disappeared, and the erudite visitors “from the East” had to wait until it reappeared again. Then, and only then, they found the baby and recognized in him the new light of the world.

The texts also reveal a consistent pattern of inclusive unity in diversity. Nobody was excluded from active participation in the Christmas story. The local shepherds were poor and Jewish. The pilgrims “from the East” were rich and Gentile (i.e., not members of the “chosen people of Israel). Joseph was a carpenter. Mary was a young woman who became pregnant while still unmarried. Angels were included. Animals were present when the baby was born. The only “exclusivist” behavior in the entire story was that of those who had a vested interest in the status quo and decided it would be “prudent” to exclude this baby from the list of the living.

But exclusivist practices can be sustained only by the force of violence (whether legally or illegally) and, in the long term, nonviolence is more powerful than violence. Exclusivist practices have been the root cause of much pain and suffering in human history, and both secular and religious powers share the blame. In the religious arena, one such practice was the initial exclusion of Gentiles from the early Christian church, happily reversed in apostolic times. Another was the Eurocentrism of the same church after it became the official religion of the Roman empire, leading to the persecuted church becoming the persecuting church, conflicts between the western and eastern wings of Christianity, and utter disrespect for the religious traditions of people outside the Roman sphere of influence. Even to this day, the exclusion of women from roles of religious authority remains the standard practice in most religions, and culturally-conditioned gender inequality still prevails in most regions of the world (for more on this, click here and here).

Inclusiveness in the Transition to Sustainability

The challenge of the transition from consumerism to sustainability is to be inclusive, not exclusive. The challenge is unity in diversity, not unity in uniformity at the expense of excluding those who believe differently, or think differently, or look differently. The challenge is integration, not mere assimilation. The challenge is to overcome narrow-mindedness, intolerance, racism, sexism, self-righteousness, and all manner of violence. The challenge is to cease pointing fingers at each other and start working together for the common good. In brief, the challenge is for humans to become more fully human, and at this point in human history this entails outgrowing homo economicus and becoming homo ecologicus.

This means that materialistic economic development must cease to be the top priority of human activity, and human development in harmony with nature must become the top priority. There are no limits to knowledge. There are no limits to wisdom. For those with a religious outlook in life, there are no limits to faith, hope, and love. The prioritization of human development over the accumulation of capital and commodities is the crucial issue facing humanity, and applies equally to individuals and institutions, both secular and religious. There are positive signs that this fundamental shift in priorities is beginning to emerge in the minds and hearts of people of good will. The following are some examples:

Universal Declaration of Human Rights, United Nations, 1948

Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development: Our Common Future, United Nations, 1987

Millennium Development Goals, United Nations, 2000

The Earth Charter, Earth Charter Initiative, 2005

The Stockholm Memorandum: Tipping the Scales towards Sustainability, Nobel Laureates, May 2011

The Laxenburg Declaration on Population and Sustainable Development, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, October 2011

Towards reforming the international financial and monetary systems in the context of a global public authority, Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Vatican City, October 2011

The World Is Revolting Against the Neo-liberal Economic and Business Model: A Call to Action, Globalization for the Common Good Inititiative, November 2011

Global citizen movements such as Widening Circle and Occupy Together (see the Signs of the Times video by Jessica Lehrman, Grist, 26 November 2011)

A New World is Being Born

A new world is being born. It is impossible to predict the specific sequence of events that will accompany this birth, but the “signs of the times” are already visible and it is reasonable to anticipate that the following “Christmas patterns” will be experienced:

A pattern of increasingly collaborative work (research, reflection, resolve) by all global citizens: “However sustainability is defined, one thing is true: the vital need for human society to address its challenges will end up transforming the ways we all work, live, and compete. It will have extraordinary implications for organizations and the people who lead them—work processes, organizational models, competitive strategies, and leadership methods are all going to be affected…” MIT Sustainability Initiative

A pattern of gradual but radical dismantling of all exclusivist practices and policies. This will entail deconstructing the complex web of gender-related exclusions that we have inherited from the patriarchal system of male domination that emerged during the agricultural revolution (circa 10,000-5,000 BCE) and continues to corrupt the original “unity in diversity” of men and women in both society and religion.

A pattern of gradual but radical renunciation of all forms of violence: physical, cultural, psychological, ethnic, sexual, economic, political, religious, … Peace is inclusivist. Violence is exclusivist. Violence, in one form or another, must be used to enforce exclusions. Violence is the greatest obstacle to integral human development. Therefore, violence-triggering exclusions are also an obstacle. All people of good will need to experience the power of all-inclusive nonviolence.

Christmas happened 2000 years ago, when the Baby was born; but in a very real sense it is happening again. The newborn “babies” are all men and women who are becoming “global citizens” committed to human solidarity and ecological sustainability. Let us pray for them and work with them, that we all may grow in wisdom and stature for the glory of God and the good of humanity.

Happy Holidays from Talamanca

seachar_admin — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 22:44:35 +0000

We hope that you are enjoying this holiday season with friends and family. Here in Costa Rica, we are busy preparing for holiday celebrations too. We made brownies last night to put in the Christmas stockings of the workers at the APPTA cacao association!

Estufa Finca Community Installation

Our project is off to a rolling start in the Talamanca region. In collaboration with CATIE, The Center for Tropical Agriculture Research and Education, we have been helping graduate student Juliano Hojah da Silva apply biochar in farms for his research on how biochar can help improve cocoa production. At APPTA, Association of Small Producers of Talamanca, we have kicked off biochar production for use as an organic fertilizer in cocoa seedlings with larger kilns. And yesterday we did our first Talamanca community stove installation at the Indigenous Women’s Association ACOMUITA in the community of Shiroles. We are excited to see this project take off into the new year!

Juliano Hojah da Silva applying biochar to cocoa farms

Give the gift of BioChar this Christmas. Any donations to SeaChar will help us put biochar into the Costa Rican soils and are tax deductable. Donations this year could help to improve cacao production in the Talamanca region and in turn improve the chocolate you might buy for Christmas next year!

There are only 8 days left in the 2011 Global Giving Winter Challenge to support SeaChar!

Check out our project page at: http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/biochar-cook-stoves-save-lives-and-trees/

Share this link with as many friends and contacts as possible. Help us reinvent fire!

Blessings,

SeaChar.Org

Farm Stove Project Talamanca: Heading up river to Amubri

seachar_admin — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 01:00:29 +0000

Our project partners at ACOMUITA (Association of Women of Talamanca) and at APPTA (Association of Small Producers of Talamanca) have recommended Amubri, an Indigenous BriBri community, as a wonderful place to begin the Estufa Finca Project. So we decided to pay a visit to this beautiful town today.

To get there, we hopped on a bus and then transferred to another bus up a dirt road. Before continuing our journey, we stopped at ACOMUITA to try some of their delicious organic artisan chocolate! We then crossed the river in a motorized dug-out canoe and then caught a ride down another dirt road in a banana transport truck.

When we crossed the river the sun was blaring down, so striking we knew we must be getting as much vitamin D as we get in a whole summer in Seattle. By the time we made it to Amubri, dark menacing rain clouds were approaching, and sure enough, it poured. We were fortunate enough to have timed the rainfall with our lunch at a quaint little restaurant in Amubri.

With a population of about 2,000 people, Amubri has a health center, a police station, a high school, a cultural center, a church and a children’s nutrition center. Most families produce cacao, banana, and plantain for sale and other crops for personal consumption.

Some families can afford to cook with propane, but almost every family has a traditional fogón, or open fire for cooking. The Costa Rican government has funded a program to support affordable cement houses for families. Although many families now live in these modern cement houses, the majority still have a traditional wood and thatch house next door that serves as the kitchen and the location for the fogón.

Even in our brief visit, it became apparent what a wonderful, organized, and welcoming community Amubri is. There is a need for the Estufa Finca technology and a community eager to gain access to this clean energy. We can’t wait to begin working together with the families of Amubri!

A Turning Point

seachar_admin — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 03:50:47 +0000

SeaChar.Org is announcing a turning point in our relationship with our longtime Estufa Finca-Costa Rica partners: APORTES. For two years we have worked together to create a biochar cook-stove project which would be run by and for the coffee growers and Panamanian Ngobe coffee picker community. On Saturday December 3rd, APORTES organizer Carolina Abraca Calderon and a team of the Ngobe stove promoters cooked and demonstrated to a group of approximately 60 community members and coffee farmers, how to operate a stove and save the biochar. At the request of APORTES, this event marks the transition of our joint project to a wholly APORTES run project. We are gratified that the stoves, which we have developed and shared with this community are proving to be effective. We wish Arturo Segura and Carolina Calderon the best of luck with the implementation of their 100 biochar cook-stove pilot project, with the International Organization for Migration. We know they will continue to improve these stovesand move this project into the future. We look forward to hearing updates on their progress.
At the same time SeaChar will continue to share these important ideas with other partners in Costa Rica, the United States and other communities around the world. Please follow these developments at the SeaChar.Org website and FaceBook page.

My best wishes to all,
Sincerely

–
Art Donnelly
President SeaChar.Org
US Director, The Farm Stove Project
Proyecto Estufa Finca

It’s working…

seachar_admin — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 15:58:24 +0000

Hola,
It’s been a week since Erick installed Miriam’s stove so I walked to her home this afternoon to see how she was doing. The road into her finca is pretty rough but the scenery is gorgeous, so I really enjoyed the walk. We talked for a while about the event next Saturday and she agreed to help out SeaChar and APORTES by cooking and explaining to the attendees how to load, light and cook on their APORTES produced Estufa Finca stoves.

I asked her opinion about the stove and she said, “Sí, me gusta. Es más rápido. Mi problema es que nuestra madera es demasiado húmeda.” I asked if she was collecting the biochar and she showed me her bag–about 1/3 full. So, one bag in 3 weeks. I think she’ll use the stove more when the rain stops and the wood dries out. So, possibly one bag every 2 weeks.

I wish you all could have been there–it was a very cool experience seeing all our work over the last year turn into a bag of charcoal, just like we planned.

Saludos,
Tom Ternes
Santos-Project Manager