Regenerative Development
Analysis and Opinion
By Karl Garcia
We want to save this planet but at the same time we are destroying it:
1. We tried to tackle air pollution with so many accords and so many protocols. We have China notwithstanding her use of giant air purifiers made by Dutch inventors. They still have the worst pollution. Maybe even if she has 100 percent hybrid cars, she will still be the most polluted.
Giant Air purifier in China
2. That is only the air. Sucking CO2 may not be an ultimate solution but it has to be followed little by little moving away from carbon. The lower the carbon footprint, the better.
A giant set of fans suck the CO2 out of the sky
3. We have the Arctic shipping route no one is talking about except before and after an episode of Madam Secretary. These proponents want most arctic ice to go away, if not via ice breakers, it will by nature. That is terrible. If there is anything good about this, please do tell the world.
The Trans Arctic Shipping Route
4. Is there a less invasive way to supply our energy without drilling the ocean floor, destroying mountains and also nearby forests and watersheds?
Oil Rigs that drill through the ocean floor
5. Is there a way to contribute less to atmospheric and ocean pollution without having to spend the rest of your life on Mars?
Farming on Mars?
We can’t save the world, so we focus on our own the Philippines:
1. If we do not want to buy Boyan Slat’s interceptor, what DENR did to net the river garbage in Central Luzon would be more than enough so long as it is consistent and not just for photo ops and PR. Each household should do streetsweeping at least once a week.
The community should help cleanup esteros and creeks.
Pictured above is Boyan’s Slat’s interceptor and the picture below it is about garbage caught by fishnet.
AUGUST 17, 2020 Trash traps devised by the DENR are made of nets filled with plastic bottles, styropor and other recyclables that can float. As long as 30 to 100 meters, these lined the mouths of rivers draining to the Manila Bay. DENR PHOTO
2. Proof that we are just after the optics is the Manila Bay Beach.
Manila Bay Beach
3. And we have those oil spills in Guimaras and Iloilo which had a media blackout a few days after the incident.
An oilspill happened here recently
4. The late Gina Lopez wanted all the mines closed. She went after all the powerful people and got their ire.
The late Gina Lopez doing a lecture about mining
5. They say we can’t get genuine land reform and land use laws because most politicians are landowners. We could not have an anti-dynasty law because of the dynasts in congress, cannot eliminate mining because not only of the lobbyists but congressmen with mining interests.
30 Years of CARP, but have we achieved genuine land reform?
What will happen to this nation that is not interested in national interests? We can dream that one day we will elect the correct set of leaders or why not just simply elect good leaders? How can we solve this without the need to go to Mars?
1. Responsible mining. Cleanup your own mess, reseal the mountains; make the soil useful by remediation. The miners must realize that they have the tech to make landfill mining work: just a little C4 and TNT will solve that. Joke lang.
Illustration of enhanced landfill mining
2. With e-waste and construction and demolition debris, the miners can give their existing clients what they ask for (precious, ferrous, nonferrous metals, different rocks,etc.
Pictured above are Electronic wastes and below are construction and demolition wastes; if harnessed well they can save a lot of mountains from being mined and quarried further.
3. Landfills leak, all of them even with efficient garbage collection; our waterways will be polluted. So zero landfills and dumps 365 days a year is the answer. To do this have materials-recovery facilities distribute materials to manufacturers, and power plant operators who incorporate Waste to energy to cofire or co-locate with their existing system be it coal,diesel or whatnot.
4. Study the proposed hydrogen economy, if it safe and if it is worth it.
The hydrogen economy, if the proponents have their way, this will replace the carbon economy
5. For WTE, review the clean air act and allow for responsible and controlled incineration because we could not have near-zero landfills or even near-zero waste if no incineration is allowed. Why not have those giant air purifiers for every wte or every WTE plant, or carbon capture facilities?
6. Waste heat can be used for desalination; why don’t we try that?
WTE heat used to desalinate
.
Collocating desalination plants near powerplants can reduce costs.
A desalination plant near a powerplant
7. Study the risk of GE trees. This could be the answer to deforestation, but if it destroys nature then no thanks.
Genetically engineered trees
8. Parts of the Philippines may submerge due to the effects of global warming. What will happen to all the beaches and this is a national security concern.
Change in Panay Island due to sea level rise
9. Study the necessity of the various Trans arctic shipping routes. Will it exacerbate our global warming and climate change, if we remove ice in the arctic for the shipping route to happen? There are efforts to bring back the ice in Greenland by icemaking subs. With proper tweeking, they could make it work, but I guess the powerful nations that would want to have the shipping route will kill this idea.
10. Many recent wars have been about oil. Will we want history to keep repeating itself? Make renewables cost effective.
Sustainable Development is development that meets today’s needs without compromising the needs of future generations, but regenerative development goes beyond that.
Take in terms of preventive maintenance and complete overhaul of an engine; the former is analogous to sustainable and the latter to regenerative. I hope that makes sense.
Thanks again to IBRS whom I forgot to thank for again helping me in my article the last time. Thanks also Joe for always being a gracious host.
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The Society of Honor by Joe America 
Here is one thing advocates of the Transarcticshipping lane route must realize: The permafrost is thawing at a faster pace than expected, this means all those emission control efforts by vehicle and by factory owners will almost be put to waste.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/08/arctic-permafrost-is-thawing-it-could-speed-up-climate-change-feature/
Here comes the ethical challenge, but may bring hope: Deextinction of wooly mammoths.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/can-bringing-back-mammoths-stop-climate-change-180969072/
Back to things we can control.
Irineo intriduced Rama Dama.
From wiki:
Rama Dama or Ramadama (Bavarian: “We are cleaning!”) is called in Bavaria an organized cleanup, collecting waste in public space (both in nature and in residential areas), under the voluntary involvement of the population. The organization is taken over by communities, schools, associations or citizens’ initiatives.[1]
===
We have shore cleanups once in a while.
Also estero and creek cleaning and the tapat nyo linisin nyo programs.
If only we have the resolve to be consistent and not consistently inconsistent, change can happen.
I also propose community service for minor traffic offenses and ordinance violations, let them clean the streets and the esteros instead of jailing them. Jail them if they snub the cleaning choirs.
Once the pandemic is over, coastal cleanup programs should be revived, and again I wish for frequency and consistency.
https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1167648/watch-over-15000-join-coastal-cleanup-on-baseco-beach
. . . back to things we can control like the optics sa manila bay, nakakasilaw! white thrash yan sa paningin ko. yorme is defending his masterpiece, its sluices o runoff likely to alter the ph of water sa manila bay from maybe a balance of around ph7 to more alkaline water that may cause fishes die. so long as manila bay looks pretty and whitey, yorme is happy, what’s with a few dead fishes? they cannot vote and cannot tell no fish tales, hehe.
all those backlashes, yorme should now redeem himself and take the upper hand, and balance his ill conceived masterpiece with far better optics: dustribute free beep cards to manilenyos! sorry about the white sand, now would you be happy with free beep cards?
Wait til the fish tails appear.
In my recent comments I cited Cement Makers partnering with Unilever and Nestle for coprocessing programs.
That is cool.
Links here
https://www.cemexholdingsphilippines.com/-/waste-management-solution-the-cemex-w-1
and here
https://www.geocycle.com/philippines?address=Philippines
There is hope after all,plus the number one plastic waste producer topping Unilever, Nestle and P and G; Coca-Cola has a recycling program plus a bottle recovery program as well.
Just google it if interested.(2 links max reached)
between headaches and pulutan, ang aking mga kainuman talk about ‘impact investing’ where customers are encouraged to invest only and only buy products from firms and companies that share their values of clean earth. they not only make profits from investments but also contribute to the wellness of our planet at the same time: two birds with the one stone ika.
firms and companies that are great polluters, care more for profits and dont give a durian to the environment dont get a look see.
dept of trade and also consumers group should be able to come up with list of green firms and companies that care for the viability of our planet.
Small companies spread across Africa got in a radar of a rich Japanese, he poured money to all of them and success!
Why did the Japanese looked as far as Africa?
No impact from out smes? Only a feature in a magazine perhaps?
Link
https://disrupt-africa.com/2020/05/this-japanese-vc-has-invested-in-20-early-stage-african-tech-startups-so-far-this-year/
thanks for the link po, very promising.
Welcome,
Not exactly Japanese capital infusion, but more of knowledge transfer; from one sme to another.
https://business.inquirer.net/247712/japanese-smes-offer-new-technology-help-ph
I hope an angel investor will be sent to the entrepreneurs of Phinix Fashion.
https://www.changemakers.com/fabricofchange/entries/phinix-footwear-asian-recyclers-textiles
and I am glad that being from Davao got the support needed for Envirotech to be a success.
https://pia.gov.ph/features/articles/1016192
From plastic wastes to useful chairs
And Ecobricks are making an impact here.
https://primer.com.ph/business/2018/08/04/ecobricks-transforms-plastic-waste-to-building-blocks/
They say we are running out of water for drinking,cleaning and irrigation.
why not find eays to maximize waste water reuse.
Click to access wastewater_management_and_resource_recovery_in_Philippines_0.pdf
Water reaches the sea eventually,as pointed out in the article desalination can be cheaper if you co-locate desalination plants to a power plants, also, waste heat can help in desalination.
But all waste to energy proposals always gets mothballed, they are usually giant complexes, so keep it small and integrate it to existing power plants.
Links are in the article above.
Is natural gas good or less bad?
For power generation, I say we can not just mothball all the fossil fuel or even nuclear plants just like that.
Hybrid plants like Solar/ Fossil fuel and the rest of Renewable/ Fossil fuel plant.
This is on top of the co-location of WTE/ power plant proposal.
There are lots of ways to be Carbon neutral or even negative.
Hydrogen economy mentioned above maybe scary because of blimp or airship explosions of yesteryears (Hindenburg(?)), just a little study will make it work.
https://specials.rappler.com/brandrap/finance-and-industries/what-is-next-natural-gas-philippines/index.html
====
A Rappler article about the potentials of Natural Gas and some other things mentioned here in this blog.
if you could make rhinestones from CO2 you could make protein rich food as well. Food is everywhere but not everyone can eat.
https://futurism.com/the-byte/solar-foods-alternative-protein-carbon-dioxide
Jet fuel from thin air, why not?
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-49725741
Interesting graphic, Karl.
1.H2O + CO2 –sunlight–> CO + H2 Very doable!!
2. H2 + CO –??? –> CxHy not obvious, doable, costs unknown
3. CxHy –????–> Applicable fuels = heavy research, feasibility studies, costs/benefits unknown
4. CO2 from ambient air should be internationally shared!!
My thoughts on the chemistry of above stages.
Wow! Thanks!
“2. H2 + CO –??? –> CxHy not obvious, doable, costs unknown
3. CxHy –????–> Applicable fuels = heavy research, feasibility studies, costs/benefits”
https://energyeducation.ca/encyclopedia/Synthetic_natural_gas
TY
Plasma gasification gives you syngas aside from plasma rock.
Environmentslists still call this incineration , what do they want to do with all those buried garbage?
Coprocessing and ecobricking and turning pastic waste to furniture, clothing and boats could only go so far?
My cost cutting suggestion of co-location to existing power plants of WTE plants should be studied and really studied.
Unc, inputs please.
“Green hydrogen” made with wind and solar electricity could become the cheapest form of what the Australian government has described as a “transformative fuel” much faster than expected, analysts believe.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/oct/03/green-hydrogen-from-renewables-could-become-cheapest-transformative-fuel-within-a-decade
Karl the paper plan to generate green hydrogen from renewables seems straightforward enough. From starting materials to intermediate steps the technology is clear. Players abound and so what remains are the takers and innovators to make the intermediate steps economically sound to the technology implementors. Broadstroke.
The basic chemistry to deal with is: H2O + renewable energy —> H2 + O2
TY
Are Dams good or bad?
https://businessmirror.com.ph/2017/11/20/large-dams-bulwark-or-conduit-to-growth/
https://www.blueridgeoutdoors.com/paddling/river-dams-thumbs-up-or-thumbs-down/
“2. Proof that we are just after the optics is the Manila Bay Beach.”
On first look:
1) Administration wins pogi points on creation of sandy beach a la Boracay. Window display inviting would-be tourists, Dutz apologists showcase of what political will can do in such a short time (projects that are low-lying fruits for the picking) i.e. bonga.
2) Gives way to eyes-candy display for super infra projects ‘courtesy’ of partnership with China.
3) More substantial military Manila Bay clean-up project as suggested by former USec Plaridel Garcia in addition to the pogi points. (Audit this statement, Karl)
Exactly!
Besides improper waste disposal, there are uncontrollablefactors like landfill leaks, the legally allowed dumping of food waste and whoknows whatelse waste for just 12 nautical miles.
How can a white sand beach mask that?
Link
https://www.maritime-executive.com/editorials/avoiding-non-compliance-in-ship-generated-food-wastes
Dropping the link on what we can do with Demolition Waste.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demolition_waste
And how Plasma Gasification failed or has not yet succeded.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_gasification_commercialization
What are we doing about our electronic wastes?
https://www.onenews.ph/phl-s-e-waste-problem-over-24-m-phones-discarded-yearly-by-2021
Community Service like cleaning will soon be a reality.
http://legacy.senate.gov.ph/press_release/2019/0603_prib3.asp
“Press Release – PRIB: Senate approves Community Service Act
Press Release
June 3, 2019
Senate approves Community Service Act
The Senate today passed on third and final reading a bill seeking to decongest the country’s jails by authorizing the court to require community service instead of jail terms for minor offenses.
Sen. Richard Gordon, chair of the Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights, and sponsor of the measure, cited the timeliness of the measure’s approval, considering that the country’s jail congestion rate is at 436 percent “making it the world’s second highest most overcrowded prison in the world, next to Haiti.”
Senate Bill No. 2195 or the proposed Community Service Act, substitutes SBNs 590, 1448, and 1452 authored by Senators Antonio Trillanes IV, Sonny Angara and JV Ejercito, and Gordon, respectively.
Under the measure, the court may require a defendant to render community service for as long as the offense is punishable by arresto menor and arresto mayor.
Under the Revised Penal Code, offenders who are meted arresto mayor must serve a jail term of one month and one day to six months, while those who are punished with arresto menor must complete one day to 30 days in jail.
The measure further states that defendants shall render community service in the place were the crime was committed. They shall be placed under the supervision of a probation officer, and must also undergo counseling under the social welfare and development officer assigned by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).
This will give the defendants “a chance to change, rehabilitate and reintegrate themselves into the community,” Gordon said.
Upon the completion of community service, the court shall then order the defendant’s release unless there is a need for detention for some other crime.
If the defendant, meanwhile, violates the terms of his or her community service, the court is authorized to order his or her re-arrest. The defendant shall then serve the full time of his or her penalty in jail, or at home under the surveillance of an officer of the law as provided in Article 88 of the Revised Penal Code.
“If he violates the terms of community service, the court shall order his re-arrest and the defendant shall serve the full term of the penalty, as the case may be, in jail,” Gordon said.
The community service privilege may only be availed of once, to ensure that it will not be abused, Gordon added.“
With legislation so slow, will direct democracy help? Let us discuss that when my blog gets published.
https://www.michiganradio.org/post/detroit-incinerator-announces-it-will-permanently-shut-down
One of the world’s biggest incinerstors got shut down in 2019, it is a. ictory for the environmentalist, but with not yet successful backup plans like zero waste and circular economy, is it really a victory?
https://theoceancleanup.com/updates/the-plastic-journey-ten-steps-to-create-a-product-from-pollution/
The Ocean cleanup had its first run, after they collect the world’s trash they bring it back to Europe because there are no suitable options in North America,
“Now that the plastic has been captured, we must bring it to land to deliver it to the experts who can help us transform it. For this first Plastic Journey, step two took place on December 12 last year in Vancouver (CA). At present, there are no options to recycle this material offshore if the material is meant to be used for products. There were also no suitable options in North America that met our specific chain of custody, technology, and cost requirements. Therefore, the rest of the Plastic Journey takes place in Europe.”
What?
What about chemical Recyclers like Agilyx and Biocellecton
https://www.biocellection.com/
link for agilyx
https://www.agilyx.com/our-solutions
An Inquirer edititorial about reviving mining.
https://opinion.inquirer.net/134382/reviving-mining
More about that Oil spill.
https://mb.com.ph/2020/09/05/house-urged-to-probe-iloilo-oil-spill/
Because of the droughts, floods,etc people move out and they become climate migrants.
https://ehs.unu.edu/news/news/5-facts-on-climate-migrants.html
Will internationalism be a thing and nationalism a bad thing?
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/01/20/world/climate-refugees-unhrc-ruling-scli-intl/index.html
Dropping a link.
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/10/13/world/un-natural-disasters-climate-intl-hnk/index.html
Rethinking the Philippine Energy Plan
https://www.manilatimes.net/2020/10/11/business/columnists-business/rethinking-the-philippine-energy-plan/778881/
More by Kritz on Nuclear Power.
https://joeam.com/2020/09/30/philippine-industrialization/#comment-387403
Forever chemical in the tap water
https://www.vox.com/videos/2020/8/4/21354034/pfas-forever-chemicals-water-north-carolina
https://www.vox.com/2019/11/6/20883736/climate-change-nature-solutions-ecosystem-restoration
“Protecting pristine nature or allowing it to recover from human development are essential tactics for fighting climate change. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reported earlier this year that destructive patterns of land use account for 23 percent of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions. Of this, deforestation and forest degradation account for 17 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. That means stopping these losses and reversing them would take a massive bite out of humanity’s contributions to climate change.
However, natural climate solutions are not as simple as planting more trees; these tactics require rigorous accounting and monitoring on the ground, adding to their cost and complexity. Nature also can’t simply compensate for all the greenhouse gases we emit, so drastic reductions in emissions in tandem are still essential. And when they involve wealthy countries deciding what to do with land in developing countries, these projects raise thorny political issues around social justice, national sovereignty, and which country gets to claim credit for emissions reductions.”
Mangroves help fight the effects of climate change.
https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2019/11/25/781990792/mangroves-help-fight-the-effects-of-climate-change-so-why-is-mumbai-destroying-t
For a DENR USEC, it is an eyesore
https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/10/14/20/denr-exec-says-up-experts-have-no-right-to-criticize-manila-bay-makeover
Resetting capitalism.
https://www.ft.com/content/34e702fe-0ea4-460a-b4fc-b9f3fce4b0ce
CEOs’ plans to reset capitalism bump into reality of pandemic
Washington’s leading business lobby group made commitments a year ago, but did anything change?
“When stay-at-home orders swept the US in March, the rubbish stopped piling up outside shops, schools and stadiums, slashing $40m from Waste Management’s revenues in two weeks.
Jim Fish, its chief executive, responded not by slashing costs but by guaranteeing his full-time staff’s pay for the pandemic’s duration and offering small businesses a free month’s service once they reopened.
“The shareholders were kind of secondary or tertiary in my mind,” he recalls. “Did I in the back of my mind know there was going to be a cost to shareholders? Of course I did, but really what I was thinking . . . was ‘if I have to lay off a bunch of people, how are they going to provide for their families?’”
The waste disposal business is not known for bleeding hearts, and shareholders are used to being the top priority of CEOs. But Mr Fish’s actions reflected a mood change in corporate America since the global financial crisis, which nothing captured more strikingly than the statement issued this time last year by Washington’s leading big business lobby group.
In it, the Business Roundtable redefined the purpose of America’s corporations, to emphasise their commitments to customers, employees, suppliers and communities. Last on that list of “stakeholders” were the investors who, under a consensus tracing back to the 1970s economist Milton Friedman, had previously basked in the assumption of “shareholder primacy”.
The letter was signed by 181 CEOs, from Amazon’s Jeff Bezos to Walmart’s Doug McMillon. A year on, however, they are struggling to convince doubters that it changed much, as the Covid-19 crisis puts unprecedented pressures on their businesses and an array of investors, academics and activists argue that more exacting changes are needed if stakeholder capitalism is to live up to its billing.”
My FB note on Our Precious Water.
https://m.facebook.com/notes/karl-misa-garcia/our-precious-water/1466398736723974/?ref=bookmarks
From pollution to traffic
https://m.facebook.com/notes/karl-misa-garcia/from-pollution-to-traffic/1466293390067842/?ref=bookmarks
FB note on Mining, Landfill Mining and Reclamation, and Recycling
https://m.facebook.com/notes/karl-misa-garcia/mining-landfill-mining-and-reclamation-recycling-and-wte/1465061566857691/?ref=bookmarks
Dropping links related to the subject at hand.
https://www.rappler.com/environment/climate-change/global-warming-continue-no-matter-what-we-do-study
https://www.rappler.com/voices/ispeak/why-philippines-should-declare-climate-emergency
More links worthy of parking here.
The problem with building mega dams
As it displaces the people and destroys the agro forests.
https://www.rappler.com/nation/slipshod-checks-raise-flood-risk-china-philippines-dam
Below the article are related articless on dams and the recent typhoons.
The problem with renewable energy
https://www.rappler.com/voices/ispeak/problem-renewable-energy
Start quote
Culture of waste
What is it with garbage that makes people behave irrationally? And yet we all create waste. As a country develops, its waste generation increases. The waste problem is so monumental that experts believe we are all part of what is referred to as the culture of waste.
End Quote
Read more: https://business.inquirer.net/313242/the-culture-of-waste#ixzz6fiL9oo5u
Follow us: @inquirerdotnet on Twitter | inquirerdotnet on Facebook
https://www.greenpeace.org/philippines/story/10257/climate-emergency-declaration-only-the-beginning/
Climate Emergency Declaration only the beginning
House forum tackles policies and strategies to ensure follow through of resolution
QUEZON CITY, Philippines — A forum at the House of Representatives today gathered members of Congress, representatives from national government agencies, environment groups, climate-survivor communities, scientists, and climate activists to plot out crucial next steps to ensure the historic Climate Emergency Declaration, passed by Congress last week, delivers concrete climate action for the benefit of Filipinos.