Climate Change Protection in Austin City

I'm excited to share with you some news about the city of Austin's progressive steps towards addressing climate change and how my friend, Jake Stewart, continues to live his passion and compassion into action. Here is the latest word from Jake:

I have accepted a position with Austin Energy/City of Austin to run the newly proposed Climate Change Protection Program. Austin wishes to be the nation’s leader in Climate Change action while becoming an innovative hub for green technology; it has set the very progressive goal of being effectively carbon neutral by 2020. It will be my job, along with a great team, to make that happen using all the pieces on the proverbial ‘chess board’.

Like many, I believe there is no greater issue that defines our dedication to future generations than ensuring the stability and health of the climate and the planet we inhabit. I’m looking forward to focusing my energy and intention on having some small and positive impact on this critical front.

Though this means a slight course adjustment career-wise, I am very excited about the opportunity to work in this important and largely uncharted territory. I also realize I am accepting an enormous challenge in this program but I’m confident that it is the right move at the right time.

I will still maintain some involvement in the biofuels industry, particularly in policy and sustainability efforts but I thought it worth a quick note to let everyone know where I am heading.

Thank you, Jake, for being such a leader in both following your heart and mind's calling and dedicating such energy and passion to the things you are involved in... and for continuing to open new doors and pathways for increasing care and responsibility for and with our planet.

P.s. Here are some older posts related to Jake's work with Biodiesel (more).

Imagine if everything man made was sacred.

Photo: Earthrise from Moon-Orbiting Kaguya
Credit & Copyright: SELENE Team, JAXA, NHK

Visualizing the Number of Humans on the Planet

When I try to comprehend the facts of our world, I frequently feel baffled. The profoundness of living on this Earth with all of its diversity of life, land, inhabitants, people's lifestyles, values, habits, things that happen, things that don't happen, etc... It's incredible and so far beyond my ability to comprehend.

I was recently wondering :

What does the number of humans on the planet look like?

I realized I didn't have the capacity to conceptualize that answer. And so I sent my question to one of my new conceptualization gurus, Chris Jordan. I'd love to share with all of you his generous response in full.

Your question is interesting, because I just recently got to see a profound and moving demonstration of what 6 billion humans look like. It is called the Salt Monument, and it resides in the home of an extraordinary woman named Margot who lives alone in Boulder Colorado. She had an idea something like fifteen years ago to create a living monument containing the number of grains of salt equal to all of the members of the human race. After a long design process that included some engineering, she constructed a huge plexiglass cube in her living room, about seven feet in diameter, and mounted it diagonally onto a burly metal support structure. At the top is an opening into which salt can be poured, and at the bottom is a valve from which salt can be drained. Initially she filled the cube with a number of salt grains (carefully estimated with the use of accurate scales) equal to the then-population of the earth: 4.2 billion people (that was ten years ago). Then, every day, she adds salt at the top equal to the number of people born that day, and she removes salt from the bottom, equal to the number of people who died that day. The whole structure weighs more than a ton.

Along the side of the cube is a scale that shows the progress of time. At the very bottom there is a line that shows the world’s population back around the time of Jesus; it is something like one quart of salt, a few hundred thousand people or so on the whole earth (or maybe it was a few million, but a tiny fraction of today’s population in any event). Then the scale goes up toward the surface of the salt, showing the world’s population increase over time. A whole millennium goes by in between 500 million and 1 billion. Then two billion takes a few centuries. Three billion comes in one century. Four billion comes in a few decades. Five and six billion have come in the last ten years. The exponential growth of our population is astonishingly visible and incredibly frightening.

Every day Margot conducts an elaborate ceremony to mark the passing of 170,000 people, and the birth of 300,000 people. Even if someone dies completely alone and unknown, their passage will be honored by this ceremony— as has everyone who has died in the world in the last ten years. The 170,000 grains of salt taken from the bottom of the monument are dissolved into a large glass jar of water (it is about a teaspoon of salt). The jar stays there for several months, so all of the salt from that time period is dissolved in the jar. The jar then goes in a display cabinet along with the jars from other years. Inside the jar over years, the dissolved salt re-forms into arrays of big clear square crystals that look like miniature versions of the monument.

The salt that Margot adds every day to represent the 300,000 people born gets poured into the top; it is about two teaspoons if I remember correctly. It lands on the surface of the salt below, making a symmetrical cone over time. Each year she flattens the cone out and starts over, so you can see what the year-to-date births look like (a growing cone on the otherwise flat surface, about the size of a large plate of spaghetti when I saw it in October). The one-day old babies are represented at the very top, and the two week-olds are a bigger part of the pile below that, and the 3-month-olds are all in a layer below that, and so on, down to the bottom of the monument, where are the old people are. Each grain of salt will take one human lifetime to pass from the top to the bottom and out.

Around the room she has placed exhibits of different amounts of salt, for scale. There is a black dish with one grain of salt in it; it is the very small kind of salt, where one grain is almost as small as a piece of dust. There is another plate with ten grains, another with 100, another with 3000 (the number of Americans who died on 9/11— much less than the number of people who starved to death elsewhere in the world that same day); the number of people who die from AIDS every year, the number of people worldwide who commit suicide, die in auto accidents, and a few others. These exhibits were mostly about a teaspoon in size, but of course some of the piles where huge compared to one grain.

In juxtaposition, the cube in the middle of the room is astonishing, breathtaking, and incomprehensible. It contains 1900 pounds of salt, equal to the size of several refrigerators. I stood looking closely at it for the longest time, trying to imagine all of the grains of salt that were hidden from view inside the volume of the cube. If I looked very closely, I could make out individual grains of salt right up against the glass, but otherwise it was a sea of whiteness— even a few inches from my face I could not make out individual grains. The amount of grains of salt was far beyond my ability to grasp. I felt like I never even came close to getting my arms around it despite trying pretty hard in a meditative state for more than an hour. I wondered what the Monument would look like if the things inside were marbles instead of salt, and quickly realized that the cube would be something like a hundred yards in size.

Margot has not missed a day in ten years of doing the ceremony. Having lived in a monastic relationship with the Salt Monument for a decade, and holding the meaning of it in her consciousness every day with a spiritual commitment and intention, I believe that she is the person who understands the most of anyone on earth about the enormity of the human race. I wish I could arrange for the Dalai Lama to visit her and see the Monument— I think he would be deeply moved.

Shortly before we left, she brought up another perspective that blew my mind quite the rest of the way. She pointed to the tray that had one grain of salt in it, and said “Imagine that is the sun. In that scale, how far away is the nearest star?” We guessed the other side of the room, or maybe out in the garden. The answer was nine miles. And she said that otherwise, there is absolutely nothing, in all directions. And that is the nearest star; most of the other stars in our galaxy are much further away than that, by up to several magnitudes. We are truly a speck of dust in space.

Then she pointed to the cube, and said that our galaxy has more stars than there are grains of salt in the cube, by a factor of something like fifteen. That fucked me up further—and then she said that there are more galaxies in the universe than there are grains of salt in the cube, by the same factor again. It affirmed for me the incomprehensible scale of our universe, with magnitudes of incomprehensibility; and thus vividly illustrates the enormity of the Mystery. This lovely elegant woman in Boulder just totally kicked my ass.

I turned to her and said “you are trying to deflate my ego, aren’t you?” We had a good laugh. She is adorable, a beautiful and fascinating person. She opens her home to anyone who wants to attend the ceremony and talk with her. I highly recommend it.

And a bit later a second email arrived

Aw jeez, there's a website... Saltmonument.org

I enjoyed reading his description first, feeling as my mind tried to wrap itself around those words and images before entering into the, again, incredibly inspiring website.

Sailing Through This Puzzling and Beautiful World

“I want people to sail with me through this puzzling and frightening world. I expect to fail at moments on this journey, to get lost–how could I not? And I expect that you too will fail. Even our voyage is cyclical–we can’t help but move from old to new to old. We will vacillate, one day doing something bold and different, excited over the progress, the next day, back to old behaviors, confused about how to proceed. We need to expect that we will wander off course and not make straight progress to our destination. To stay the course, we need patience, compassion, and forgiveness. We need to require this of one another. It will help us be bolder explorers. It might keep us from going mad.” ~Margaret Wheatley

Thank you for this invocation, invitation and reminder. Thank you Ria at Seeds for a Happy Planet for the quote.

I also want people to sail with me through this beautiful and mysterious world. Sometimes we'll trust what is emerging, surrendering to the unknown wrapping its tendrils of possibility around life. Other times we'll doubt, shy away or be afraid, attempting to avoid or control the uncertainty of seemingly dark abysses. Sometimes we'll sail in solitude and sometimes with mates. My hope is that we always know we're held, supported and connected and that we stay awake to the beauty and mystery guiding our eyes wide open and our hearts' passions into action.

Integrating Man's Control of Order with Nature's Mastery of Order

If you're in the Seattle Area, I highly recommend a trip to this year's Seattle International Children's Festival to experience contemplative juggler, Thomas Arthur May 17 - 19. For a taste, you can watch some recent television appearances here and here (for the second one, skip ahead to 31:31)

"In a wondrous dance of animate objects and projected image, Luminous Edge tells the story of a Wizard's apprentice and his struggle to learn new ways of being in a world on the verge of collapse. How do we learn to cooperate with the natural flow instead of trying to control it? The apprentice seeks to integrate the genius and skill of the Wizard with the heart of the Shaman as he explores magical patterns reflected in geometric shapes and natural objects.

Luminous Edge is a playful, hopeful exploration of the environmental and social problems facing our world today, a call to bring the wisdom of science into the heart of soul and community."

Although this work has been created for the children's festival, it will definitely appeal to adults as well and I highly recommend purchasing tickets and joining us for the experience.


At this performance you will be swept about by breathtakingly beautiful images of nature, forms of movement, and inquiries of existence.

In the meantime, here is a picture of Angkor Thom, Cambodia brought to us by Day and Night Painter. It's another sacred place that shows the connection between man's control and nature's power... and it also leaves me in awe.

Good news about Alternative Energy Efforts

Here's a recent press release from my friend Jake Stewart:

Biodiesel Industries, Michigan’s NextEnergy and Daimler Chrysler
Announce Innovative Research Agreement,
Biodiesel Production Facility to be Built in Detroit

Innovative project brings biodiesel research and development to the Motor City

Detroit, MI - On September 29th officials from Biodiesel Industries Inc. and NextEnergy announced a ground-breaking Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) which will target biodiesel development and technical innovation.

“This is a pioneering project. It brings together a diverse group of major industry players, such as Daimler Chrysler, for the common goal of biodiesel advancement and implementation. We’re delighted to be part of the core group involved in this innovative venture”, said Russell Teall, President and Founder of Biodiesel Industries, Inc.

Beyond cutting edge research, the joint work will focus on the development and refinement of industry standards for the swiftly-growing biodiesel industry. The NextEnergy project involves key industry partners, including auto makers, the Department of Defense and several original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) who have an interest in biofuels.

NextEnergy is a non-profit corporation founded to advance the Alternative Energy Technology (AET) industry in Michigan. Major technology thrusts include portable power generation, renewable fuels and hydrogen production for use within commercial and military applications.

“Biodiesel Industries has many years of advanced development and production experience in the otherwise young biodiesel industry. Given the tremendous national market demand for their product, we are delighted that Biodiesel Industries has chosen Detroit for their next biodiesel production facility” said James Croce, Chief Executive Officer of NextEnergy Center.

Research and development will also extend into the development of agricultural resources utilizing property owned by Daimler Chrysler. The use of new and innovative biodiesel feedstocks will be part of this research. “As biodiesel demand increases there will be a need for new resources that can be grown in America by American farmers,” according to Jake Stewart, Biodiesel Industries Corporate Development Manager. “Daimler Chrysler has led the way in the use of biodiesel in diesel vehicles by being the first automotive manufacturer to deliver their vehicles to their customers with a blend of biodiesel as the original fuel. Soon it will be possible to have that biodiesel made in Michigan from resources grown here.”

P.S. I am adding this spelling 'Bio Disel' to this post because I receive a lot of hits to this site from people that are searching this spelling of biodiesel.

bio-disel plant

EDIT: November 3, 2005

Biodiesel Industries, Michigan’s NextEnergy and Daimler Chrysler
Announce Innovative Research Agreement,
Biodiesel Production Facility to be Built in Detroit

Innovative project brings biodiesel research and development to the Motor City. . .
Read More

Jake Stewart is an extremely passionate man that makes change happen. that being noted, today is a day for celebrating a new path in the city of denton which could have far-reaching effects in the realm of alternative fuels. here's the word just in from his public relations organizer (his fabulous wife, Cynthia):

"The city council voted unanimously tonight to approve the bio-diesel plant, for the fueling of city fleet vehicles etc.!!!!!!! Woo-hoo! We don't know dates for sure yet but things should start trucking along as early as this summer. The city of Denton is about to be the very first city in the nation to use the process of harnessing the gas from the landfill to power a bio-diesel plant. The FIRST!!! "We" will be using renewable energy to make renewable fuel. How cool is that? And the plant will have the capabilities to produce 3 million gallons of bio-diesel every year. Translation/implication... for every one gallon of bio-diesel made here in the good 'ol US of A, that is one less gallon of fossil fuel we have to import from OPEC/the middle east."

congratulations to jake, but more importantly to mother earth for this exciting shift.

comments:

Very Cool!

Hopefully this project will help bring bio-diesel more into public view. Will they be using entirely post-consumer oil? I've heard arguments that bio-diesel is not economically viable if it were to catch on beyond the point that post-consumer recycled oil support. Without knowing any facts, I imagine if the demand was there, the infrastructure would develop to support the demand in a cost effective way.

When I first heard about Fedex running a trial of hybrid diesel trucks, I couldn't help but think how cool it would be if they ran bio-diesel, instead of petrol.
Dave | 03.24.04 - 1:19 pm | #

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My mom's hybrid is a joy to drive, and if it ran bio-diesel instead of gasoline, all the better. I've committed to myself that my next car will either be hybrid or bio-diesel. That's a long ways off, though. Hopefully by then I can go hybrid, bio-diesel, fuel cell, or whatever new technology has emerged, without having to give up the joy of AWD my little Subaru provides.

And, if it is bio-diesel, hopefully there will be more places for consumers to buy fuel. Right now there are a few places around Seattle to buy bio-diesel, but for those of us who rarely go to the city proper, it'd be nice to see it closer to home.

The fellow who taught me to build my baidarka kayak cooks off his own bio-diesel. I wonder what the ecological consequences (ground seepage, whatever) of a bio-diesel cottage industry would be.
Dave | 03.24.04 - 1:26 pm | #

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Hi Dave,
yes the plant will run with 100% yellow grease feedstock. The DFW area produces 15 million gallons of used oil annually....which explains the obese people walking around. Anyway, 20% of the area yellow grease supply would max the processor out, which is attainable. We are also exploring various virgin oil feedstocks to supplement the processor if need be. If you're lookin at Hybrids test drive the 2004 Prius...its pretty amazing. Next best would be to run a VW TDI on biodiesel (if its available in your area). Thanks for your comments and support. Peace, Jake

PS-re: your question.....not much ecological impact to making biodiesel. It is completely non-toxic and is as biodegradable as table salt. If you use Ethanol as the catalyst...its a 100% renewable process producing 100% renewable fuel.
Jake | Email | 03.26.04 - 5:35 pm | #