GoingTrueGreen's Blog Postings

GoingTrueGreen Helps CORA's Emergency Preparedness Project in Haiti

3/23/2022

Anse-a-Veau Bay

I have used the following line many times to inspire students and adults at domestic and international events where I teach or lecture…

If not now, then when? If not you, then who?

When I was informed about a Haiti project Marie Fouche was working on as an administrative volunteer for CORA, I changed the “you” in the above line to “I” and volunteered my services.

After a few weeks of presenting my credentials, conversations, and discussions for the project, I was honored to be welcomed. The time table and finances for us all are tight and several deadlines have to be met by me and the organizing team here in New York. Nevertheless, please allow me to summarize the project’s mission and needs:

THE WHO:
CORA is a Coalition pour le relevement de l’Anse-a-Veau. The translation “a coalition for the raising of Anse-a-Veau” is from French, one of the three languages spoken. This not-for-profit [501(c)3] organization was created to rally and motivate individuals that are born in Haiti and have a desire to make a difference. Currently the president of CORA is Mr. Labissiere and he works with the Salesians Sisters, who teach in Haiti and Msgr. Louis Merosne at the Catholic Church in Haiti.

THE WHAT:
To train a core group of high school seniors at a summer program in July on Emergency Management Preparedness. They will prepare for and how to respond to major types and phases of disasters. Preparedness, response, relief, recovery, mitigation, and pre-implementation of "sustainable" projects to prevent unwelcome issues. This initiative will enable the town’s youth to obtain the necessary knowledge and skills needed to immediately respond on the ground when an emergency occurs. With their commitment and continuing drill schedule, they will be the first line of defense to go into action to assist in evacuations, organizing volunteers, provide needed assistance to survivors, assessing damages or seeking proper help from other sources.

THE WHERE:
Anse-a-Veau is a remote bay community in Haiti. Located on the northern edge of the southern outstretch of land. When the earthquake hit in 2010, the community was swollen by refugees from heavily afflicted areas. Some initial aid to the community was airdropped, but they did not receive significant help until six weeks after the quake hit.

THE WHY:
The area is prone to natural disasters such as earthquakes and hurricanes. The population is not equipped to address these emergencies and have to wait extended periods of time for outside assistance. Waiting weeks or months for help creates additional safety concerns, such as sanitation, health, clean water, and food. The basic needs for living are not consistent. We all need Air, Shelter, Water, Food and Support. For the people in this remote part of Haiti a strong shelter, clean water, plentiful food, and emergency support is scarce. Even air that is clean outside, is polluted when inside, because most of the community burns charcoal for cooking and for heat. Additional, toxic kerosine would be used at night for light. Compounding the lack of electricity and means to communicate (no cell phone towers or internet) over long distances, even a small emergency situation can become a deadly one.

THE HOW:
The curriculum I am writing up has been added to the four week syllabus. However the lessons need to be translated into the Creole language and Marie Fouche, a volunteer administrator for CORA, will be completing that major task next month. With the development of these classes, I will use my backgrounds as an Environmental Scientist, Naturalist and an Instructor of Team Building, Survival Classes, Communication Skills, along with certification for citizen preparedness and emergency services by United States Homeland security. Thus, the following three sections for the program are established:

Communication and Team Building Skills
Readiness, Emergency Preparedness and Survival Skills
Solutions and Truth for a Sustainable and Resilient Tomorrow

Additionally, we will explore immediate solutions to current needs of everyday and survival modes Before, During and After an emergency. Several lessons will teach what some of my previous GoingTrueGreen.com blogs have covered: Educational data such as LED lights that run like Cuckoo clocks with gravity. No electricity needed! How to make a Bow Drill to make camp fires. How to make a Water Still for clean drinkable water. How to build a temporary shelter to stay warm and dry. Mixed in with these lessons will be field trips, hands-on work and collaborating with the surrounding communities.

CORA Members and Friends, Queens, N.Y.

THE NEED:
Perhaps you may wish to help with a small donation to this project.

Mr. Labissiere, president of CORA, is making arrangements with the Diocese of Nippes in Haiti to receive a shipping container filled with supplies not only for this program, but also for everyday needs. Msgr. Louis Merosne in Haiti will hopefully be able to work with Mr. Labissiere again and have the container clear customs and brought to Anse-a-Veau from Port-au-Prince.

Naimoly Freight in Ozone Park has been used in the past, but the costs have increased. CORA is looking to raise rental fees for the container, U-Haul truck rental, workers to load and unload the truck, container loading fee, and tips. The total for the New York end will be approximately 8 to 9 thousand dollars.

The cost at Haiti will be for Seaboard Marine of Haiti, Veconinter, Port Lafito, Broker Fee, Transport Port-Au-Prince to Anse-a-Veau, Unloading and tips. The total cost in Haiti will be approximately 4 thousand dollars.

To help out or make a donation, please visit CORA directly for contact data at:
https://anseaveau.wordpress.com/contact-us/

Thank you for reading and always looking at the complete picture with GoingTrueGreen.com.

Bill Lauto, at GoingTrueGreen.com
Environmental Scientist
International Sustainability and Energy Consultant
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Green Living Blog Ranking

12/8/2021

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Going True Green's blog was submitted to Ranked Blogs under the Green Living category earlier this year. We received the code, to display on our website, the Green Living Blog icon logo. Which we are happy to do so and add this Icon to our other Going True Green blog accolades.

While we are happy to join the ranks of blogs listed in the Green Living category, we have not received information on our ranking position as of yet. As always, we are greatly appreciative of all the support we receive from our members, followers and readers.

Thank you and we wish everyone a Merry Christmas, happy holiday and a blessed New Year.

Bill Lauto, at GoingTrueGreen.com
Environmental Scientist
International Sustainability and Energy Consultant
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ANNIVERSARY OF OIL COMPANY’S REPRISAL

6/29/2021

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Bosch, heating, oil, oil heat, sustainable living, sustainable actions, going green, going true green, sustainable steps, saving on heating bills, net zero house, oil companies, SSE, green house, global warming, co2, political leaders, paybacks, new windows, saving energy, helping the environment

OIL DROP

Twenty years ago I was using oil as the fuel to heat my house. This year is the Twentieth Anniversary of when I was shocked by an incontrovertible reprisal from my oil company. That is correct, steps were taken against me for the actions I took to save energy and our environment. There were no congratulations or rewards offered. I was scolded and punished for being successful. This wasn’t that much different from when I was scolded by my previous employer, a utility company. I was the manager leading their energy saving auditing department and we went well over our pre-set quota for teaching homeowners and companies how to save energy. That wasn’t acceptable according to the VP, but that is another story for another time.

Here is my story with the facts about my house and the oil delivery company…

The previous owners of the house had informed me that they were consuming a minimum of 1,200 gallons of oil per year. I knew that amount could be lower.

The “Heating System” for the house produced heat for the winter months and domestic hot water all year round for Faucets, Showers and the Clothes Washer. I did not have a Dish Washer appliance, but used hot water when washing dishes by hand.

The “Heating System” had 3 parts:

1st - Oil was the fuel
2nd - The boiler that created the heat
3rd - Hot water baseboards delivery the created heat throughout the house

So after moving in, I immediately changed the 1970 thermostats to new Multi-Set back programable clock thermostats. When the oil company’s manager, who my family knew and bought oil from for 40 years, saw my new thermostats - he lied to my face via the process of omission! After all, he probably was thinking, how much can this young kid know?

He proceeded to tell me that turning down the heat at night with these new thermostats would cost me more money, because I would be burning more oil in the morning to get the house warm again. I wasted my money buying them and I should return them, was his final proclamation.

Yet, the facts remained. My house wasn’t that old and the pervious owners added insulation and a new 81% efficient Retention Head boiler that replaced the old Steam heat unit from the 1940s. They also installed throughout the house a new Baseboard delivery of the heat to replace the steam radiators. The oil company’s manager omitted those facts from our conversation to secure his narrative.

My savings with the new thermostats was good, but not tremendous. Perhaps I decided to go “tremendous” because of being told calculated lies created through the omission of certain facts. At least that was the catalyst for me working in earnest to really save, save big and save fast.

Over the next two years I addressed all three parts of the Heating System and lowered the consumption of oil from 1,200 gallons of oil per year to ONLY 290, then 250 gallons per year!

What I did was not Rocket Science. I implemented logic, current technology and trade secrets. Below is a list of what I did after changing the thermostats:
*I did an SSE test on the boiler. SSE is a Steady State Efficiency test and ALL Oil Heating systems need this test EVERY year. If you don't have an Access hole on your boiler's stack, the SSE test was never done! See image below. Details about this are available through previous Going True Green blog posts and in our GTG Membership.

*I put in a separate Hot Water Heater that used Natural Gas as the fuel, not oil.

Wrapped Hot Water Pipes

*The next action was wrapping all the Hot Water pipes with insulated foam.
See image on left.
*The Biggest action, which immediately saved 1/3 the oil I was using, was the addition of a Cold Start Control Panel. See box mounted on right side of my heating unit in first image below. This cost $400.00 and I saved that within the first winter! Details about this are available through previous Going True Green blog posts and will be available in our GTG Membership.
Just type in “Cold Start Boiler” in the Search box at the very top of this page.

Cold Start Control Panel

clock thermostat, thermostats, Bosch, heating, oil, oil heat, sustainable living, sustainable actions, going green, going true green, sustainable steps, saving on heating bills, net zero house, oil companies, SSE, green house, global warming, co2, political leaders, paybacks, new windows, saving energy, helping the environment

Multi-Set Back Thermostat

Access Hole for SSE Test

*Then I added additional insulation giving me a higher R value. Details about this are available through previous Going True Green blog posts and will be available in our GTG Membership. You can also use the Search box for Insulation.
*I changed shower heads and faucets to low flow efficient ones.
*I caulked each 1942 window in the house and put new weather stripping around the doors since I did not have the money to change all my windows and doors to new ones. Additionally, the payback with changing windows is found in comfort and connivence, not dollar savings. For more info about this fact, please see my previous 6/15/21 GTG blog called: The Big Picture Review

So after two years of energy saving actions, I was using as little as 250 gallons of home heating oil per year. This was such an apparent astonishment for my oil company that they responded not by offering me any congratulatory comments, but by demanding I buy 800 gallons minimum per year. When I stated that wasn’t possible, because I was only consuming 250 gallons held in a tank that only holds 250 gallons, they retaliated by refusing to sell oil to me. They dropped me as a customer, because I didn’t buy enough oil from them. Perhaps they thought I was buying oil from another company between their oil deliveries. Of course this was a completely false presumption.

I asked if what they were doing was legal and apparently, yes. They could sell or not sell, to anyone they want. Wow, a heating fuel that is a necessity to keep warm, to keep alive through the cold winter months and they could just drop me on the spot. This isn’t like buying some other product that we could still live without. Utility companies can’t just shut off your electricity due to a few unpaid bills, they have to wait months and investigate the complete story behind the belated payments. Yet, an oil heating company can just drop us like a rock. Thank you political leaders NOT really looking out for us or our environment.

NEW 95% EFFICIENT HEATING UNIT

Over the years I purchased oil directly from other oil companies who offered the lowest price until I was able to upgrade to a 95% efficient instant hot water heating system.

So the moral of this story is to do your homework and then implement. Don’t wait for some government or politician or celebrity or company or organization to save the day for you. They haven't and they won't.
You are the super hero !

Today I have a Net Zero house for electricity and still working toward True Green within my own budget of time and money. One more thing, I am doing this without sacrificing anything in order to save, because there is always another way for accomplishing.

Yes, this is a Happy Anniversary.

Bill Lauto, at GoingTrueGreen.com
Environmental Scientist
International Sustainability and Energy Consultant
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The Big Picture Review

6/15/2021

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Percy vs Goliath, GMO, going true green, going green, sustainable living, sustainability, artistic license, supreme court, big picture, landmark cases, agricultural, farmers, farming, GMO seeds

American-Canadian-Indian biographical film

I recently watched the movie Percy vs Goliath and while this Going True Green blog post is not a movie review, I am using this as a segue way to present a glimpse of the Big Picture, that is our environment.

First, here is some historical background on the movie Percy vs Goliath. The film is based on a true story and did not deviate much or exaggerate much in the name of “artistic license” or to create action scenes. Percy was a small Canadian farmer who defended himself in a landmark case all the way to the Supreme Court against a giant agricultural corporation who claimed that Percy was stealing their patented GMO seeds. Seeds that were resistant against that same company’s weed killing product. Everyone should know about this story and court case.

Additionally, this story allows us to realize that the complete picture must always be examined. Just like a murder mystery the detective must learn about everything from motives to the complacent actions such as “rounding up the usual suspects.” Other elements may be injected by the sensationalists in the media or forced by some higher political authority.

Let us just review some examples that echo these points in the realm of our environment:

The United States had a situation where a new candidate was thrust into the primary race for president. He was presented as the one that was going to be the best person for our environmental issues. Specific details on why, were not offered by the media.

I have stated many times that I don not look toward any politician, celebrity, corporation, organization, government or make believe super hero to save our environment. Only us, the individuals are making the difference. Nevertheless, this politician said in a previous speech that people needed more grey matter to work in the technology field. To keep the words spoken in context, this was a comparison being made between the “agrarian society” and “industrial society.” So to prove his point he stated, “I can teach anybody, even people in this room, so no offense intended, to be a farmer. It’s a process. You dig a hole, you put a seed in, you put dirt on top, you add water, up comes corn.” This man didn’t even have a clue about what is involved with farming. From seed collection to weeds, from weather to insects, from micronutrients to disease, from time management to family responsibilities, from farm equipment to bank loans, from supply and demand to supermarket shelves!

Another example is how misleading advertisements were used for years to sell new energy saving windows.

“Save 15% On Your Energy Bills!”

windows, going true green, going green, sustainable living, sustainability, big picture

New Windows Save???

The truth was a 15% savings on your heating bills and that 15% saved was only on the amount of heat lost through the old windows. So if the old windows were losing 7% of the heat to the outside, you would save 15% of the 7% lost. To know pay back times on the costs for new windows, a heat-lost study was required. After overseeing thousands of these studies, the average payback on putting in new windows was 28 to 30 years. Reasons to change windows are: Comfort with less drafts and outside noise reduction, ease of cleaning, better locks for security and then saving some money on the heating bill.

So where were our political environmental super stars to end that misleading campaign taken up by some window selling companies? For years those commercials were broadcasted. They were lies through the process of omission and they should have been stopped immediately. Yet, they were not, care to speculate why?

Again the individual was left to find out all the facts on this issue and they ranged from greed to environmentally unfriendly manufacturing.

Last point of this blog, but not the least, is how all those on both extreme sides create fear, confusion and hate for each other. Thus, destroying hope for us working as one team to implement solutions that garner success, income, better health and a better environment.

Bill Lauto, at GoingTrueGreen.com
Environmental Scientist
International Sustainability and Energy Consultant
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Bill Lauto has Guest Spot on Dylan Welch's Podcast Going Green

5/29/2021

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Going Green Podcast

Dylan Welch is the host of Going Green's Podcast, television show and news platform that highlights climate change scientists, renewable energy experts, and clean tech entrepreneurs by giving them a voice in the mainstream media.

After a background in television production and over 1,000 shows on Networks such as ABC, NBC, CBS, and Amazon, Dylan started his own company with a focus on clean technology, renewable energy, and sustainability. Since then, Dylan has interviewed hundreds of scientists, CEOs, and experts in the renewable energy space, and has shared their stories to millions of people.

Article on Going True Green and Bill Lauto

On Dylan Welch Media's website called Going Green, a feature article was posted on Going True Green's Bill Lauto. The following Link may be used to access the article called:

International Green Technology Advancements

Additionally, the Going Green Podcast with host Dylan Welch interviewing Bill Lauto of Going True Green can be heard below on our audio file...

Being interviewed by Dylan at Going Green was a great opportunity to share information and misinformation about living a more sustainable life. As a responsible individual we are the solution to a better tomorrow. By living a more "sustainable life" we will save Money, Health, Energy, and Earth without making any sacrifices! But we MUST work as a Team toward good Environmental Stewardship! I have no electric bill and what I have done is not rocket science. Facts, trade secrets and encouraging support, is what the world needs.The Blame game must end. We must stop looking for a solution from a politician, corporation, political party or celebrity and make the difference ourselves!

Bill Lauto, at GoingTrueGreen.com
Environmental Scientist
International Sustainability and Energy Consultant
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Will Earth Day Become Dooms Day?

4/22/2021

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HOME

Do you hear the logomachies almost everyone is having every Earth Day? Has Earth Day been reduced to a war about what verbiage should be used? Sadly, yes and our Planet will be doomed if we believe that a…

…politician, corporation, political party, government, organization, celebrity or the UN will save us all.

…purchasing some energy saving light bulbs, an energy star refrigerator, wrist band, or even a Going True Green hat will make a difference.

…media report, reporter, movie or documentary gives us the complete picture and doesn’t lie through the process of omission to present a selling narrative that makes them lots of money and will coagulate a magical solution.

…donation or implementing some of the energy saving “tips” from utility companies, instead of real actions, will suffice.

…massive singular solution will squelch all concerns, fears and corruption when some hero solves the CO2 threat by seeding the sky or solving the issue of overfishing and our oceans will have no other problems or only if everyone had an electric car or genetically engineered food in a lab will feed the masses and we are not fooling ourselves.

Nobody knows if the world is doomed or if everything will turn out to be roses. However, I do know humankind has and can accomplish “amazing”. We are intelligent, we are capable, we can evaluate and transition into real solutions that acknowledge everyone and everything is connected! We must stop believing predictions hosting a good or bad narrative for the future that is based upon one singular issue and narrative. Our world’s environment is not singular, we have a multi-complex, never ending connected environment that humankind has yet to learn all the facts. Thus, what is needed is education of the complete picture and a narrative that is hosting all the possible solutions.

We need to be ebullient on Earth Day, not mad or fearful, so each and every one of us can be the solution by living a more "sustainable life" within our own budget of time and money.

We will obtain a better tomorrow while saving Money, Health, Energy, and Earth without making any sacrifices! But we must work as a Team toward good Environmental Stewardship! Education of the facts, trade secrets and encouraging support, is what the world needs. The Blame game must end. We make the difference ourselves! The evidence of this from over the years is proof that each one of us is the superhero. Each one of us is the solution, because each one of us is connected to our one team, one environment. Only then can we say that we didn't squander our children's tomorrow here on Earth.

Bill Lauto, at GoingTrueGreen.com
Environmental Scientist
International Sustainability and Energy Consultant
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What Happened In Texas?

2/18/2021

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Texas, Texas freeze, texas winter storm, Texas snow storm, Texas power failure, Texas grid, texas wind turbines, renewable energy, non-renewables, oil, coal, solar, wind, gas, greed, infrastructure, electric grid, texas electric providers, sustainability, power plants, utility companies, Texas untility

I have been asked and I have been receiving the very question structured above for today’s GoingTrueGreen blog title by many GTG members.

First, I wish to level the playing field. Unlike other electric utilities that I have worked for or visited and had first hand information about many operations, I do not have first hand knowledge of every detail that contributed to the failures in the power grid infrastructure for Texas. Therefore, I must reserve the right to correct any verbiage in this blog due to the fact that despite reading and confirming some reliable information on the subject, “Sensationalism” prevails and real “Journalism” is squelched.

So what happened with the power grid in Texas? Seems to me that a poor management decision was made due to money justification. The temperatures were dropping and the demand for electricity was spiking. Additional Megawatts were needed and a decision was made not to bring on more production from gas, oil or coal power plants. After all, perhaps an innocent assumption was made that this was Texas and the weather will be warm again in a day or two. In addition, the decision makers had to justify the cost for bringing on line additional generators.

So again we have the real problem: Assumptions and Money. This A & M is a contagious disease that crosses all spectrums of power production. End result, there wasn’t enough power to meet the demand and the grid started to shut down as designed for safety protocol. Rolling blackouts were put into action until additional generators could be brought on line. A 100% shut down was avoided, but 85% of that Grid took a hit because of humankind’s decision.

So the lost of power wasn’t an act of God, but a humankind assumption floundering in money justification and that is the problem with all energy production. Both Renewable energy and Non-Renewable energy are plagued with this A & M disease. Case and point:

Why did the power grid supply fail?
There is a rare winter storm in Texas, a state that saw no reason to spend “money” on winterizing their energy production.

Solar panels have no system to clean snow off, because those systems cost money. (Even I have a way to clean snow off my solar panels. I had to come up with some method, because my area does get snowfall every year. I have a very simple and safe way, that had a very small investment. However, I must put in the time since I could not afford an automatic system. My time makes me money as I am able to produce Kilowatts once the sun is shinning again.
BTW: I do not go up on my roof. My previous GTG blog posts on solar explain more.)

Texas Wind Turbines and Gas Lines froze because they never had the money spent to winterize their operations. Oil and coal could not meet the demand because of human error in decision making. (System automatically starts to shutdown as a safety precaution when demand can’t be met.) In total, an 85% system shutdown.

If Texas had invested in winterizing all electrical generating systems, this one storm would have provided payback and possible profit. Now, this storm is costing them far more than any winterizing investment. Additionally, we need to ask the following: Did the government and electrical utilities provide helpful information on the news to inform the public of alternative ways to keep warm as well as how to drain most of the water out of their pipes? All the frozen and broken water pipes may become a legal matter now costing the utility more money, because while the storm can be labeled as an act of God, the system’s failure was due to poor decisions made by humans.

The irony is this, the two political sides blame each other and fail to see that they are both to blame, because the little that they do, is all about making money for themselves. Let it be for renewable or non-renewable energy production.

Next week, Texas’ weather will be around the sixty degree mark, while most of northern United States will have another week in and out of the twenty degree zone, but the power remains on.

Bill Lauto, at GoingTrueGreen.com
Environmental Scientist
International Sustainability and Energy Consultant
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Rare Occurrence

1/6/2021

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Christmas Star, great conjunction, star of bethlehem, rare occurrence, original Christmas star, Saturn, Jupiter, Jupiter's moons, 1226, 2020

Jupiter and moons getting in line with Saturn, Dec. 2020

Last year ended with a rare occurrence in the sky. Jupiter and Saturn had a rendezvous on December 21st right after sunset. Called a great conjunction because the planets would be in line with each other and separated by less than 0.1 degrees. The last time that these two planets were separated by that small degree was almost 800 years ago, in 1226.

With this rare occurrence taking place just before Christmas, many scholars theorized that the original Christmas star could have been a great conjunction of two or three planets. This theory is added to the other theories about the Star of Bethlehem being a supernova explosion, comet, or an act of God.

Nevertheless, passed down through the last two millennium is word about Three Wise Men using a bright light in the night sky to find the location of the infant Jesus. Christian lore later on gave names to the visiting Magi: Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar. They gifted gold, frankincense, and myrrh. We celebrate the visit of Magi today on January six. Sadly with all of today's noise, a rare occurrence in the night sky goes mostly unnoticed. The complete opposite from two thousand years ago when people were enthralled with an occurrence such as this in the night sky.

I can only speak from my own experiences. Many years ago, I was blessed to see our Milky Way in the clear night sky. I was driving back to Miami from the island of Key West. I had just gone over the 7 mile Bridge, away from big city lights and small town lamp posts. I pulled off the road and stepped out of the car I rented. I took some timed photographs and stared upward while leaning on the car. Truly amazing and I was in awe. Such a wonder inspired by authority of the sacred and Sublime.

Happy New Year,
Bill Lauto, at GoingTrueGreen.com
Environmental Scientist
International Sustainability and Energy Consultant
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Entrapped by 128 Million Pieces of Waste

10/17/2020

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A Created Low Orbit View of Earth Entrapped by Space Litter!

Perhaps there is something within our genome that causes humans to litter, but I sincerely hope that isn't the case. Yet, too often when we are holding something that we no longer want, we drop that item to the earth at our feet. Most of us do not recycle, reuse or properly dispose of the object, we discard the object. We have become so infected with this syndrome that we also discard human life.

Additionally, look at what we are doing to ourselves. We do not exclusively just litter at our feet, but also far above our heads!

The image I created on the left is an example showing Earth and what is orbiting our planet... Litter, space junk or aka: garbage. We are at the point that we are entrapping ourselves on our own planet.

On October 15, just a few days ago, an old useless 2 by 17 meters Soviet Parus Navigation Satellite that weights 800 Kilograms almost collided with an old Chinese rocket stage, according to U.S. Space Surveillance Network. Object number 19,826 came within 100 meters of object number 36,123 at the event altitude of 991Km or 615 miles above earth. If they collided, these two large items could have created thousands of smaller MMODs which stands for Micro Meteoroid and Orbital Debris. There are 34,000 items larger than 10 centimeters and the balance of the 128 million pieces of orbiting litter are MMODs.

While some people are concerned about a meteor from outer space hitting our planet, we also should not rule out a future collision of two large pieces of space junk in low orbit possibly causing dozens of bullet size pieces to penetrate our atmosphere. If these pieces come in over an empty ocean, thank God. However, what if they rain down over a town or city?

Above is an image created by NASA showing space junk from a high Earth orbit. Two main debris fields are the objects in geosynchronous Earth orbit and the concentration of objects in low Earth orbit.

We are our worst enemy. Times are already challenging to launch a rocket and enter Earth's orbit among the current 128 million pieces of orbiting junk. No program is yet established to remove orbiting space junk, but I suspect and hope the new Space Force with the prototype Chaser space crafts will have that assignment.

So if you think that navigating home through rush-hour congestion is hard in your earthbound vehicle. What will your great grand children be saying when they are trying to visit Earth's orbit, our Moon or Mars? We cannot allow this space litter to freely increase as humankind works more and more in space.

Bill Lauto, at GoingTrueGreen.com
Environmental Scientist
International Sustainability and Energy Consultant
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A Comet Named Neowise, Why?

7/24/2020

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When I learned about the comet called Neowise, I saw this as a good reason to venture an escape from our current world and go out into the night or early morning, before the break of daylight.

Telomere, Comets, NEOWISE, Mercury, binoculars, night skies, moonless, solar system, earth, going green, goingtruegreen

Discovered last year by the team at NEOWISE: Near-Earth Objects Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer program, thus an acronym for a name, we have been given several viewing possibilities the past few weeks. Being in the northern hemisphere we have been afforded two times a day to witness this flaming ball of ice that just went around our sun, 10 million miles closer than Mercury's orbit. As the Comet NEOWISE headed back out to the far reaches of our solar system, Earth came within 64 million miles of this 3 mile wide comet with a flair of a tail.

Alas, this wonder of the universe evaded this author several times with cloud cover, smog or haze. The mosquitoes weren't any fun either. Nevertheless, being outdoors to view a sunset from a beach and the open evening sky was a pleasure. Better still, is the hour before sunrise. The quiet air is spectacular. This is when I find the world at peace the most, because there is the knowledge of the coming sunrise. These were the two times to view NEOWISE, just over one hour after sunset in the North west sky and in the North east sky just before sunrise. Both times of day had the comet about 20 degrees above the horizon. That is about two fists high with our arm stretched out toward the horizon.

Most info about viewing NEOWISE from the media was incorrect... there is a shocker. No need for a telescope or binoculars was the claim by most, because NEOWISE will be visible to the naked eye. There are always variables to everything and viewing the comet without any aid only occurred on perfectly clear moonless night skies and far from humankind's artificial light sources. I guess most media reports didn't have time to present all the facts and details. The photo I am sharing with this GTG Blog post was taken by my good friend Ross, but the comet wasn't visible to him. Only after taking a photo with a 10 second exposure did the comet appear in the image.

BTW: The NEOWISE program uses a space telescope to hunt for asteroids and comets, including those that could pose a threat to Earth. During its primary mission, NEOWISE detected more than 158,000 minor planets, 34,000 of which had never been discovered previously.

Making the best of experiences like seeing a comet is priceless, especially with family and friends. However with NEOWISE, if anyone is thinking about marking their calendar to see this comet the next time around, then we better figure out all the science behind aging and Telomeres. NEOWISE will not be back for 6,768 years.

Bill Lauto, at GoingTrueGreen.com
Environmental Scientist
International Sustainability and Energy Consultant
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