Environmental Conservation Initiative, Feodosiya Green Party.

This is a very interesting article on an initiative by the Green Party in Feodosiya, a Ukrainian town on the Black Sea Coast. I have a literal translation which I have picked the bones out of, so it may not be entirely accurate in every detail, but the content is sound. My wife, who is from Foedosiya, and is always on the lookout for green news for my blog, saw this article on the internet as she was catching up on local news.

I have condensed the article considerably, and cut out a lot of local content, but the main message of conservation is clear.

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Article From “kafanews.com“. Kafa being the old name for Feodosiya.
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Last Christmas the Green Party in Feodosiya offered townspeople a fir tree for hire service, whereby live fir trees could be purchased and either returned in the new year for a partial refund, or kept and planted in the garden for future use.

As the scheme was so successful last year, and made people realise that the cutting down of fir trees ad lib is not a good idea, the leaders of the Feodosiya Green Party, Dmitry Achkasov and Dmitry ShChepetkov, the instigators of, ‘ A fir tree for rent ‘, have decided to repeat the service this year.

Any profits from this initiative are used for the replanting of any returned trees, and planting new trees in areas where they are needed. There are also plans to plant trees in the grounds of schools and hospitals.

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The Crimean climate is in a delicate balance, it has its own micro climate, if you like. 150 years ago, the Crimea was a very arid dry place, similar to most Middle Eastern regions today. Over the last 150 years though, the climate has changed dramatically. Now, although the summers are still excruciatingly hot, and the winters can be really vicious, where once there was an arid moonscape, there are now forests, streams and grasslands, in fact during the more temperate months, it could be anywhere in Europe.

So it’s understandable that there are concerns, especially now during the upheavals that world climate change could herald, that any upset to the delicate balance of the micro climate of the Crimea could bring about another reversal of the climate, and move it back 150 years.

Lets hope that the Green Party in Feodosiya can bring about an awareness, in that part of the Ukraine, of the necessity to safeguard the environment.

Unfortunately, as everywhere, there are those who just do not care.

I have spent some time in the Crimea, and it is a very beautiful place

The photo’s below show the Crimea of 150 years ago, and the Crimea of now. I apologise for the before photo’s being of the Crimea war era, but they were the only photo’s I could find of that time. Though doubtless there are many sources available, I just couldn’t find them.

As a footnote, I would like to say a big thank you to my very lovely wife Galina for bringing this article to my attention.
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THEN

AND NOW

You can see from the before and after photo’s, the trmrendous importance of environmental conservation, not just in the Crimea, but Globally. The ‘THEN’, might so easily be the ‘NOW’, much sooner than we realise, for all of us.

What You Should Know About Rain Water Harvesting.

Rain water harvesting? Asked this question, a fair amount of people will say that they have a rain water butt in their garden for watering the plants, which alone is a good water conservation measure. How many households though have rain water harvesting, where all their practical water usage needs, apart from drinking, are met by harvesting rain water.

Unfortunately for most of us, the practical limitations of the installation of a rain water harvesting system, mean that an installation is at the least, very difficult, unless you have extremely accommodating neighbours. The reason being, quite a large hole has to be dug, to take the catchment tank, which requires the use of a mini digger, and most of the catchment tanks are largish, actually all of them are, so really good access is needed to enable the tank site to be excavated. Ok, a spade and three weeks might be an option, but not one most people would go for.

Good access being a thing that most of us don’t have, makes rain water harvesting on a large scale a no go. The alternative would be to have a much smaller system which could be used for the garden, and maybe flushing the toilet.

I have a friend who was brought up in Jamaica, and apparently all houses out there are built with full rain water harvesting installations. Not just a few hundred litre capacity either, we’re talking of several thousand gallon capacity catchment tanks. Jamaica, being pretty dry for most of the year, any rain water harvested has to last for several months.

So if you have a largish family, or even if you don’t, and you are going to move into a new build house, that’s the time to have a rain water harvesting system installed, before any garden walls or fences are put up.

Here in the UK, all new build houses have to have water meters fitted, and water, as we know, is not cheap, and will be getting scarcer and more expensive as the population grows. Again, here in the UK, a certain water company, which is foreign owned, not so long ago filled in seven reservoirs, and built houses on the sites. Whether that’s foreign thinking I don’t know, but I would call it just plain stupid. Our government should have stepped in on that one, no, I’m sorry, what am I thinking of, government ministers have much more important things to do, and I should think that filing expense claims is much more of a priority than making sure our largely foreign owned utility companies don’t stitch us up, and sell us down the river, which is where we will all be moonlighting to when we no longer have the luxury of being able to turn on the taps in our home, and see that wonderful H20 flowing clean and cool.

Back to the subject. A plumber friend of mine specialises in fitting eco systems. All of the properties he has fitted full rain water harvesting systems to are now totally independent of the water mains system, except for drinking water. Of course, with the amount of rain fall we’ve had in the UK over the last 3 years, there has certainly been an abundance of rain water to harvest.

The point is, rain water harvesting is a very good water conservation idea, whether it’s just a water butt in the garden, or the whole hog, or anything in between.

Watch the videos below, to get an idea of what’s involved in the installation of a full professional rain water harvesting system, or alternatively a plausible DIY system. In fact there’s a wealth of information on this subject, as always on just about any subject, on UTube.





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Energy Conservation Revisited, With Angry Green Girl.

I know I’ve covered this ground before, but it cannot be stressed enough, that energy conservation in the home is as important as, and goes hand in hand with renewable energy.
I’ve visited my favourite video site again in the search for fresh material, and I’ve found a very nice Angry Green Girl series of videos, and obviously, being a Male, and maybe a chauvinist at that, I think they are very entertaining, and also very informative. Seriously, they are hard hitting and serious. P.S; I’m not really a chauvinist. So, without more ado, I’ll hand you over to the wonderful YouTube, and Very Angry Green Girl & co.

DIY Energy, And Conservation In The Community.

I’m covering some old ground here, and reiterating some of my thoughts. So a gentle reminder that we can all share in the gradual, but ever growing green revolution. As more and more people are becoming aware that it’s possible to generate home power from renewable resources, and for most of us, the only practical way to achieve this is by DIY means. By practical, I mean financially viable. Though with government grants, and initiatives, it may be possible to break even on a ready made professionally installed renewable energy system in about 10 years, and then if it’s a correctly researched system, it will produce green sustainable energy, absolutely free, for many years beyond that. These renewable energy systems, as well as eventually easing the strain on our pockets, will also not only have an immediate impact on the global environment, but also have a telling impact on the local environment, making it a much more comfortable and pleasant place to live.


















One of the things that we can each do to get things started, and to get some ideas from other like minded people would be to join, or start up a local community environmental network. Everybody has some idea on how environmental issues should be tackled, and local government may supply a good part of the funding for any green projects that will improve the local environment. Also, it’s easier in a group, or workshop, to start and carry through DIY projects, where everyone can help each other, and there may even be a couple or more old hands, that would be willing to give the benefit of their experience. This would be just one small step in making everyone aware of the changes in the forces of nature, and the changes we will all need to make, to give our world a helping hand.
Most of the changes we need to make will benefit us trmendously, such as free power, and free motoring, once payback has been achieved. So saving the planet need not be arduous, it’s only the utility companies that will make it so, with expensive green energy, but we don’t have to pander to that. I really can foresee everyone getting into the DIY energy mode, at least initially, in the not so distant future

Welcome to My Renewable DIY Energy/Energy Consrvation Blog

Welcome to my blog, on Renewable DIY Energy and Energy conservation for the home, and in fact anywhere and any way, we can conserve energy.

I’m a great proponent of renewable energy and energy conservation. I read some years ago, ( Please don’t ask me to quote the source, but it was a very good article, also about how archaic our house building practices are in the UK.), that it would cost vey little extra to incorporate renewable energy devices into the build of a new house, enough to make it totally, power, self sufficient. Well, surprise, this has never happened, and why would it? Power company’s need to make a profit, people need jobs, this is the way our economy’s are, in a million and one ways. Our governments and conglomerates, for the sake of fast, huge profits, have gone a very long way down the road of making natural resource guzzling, air polluting energy. Instead of thinking, hang on a minute, if we use up our world, and choke it to death, where will we live? I’m not talking about houses here, we can all move house, but I think it’s going to be just a tad more difficult to move worlds. But never mind, the vast majority of us live very comfortable lives, thank you very much. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, but I am saying that we can live just as comfortable lives, but just not take so much.

But think, how comfortable would our lives be, if the conglomerates in power had thought about our planet, and thought about renewable resources. We may have largely self sufficient renewable energy using houses, and be driving around in nice, comfortable, quiet, fume free cars. It’s the stuff of fiction no more; it really has to be our future.

I realize that almost every gadget we buy is, in use, and in disposal, is bad for our environment, and I for one, don’t want to stop using my computer, or stop watching my television, or stop driving my car, but our lives largely demand their usage, although the television is debatable. However we can control some of these things by optimising usage, and conserving power.

Energy conservation is as important as producing our own green energy. In fact, the two go hand in hand. With the best will in the world, unless you are lucky enough to live on top of a hill, and have 24 hour wind, or live in a very hot climate, and put out massive arrays of solar panels, most DIY Energy systems have limited capacity, so power usage still has to be within their means, mostly due to the practical constraints of where most of us live, certainly here in the U.K. Regardless of whether or not we have DIY Energy in our home, the less load we put on the national grid, the better it will be for our environment, and for us.

Personally, I do most of my television watching, on my computer, so that is a power saving, albeit, a very small one. I’m also evaluating a very cheap fuel saving device fitted to my car, which does look very promising. Imagine if everyone could save 60 or 70 miles on a tank full of juice, what a difference that would make. I don’t use the car A/C, though admittedly, in the UK there is not much call for it. Also, every single bulb in our house is an energy saver. We have a huge amount of insulation in our attic, and our central heating is turned down to a comfortable minimum. Also, we leave nothing on standby, when our electronic equipment is not being used; it’s switched off at the mains. Not many people realise as well, that mobile phone chargers draw power all the time they are switched on, not just when they are charging the phone. The same applies for most household use transformers.

With the continuing and growing strain on the world’s natural resources, and, not to mention the rising cost of utility services, we all owe it to our world, and to our selves, to relieve some of this ever growing pressure, and explore, and utilise where practicable, DIY renewable energy, and also energy saving devices and practices.

Remember, if we look after our World, and Mother Nature, she will surely look after us.