Latest Posts by green-notebooks - Page 4

Does anyone know how to become a farmer?

I’m open to anything please help

ive said this before but as climate change ramps up faster and faster and we feel the effects more and more in our everyday lives our infrastructure and architecture is going to need radical changes, and i love building science, but its not just going to be stuff like cranking up the r-values on our houses and other passivhaus things, we have to look at resilient infrastructure like earth berming and building underground like in coober pedy to avoid heat, have to look at flood mitigation tunnels like the tokyo flood control system, have to look at stuff like staten islands seawall

no one solution is going to protect us from climate change, and no small ones either

shits gonna have to change, and not every solution is going to pan out perfectly, but we need to be able to try some pretty over the top seeming stuff

even just where i live, the seasons have dramatically changed over the last decade, old ellicott city has been wiped out by floods twice, summers are hot and humid as hell, this cant last

Shoutout to the people that work back breaking labor jobs so we can eat. Nothing but respect for them.

Neglected pastures thrive under solar panels

Solar panels could increase productivity on pastures that are not irrigated and even water-stressed, a new study finds. The new study published in PLOS One by researchers at Oregon State College finds that grasses and plants flourish in the shade underneath solar panels because of a significant change in moisture. The results bolster the argument for agrovoltaics, the concept of using the same area of land for solar arrays and farming. The idea is to grow food and produce clean energy at the same time.

XKCD’s excellent presentation on historical global temperature and anthropogenic global warming. 

[After setting your car on fire] “Listen, your car’s temperature has changed before.”

This is literally WALL-E lmfao

I just jerked out of my midday dissociation and realized that seed bombing a golf course with mint would be the ultimate crime.

Oh my god this is so evil. 

I love it. 

I just jerked out of my midday dissociation and realized that seed bombing a golf course with mint would be the ultimate crime.

Oh my god this is so evil. 

I love it. 

Cleaning the oceans one step at a time

Two Australians created this container that collects plastic, paper, oil, fuel and detergent floating in the ocean. They want to implement it the middle of next year to clean up the sea worldwide. It seems a great idea. The only “but” as always is money, so they are raising funds to get to their goal. You can see their project and donations here.

Free Solarpunk Essay for your thoughts

There’s not many essays and findings in academia that are given away to anyone without special access, so since I just got a 100 on my Environmental Ethics Reflection Essay, I’m posting it here for solarpunks it might benefit to think about these ethics considerations. (hit read more for essay)

Keep reading

Actually you know what. Just don’t mow. Get rid of your lawnmower. Turn your whole yard into a wildflower field or an edible garden. Lawns are the invention of the upper class to show wealth through wasted plots of grass that is meticulously tended for no reason other than to be grass. It’s literally an empty plot of land they kept because they had so much money they didn’t need it to grow food. Not using a yard as just a yard is an act of rebellion.

One of the main industries still supporting lawns is chemical pest control companies, and they’re also responsible for the insecticides that crashed the bird populations in the 40s and 50s as well as a lot of what’s killing bees and butterflies now. The herbicides they produce specifically targets “bad” plants like dandelions, buttercups, and clovers, which are plants bees rely on for early spring feeding. Grass is just grass; it would be great for feeding small mammals if people would let it grow more than three inches, but they won’t.

So, yeah. Kill lawnmower culture. Plant some native flowers. Grow some vegetables and fruit trees. Put out bird feeders and bee sugar spots and homes for both. Be kind to bugs and birds and rabbits and opossums and whoever else might wander by. Make your neighborhood a lot more beautiful.

How much longer until the utopic Solarpunk future where Capitalism is dead and we all live in ecologically sustainable high-tech forest cities? Asking for a friend.

unhappy reminder that amphibians are going through a pandemic right now and anything you can do to support conservation efforts would be greatly appreciated by literally everyone in the world

hm, i feel like there’s a big problem when we try to visualize a sort of “solarpunk”-like society where we assume that every place a gonna be a grassy, tree-fillled, green city and that’s like fine and all but it’s very inauthentic to the diverse landscapes of our planet. for example, i live in southern california and ive seen trees and grass but i’ve also seen desert with cacti and bushes and dry land. when we associate our future, our “progress”, with a certain landscape we are not treating the land with the respect it deserves. deserts, plains, mountains, marshes are all apart of the world we live in and we need to invision a future with those lands too

also with all this in mind, a lot of this aesthetic and line of thinking can be damaging to indigenous communities. thinking the desert is just “empty space” and thinking the plains should be replaced with forests go hand-in-hand with colonialist ideology. no land is empty land, it is always someone’s home. we need to make space for indigenous people in our solarpunk, cottagecore, vegan, etc. ideologies if we ever want to truly make progress and not perpetuate the same shit with a different brand on it

إنسانية 🕊️

‏نزعت الخطاف من فم احد القروش وعند مشاهدة القروش الاخرى لذلك صارت القروش تأتي لنفس المكان لنزع الخطاف من فمها علما ان هذه القروش لا تحب ان يلمسها احد.

هذا في البهاما والغواصة ،خلال الـ 15 سنة الماضية ، أزالت 250 خطاف.

no, listen, when I say I want to integrate more specific solarpunk stuff in my life, i don’t mean to ask for yet again new “aesthetic” clothes that now you have to buy or make to show your support of the movement (screw that i’m consuming enough as it is), or more posts about impossible house goals, or whatever, I’m asking you what my options to build a portable and eco friendly phone charger are, im asking you viable tiny-appartment edible plants growing tricks on a budget,  im asking tips to slow down when my mind and society tell me im not fast enough, i don’t need more rich art nouveau amateurs aesthetics or pristine but cold venus project, okay, i know i should joins associations where I am tho i’m constantly on the move, thanks for that, just, you know, can we get a bit more practical ??? how do I hack my temporary flat into going off the grid for the time i’m here

Basic Homesteading Skills

Crafts

quilting

embroidery

cross-stitch

knitting

crochet

sewing

Cooking and Baking

homemade bread

homemade butter

homemade extracts

dandelion jelly

Canning

26 canning recipes

canning jars 101

60 canning recipes

Gardening

edible trees to plant

what to plant to save the bees

cure and braid garlic

save seeds for next year

braid onions for long term storage

build a greenhouse

Animals

homemade chicken feed

raising mealworms for chickens

why to raise nigerian dwarf goats

Outdoors

starting a fire with sticks

trail signs

knotting

find true north without a compass

Medicine

homemade neosporin

all purpose healing salve

I’m having to help with some kind of campaign with a Big Hort company this year for some of our nursery stock and I do not enjoy being able to see this deep into corporate Hort. It is all ad revenue and pdfs and interfaces and sales reps down here. hellish

8 vegetables that you can regrow again and again.

Scallions

You can regrow scallions by leaving an inch attached to the roots and place them in a small glass with a little water in a well-lit room.

Garlic

When garlic begins to sprout, you can put them in a glass with a little water and grow garlic sprouts. The sprouts have a mild flavor than garlic and can be added to salads, pasta and other dishes.

Bok Choy

Bok choy can be regrown by placing the root end in water in a well-lit area. In 1-2 weeks , you can transplant it to a pot with soil and grow a full new head.

Carrots

Put carrot tops in a dish with a little water. Set the dish in a well-lit room or a window sill.  You’ll have carrot tops to use in salads. 

Basil

Put clippings from basil with 3 to 4-inch stems in a glass of water and place it in direct sunlight. When the roots are about 2 inches long, plant them in pots to and in time it will grow a full basil plant.

Celery

Cut off the base of the celery and place it in a saucer or shallow bowl of warm water in the sun. Leaves will begin to thicken and grow in the middle of the base, then transfer the celery to soil. 

Romaine Lettuce

Put romaine lettuce stumps in a ½ inch of water. Re-water to keep water level at ½ inch. After a few days, roots and new leaves will appear and you can transplant it into soil.

Cilantro

The stems of cilantro will grown when placed in a glass of water. Once the roots are long enough, plant them in a pot in a well-lit room. You will have a full plant in a few months.

Blue Pixie’s Parasol (Mycena Interrupta) or subspecies.

Mycena interrupta, commonly known as the pixie’s parasol, is a species of mushroom. It has a Gondwanan distribution pattern, being found in Australia, New Zealand, New Caledonia  and Chile. In Australia it is found in Victoria, Tasmania, New South Wales, and South Australia, and in Queensland where its distribution is limited to Lamington National Park. Description The caps of Mycena interrupta range from 0.8 to 2 cm, and they are a brilliant cyan blue colour. They are globose when emergent and then become a broad convex as they mature, with the centre of the cap slightly depressed. The caps are often sticky and appear slimy looking, particularly in moist weather.

A brief and ugly summary of surviving cold climates

For visitors and writers alike.

You were never meant to be here. Never forget this. You are an ape of the equator, built to run the savannah and swim in tropical waters. Whatever terms and conditions your body has, they are void here. Mother nature never certified to function in a Death World.

Enduring the cold is never a matter of “how much” as much at it is “how long”. Think of it as the water levels of the vieogames you have played. No matter what equipment enables you to remain longer, you can’t stay there indefinitely. The coat that keeps you warm and toasty for three hours in -15 is enough to keep you functional for an hour of -40.

Whatever the locals say, listen to them. Err to the side of caution if you must. You may not endure what they can endure, but you SURE AS FUCKING NOT cannot survive what they say cannot be endured.

That being said, alcohol is a filthy fucking liar and so is anyone who offers it to you. The warmth it gives is an illusion, and a sign of damage. You are worse off feeling comfortable with a mouthful of whiskey as you are freezing your gonads off stone cold sober.

Winter tires. Studded winter tiers are a MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH when you drive on a frozen road. That being said, whatever the locals tell you that your car will need to run as theirs do, take it. Taking the risk of being pranked is worth survival, and you can always stab their tires in the spring if they were shitting you.

Eat. For the love of god, make sure that you eat. Heavier meals might be unpalatable at first for someone used to lighter nutrition, but maintaining bodily warmth in a cold climate takes up a lot of energy, and you will feel tired and drowsy for a long while shile your metabolism adjusts to producing more heat than Mother Nature ever intended. The skinny people in your party are especially vulnerable, ensure their well-being on a regular basis.

If you have a smartphone/other essential technology on your body, keep them close to your body to keep them warm. They were not designed to be frozen any more than you were.

Sleep is death. SLEEP IS DEATH. Never, ever stop to rest in the cold, if you do not have the means to make a fire/otherwise produce heat. The cold tires you out because keeping warm takes energy, but taking a rest will not return your energy. If you feel the need to sit down and rest because you are tired because of the cold, call for help. This is not a hyperbole, if you feel like you are too tired to go on in a cold climate, CALL A FUCKING AMBULANCE. If you fall asleep in the snow, you will not wake up. Hypothermia can and will literally kill you.

Avoid skin-to-snow-contact if you can. It hurts because you were not supposed to do it. Consider ice to be like acid. Touching is bad for you.

Feel free to add to the list if you feel like I missed something.

earlier this month it was 120 degrees in Australia , but yeah lets continue to mock those trying to save us in the 12 years we have left to slow climate change’s effects. 

What is the worst thing that could happen if we listen to scientists and change our ways, and then it turns out they were lying? 

Slowly dying in a mad max hell world to own the libs I guess. 

Easily Paleo-ified with some tweaks to the stir-fry sauce.

Love healthy food & fitness? Follow Awesome Fitness Recipes on Instagram

I really want an environmental revolution to happen soon. Gardens everywhere, herbal wisdom flourishing, intelligent environmental policies, aggressive fighting for plants, straying away from reliance on shady food industries and growing our own to help our own and nurture our own, we see everything, how it’s made and who it goes to cause it’s ours typa shit. I really want this.

What are your favorite online planty boy shops?

I did a post about generally all places I’d found to buy plants online which folks made some very lovely additions to. Some of those in my original post I wouldn’t necessarily recommend because there are way cheaper/better places to shop, but that was more of a “here’s what’s out there and is most popular” type post that I really need to do an updated version of someday. But anyway here are some of the places I’ve ordered from that I had a good experience with or seen people order from that I would really like to attempt to order from.

Glasshouse Works - this place has a huge selection and some very old stock plants and does not…. necessarily keep up with current trends and price markups so you can find some cool stuff here for relatively low prices (and low resolution lol). Also, their “collections” are very cool and cost effective. I have ordered twice from them, once in the spring and once in the fall and was very happy with my orders. They also regularly throw in a free “extra” if one fits in your box which is my favorite.

Steve’s Leaves - this place is a wee bit pricier than I’d like but in the end, I think it’s worth it because they ship big and healthy plants. they have a huge stock of begonias and tradescantia and peperomia, if you’re into that and their catalog changes frequently. they do a weekly email special which is fun! I’ve only ordered once from them (got my West Texas Blizzard begonia) but I see loads of people consistently having good experiences with them.

Etsy - I don’t really have a favorite specific shop but etsy is a great place to find a lot of different plants, especially cuttings. definitely look into the reviews of the shop before purchasing though.

Logee’s - tbh this place barely makes it on my list of favorites, just because I have only ordered there once and they tend to be… overpriced and overhyped for the plant you get/what they stock. but they also have a cool catalog and frequent email specials that are lots of fun to look through. I ordered my Begonia maculata wightii from them last year and have been pleased with it, though it was definitely overpriced for a plant so easy to propagate.

Arid Lands Greenhouse -disclaimer here that I have placed an order but not received it yet because I asked them to hold if they felt the weather was bad (which it has been), but they have an absolutely huge catalog of less frequently offered succulents and seem very much geared toward serious hobbyists rather than gimmicks and are very knowledgable. they’re located in arizona and grow a lot of their stuff from seed. 

The People’s Plants - is one I am including here only because this is the website where I recently preordered my Thai Constellation Monstera. This is I think their second or third preorder run and I have seen several people very happy with the plants they received, so I feel comfortable linking them. They have some other cool tropicals in and out of stock from time to time it seems but I don’t know how they compare to other shops.

NSE Tropicals - is one I enjoy seeing instagram updates from but probably wouldn’t order from just because giant aroids aren’t my thing. They have some really awesome beautiful stock plants (almost nothing is in stock currently because winter).

Taylor Greenhouses - this one is similar to Glasshouse Works where it’s owned by some older folks who can barely run a web page. But does have some cool plants (especially begonias) hidden in there and free shipping on orders over $85. I’ve watched a few unboxing videos from folks and not been overly impressed by the size of the plants for the price but still a cool place to poke around.

Josh’s Frogs - I’ve never ordered plants from here (maybe ordered water plants I can’t remember) but if you’re looking for terrarium/vivarium plants and supplies, they’re a great website. They sometimes have some pretty cool plants for cheap, though they’re vivarium sized so pretty small.

PA Orchid Exchange - I have not looked too deeply into this one and haven’t seen any unboxing videos but they’re the newest plant place that’s caught me eye, especially if you’re after some Trendy Boys for what looks like relatively affordable prices?

Look, your plastic straws are only a negligible contribution to oceanic plastic pollution. Japan has backed out of all of its clean energy goals since Fukushima and is importing thousands of tons of fossil fuels to make up for it. The lithium mining processes required to make your hybrid car make its environmental benefits basically nonexistent. Food waste has much more to do with governmental regulations on spoilage and consumer demand for cosmetically perfect produce than you forgetting about the kale in your vegetable crisper.

The world is made of complex problems and the simple answer basically only exists to make you feel good about yourself

I love these Penda architects terrace design. Tel Aviv.