Affordable, attractive , comfortable sustainable housing is definitely a
piece of the big solution for homelessness, but by far not the only
piece. If you are going to get enough impact to make a real difference,
you have to be able to provide employment or opportunity for
self-employment for a significant portion of the local unemployed
population. Building tiny houses will not do that soon or by itself.
Neither will can recycling and craft co-ops, though those are still
worthy efforts which I believe are necessary to provide diversity of
opportunity in a healthy economy.
The only area I can see with enough economic power for a lift in local prosperity big enough to support really significant solutions for homelessness and poverty, is energy security. We are slaves to the electric outlet and the gas pump.Wind and solar are great where they work best, but will work some almost anywhere. The problem is that it takes a long term investment to get payback from solar investment in cloudy places like where we live.
Excess nutrient heavy biomass such as food waste, agricultural and animal waste and sewage can all be used to make fuel as part of the process of cleaning them up.Ethanol and methane biogas are both produced as part of a composting process and can be burned to generate electricity, heat or provide clean air fuel for cooking. Making biofuels from waste not only cleans it up from a health and odor perspective, but it also reduces greenhouse gas production from the biomass dramatically compared to current methods, especially when you consider every gallon of transportation fuel you are not importing from thousands of mile away.
This kind of biofuels production has been going on in China, India and some parts of Europe for decades. There's proven technology, and it's low cost, because most of its customers are low income. There is a 750 stall public restroom in India that powers a school and a medical clinic. The organisation that created this marvel has brought toilets to 10 million people in the time they have existed. Alcohol distilleries have had a couple of hundred years of design and development behind them. What's been missing in the past in this country has been will and education, and both have finally begun to reach enough people to create a groundswell. If we could manage a waste to fuels initiative around here it could make a big enough difference to support many other enterprises.
The only area I can see with enough economic power for a lift in local prosperity big enough to support really significant solutions for homelessness and poverty, is energy security. We are slaves to the electric outlet and the gas pump.Wind and solar are great where they work best, but will work some almost anywhere. The problem is that it takes a long term investment to get payback from solar investment in cloudy places like where we live.
Excess nutrient heavy biomass such as food waste, agricultural and animal waste and sewage can all be used to make fuel as part of the process of cleaning them up.Ethanol and methane biogas are both produced as part of a composting process and can be burned to generate electricity, heat or provide clean air fuel for cooking. Making biofuels from waste not only cleans it up from a health and odor perspective, but it also reduces greenhouse gas production from the biomass dramatically compared to current methods, especially when you consider every gallon of transportation fuel you are not importing from thousands of mile away.
This kind of biofuels production has been going on in China, India and some parts of Europe for decades. There's proven technology, and it's low cost, because most of its customers are low income. There is a 750 stall public restroom in India that powers a school and a medical clinic. The organisation that created this marvel has brought toilets to 10 million people in the time they have existed. Alcohol distilleries have had a couple of hundred years of design and development behind them. What's been missing in the past in this country has been will and education, and both have finally begun to reach enough people to create a groundswell. If we could manage a waste to fuels initiative around here it could make a big enough difference to support many other enterprises.
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