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Cool Cities

2022-05-04 18:13:27.025917+02 by Dan Lyke 3 comments

A bunch of you know that Petaluma is part of the Cool Cities Challenge, a program run by an organization called The Empowerment Institute, with the stated goal of reducing CO2 emissions through individual action, and my block is one of the first blocks active in this challenge. And of course I'm participating, if only because it's a way to meet and engage with my neighbors.

However, I keep finding things that disturb me about the materials. Like the goal of this program and whoever their funders are is more to divert people from making big institutional change, and push individual guilt, rather than actually reducing carbon emissions.

One of the things the program pushes is water conservation, and among other things it talks about things like shower timers. So I got to thinking... Sonoma County spends a lot of water on agriculture to support recreational drugs. Growing wine grapes seems to run about 70 gallons per lb, and there's about two and a half lbs of grapes per bottle of wine, or 175 gallons per bottle. 5 glasses per bottle, so 35 gallons per glass.

If you've got a 1.5GPM shower head and shower daily, you can cut your shower time by a minute, or every 3 or 4 weeks you can skip a glass of wine.

Hmmmmmm....

Also, as previously mentioned, there's all the encouragement to go for household solar when household solar runs about 90 lbs CO2e/MWh and our local generation runs between 64 and 80 lbs CO2e/MWh.

[ related topics: Drugs Interactive Drama Health Software Engineering Wines and Spirits Archival Photovoltaics Global Warming ]

comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):

#Comment Re: made: 2022-05-04 20:20:22.994998+02 by: Dan Lyke

https://www.pressdemocrat.com/...a-crops-that-use-the-most-water/ suggests that California vineyards are running about 2.85 acre feet per acre, and wine grapes can run as high as 12 tons per acre, https://grapes.extension.org/h...hen-they-are-in-full-production/ says probably closer to 3-5 tons per acre.

So 931933.7 gallons per acre comes out to 93 gallons per lb of grape, so a little higher.

Not to mention the carbon sourcing that converting the land to vineyard produces... Hmmmm...

#Comment Re: made: 2022-05-06 02:09:54.516495+02 by: TheSHAD0W

Running your gray water out to your garden is also a thing people do, though many cities frown at it. (It's quite easy to hide though.)

#Comment Re: made: 2022-05-08 20:28:34.36917+02 by: Dan Lyke

Yeah, Petaluma encourages it and makes it pretty easy to permit. We've done our laundry water, haven't yet drilled a hole through the foundation to do it with shower water.

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