Terraforming & Sustainability using Kudzu & Waste (cont. 10)

If the concern over climate change proves to be misplaced (though I note that for this August the volume of arctic ice is the lowest ever recorded, & appears to be dropping off the projected melting curve - see NSDIC), then a tropical rainforest model of sustainability becomes more appropriate. The rainforest, though sustainable, is not a totally closed system (migratory birds etc), though most of it's resources are indigenous. The forests various feedback loops, as well as it's multiple trophic levels, would seem to correspond better with the diversity of contemporary society & trade in rarer commodities could be maintained. Hence, using a rainforest model would avoid the problems of "command & control" economic & political systems associated with ships, aircraft or political systems of limited political & economic freedom. Foraminifera are common as sand grains on Indo Pacific beaches – hence to to misquote from William Blake, “to see the world in a grain of sand”, (and other unknown worlds also). The state as multicellular “super organism”(compare the Gaia model) need not be politically controlling if democratic principles are carefully retained within each “cathedral of sustainability carbon - neutral diocese”& elected officials and venture capital industrialists are given power to coordinate the movement of energy & resources. Environmentalism perhaps also can give new perspectives on both capitalism and communism as neither adequately address the problem of limited resources. If the ice continues to melt as fast as it has been, then we are on a war footing with our much abused, angry mother nature & this war may require emergency planning & coordination!

Terraforming & Sustainability using Kudzu & Waste (cont. 9)

By combining the various models together it may be possible to constrict a roadmap towards sustainability and maybe a reversal of global warming as well. Hence the rainforest biosphere, and protist symbiotic association provide sustainability models that may be combined holistically. Each carbon neutral domain or autonomous zone, consisting of an autotrophic centre (city or nucleus) containing organelles where manufacturing and recycling is dominant, and is sustained by solar energy from the autotrophic “symbionts” that comprise adjacent rural areas. When enough hydrogen and algal derived fuels are available, then only a maximum of one half the carbon of agricultural waste could be fixed as char. Each city could have a manufacturing speciality, be it clothes, textiles, machinery, glass making etc. Unwanted, but sorted, waste materials, as they accumulate, are farmed out to cities that could make use of that specific material. Waste derived raw materials should be used FIRST for industry, before cheap imports from far away places are bought, both to save energy and jobs. Some kind of industrial information processing unit, would be necessary to make sure supply & demand of specific recycled waste types are implemented. However, it is the “kudzu" lunar module model that may have the greatest potential. 100 years from now the moon could be covered by a greenhouse, as could Mars! Applying this terraforming idea to the Sahara, Sahel, Gobi etc. and other dry wastelands could be “greened”& freed from famine. These extreme solutions might be necessary to stop the ongoing polar ice melting.

Terraforming & Sustainability using Kudzu & Waste (cont. 8)

Lehman et el (2007) in their seminal study on “terra preta del Indio” (biochar) notes that if the complete planets organic waste converted into “flash” pyrolytic oil, (all the waste organics are converted into oil) this would provide enough energy to replace fossil fuels. Fossil fuels yield about 2ppm of carbon dioxide added “permanently” to the atmosphere each year. If, instead, the agricultural waste is slowly pyrolysed at 600°C, one half of the carbon can be preserved as near indestructible biochar , the other half is distributed between oil and syngas. Thus, in theory one ppm of carbon dioxide can be removed every year from the atmosphere, as long as the pyrolysate is used instead of fossil fuels, and hydrogen and/or algal derived fuels make up the shortfall. (all of this assumes that energy demand remains stable). Thus it would take about a century, after a seven year "lead - in" period during which fossil fuels are replaced (assuming absolute universal compliance) to return atmosphere carbon dioxide concentrations to pre - industrial levels. This is too slow, as the polar ice is melting far too rapidly. However if the biomass is heated rapidly, all the carbon can be volatilised into "flash pyrolysate" which could be injected back into abandoned oil reservoirs, only 50 years would be needed to remove all the post industrial CO2 into the atmosphere. However this would be economically prohibitive. It will still be necessary to bring much marginal and arid land under cultivation (quickly) to produce enough biochar or pyrolysate to remove enough carbon dioxide rapidly, should the polar “tipping point” be approached.

Terraforming & Sustainability using Kudzu & Waste (cont.7)

Some authorities (P2P) suggest using an alternative - energy Joule based currency, but probably this should be employed only in the case of complete sovereign debt collapse. Autarky, holism and planned economies have ugly associations with totalitarianism & this has to be avoided at all costs. However, both single cells & multicellular organisms are regulated entities. If it is accepted that our planet is an increasingly hungry, thirsty and overcrowded space ship, then some kind of generally agreed regulation becomes inevitable. Possibly each carbon neutral domain, or “symbiotic cell” (consisting of an autotrophic rural area balancing out CO2 emissions from the adjacent heterotrophic city) could be given the status of an ancient Greek city state. Nevertheless it appears that the whole planet is now on a war footing, not among ourselves (yet) but with melting polar ice. By employing a sustainability model based on the deconstruction and reuse of waste, using alternative energy, it may be possible to avoid the boom/bust business cycle of competition for control of natural resources and markets that usually and finally culminates in open conflict (petroleum being a particular case in point). I would like to suggest that each US State be divided into carbon neutral regions; cities or urban (heterotrophic) areas, using the existing federal system, where high consumption of alternative energy, as well as production of goods and services energy, are balanced by adjacent autotrophic regions (rural areas) which produce much of the energy used by the city. It is possible that the laws of supply & demand will automatically go into effect, curbing consumption of new raw materials when recyclable waste enters the material supply system. This should occur without regulation.  If the energy from the sun is transformed into hydrogen, electricity, biofuels and net carbon dioxide fixation in autotrophic zones is linked to consumption of energy in the heterotrophic zones, then considerable progress towards both carbon neutrality, and autarky will have been accomplished without compromising democracy.

Terraforming & Sustainability using Kudzu & Waste (cont. 6)

This “problem of bones” highlights a problem in economics. “Laissez faire” basically commands the purchase of the cheapest resource, in order to remain competitive,. The labor costs of bone retrieval and conversion back into fertilizer, presently make bone recycling for fertilizer uneconomic. Essentially “laissez faire” firmly dictates that we “trash the planet”. Not until all the phosphate reserves are exhausted can one start searching for phosphate in landfills. This dilemma was unimportant, until recently, when it has become apparent that phosphate reserves are almost mined out, and that discarding phosphate waste is now an unsustainable option. Rather than upset the whole fabric of modern capitalism it may be possible to solve the “recycling being more expensive than using virgin materials” problem by using the municipal tipping fee for recycling rather than landfilling. By encouraging North European style curbside recycling, pay-as-you-throw schemes or materials recovery facility, etc, the waste problem could disappear. If the recycled raw materials are used on site as the basis of industrial manufacturing, energy etc perhaps by applying a system of franchises, than employment could rise. It would be essential to keep the prices lower than “dumped” and artificially cheap imports that are bleeding the west dry (perhaps by using the recycling & tipping subsidy). Perhaps by using a sustainability approach and judicious use of fossil carbon taxes on imports it may be possible to revive manufacturing around a cities recycling center.

Terraforming & Sustainability using Kudzu & Waste (cont. 5)

How then is waste from human society to be processed? A model can be found in food -derived bones, they simply go into landfills along with calcium phosphate sludge from phosphate recovery at the wastewater works. All of this ends up in the landfills. Some bones from slaughter house waste are converted into bone meal, but the vast majority of phosphate is landfilled. An exception to the general wastage of phosphate is basic slag from steel smelting. The slag is often made into high strength concrete, (when mixed with portland cement). It is also used as fertilizer. However, even in poorer societies bones are not much used (except perhaps for carving). The problem is that managed competition keeps the price of superphosphate fertilizer very cheap. The North African phosphate deposits are almost depleted and other deposits (such as deep sea nodules) are limited in abundance and expensive to exploit. In industry & the home, bones are rarely collected and converted back into superphosphate by acid addition (H2SO4).

Terraforming & Sustainability using Kudzu & Waste (cont. 4)

The other biological model of sustainability involves almost no waste at all as it involves symbiosis. A good example is a major Protist group: the Foraminifera. Though only “amoebae”, forams have exquisite tests (shells) which eventually cover the ocean floor. Both plankton and benthonic forams are common and abundant. Many foraminifera , though “animals” contain symbiotic algae. The algae flourish in the protoplasm and use the forams nitrogenous waste and carbon dioxide as plant food. In return the “animal” obtains carbohydrates and proteins. The system is entirely sustainable and the concept of “waste” has little meaning here. The end products of metabolism of one organism acts as food for the other organism. In fact some forams will digest the algae but retain the chloroplasts (kleptotrophy). I apply these two models, the rainforest and the symbiosis models to try & understand sustainability.

Terraforming & Sustainability using Kudzu & Waste (cont. 3)

Autarky (self sufficiency) can be exemplified in two very different natural systems; the first of these is the rainforest. Here, occasionally even in relatively nutrient poor areas, the generation of unused waste, dead leaves, dead animals are rapidly decomposed, energy and nutrients being the main reward to the “deconstructionists” (bugs and moulds). Very quickly all the nutrients are returned to the trees. The decomposers are the key to the long term sustainability of the rainforest. In the authors experience, on the ground, there is little to see except a fine brown soil and cathedral like towering tree trunks in the gloom. However, the sunlit canopy is full of flowers, fruits and animals. The “wealth” of the canopy lies in its diversity, (including the generation of rainclouds above & within the canopy that keep all the rainforest microenvironments moist). However, it is the little studied decomposers that keep the whole system viable. By comparison, waste management in wealthier human societies largely consists of throwing refuse in a hole in the ground. The lack of the "deconstructors" ecological niche could be undertaken by the local municipality & provide much needed employment. Metals, paper, plastics, yard waste & agricultural waste can all produce useful industrial raw materials or energy. Even straw or cornstover could easily replace trees as a high quality paper source. Old trees, as a cellulose source, are apparently as carbon positive as coal.

Terraforming & Sustainability using Kudzu & Waste (cont.)

So what could sustainability mean on a moonbase for a single person? I see a pressurized glass house, with a retractable cover, a tank with a few gallons of freshwater, some food stores, a packet of kudzu seeds , (an edible legume and is also a fast growing noxious weed) seeds of cereals and edible tubers etc. Also a chamber pot with a lid and a means of collecting the methane from human waste and a simple bunsen burner type of stove for cooking purposes with a store of liquid air for emergencies. The kudzu and other plants would generate oxygen from wastewater and carbon dioxide. The oxygen and cooked kudzu leaves and tubers would provide food and air for respiration. Condensation on the panes of the “greenhouse” could provide clean water. Problems with this system would need to include systems for reclaiming salt, though salt bushes are capable of this, and trace elements such as iodine. ; and a way of minimizing nitrous oxide emissions from the kudzu symbiotic azobacteria perhaps by having a microbial flora adjusted specifically for converting N2O to N2 or NH3, or maybe certain kinds of fungi. Corn is extremely capable of absorbing combined nitrogen. Potatoes are good at sequestering iodine and probably would make a welcome dietary change from the kudzu! “Incompatible elements” (not readily absorbed by common igneous minerals, during cooling of magma) are, however, available locally, on the moon. (phosphorus is an example) so important trace elements such as iodine may also be available.

Terraforming & Sustainability using Kudzu & Waste

Some models of sustainability: In Aug 13, 2007 I published a letter “A plan for sustainability” in C&EN news advocating waste disposal as a method of preventing global warming (the decomposing waste could be used as a carbon - neutral energy source). Accompanying my letter was a letter by Wilson M. Gulick, suggesting that a moonbase be used to study sustainability. In such a “closed system” non renewable resources would be rapidly depleted. This article got me thinking because earth based laboratories of sustainability had already been set up, most notably the biosphere in Arizona. More usefully, it was possible to buy your own biosphere for about $65. At that price one obtains a 2 inch glass seawater filled egg containing 4 visible layers, a small bubble of air, seawater with tiny shrimps swimming in it, a layer of green algae slime encrusting the sides and a brown basal layer of organic matter. The egg is nearly indefinitely sustainable, placed by a window the shrimps eat the green algae, reproduce and die. The brown layer of bacteria etc decompose the waste and dead shrimps, returning the nutrients ready for photosynthetic growth. After about 7 – 10 years the shrimps and green algae die and are replaced by a monotonous mat of blue green algae. It appears that the system is insufficiently diverse. How could understanding these systems be applied to a sustainable lunar colony? They are invaluable as they demonstrate that the brown basal layer of bacteria acts as the medium by which autotrophs obtain their food. The brown layer is not terribly well understood. It contains fermenters, oxidizers and reducing bacteria as well as probably a host of fungi and protists. The brown layer of decomposing waste & their “deconstructors” is, I believe key to the future of a lunar base and perhaps the future of our planet. However chemists are far more concerned with synthesis and biosynthesis than with decomposition. Maybe decomposition and its accompanying energy flow should be given greater inquiry.