Healing Earth News: D.C. School Garden, Mexico's Popo Volcano & Canada's Wind Power [1]
(editor's note: Today we'll celebrate a school garden in D.C., learn more about safety and early detection from the healing rumblings of Mexico's "Popo" volcano, and then examine energy storage innovations in the fast-growing Canadian wind power movement. Finally, I'll close with an Oliver Shanti video titled, "Medicine Power".
Rather than become disheartened by the negative news of mainstream media, I challenge you to look deeper -to find healing earth heroes in your own community. There are people all over this beautiful jewel we call Gaia working every day to correct the damage we have done. They are doing the physical clean up work, or putting the intellectual thought into solving these problems. Please join me in sending them all energies of love and support.
~All my Love, Boo)
A School Garden Blooms for Earth Day
Earth Day Network, in partnership with Wells Fargo [2], hosted a community work day at our newest venture – a school garden at the Yu Ying Public Charter School [3] in Northeast, DC.
Overall, (they) constructed 10 raised beds and filled them with organic soil [4] for successive planting of vegetables and some fruits in the coming days and weeks ahead.
Furthermore, (they) also cleared several large piles of trash and debris while at the same time spreading woodchips [5] to landscape the area. But fruits and vegetables aren’t the only thing that is growing at Yu Ying, (they) also constructed a native garden [6] with azaleas (in peak bloom right now! [7]) encircling it for the border. Finally, (they) built a multi-purpose stage that will function as the centerpiece for the garden’s teaching and learning area (learn how to make your own here [8]!).
Volcanologist Can Discuss Mexico’s Rumbling Popocatepetl Volcano [10]
Michael Sheridan, University at Buffalo professor emeritus of geology, can discuss Mexico’s Popocatepetl volcano, which has entered a heightened phase of activity.
Sheridan has been studying Popocatepetl for years. After the volcano’s last significant eruption, in December 2000, he and a team of researchers developed a map showing which communities around the volcano could be threatened by mud flows during a major event.
Sheridan said that such a large event would "give distinctive precursor signals prior to an eruption that the civil protection authorities and scientists in the region could detect."
http://www.newswise.com/articles/ub-volcanologist-can-discuss-mexico-s-rumbling-popocatepetl-volcano [10]
Ryerson’s Centre for Urban Energy Develops System to Harness and Control Wind Power [11]
Canada is gathering more of its energy supply from green and renewable energy sources, including wind. While wind energy is sustainable and easily captured, the intermittent nature of this power source creates a number of challenges for storing and controlling it. New research at Ryerson University is examining the capabilities and uses of flywheel technology to harness and control wind power’s intermittency.
“A flywheel stores energy like a battery, but in kinetic form. Whenever you need it, is right there in a matter of milliseconds,” says Masteri. “The efficiency and capacity of this new flywheel is incomparable. This will change energy storage completely.” (Kamran Masteri Farahani, a Masters of Applied Science student in electrical engineering at Ryerson).
Toronto Hydro, which has also helped fund the research, is investigating ways to implement the flywheel system for solar energy applications.