You can find out what is happening with the vote at the following web address:

Contra Costa County Election Results

Measure C Results Specifically

Did you know that here in the United States, we consume oil at a rate of 20 billion barrels per day? Let me re-assure you, the billion is not a mistake, we use 20 billion barrels a day and once the oil is gone, it's gone.

When we extract it, we harm the Earth's delicate ecosystems and risk disasters like the one at hand.

When we burn it, we pollute our air, ocean, and land. It gives off CO2, and contributes to global warming.

We use excessive amounts of electricity, which requires the burning of fossil fuels, when solar, wind, and geothermal energy is just as realistic.

We rely on oil to mass-produce food, use it for fertilizer and pesticides, and then to deliver it across the country when localized, small-scale, organic agriculture is a sustainable alternative for a lot of it.

All these smaller steps and choices we make every day add up. We need to start thinking in terms of avoiding oil and becoming more sustainable.

Don't feel guilty about what you haven't done, start focusing on making better choices and begin feeling good about it right away.

By the way, the Gulf of Mexico resource we were trying to tap has predictably enough oil to rival the 260 billion barrels of oil reserves Saudi Arabia currently claims to have. That means we have devastated the Gulf and sent environmental ripples around the world for 13 days worth of oil at our current consumption rate.

I'm sure by now we have all thought: Why isn't BP or another organization using oil sucking tankers like were used in the Persian gulf in 1993?

There are currently 3 reasons according to Admiral Thad Allen.

1. The tankers are specially modified for the job and currently there are not any in operation with the modification. This means it is not an option right now.

2. The modifications create stability issues and the environment is very different than that of the 1993 situation.

3. Currently there are many other vessels in the immediate area and this presents more complication and potential for problems.

While I continue to be frustrated by the situation it is also a small comfort to know why we have not taken certain actions. However, I want to see a lot more done and quickly. The ripple effect of this on the environment and our lives is yet to be seen and the less impact, the better. This means a quick solution is needed.

From the article:

Self-healing "smart building materials" have the potential to reduce structure repair costs, lower cement-production carbon emissions and even save lives. One barrier that has kept these materials from being commercialized, however, is their potentially labor-intensive and thus expensive production process. Recently, an engineering student from the University of Rhode Island (URI) announced that she has developed a self-healing concrete that would be inexpensive to produce.

Michelle Pelletier, collaborating with URI Chemical Engineering Professor Arijit Bose, created a concrete matrix that was embedded with a micro-encapsulated sodium silicate healing agent. When cracks formed in the concrete, the capsules ruptured and released the agent into the adjacent area. The sodium silicate reacted with the calcium hydroxide already present in the concrete, and formed a calcium-silica-hydrate gel that healed the cracks and blocked the concrete's pores. The gel hardened in about one week.

When Pelletier's concrete was stress-tested to the point of almost breaking, it proceeded to recover 26% of its original strength. By contrast, conventional concrete only recovers 10%.

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Iceland's energy mix has the highest share of renewables of any country, giving it the lowest emissions intensity of any developed nation that doesn't use nuclear power. And Reykjavik Energy plays a very important role in this. "In a nutshell, Reykjavik Energy provides electricity, geothermal water for heating, and cold water for consumption to its customers," says Eirikur Hjalmarsson, CPO - Management Committee. "We also harness hot water from geothermal fields within Reykjavík itself and distribute it to our customers."

Reykjavik Energy, he says, operates geothermal plants at Hellisheiði and Nesjavellir, where it heats groundwater and distributes it to the district heating; it also produces electricity by using geothermal, high-pressure steam at those same plants.

Maybe we should follow their lead.

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