Perpetual Innovation

Category: economic development

  • Phosphate World: New golf resort is out of the ordinary for Florida

    New golf resort is out of the ordinary for Florida:

    This is a great case of making lemon-aid from your excess lemons. This is a very interesting way to reclaim the past mine areas and fully benefit from the hills and water hazards.

    The open mining for phosphate in Florida has been an open eye sore to the tortured land in mid Florida. Huge dykes have been built up to block the view of the open pit mines. The water quality in the man-made lakes has generally been pretty poor.

    Florida is one of the largest Phosphate producers of the world. And the need for food to serve a hungry 7B+ population requires fertilizer, and lots of it.

    Phosphate (from mines) is a depletable resource, i.e., non-renewable. For decades the story was circulated that there were only about 25 years left of phosphate mining in Florida. See the Phosphate Primer for Florida. The actual number may be more like 300 years. But unrestrained development (sub-suburbs) are probably far more of a restriction than any environmental concerns.

    Peak Phosphorus production in the work may actually arrive by 2030, maybe sooner. It seems like about 160M metric tons might be about the limit. However, phosphorus from phosphate mines, does not disappear from existence, like the burning of oil, gas and coal. It goes into the farm land, into the plants, and run-off goes everywhere (streams, rivers, oceans). The run-off causes its own set of ecological problems (disasters).

    In 2013, the Army Corp of Engineers came up with a rather rosy study related to 4 new mines proposed. An article discussing the study in the Bradenton Herald is here. On of the quotes on an economic value were: “And there would be 6,340 more jobs because of the mines, and $29.1 billion in value added to the area’s economy.”


    Read more here: http://www.bradenton.com/2013/05/12/4522121/phosphate-mining-damages-environment.html#storylink=cpy”

    The general summary of the study was that the economic benefits far exceed the ecological impacts, which were many. The funding for the report actually came from the phosphate miners. A HeraldTribune article discusses the critics view, including this:

    “Although the Army Corps put its name on the report, it was developed by CH2M Hill, under a third-party contract funded by Mosaic and CF Industries — the same mining companies seeking permits from the Corps.“

    Here’s what the Sierra Club has to say about Phosphate Mining in Florida… Summary of lots of sources of info.

    Check out the role of Patents in the Phosphate world over at ipzine.blogspot.com.

    So, here’s food for though, as we contemplate food for a hungry world…

    Kinda makes you wonder, will we have a new theme park springing up in Florida: Phosphate World?

    ‘via Blog this’

  • How China’s economy is choking on smog | Talking Numbers – Yahoo Finance

    How China’s economy is choking on smog | Talking Numbers – Yahoo Finance:

    Imagine your favorite city closed down because of the weather, maybe a blizzard… Many of China’s cities can have the same problem, but it is because of smog pollution.

    This is a country that burns more coal than the rest of the world, combined.

    Nice thing is that they share this pollution with their neighbors.

    Plus the burning of coal is a gigantic producer of CO2 emissions.

    At what point does this pollution start to curb the 7% economic growth that the company continues to experience?  Certainly down from decades of more than 10% growth, but it is hard to grow with the traffic congestion and pollution slowing down ad periodically stopping the economy.

    Things that are not sustainable, like rapid growth, have a way of producing their own remedy.

    ‘via Blog this’

  • Why Won't Yahoo! Let Employees Work From Home? – Businessweek

    Why Won’t Yahoo! Let Employees Work From Home? – Businessweek:

    Boy Mayer is gonna cause a lot of shake here with the everyone-has-to-travel-to-work policy.

    Apparently (Today Show) she now as a nursery set up next door to her office for her new convenience. That helps new parents, maybe, but not the ones with kids in school or those people who live a longer way from the office.

    But Mayer is shaking it up.

    There has long been the debate about the down side of work-at-home (WAH). And a tech leader like Yahoo  might just be a place to face-to-face interaction that is lost from WAH.

    But, I fear that making everyone drive to work is a major setback to telecommuting efforts that are so very beneficial to the efforts of sustainability.

    Studies show that the true costs of telecommuting are far closer to $40,000 per year than to the $5,000 cost of gas. Most of that savings goes to the employer. Closer to $45,000 if you want to include the less-tangible costs of externalities such as infrastructure and greenhouse gases (GHGs).

    Key words:  WAH, telecommuting. Work-at-home, sustainability, carbon footprint, GHG, teleworking, remote working, time shifting.
    First posted at www.SustainZine.com. Repeated here.
    ‘via Blog this’

  • Bill Gates Helps Reinvent the Toilet – Earth911.com – Poo Power

    Bill Gates Helps Reinvent the Toilet – Earth911.com:

    I know what you’re thinking, when you contemplate the power of poo. You’re thinking about Winnie the Pooh. Right.  “You can’t stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.” Winnie famously said… Talking about going out and making a difference.

    Apparently the same can be said for poo. We need to take new and better toilets to the masses of people, 2.5B or so, that do not have clean sanitation. And you use that same poop and pee-power toilet to generate  poop and pee-power. Something you would want to call Poop-Pee Power, I’m sure.

    Processing it and storing the “fuel” (methane?) can then be used for power. Fuel cell for on demand, when needed,no moving parts, power seems logical. A requirement is that the final outputs must be power and hydrogen. Bill Gates says in the press release related to the challenge/competition:

    “Imagine what’s possible if we continue to collaborate, stimulate new investment in this sector, and apply our ingenuity in the years ahead, . . . Many of these innovations will not only revolutionize sanitation in the developing world, but also help transform our dependence on traditional flush toilets in wealthy nations.”

    Innovation such as this will bring sanitation, health and power to poor and unclean masses.

    No crappy jokes here. (Well, maybe a few.)

    This is a great idea, that’s a HEAD of its time — or maybe a little BEHIND the times.

    We all really should have done something like this a LONG time ago.
    And that’s the stinking true of it.

    “Innovative solutions change people’s lives for the better,” said foundation Co-chair Bill Gates. “If we apply creative thinking to everyday challenges, such as dealing with human waste, we can fix some of the world’s toughest problems.”

    By the world’s toughest problems, do you think that Bill thinks we can apply some of such solutions to politics? It seems that PolitiPoo should be especially high-octane and extremely combustible. !:-)

    The trick seems to be keeping it out of the fan long enough to harness PolitiPoo power.

    ‘via Blog this’

  • IP Creates Jobs for America | BIOtechNow

    IP Creates Jobs for America | BIOtechNow: “In May, the Global Intellectual Property Center (GIPC) was proud to unveil the results of our state intellectual property (IP) jobs research, which has been a year in the making. The study, IP Creates Jobs for America, provides real, tangible evidence that the economic benefits of IP are broad and far-reaching.”

    Go here for the original GIPC report and the interactive US Map.

    Key points related to IP Job creation and value generation:

    • Jobs created: 914k
    • Output: $75B
    • Exports: 75.3%
    • Avg Wage: $44k

    Interesting is the number of IP jobs created in some state. Of course, CA, FL, NY, MA and TX. But the Great Lakes area has a LOT of innovation as well.

    This is some really great information for those who are IP proponents! (And those who question the value of IP to have more to think about.)

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