We wood be in trouble

In our area of the country many older homes still have coal chute openings.

Coal is plentiful in some areas of the US. In our area where coal used to be mined and shipped all over the US it was not unusual to walk the railroad tracks to find coal that had spilled over the sides of rail cars to be used in free standing coal stoves. The time frame I am referencing is the early 1960's

 

Our corn burning furnace will also burn wood or paper pellets.

It was (at the time) epa certified and is actually cleaner than my moms 70’s era gas furnace

It has technology that burns off most any pollutants

There were also external wood stoves that are epa certified , no idea what folks are using

 

If all the cars were replaced by horses, we would also be wallowing in our own muck and mire.
What was the catch phrase from the movie "Soylent Green"?
coincidently from the same year Peace was declared in Vietnam.

 

I like sitting by a campfire as well as the next fella, but I do think of trees as something more than home-heating batteries. But let's stick with that for a bit.

There are websites describing various wood species in terms of BTU (per volume) produced during combustion. US Forest Service will also tell one growth rates of various wood species in different regions. I feel sure of that. So it seems logical that someone would have put those two together. If the one exactly counterbalances the other, then all species will net the same (eventual) heat production from your woodlot.

If they do not, then you have an optimal planting choice. With wood generating new interest, it seems like a good thing to know.

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Maybe I should reveal a secret? You can use your smart phone to estimate the basal area of any forest stand. You do not even need to switch it on Actually you can to it with a finger (or another object of similar size) but it sounds cooler to use the phone.

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Or, if you forget to cut down a stand of trees, other very interesting things happen. The dead wood decaying hosts ecosystems that appear unique. The living roots and soil mycorrhizae creates what has been called 'the wood wide web' exchanging chemicals, water and information among trees (and they can be of different species). Leave the woodlot alone for long enough, and other unique ecosystems appear on branches where fallen leaves don't quite manage to fall completely, and decompose 'up there' and soils can even form. Those three are interesting, without even mentioning other things happening in the wood and living leaves.

But no time for all that eh? House is cold. Cut, chop and stack. BTU for you.

 

cider house rules

 

Global horse population is now about 60 million of which about 10 million in USA. Each one producing about 1 ton of 'stall residuals' per month, so there's that.

My usual approach is to find global population history. When was peak horse? In this case nothing quickly popped up. Please OT this thread further if that shows up. I need to gallop off elsewhere - It's New Years Day again!

 

Banana present as the current breed is also going extinct as we speak

 

I'd guess that figure '1 ton / month' probably includes residuals from stalls as well. Hay!
At solar fest at a farm in VT. a few years ago, one of the facts from the farm was that there are more solids in dehydrated pee than in dehydrated poooop. Go Figger, right? I still haven't been able to verify that yet, so I'll just say I believe it.
On that note, since the quantity of horse poooop was mentioned why not try to imagine how much human pee / poop the average person produces every month as well as how much water is used to move it out of our site and smell.
The math should be pretty easy for how much all of us produce, once the average amounts are agreed upon. Instead of a jumble of semi defined statistics, like most everything else that has been studied on a global scale for the last couple of centuries.

 

More total solids? Or more total useful fertilizer solids, such as compounds of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium? From some of tochatihu's postings in the last year or so, I suspect it is the later. Growing up on the farm/ranch and still pulling occasional work shifts there, I find it very hard to imagine that the dehydrated pee might be heavier than even just the undigested cellulose in dehydrated cow or horse poop.

 

>90% of human N and P excretion is in urine, not 'solids'. Might go the other way in horses. They occupy an inefficient middle ground as pure herbivores lacking ruminants' fancy stomach system and also lacking interesting bacteria.

One could look more closely at 60 million horses -> >700 million tons of annual solids output. I'd guess that 1/3 of that is already 'circular' in agriculture.

Humans, while smaller, are much more numerous, and possibly able to make sensible decisions about disposition of excreted nutrients. A large fraction of agricultural N&P fertilizers could be replaced by circularizing human N&P cycles.

There is a review article needing to be written about this. Sad to say I've not yet been inspired. Although the mineral Struvite provides a fascinating introduction. Maybe it could become a 'Radiolab' podcast for WNYC. They have their moments...

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Also, guano islands of 19th century. I might just get dragged into this.

 

And grosses a lot of people out ..
A lot of people are getting into advanced composting. Hot vs Cold composting, regulations of composting when products for sale are labeled Organic. The use of biochar in composting, etc.... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biochar

I still don't get exactly why human wastes are combined and treated than dumped into the nearest body of water just to get it out of site of the general public at large. see no hear no know no smelly

 

Studies have been done in ways to collect the waste for farming. I think the biggest hurdle would be in getting guys to sit down.

Another issue for the solids is that heavy metals and other undesirables gets concentrated in it.

 

The wastewater streams do "somehow" collect a fair amount of chemicals and heavy metals that are not supposed dumped into it.

I also think a number of people remain concerned about how just effectively the treatment systems disable certain pathogens, known and as yet unknown. Dumping it someplace out of sight, out of mind, may not actually be any better, but at least lets a lot more people sleep well at night.

 

Mexico “composts” sewage and spreads it on a limited number of farms. (As has been done for a while…)

Lots of consequences have occurred as a result of this practice.

When you are dealing vast quantities of sewage you are likely to have lots of really bad things in there.
Some spores require far more immense conditions to break down than even high heat composting would provide.

This is why solid waste should have never been in the sewage in the first place, much more efficient and environmentally friendly to use a proper composting toilet on site keeping the black and grey separated


Composted Humaneur being from omnivores really should not be sprayed and only belongs on golf courses and non-fruit trees.

The more smaller and simplistic the plant the greater the likelihood of contamination.


Worth noting humaneur straight from the source many times has plenty of heavy metals to start, those on some type of drug have higher loads of metals in feces . Concentrated Fluoride being a common one aluminum being another and strontium/chromium/selenium being a regional thing.
Once dehydrated and broken down the concentrations only go up.

 

Onwards into the great unknown, at least on a daily conscious level for most.
At least a decade ago a study found that high levels of mercury were found even in deep sea dweller around the galapagos. This new study calls the contamination "PFAS" or "forever chemicals" .. a few links to different content providers on this perplexing issue. At least it's perplexing to me. ymmv ......
New study finds high levels of forever chemicals in freshwater fish across US | NationofChange

Freshwater Fish Contain Harmful 'Forever Chemicals' | Smart News| Smithsonian Magazine

Study: High Levels of 'Forever Chemicals' in Freshwater Fish

these links worked well for me, if anyone has issues with the link please comment, thanks

 

Agree completely. Mass use of human waste is a tricky thing with many potential consequences.
Health: Environmental Public Health: Diseases Involving Sewage


On another note I was listening to a radio show over the weekend and they were talking about the byproducts of using fire and impact to civilization of fire - they argued there was no more important discovery than how to create fire. Try and think of an energy source that doesn't use fire or some variant to create energy. People will immediately say hydroelectric - but how are all the components of this system and its distribution network manufactured - same for wind power and solar electric components.

An interesting discussion - where would the human race be without fire? Animals would be just fine - humans maybe not so fine.

Use of fire ties in with wood coal etc. in my simple mind.