Climate report understates threat

[linuxcbon]

Ants are the biggest single?? producer of CO2, just because there are so many throughout the World

Ants are very numerous but don't emit enough CO2 to be noticeable.
That's even the contrary : ants can slow down the global warming by capturing CO2.

Using ants to help capture CO2 and help fight global warming stems from a study Dorn published recently in Geology linking ants to the acceleration of natural carbon dioxide absorption in rock by up to 335 times, compared with absorption in ant-free areas.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/arti ... l-warming/

The biggest CO2 emitters are well known : the humans.

Human activities emit about 29 billion tons of carbon dioxide per year, while volcanoes emit between 0.2 and 0.3 billion tons..
Burning fossil fuels such as coal, petroleum, and natural gas is the leading cause of increased anthropogenic CO2;

World's richest 10% produce half of global carbon emissions, says Oxfam

But poorest half of world’s people contribute to just 10% of emissions, says British charity as negotiators work on UN climate change deal in Paris

The report said that an average person among the richest one percent emits 175 times more carbon than his or her counterpart among the bottom 10%.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... says-oxfam

[foxpup]

Ants are the biggest single?? producer of CO2, just because there are so many throughout the World

Now I feel silly I did not think hard enough.

[Burn_IT]

one of the newer green initiatives in the west is to process and use human waste to fertilise crops.
Many rural sewage farms sell their processed waste to farmers.

[linuxcbon]

one of the newer green initiatives in the west is to process and use human waste to fertilise crops.
Many rural sewage farms sell their processed waste to farmers.

Yes we do that in France too and in many big cities too. The process called "compostage" is to put the food waste into some special bin, and the food waste will break down into fertilizer for crops. Magical.
Some people do it themselves in a small bin for their garden, and some cities do it with a big bin for hundreds of people. They even do it in Paris

For example :
http://www.gammvert.fr/conseils/conseil ... e-realiser

[greengeek]

Human waste = compostage ? Maybe something lost in translation.

[ITSMERSH]

Some people do it themselves in a small bin for their garden, and some cities do it with a big bin for hundreds of people. They even do it in Paris

My Grandma did this during her whole life. She had two gardens where one was mainly for the chicken, goose and pigs. The pigs usually were feed with lots of the human food that haven't been eating by all our relatives.

So, my grandma was collecting food (bread, potatoes, salads etc) at the relatives and friends. I can't recall a single bread having found its way into the litter, when I was a child.

[linuxcbon]

My Grandma did this during her whole life. She had two gardens where one was mainly for the chicken, goose and pigs. The pigs usually were feed with lots of the human food that haven't been eating by all our relatives.

So, my grandma was collecting food (bread, potatoes, salads etc) at the relatives and friends. I can't recall a single bread having found its way into the litter, when I was a child.

Germans have always been ecological and in advance in protecting the nature. We should really all imitate them.
For example, in France, we care much less about the nature, we have so much pesticides all around, they are killing bees by billions. Recycling is not everywhere in France and many people dont care about recycling. We are not strict in our environment protection : most of the rivers and lakes are polluted in France, you cannot swim in them, it's too dangerous. They have very few fishes, all dead by pesticides. etc etc

[musher0]

Human waste = compostage ? Maybe something lost in translation.

Not by itself, silly! It needs to be processed.
The actual FR->EN translation is "composting".

BFN.

[greengeek]

Human waste = compostage ? Maybe something lost in translation.

Not by itself, silly! It needs to be processed.
The actual FR->EN translation is "composting".

BFN.

so please clarify - are they talking about putting human waste (processed or not...) on their gardens?

[ITSMERSH]

Just to make sure:

- human waste

doesn't mean:

- gear of your motorcycle

[greengeek]

I had no idea this practice was widespread in France. Indeed I thought that practice died out when we learned about prion disease.

No wonder Chanel number 5 smells so unpleasant. But at least it's better than Chanel number two's.

[musher0]

I had no idea this practice was widespread in France. Indeed I thought that practice died out when we learned about prion disease.

No wonder Chanel number 5 smells so unpleasant. But at least it's better than Chanel number two's.

It's widespread in French Canada as well. And in other parts of the world.

Look up "how widespread is composting in the world" and "how
widespread is composting in new zealand" in duckduckgo.

Next time do your own research before writing platitudes about any race?
(Geez.)

BFN.

[greengeek]

Look up "how widespread is composting in the world" and "how widespread is composting in new zealand" in duckduckgo.
.

Are you serious? Composting is the practice of collecting organic matter and letting nature's organisms break it down.

Human waste does not belong in compost!!

Is this a language issue or have you continentals gone mad?

Trust me - no sane person in New Zealand puts human waste on their garden !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[musher0]

If New-Zealanders are sensitive natures, that's fine, but it is being done:
https://www.motherearthnews.com/organic ... zmgz11zrog
Processed properly, it makes very good compost, apparently.

[Burn_IT]

I have always had a compost heap where we put green waste (left over food etc.), but we were talking about the solid human waste that is excreted.
As I said, our local sewerage farm treats both solid and liquid waste and sells the results to farmers as fertilizer.

[linuxcbon]

Are you serious? Composting is the practice of collecting organic matter and letting nature's organisms break it down.

Human waste does not belong in compost!!

Is this a language issue or have you continentals gone mad?

Trust me - no sane person in New Zealand puts human waste on their garden !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's the food waste, the rests of the food eaten by humans.
It's called "composting" in english and you dont put anything in it, it must be SORTED.

Keep this out!
Certain things should never be placed in your bin.
Bones
Bread
Cans
Cat litter
Cigarette ends
Cling film
Coal ash
Crisp packets
Dairy products
Disposable nappies
Dog faeces
Dog food
Drink cartons
Meat and fish scraps
Olive oil
Plastic bags
Plastic bottles
Soiled tissues

https://www.recyclenow.com/reduce-waste ... ng-compost

[foxpup]

Human waste does not belong in compost!!

Here in Belgium, in the time before fertilizers, human waste was collected in a deep pitch under the WC. This was emptied and put on the land as fertilizer at the right time.
Nowadays the toilet goes to the sewer goes to the water treatment plant and the 'harvest' there goes on the land.

We still have a problem with all the shit, human or not, that is not collected through the sewers. The old method has disappeared for human waste, for animal waste it is still used, but there is too much of it. And still we are using fertilizers as well!

For composting, as a rule only waste of plant eters goes on the compost heap, nothing from meat eaters (cats, dogs, etc.) nor omnivores like humans.
But also grass is excluded, or citrus fruit, or egg shells. The reason is not that it will not be processed in the heap, but that it is processed slower or may even rot instead, attracting rats, maybe desease.
So these things should be in a smaller portion on the compost heap, and nicely distributed. I have a seperate heap for grass only. So keaping things separate is also a good way to do: a compost heap, a grass heap, a cesspit.
If all is well, if the compost master has cooked well, a compost heap should smell nice like soil or dirt and contain lots of red worms.
A grass heap is similar. A cess pit ... that's just shit.

.

[Sylvander]

1. Right now I have:
a. A one-cubic-yard compost bin filled with horse manure [cost £25] last summer.
I'll use it this year as a mulch on my borders to top-up last years mulch.

b. A large brown wheelie-bin supplied by the council for garden coarse compost-able waste.
I probably won't bother composting this myself, but give it to the council to compost.
Too coarse for easy composting; not sure my mower is powerful enough to shred it.

c. A heap at the bottom of my rear garden made of lawn-grass cuttings->[green/nitrogen] and fallen autumn tree leaves->[brown/carbon].
Their is an ideal ratio of carbon to nitrogen [35 to 1 ?]
This takes about a year to make excellent cold-compost.
I use a 1/2 inch riddle on it when composted, then dig the fine stuff into the rear borders, use the coarse stuff that doesn't go through the riddle as a mulch around the strawberries [instead of straw].
This tends to produce large mushrooms, which I don't dare eat.

2. I would use human urine on compost, except it's too much of a fiddle, and there isn't enough to make it worthwhile.
Apparently horses produce HUGE quantities of urine, which is included in their manure.
Cow manure is better than horse manure because the digestive process of cows is so much more efficient so as to destroy weed seeds, and horses don't.
Hot-composting of horse-manure will kill the weed-seed.
Seems to be working for me anyway.

3. I would never use the faeces of meat-eaters [humans, dogs, cats] in the soil or compost heap.

[foxpup]

Hello Sylvander
You must have a large fertile garden!
What do you do with Out house leftovers from vegetables? Do you have a separate compost bin?

[greengeek]

Glad to see proper composting is still alive and well - maybe it deserves a thread of it's own (including pictures!)

I'm horrified that anyone might consider using human waste though...

Here are the rues I was taught for composting:


- Never include human faeces in compost (risk of prion disease from meat eaters)

- Be aware of the high risk of contracting Tetanus from horse faeces. Better to use sheep or cow waste as they don't harbour tetanus.

- Never use waste processed by a sewer reticulation plant. It's full of prions, heavy metals, paint, oils, drugs, hormones, etc etc. There's a film somewhere called "Biosludged" that discusses the analysis of such wastes.

As foxpup said, be selective what goes into compost. No onion skins, citrus peel, garlic, meat, etc

Some of the egg shells we dry out and grind to a fine dust for inclusion in the dog stew. My wife found a recipe that helps ageing dogs to maintain healthy kidneys. Not sure what the egg shells actually do but it really extends the dog's longevity and health. Far far better than shop bought dog roll.

We have a "worm farm" to process some of our food waste. We store the worm wee in red wine bottles and then distribute it to family and friends. Really must get better labels to make sure people know whats in the bottles...