Gaia Soil

Until recently I was (and I bet you were too) under the imperession that styrofoam was the least sustainable product created by man. In fact styrofoam has gotten such a bad wrap from environmental campaigns that I was thought it was literally only good for polluting the world and keeping my Chinese take-out food warm until it arrived at my door. I was wrong.

This past week I was working in the native plant garden of Union Square when I noticed that the soil was littered with little bits of Styrofoam. At first I was extremely discourage. Then, when I told my supervisor about this I was shocked when she informed me that in fact, styrofoam is an essential part of a new innovation in soil techonology called “Gaia soil.”

The idea of Gaia soil was created by Paul S. Mankiewicz to solve the problem of rooftop gardens being too heavy to be supported by many roofs. The significance of Gaia soil is thus two fold. It is an innovation in urban gardening because it allows less structurally sound roofs to facilitate gardens. On top of this it uses what is usually nothing more than a landfill’s dream substance, Styrofoam, by turning it into a useful material.

So how exactly how does Styrofoam become useful for green roofs? The thing about Styrofoam is that it is an extremely light material. Thus it makes what would be extremely dense and heavy soil lighter and therefore more suitable for roofs. Unfortunatley you cannot just pepper Styrofoam into your soil and throw it on your roof because Styrofoam on its own has properities that makes it repel water (hydrophobia) and thus your soil will dry out. However it can be treated so that it takes on the opposite qualities. When this happens the Styrofoam becomes a both a means of making soil lighter but also acting as a water retention agent which s important for rooftop gardens because they are often exposed to lots of wind.

I guess I should be completely honest and make it clear that you can’t simply start putting your old Styrofoam into the garden—your plants will die. Making styrofoam hydrophilic (“water-loving”) isn’t a simple process but, if done properly does make it a super useful product for green roofs. Ultimately it’s actually just crazy to think that we can make a something that is as indestructible and unsustainable as Styrofoam then turn around and use it to grow plants.

Anyways if you want to here if from a Pro here is the man himself.

Powering a Fridge with Fire?

It would seem that by living in the developed world we are inherently harming the environment. Yes, we live in cities and apartment buildings and are surrounded by infrastructure that defiantly effects our environment and probably does so negatively. But, in today’s world, we have the options to make our impact minimal. Civilizations have been moving towards better technologies for a long time because they allow us convenience and (arguably) a better quality of life. While I will be the first to admit to skepticism about the actual quality of life being improved by technology and development, there is no doubt that the lives of those in developed countries are more “comfortable.” My question is why can’t the technology that allows us the luxuries we are now accustomed to also be good for the environment. Are convenience and sustainability directly opposed?

With this in mind, I was shocked to come to the realization after learning that of the 6.9 billion people on this earth about 1.6 billion don’t have access to electricity. This means that they don’t have refrigeration something I think we all taken for granted today. Think about it for a second cause it should blow your mind. If you didn’t have refrigeration you probably wouldn’t have many of the things your buy at the grocery store. Milk, cheese, and most meat can only keep for a few days on their own which means that they probably wouldn’t be a part of your diet—they would be more hassle than anything. Condiments and any other perishables wouldn’t be available. It would be really difficult to have the diverse and healthy food options we enjoy today because everything would have to be immediately consumed.

The solution to this problem is obvious: provide electricity to all the people in the world who don’t have it. Or so I thought. While this would be nice, it would ultimately be an unsustainable solution to the problem. Instead, as I learned from Adam Grosser the solution is the absorption refrigerator, a device that doesn’t require electricity but fire—something that is common throughout the world. The device works by heating a chamber that is filled with a “working liquid” (water and ammonium) that will later condense and cool the device so that it acts as a refrigerator. This is the most basic principle so if you are interested read up on it.

I think it is clear that beyond this being a very cool innovation it is an extremely sustainable and useful tool for bringing technology and convenience to those without electricity. It is this type of invention that we as members of the first world must be striving to bring into existence. Through these inventions we can narrow the gap between the impoverished and the wealthy and help those in the world with less than ourselves an ideal I think we can all agree is important.