Free Republic

We could be producing concrete that's 30 percent stronger by processing and adding charred coffee grounds to the mix, researchers in Australia have discovered. Their new recipe could solve multiple problems at the same time. Every year the world produces a staggering 10 billion kilograms of coffee waste globally. Most ends up in landfills. "The disposal of organic waste poses an environmental challenge as it emits large amounts of greenhouse gases including methane and carbon dioxide, which contribute to climate change," explains RMIT University engineer Rajeev Roychand. With a booming construction market globally, there's also an ever increasing demand for...

At a red-brick factory in the German port city of Hamburg, cocoa bean shells go in one end, and out the other comes an amazing black powder with the potential to counter climate change. The substance, dubbed biochar, is produced by heating the cocoa husks in an oxygen-free room to 600 degrees Celsius (1,112 Fahrenheit). The process locks in greenhouse gases and the final product can be used as a fertilizer, or as an ingredient in the production of "green" concrete. While the biochar industry is still in its infancy, the technology offers a novel way to remove carbon from...

Full Header: ICYMI: America's Biggest Green Energy Con Artist Once Honored By Clinton Foundation Gets 2.5 Years In Prison In honor of Earth Day tomorrow, let's look at a company that was once honored by the Clinton Global Initiative for its dedication to stopping global warming before it was discovered the leaders of the business were actually fleecing investors for more than $54 million in an elaborate Ponzi scheme. More recently earlier this month, one of the chief architects of this scam was sentenced 2.5 years in prison, five years parole, and must repay every dollar stolen from gullible financial...

Of the $54 million believed to have been invested in Mantria, $17 million was returned to early investors to perpetuate the Ponzi scheme and make later investors believe huge profits could be had. By the time the Securities Exchange Commission shut down Mantria in 2009, just $790,000 remained from the other $37 million. In addition to the sheer size of the scam, the reach that Wragg and Knorr achieved in a few short years out of college remains hard to fathom. Former President Bill Clinton personally honored their now disgraced work in a ceremony for the Clinton Global Initiative in...

Good morning, FRiends, fellow gardeners, and yet-to-be gardeners!Thanks go out to all that participated in the thread last week. Beautiful photos were posted, and info was shared that will make big differences in the gardening lives of our members.If you can ... please remember to add keywords that will make our threads more useful when searched. I think that I was the only one that added keywords as the thread progressed. My thoughts and prayers are with everyone that needs a good rain. Drought is an awful situation. I am off to the back end of the yard to...

ST. LOUIS -- The search for El Dorado in the Amazonian rainforest might not have yielded pots of gold, but it has led to unearthing a different type of gold mine: some of the globe's richest soil that can transform poor soil into highly fertile ground. That's not all. Scientists have a method to reproduce this soil -- known as terra preta, or Amazonian dark earths -- and say it can pull substantial amounts of carbon out of the increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere, helping to prevent global warming. That's because terra preta is loaded with...