Blog - Page 8 of 23 - Fossil Free Around the World

August 19, 2023August 19, 2023

Upcycle, yes you can

We make about 2 billion tonnes of waste every year. That is too much for Mother Earth.

“We” are mainly the consumers, the Western society. Including China, being our workshop.

A small part of the waste, we take care for ourselves, to recycling, incinerators or landfill. The big chunk ends up in the poor countries, like Bangla Desh, parts of India. It comes there with big ships and even the ships themselves are disassembled overthere. Check here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYb3wa7V5Bk to a ship beaching to its graveyard or here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRrbYRE4JSA for the background.

What they do is some reuse and recycling. They burn the rest. But not in high temperature incinerators. It is just a fire, so that creates toxic emissions, like dioxines and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. The pollution comes in the air, water and soil and it creates cancer, lung deseases and other slow ways of dying.

The mantra

What can we do against it. First the mantra:

Rethink if you need it,
Refuse if you doubt still.
Reduce if you need less,
Reuse if you can see life in it,

Recycling is the option when you don’t see life in it. But please realize that in general recycling is environmentally and economically a losers game. Because it takes a lot of work, energy and costs and it has environmental impact. Think of glass bottles, or steel. It is often downcycling; you can only make less quality products out of it.

If it is not even worth recycling, then the process of care starts. This waste treatment will be unhealthy or very unhealthy. Will have a big environmental impact or a very big one. See above.

*Recycling is better than only the landfill, but it gives a serious footprint of work, gas, oil, money and environmental impact.*

Reuse what you have

You have stuff and want to get rid of it? Reusing can be a beautiful thing.

Perhaps you can repair it. Call or email the vendor and simply ask where to repair it. Nowadays you can see a product repair as your right, or the inherent right of any product. So go for it. You can feel cheated if the vendor did not organize this care. Such care is called ‘product stewardship’ and it started already in the eighties of the last century as a normal element of any quality company..

You can sell it, even when it is broken, through second hand websites. If you take some time for pictures and you have some patience, most of the things will sell itself.

Its second life is often its last life. Mostly the reuse is a form of downcycling. An old TV casing ends up as a planter, old oil ends up in a combustion engine.

*This old canoe ended up as a planter, and this old drain pipe will contain some sorts of salad soon. A beautiful last resort.*

Creativity for some upcycling!

The challenge is to reuse an old product and give it a better life. A more valuable life. More value – yes, it feels like you are god. You have to be creative, think out-of-the-box. It has nothing to do with money, in contrary.
Here under a simple example from Bocas del Toro. The 10 dollar for a good dust can has already been given away, so what to do? From a simple plastic oil canister, you can make two of these dust cans. This is real upcycling!

*An old throw away can is upcycled to a broom dust can.*

And ladies, here is a movie with a bunch of examples to upcycle your old dresses to fresh one-of-a-kind designs you can show off with.

August 12, 2023August 12, 2023

The Economy of Enough

Since the late 20^th century the marketing of products shifted. First the demand was the leading question. But later, the question in the Marketing Departments was: can we create demand? Yes, they can.

Think of the cars for the middle class in the 1970, like the Volkswagen Golf. Now, the volume of this Golf, still car for the middle class, is 1,5 times bigger. Meanwhile, the average family has dropped with one person, so numerically we could do with even a smaller car. A Smart ForFour would actually be more appropriate to the actual demand. In that car the room in the back is small, but what does it matter? Since your children of 18 and over will take their own transport, there will only be small children in on the back seat.

The only thing that you need the bigger car for, is to transport all the other redundant stuff you bought and has filled your attic to its ceiling and that needs to go to a second hand shop. Or a recycling center, or what the heck, to the waste site. As long as you get rid of it.

The current Volkswagen Golf is much bigger than its predecessor of 1970. But there are less people and stuff to be transported. Why bigger then? Because you are continuously told and shown that you need it and like it better.

How come?

All that stuff, it is your problem, but it is not your fault. Now, the marketing is that refined, that it influences your life without you even knowing it. The basics: In 2000 you looked for something on the internet and you got advertisements about it on your screen. But marketeers, engineers, statisticians, psychologists and ergonomists learned more. Now, if you are on platforms like Facebook, programmes analyse your data and the results go to advertisers. These results are that good that you just ‘discover’ that you can need these products.

Checking the checkbox to authorize Whatsapp to look into your address book, it will download the addresses of you and your friends and family members. Same with your pictures, film, anything. This way they chart out all your needs in a great network. The clicks you make are registered to influence you by ergonomic engineering. Designers make screens containing subtle information that makes you buy more stuff, or a bigger car.

In stead of the old fashioned customer, you have changed into a target. These designers, engineers, the Zuckerbergs of this world, are simply too smart. You can’t beat these professionals. When you get aware of them, they have beaten you already.

How do we notice this?

You don’t notice it when you are in it. But we sailors do notice it when for a long time at sea. There is no internet. You suddenly don’t get these incentives anymore. You are just happy. It makes you suddenly change. They don’t have the need -or urge- to drink their afternoon beer anymore, or to drink any alcohol at all. They get stronger, healthier, loose overweight, et cetera.

*When you sail and see land from this distance -or you see no land at all- you are content just as it is. There is a complete lack of incentives to need stuff and buy stuff.*

How to stop it?

But once they step from board and get to their old life at home, back in the ‘machinery’, they return quickly in the process of consumerism. They sometimes tell sadly that they should not live such consuming life again and they want to go back but can’t find a way out because they say they have too many ties, like a mortgage, a car, et cetera.
That car is big, the mortgage is for a house with 4 bedrooms for just 2 persons.

You can stop the process by questioning:

Why buy stuff anyway?
Do you need it? Do you need it directly when you see it, or can it wait a while?
Where do you leave it after use?
Get it second hand? Or repair the old one?

To avoid the marketing, you:

Use duckduckgo https://duckduckgo.com/install instead of google as your search machine.
Cut with Metaverse products, like Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp. You will notice that they made it hard to cut these lines; the opposite of downloading and starting it.
Use Signal https://signal.org/download/ instead of Whatsapp. This is also nicer to your friends and family, who never wanted to give up their privacy since you clicked the checkbox to give Metaverse access to their addresses.
Use Jit.si https://jitsi.org/downloads/ instead of Zoom or Teams.
Use Open Office https://www.openoffice.org/download/ instead of Microsoft or Apple products.
Go shopping with a shopping list, so buy what you really need.

Now, even the marketeers lose the ties, you will feel more freedom of choice and you buy stuff – thingies, a car, a house, a boat, that really suits you.

Side effect: you spend less money.

August 5, 2023August 5, 2023

Hi I am Kathryn

Hello readers! I am Kathryn. A new crew member on the Ya.

I arrived yesterday from the UK by air with the flights adding up to a carbon footprint of 2 tonnes of CO2. (Thanks to myclimate.org for the use of the CO2 flight calculator.)

Trying to quantify that… it is the equivalent to the saving you make in a whole year by moving from a diesel car to an electric one. Source un.org.

I am here to participate in a project that is an advocate for sustainable sailing, work with Peter and Fossil Free Around the World project to promote a viable alternative to CO2 intensive air travel. It is through prototypes and exploration that we will discover them.

How did I end up here in Panama?

Well I am 50 this year and only really started my sailing journey when I saw the truly inspiring documentary Maidentrip (2013) in which the 14 year-old Laura Dekker sets out on a voyage in pursuit of her dream to become the youngest person ever to sail around the world alone. Whilst watching it on a New Years Day, full of the sort of promise making gusto that a new year brings, I registered on an RYA Day Skipper Course there after the film ended. It was 3 years before I actually got to sail a boat.

2020 and just as the pandemic rules eased I managed to do two weeks training and earnt my Day Skipper Practical in Greece and a year later sailed with a crew for a week again in Greece. I loved it. The freedom to sail around the islands and see remote coves and places was fantastic.

Now in 2023 I was looking for a new adventure and a friend suggested looking on social media. The majority of opportunities were not really my thing – hostess on a super yacht… not only did it all seem quite how can I put it… young hot females serving the food and males dealing with repairs it all seemed such a young gap year crew thing.

Then I saw the Ya! I emailed and Peter followed up with a number of calls on Jitsi (similar to Zoom but it respects your privacy and it also is able to work on low data services. Just if you are interested in the details of such things.) After vetting a number of candidates Peter messaged me with the news that I was welcome to join the boat for this next stage in Panama and the East Pacific.

A chaotic few weeks followed for me involving finding cat sitters, calling on friends for help and a fundraising frenzy on eBay. Not only that but a number of conversations with myself about my sanity and decision making capabilities. This culminated in my exit via Terminal 2 at Heathrow on the August Super Moon.

It has been such a life affirming experience so far. Overcoming so many circumstances to make this happen. I am inspired by the many environmental projects going on around the islands here. It is a privilege to be part of the project.

I want to share some photos from a 24 hour period… At one point I was emptying space in a garage I rent in Hackney to fit more things in as I got my life in order… 30 random gold letters reclaimed from the street some time ago and then some images as I woke two sleeps later for the beautiful marina here.

I got left over letters, and put them next to my garage. The local artist in Hackney started reusing the letters in artwork words. Later children came and took the first letter of there name. 90% reused, everybody happy.

Wherever you are in your life right now remember not to take it for granted, it is precious and circumstances are just that. Something to be overcome.

As Winston Churchill said, ”Never, never, never… never give up”.

Hustle and bustle in London-Heathrow and Denver Airport with papers, security, tickets and all, and finally entering Bocas Airport with a local musician singing about making your dreams come true.

July 29, 2023August 2, 2023

What to do with broken umbrellas

It’s the rainy season in Panama. Umbrellas are everywhere. When it rains, you see the ones that work. When it doesn’t, you see the ones that don’t work anymore.

They come in all kinds of lovely colors and paterns. And, the fabric is usually still good even when the umbrella no longer works. So, let’s see want we can do with them!

First, we take it apart. It’s easy to do. Just a basic pocket knife will do. You take the metal parts that bind the cloth to the frame apart and work your way around. That’s enough. After that, you can take it off it’s frame and there it is. The original idea was to turn it into a simpel bag. We found an instruction video

how to reuse your old umbrella

But to start with, without any work, you have a mini-poncho for your backpack. In the pooring rain, this came in really handy.

you make your backpack poncho in a wink of the eye

After a little research, we found several more ways to turn broken umbrellas into fun and useful items. Not just for the cloth, but also for the frame and even for the handle! How about an umbrella skeleton photo mobile, a hanging umbrella lamp, an umbrella frame plant stand, an umbrella cloche (especially for see-through umbrellas), skirts (not for see-through umbrella’s) and even a doggy rain coat!

Www.diys.com

July 22, 2023July 22, 2023

Ecoclipper

Our seas bear a new sustainable cargo vessel, the Tukker. It is an Ecoclipper. This sailing vessel is seriously bigger than the first sailing cargo ship of this century, the Tres Hombres. Instead of wood, the skin and construction are made from steel. She is rigged with three masts, with a lot of sails. Check the picture, she’s looking gorgeous with her light wind sails up, isn’t she?

The Tukker with cargo on her way on the North Sea

The ports of call

The shipping company of the Ecoclipper has built up a network of agencies and loaders. The Tukker sails a route to and from a number of ports, to get and deliver the cargo. Wine, chocolate, herbs, whatever. She holds a 70 – 80 tons cargo.

*The ports the Tukker will ship cargo to and from.*

Also some passengers – be part of it!

Just like on the old-fashioned cargo ships, where you could get a bunk bed, there is also some place on the Tukker to sail along. Every sailed on a sailing ship? No sudden heavy motions, like on a cargo ship running on an engine. The Tukker takes wind and waves in a natural way. And, no pollution, so you save the air, the oceans.

Just check the schedule on the site www.ecoclipper.org and see if there is place.

There is place for trainees – be part of it!

The future

*Jorne Langelaan, the pioneer of the sailing cargo shipping, sees a future with a complete sustainable shipping network around the world.*

Jorne Langelaan is the founder of Ecoclipper. He was just a boy when he started as a deckhand and quickly he worked himself up in the merchant shipping till the highest rank as Master All Ships. He is co-founder of Fair Transport, builder and designer of the Tres Hombres, the first cargo sailing ship of the 21^st century, which he also navigated as a captain over the oceans. If one man on Mother Earth has a vision on the future on sailing cargo, it is Jorne.

“Now we experience the first stage of a new way of cargo shipping. We see a growing number of small sailing ships for cargo. It will grow. Now, with the Tukker, we sail the seas, like the North Sea. But step by step there will be longer lines, with more and also larger ships. A global cargo sailing network.”

Jorne Langelaan already designed the Ecoclipper 500, a 50 meter sailing cargo ship for ocean shipping.

This is the design of the Ecoclipper 500, completely sustainable, good for long distance sailing and able to take cargo an dozens of passengers.

July 15, 2023July 15, 2023

Sucking up metals from the deep-sea bed

The deep-sea bed is rich in raw materials for making batteries and accumulators, for example. The manganese nodules, consisting of nickel, cobalt and copper, are there for the taking. In a place where people cannot come themselves.

Environmental damage

The Dutch company Allseas carried out successful tests last year at a depth of four kilometers in the Pacific Ocean. Their underwater robot sucked up 4300 tons of manganese nodules. According to Allseas, the impact on marine life is ‘minimal’, because there is almost no marine life.

*A robot sucking up manganese nodules from the deep sea bed.*

According to marine biologists, the latter is an often heard misunderstanding. “People used to think that there was no marine life in the deep sea. Now we know that there is a lot of life. Biodiversity is very high, but you can’t see everything with the naked eye,” says researcher Sabine Gollner of the Royal Netherlands Institute. for Research of the Sea. “If you see what lives on manganese nodules: corals, sponges, anemones. If you suck up manganese nodules, you also take them with you. They need the nodules to live on.”

Nicole de Voogd, Professor of Marine Ecology. “They are really vacuum cleaners that you let go down to the bottom and that cause clouds of dust in a place where there is never really any disturbance. You disrupt the ecosystem.”

Temperance

Since Hugo de Groot’s declaration in the 17th century that the sea is ‘free’, everyone can do what he wants. That has changed since this year and there is a treaty on the deep sea, signed by 170 countries. That is the first step towards some moderation and that is a great progress. We hardly know the deep sea and the deep sea floor. Scientists advocate first investigating the extent of the damage and asked for a moratorium. That hasn’t worked yet.

So it helps if you simply reduce your energy use.

July 8, 2023July 8, 2023

Reduce plastic use – why and how

Plastic is a great substance. It keeps many products fresh and provides great protection against external influences, such as the sun, wind and rain.

Ever since marketers in the 1950s realized that you could produce a lot of plastic if the consumer immediately threw it away, we have a problem, instead of the many solutions that plastic can also offer. The mountain of plastic waste is growing enormously. If only it were on a mountain, then we were lucky! Because a large part of the plastic ends up in the environment. And plastic does not decay, or extremely slowly.

Many people in Bocas del Toro throw the plastic off into nature. Often it is the locals who do not see the environmental problem. An American who came here in this beautiful nature reserve saw all the rubbish and built a Plastic Bottle Town with a group of volunteers. Including this Plastic Bottle Castle. A statement. You can rent a condo there. http://www.plasticbottlevillage-theline.com/

A lot of plastic ends up in animals. Many fish, birds and (sea) turtles check whether it is food, which means that quite a lot of plastic enters their gastrointestinal tract. That becomes soft and often intertwined, making it more difficult for them to eat and digest their food, and therefore die.

When the plastic gets smaller, the size of invisible plastic particles, it spreads in all plants and animals. Including us. Did you know that on average you take in the weight of 1 credit card per week? The larger part we breathe in, the rest we swallow through food. Much of this plastic does not leave the body. It disrupts the hormones and makes you less fertile. Plastic reduces the functioning of the autoimmune system, which makes it easy to get all kinds of ailments and to die more easily from, for example, a strong flu.

*On the average, a person takes in the weight of 1 credit card in plastic per wee*k.

Don’t believe in technology or government.

Don’t believe in incinerators. A lot of plastic is difficult to burn. Many plastics release toxic substances if the temperature is not extremely high. Some plastics, such as PFAs, are almost impossible to burn. PFAS will never decay and this substance will become more and more common in everyone in the body.

Don’t believe in recycling. There are far too many types to sort. And even worse, they are often combined within 1 package, often even fused in layers. The only thing that is possible is to heat the various plastic waste to about 80 degrees and then deform it.

Don’t believe in law. Legislation is now being made in the European ‘Green Deal’ to ban substances, but the Plastic Lobby in Brussels is too strong. The main principle will remain that new substances may enter the market. Instead of the principle that new substances may not enter the market unless it is proven that they do not cause environmental damage.

Do believe in yourself

It is good for your health and that of everything that lives on Mother Earth.

Of course you don’t buy plastic tableware. Ban plastic straws and buy bamboo or pasta straws instead (yes, pasta!).

Buy what you need. For example, a Fairphone seems more expensive, but it can be repaired by yourself and it will last at least five years. That is 1 or 2 years longer than most other mobile phones.

Use wooden pegs. Slightly more expensive, but much more durability. You can easily and cheaply buy wooden clothes hangers on the second-hand market or reuse shop. Cheaper and more durable than the plastic variant and ultimately cheaper.

Believe in reuse.

Reuse plastic bags. You take them with you in a dishwashing machine and wet bags stick nicely to the tiles above the counter, where they dry.

Screw a large box to a wall and throw packing material in it. You can easily reuse it (also nice for Sinterklaas surprises).

Put a sticker on your mailbox that you don’t want any advertising brochures.

Shopping

Close your front door with an empty shopping bag with your empty bottles, but also some plastic bags. You can put your new groceries in there, such as your vegetables, fruit, and so on.

Do you see a striking amount of packaging on a product that you want to buy? The simplest is not to buy the best. But a good second option is to ask the seller or cashier in the supermarket where you can leave the waste. Then you leave all the plastic packaging there. If this happens regularly, the management is not happy because disposing of waste costs a lot of money.

Going out?

Before you close your front door, bring your refillable water bottle. Saves you money too.

If you are away for a bit longer, bring your own food. That is a better, healthier and much more plastic-free alternative than the packed snacks you can buy in gas stations along the way. And it saves you a lot of money.

If you order water in a cafe or restaurant, say that you want the water straight from the tap in a glass. Say that you are happy to pay for it, but not for a plastic bottle of water. This works very well in Western countries. It works astonishingly better in Latin America, because there the people have learned to sell plastic bottles, while every restaurant or café has separate large barrels with drinking water.

Cheers!

July 2, 2023July 2, 2023

Cheap electricity at home with the battery pack of your electric car

On board the Ya is a charger that can convert power from mains power for the battery bank. This charger is necessary because the batteries must be charged to 100% every three months.

This same device is also an inverter, which means that it converts battery power into regular mains power, in our case 230 Volt. various appliances such as the induction cooker, the microwave and the bread maker work on 230 Volt.

Peak and off-peak current and the battery of your electric car as a buffer

Normally you charge your electric car to drive it. But many cars have about 50 kilowatt hours and you don’t run that empty so quickly every day.

Then it’s nice to start making money with it. People who have an electricity contract with variable prices at home try to charge their car battery around noon, when electricity is cheap. The nice thing is, there is now also a smart device for the electric car with which you can convert the power from the battery and feed it back into your own socket in your home via the charging cable. In the evening when electricity is expensive, you can cook and so onwith the power from your car batteries.

Someone has already managed to earn money for a month. it saves money and you live a little more fossil-free.

Anecdote

The Ya has such a smart device since 2013, a Studer Xtender. In addition to charging and converting, the Xtender can also supply power back to the grid. It happened once during my first fossil-free trip around the world in 2017. I did the quarterly battery maintenance in a Panamanian marina: charging the batteries with mains power. But I stayed in the marina for a few more days and I left the plug in. The tropical sun shines brightly here, so the excess energy went back into the electricity grid via the socket on the jetty.

Now there are many American boats in Panamanian ports and Americans are major consumers (their average consumption is more than twice as high as the energy consumption of a Dutch person). Reason enough for the marina management to take a quick tour of the electricity meters on the dock every morning. On the second day, the employee said my meter was broken and put my plug in another socket.

On the third day, the employee said that the meter was also broken and plugged my plug into another socket. I asked him what the problem was and he said the meter was running backwards. I replied that it made sense, because the Ya generated more than was consumed. He couldn’t believe that. The marina manager and an engineer had to come in to show that it really was the case.

The manager thought it was almost a wonder of the world and he invited me to give a presentation in the nearby hotel. The hall was packed, the whole marina had turned out for it, especially the Americans. America is the country where electricity is a self-evident necessity of life, like water from the tap. There is a plug everywhere. If you buy a device on the internet that runs on solar energy, it will explicitly say: without plug.

Whether the fossil-free message of the presentation reached the American audience, I do not know, because the psychological distance was great.

June 18, 2023June 18, 2023

Innovation versus Tradition

Do you also wonder if every innovation is so innovative? So let us try it out and start a race between an innovative, super light, easy to handle, light cayacu and a cayacu built in the 2000 years traditional way.
Who will winn?
An honest race between Tomas of the Ngobe tribe in Bastimentos, Panama, and me. See the race!

June 11, 2023June 11, 2023

Some tips to save yourself an airconditioned life.

At first sight the airco (or the reversed heat pump) is a great thing. How nice and cool on the hot days! But realize, it starts to take over your life. You get a bit addictive in the first place; your definition of a hot day inflates bit by bit. It is also a bit less healthy then experiencing the daily variation of temperature. And, it hurts the wallet. You quickly use many kilowatthours a day.

And, you can keep your house pretty cool without an airco.

Here are some tips, mostly from the local people here in Latin America. Now when writing this, it is 35 degrees Celsius and it is pleasantly cool. So here some tips straight from the experts.

Insulated house? Keep the air cool

Is your house well insulated, then the heat will hardly go through the walls. So:

Open your windows a bit in the night, to let the cool air come in. Make sure you open a window as low and as high as possible in the house. Thus you create a chimney-effect and the warm air will quickly be replaced by the coolest early morning air.
In the morning you shut all doors and windows, like you do in the winter time, and no hot air comes into your house.

The original house in the tropics has only one wall and the insulation is nothing. But the coverage against the sun is great: roofs with large overhangs, and a lot of trees and plants. there are hatches before the windows if one can pay it.

Cover from the sun

Most important is to cover the windows. The summer sun can deliver 1 kW per every square meter of (double/triple) glass. Preferably cover the outside, but if you don’t have that, close the curtains. Thus, you stop the sunrays heating up the house.
Do as the tropical people do and plant a tree. It is long term, cheap service delivered by nature. the higher latitudes the better it works, because the sun angle is lower.
Or if you prefer to spend more money, then install sun covers over your windows.

Minimize concrete, maximize vegetation.

Concrete terraces heat up and stay heated. Vegetation on the other hand, regulates the heat, by a smart way of using the water in and on it, and by taking some energy from the sun to grow. You create a cooler local climate around your house. So:

Lift tiles and plant trees and plants in the earth.
Put pots to the outside walls and put plants in it.

Use a fan

Just the movement of the air along your skin, has a cooling impact.

*With no wind, also outside on the fan works great*

There are fans from 1 watt to 300 watt. The first is silent and great to put close to your head when you sit in a chair or behind a desk. The latter can blow your wig from your head. Such a thing is enough to put in a big room or on a terrace or porch and move all the air there.

So:

Buy yourself a fan, small or large, just the one that suits you for your purposes.
Still to hot? Put a bunch of ice cubes, or cool, icy water before the fan. Even a wet cloth can help, especially when the air inside is dry.