Links
- Vinay Gupta: SCIM, Hexayurt, poverty, gupta option
- Thomas Bjelkeman: back of the envelope, seawater greenhouses
- Marcin: OSE wiki and blog
- Appropedia and canaripedia
- Dark Mountain
- Reprap
- Gunter Pauli: zeri, the blue economy, George Chan's dream farm
- Complementary currencies
- Smàri McCarthy: fablabs, democracy
- Harrison Owen: open space technology
- Edward de Bono: cort, six hats, lateral thinking
Some Questions
I intend to organise a set of 300+ questions, compiled with help from maybe 30 specialists, and turn it into a free-content PDF booklet in 100 days or so. Maybe it will be out there before the official celebration of the Canary Islands' day, and maybe we can send a number of copies to a number of people, just so some data and possibilities may have a better chance to enter the conversations.
I think I can pose at least 50 questions myself, and answer a bunch of them at least in fill-in-the-blanks template form. I have contacts with a number of domain-experts who would let us have some answers. We can expand within that style, and see what comes up exactly.
Having a deadline is a good thing, too. Release early, sure. And maybe release often, but that's not my problem. ;-)
What are your questions?
Questions
- Some questions are more about facts. We'd like numbers and, if not, sensible estimates. If we don't know, we don't know, but the question is still worthy of some effort.
- Some questions are more about exploring posibilities. But those posibilities carry the need to look at data: resources needed, people served, etc.
- Many questions could be reformulated for different levels of land aggregation, as in how much water is used “per island”, and you can deal with that now or leave it for later.
- Many questions can be reformulated, period. Please do so, maybe providing alternate ways to ask the same basic question. In the final document, the question may use a paragraph, followed by the more or less lengthy answer elicited by the question(s).
Water
- Where do we get our water from and what are the paths for water?
- How much do we use for each function (including irrigating golf courses)?
- How much fossil fuel do we use for our water (desalination, movement, others)?
- What are the basic needs of water per person and per day? Per kilo of crop?
- How much water is wasted, and where? What could be done about it?
- What's the volume of water deposits at different levels (the sum of all homes; agricultural tanks; municipalities)?
- Who owns the water, and the land where much of the water falls?
- Would seawater greenhouses work? What are the factors and the data about those factors?
- What are the laws and regulations and bodies regarding water?
- Who are the experts in water in the Canaries? Where are they (professional contact only)?
- What are other questions regarding water in the Canaries?
Food
- Where do we get our food from, what are the paths for food, and how much does it cost?
- How much food do we grow here, and what are the inputs we use, and at what cost?
- What's the seasonality of food, both in production and in consumption?
- How far does our food come from, and what's the cost in terms of fuel and money?
- How many people know how to grow food organically, and how long does training last?
- How much land is available for growing food, and what are the features of that land?
- How is the food growing (plants and animals) connected within itself and to the rest of the system (using food scraps for compost or animal feed, etc)?
- What are the laws and regulations and bodies regarding food?
- How does the price for organic and non-organic food compare at different times of the year?
- Who are the experts in food in the Canaries? Where are they (professional contact only)?
- What are other questions regarding food in the Canaries?
Energy
- How much energy do we use, and for what uses?
- What are our energy sources right now, renewables or not?
- What's the daily and monthly rhythm in the use of energy?
- How much energy is stored at any one time, in tanks and batteries?
- How much energy is used for transport, and how much is transported and at what speed?
- What are the potential energy sources, with data? Wind maps? Renewable forest mass, algae mass?
- Who are the experts in energy in the Canaries? Where are they (professional contact only)?
- What are other questions regarding energy in the Canaries?
Others
(maybe in groups, but always an “others”):
- How much iron etc is there in our landfields, that would become our mines in the “unglobalised islands” thought-experiment?
- What does our industry look like? Workshops? DIY clubs and networks?
- What are other questions regarding the “unglobalised islands” thought-experiment?