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Community Action for Sustainability News

• The climate crisis can't be solved by carbon accounting tricks, Simon Lewis, Mar 3 [1] ...Climate news 2021
• Future generations bill sounds 'namby pamby' but it's start, says Lord Bird, Feb 20 [2] ...UK Climate news 2021
• We’re delighted to discover Cape Town’s CANs movement - “community action networks” that have been keeping a city together, under Covid, Feb 19 [3] ...South Africa
• 'Invisible killer': fossil fuels caused 8.7m deaths globally in 2018, research finds, Feb 9 [4] ...Environment quality news
• The Scottish Citizens Assembly has concluded - and one of its big proposals is a "House of Citizens", as a second chamber for Holyrood, Feb 8 [5]

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From Rice hulls in construction

The First Rice Hull House, by Paul A. Olivier, Ph.D

Rice hulls are unique within nature. They contain approximately 20% opaline silica in combination with a large amount of the phenyl propanoid structural polymer called lignin. This abundant agricultural waste has all of the properties one could ever expect of some of the best insulating materials. Recent ASTM testing conducted R&D Services of Cookville, Tennessee, reveals that rice hulls do not flame or smolder very easily, they are highly resistant to moisture penetration and fungal decomposition, they do not transfer heat very well, they do not smell or emit gases, and they are not corrosive with respect to aluminum, copper or steel. In their raw and unprocessed state, rice hulls constitute a Class A or Class I insulation material, and therefore, they can be used very economically to insulate the wall, floor and roof cavities of a super-insulated Rice Hull House. This paper also explains how the structure of such a house can be fashioned out of a variety of engineered lumber products derived from sugarcane rind.

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From E215 Introduction to Design projects § Fall 2019: Six Rivers Charter and Arcata High Schools

The Fall 2019 semester of ENGR215 Introduction to Design worked with Six Rivers Charter and Arcata High Schools to design and finish phase two of the outdoor educational spaces and build learning apparatuses for their High School in Arcata, CA.

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  Garden pathway
  Transforming a dangerous broken stairway into a garden switchback trail from upcycled materials such as tires and broken concrete.

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  Garden teaching area
  Upgrading the pirate themed agricultural area replete with gabions, rope, and a ship wheel to include safe, less muddy, seating for 35.

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  Pocket orchard
  A pocket orchard learning area retained by over 70 feet of gabions, leveled with over six dumptrucks of soil, and planted with 3 of an eventual 6 fruit trees.

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  Conductivity probes
  Four, low cost, aesthetic, accessible, and replicable teaching tools for conductivity experiments.

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Bill Mollison

Permaculture is a design system for creating sustainable human environments. The word itself is a contraction not only of permanent and agriculture but also of permanent culture, as cultures cannot survive for long without a sustainable agricultural base and landuse ethic.

— Bill Mollison

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