Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with conservation

What are the odds that elephants will become extinct in the next 30 years?

Joe Beese — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 14:59:08 -0800

What are the odds that elephants will become extinct in the next 30 years? That's my actuarial life expectancy, give or take. I wondered if it was likely that some day of my old age would know the profound embitterment of reading that the last cow had died in captivity, and that these would never walk the earth again.

Millions of peaches, peaches for me.

_dario — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 16:04:45 -0800

How can I avoid (or at least, delay just for a few days) the growth of mould on my fruit? We're just two, and she eats very little fruit, so I'm having most of it, and it's ok since I love fruit.

Now, the problem is: we live in the countryside, and - for what I gather - the air is naturally alive with spores and fungi and who knows what else, so most of the fruits I buy (especially peaches and apricots this season) grow beautiful, colourful and interesting moulds in one or two days from the moment I buy them (at the supermarket, where they're apparently intact).

This means they're not treated with too many nasty chemicals - yay!

But honestly I'd like to be able to stop tossing more or less half of what I buy into the recycle bin. Firstly because I don't like throwing food away, secondly because I *really* do love fruits. I'm not too squeamish and have no problem in cutting away a bad part and eating the rest, but here we're talking from pristine to unrecoverable in little more than 24 hours!

Data points: the fruit is kept in a small darkish storage room beside the kitchen, at room temperature (now about 70-80F). There's very little humidity - to the point that salt or sugar don't clump at all or a box of cereals/crackers/cookies can be forgotten open, and keeps crunchy for a long time.

What should I do? Keep it in the fridge? Wash everything just after buying, let dry in the air and see what happens? Store in a sealed container? Add some bicarbonate or a very mild chlorine based disinfectant to the water? Buy very little quantities day by day? (I'd prefer to avoid that for practical reasons) or just stop getting my fruit at the supermafrket and go to the farmer market? ... complex esoterism involving candles, incense, peanut butter and a norwegian llama?

Disherwasher vs. hand washing

markcmyers — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 10:18:25 -0800

Dishwasher vs. hand washing. Assuming we run the dishwasher only when it's full, which method uses less water and fuel?

Whale Wars - but on land?

El Curioso — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 21:29:06 -0800

Just finished watching an episode of Whale Wars, and I was wondering: are there any groups that do this sort of thing on land? Meaning, volunteer, nonprofessional or otherwise NGO-type people who confront and interfere with poachers in the wild, head-on and dangerously?

Conservation Blogology

one_bean — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 10:57:51 -0800

Where do you go to read about (biological) conservation on-line? Web-sites, blogs, podcasts; policy, science, activism. Is anybody aggregating interesting stuff in the world of conservation? And, if no such place exists, what would you name a good conservation blog?

One-stop Book Repair Shop

ikahime — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 22:24:07 -0800

I'm trying to cover all my bases for my budding book repair business. I'm sure in the process people will be asking me to appraise their books. For my own collection, I've found it adequate to use the usual online suspects, such as Abebooks, alibris, vialibri, amazon, ebay, etc. What more can I do to educate myself on this process? Are there formal classes I should be looking into? Also, when providing this service, what is the standard fee, or is there one? Should I just charge my hourly rate, but for research instead of conservation work?

Citizen science

gottabefunky — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 11:43:46 -0800

I'm looking for examples of crowdsourcing approaches to conservation science, where anyone - not just scientists - can help in conservation efforts by gathering data, etc. I just came across the Ecocean Whale Shark ID Project, which lets anyone upload photos of whale sharks to help ID and track them around the world. (You can also donate unused processor cycles to help crunch the data.)

I'm wondering if there are other programs like that out there, especially ones that harness the awesome power of the Interwebs.

I know organizations like Earthwatch let you pay to help with conservation project for a few weeks.

That's on the right track, but I'm more interested in projects that let anyone with an interest in conservation, some spare time and (presumably) an internet connection help do honest-to-god science, without (necessarily) having to travel to the ends of the Earth or drop a lot of money.

What about this gray water recovery system?

wsg — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 23:08:07 -0800

I'm kicking off a major home renovation and looking for some green innovations I can incorporate without breaking the bank. This gray water recovery system looks promising. The AQUS system sells for about $300.00 per toilet. Does anyone have experience with this system? Is it practical? Is it funky? I've read where the gray water can mess up the toilet hardware with time. You have to feed the reservoir tank bromine and chlorine tablets to kill bacteria in the sink waste water. Is it nasty? Is this more pain than it's worth? Any feedback is appreciated.

What would Jesus extract?

kittyprecious — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 06:21:02 -0800

Can anyone recommend books, articles, etc., that (a) lay out religious (preferably Christian) arguments in favor of conservation or (b) give a history of the church-based environmental justice movement?

Are there any good reasons why I shouldn't wash clothes with rainwater?

tomble — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 18:00:02 -0800

Washing clothes with rain water - should I do it? So, like a lot of Australia, Melbourne is in for a long dry summer it seems. I now have a very large water tank connected to my house, which supplies water to all the toilets, a wonderful saving on fresh tap water.

I want to hook this up to my clothes washer, already a fairly economical front loader. However, my partner and others have mentioned that you shouldn't wash clothes in tank water.

Is this true? The only potential problems I can think of would be if the water was dirty (our roof is free of leaves etc) or if it was bore water rather than rain water. Is there any good reason why I should not use rainwater for general clothes washing?

Calling all object conservators in the house!

kalimac — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 10:50:55 -0800

GoingBackToSchoolFilter: does anyone have experience in being a conservator? In getting a degree in object conservation? I'm really interested in restoring wooden ships, but recognize that this is an awfully narrow specialty -- some of my other interests are textiles and ethnographic objects (which I have some limited experience in restoring).

A little background -- years and years ago I interned for a summer at the U of Penn. Archaeology Museum, and got to spend a day working in their conservation lab. I LOVED IT. Loved every minute, but between school and other interests it kind of dropped by the wayside, and I picked up a degree in anthropology. Now that I'm looking to move on from my current job (programming), this possibility is coming up again. Does anyone have any advice on breaking into the field? Is it as overwhelming and quite frankly a little scary as the AIC's literature makes it seem?

I've already looked at a few programs, and am particularly drawn by University of Cardiff's, since they place emphasis on a very holistic training style -- I get the impression that I wouldn't be tied down to one single career for the rest of my life, which is also fairly important to me.

Finally, I don't suppose anyone knows any bloggers, writers, etc who are conservators? I'm really curious especially about personal experiences in the field.

Thank you -- I hope this was all clear enough!

A low power home server?

hydrophobic — Sat, 05 May 2007 23:24:58 -0800

I want to build a home server to act as a file store, mp3 streamer etc. Is it possible to do so without destroying the planet? What ultra-low power options out there for use by the general public?

to re-use the dusting flour?

jclovebrew — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 20:08:46 -0800

Should I put the flour used to dust the counter and/or pizza peel back in the bag? So I'm a wanna-be baker lately, making pizza and breads. For the first several experiments, I ended up throwing away the extra flour that I used to dust the countertop and pizza peel. But it seems that over time, this would add up to a big waste. Starting yesterday, I decided to start keeping that extra stuff in a separate container, with the idea that I would use flour from the container, not the bag, to dust the counter and the peel from now on.

What do people typically do? Is it ok to just put it all the extra back in the main bag?

Free in DC

brokekid — Sun, 04 Feb 2007 09:26:37 -0800

I'm looking for websites that will lead me to free things to do/see/eat/get specifically in Washington, DC. What sites do you know of and or search techniques I can use? The sites that I've come up with so far is the free section on Craigslist and the Washington, DC Freecycle group and Upcoming.org. Any thoughts?

Is it cheaper to heat a whole house using gas or to use an electric space heater for one room?

perpetualstroll — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 03:49:35 -0800

Will it cost less to run a gas furnace to heat the entire house or to use a space heater to heat one room? I live in a 4 bedroom house and 3 of my roommates have just moved out. In the meantime, I'd like to save on the bills and I'm thinking of lowering the house temperature down to about 55 and using a space heater just to heat my own room. The electric space heater that I have says 1500 w on the sticker on the bottom and it's the kind that has a fan that blows across electric elements, similar to a hair dryer. However, does anyone know if this is worth doing? Or will I end up breaking even?

Waste not, want not

chrominance — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 16:27:45 -0800

Remedial physics and sustainability: if energy is neither created nor destroyed, why do we have an energy crisis? Much more extensive question follows: The conservation of energy law states that in an isolated system, energy is neither created nor destroyed, simply converted. And though the law only holds true in an ideal (frictionless) environment, I assume that's because the law makes reference to usable energy. Adding back the energy loss from friction in the form of heat, I assume the theory still holds true. (If I'm wrong about this, what happens to the excess energy?)

Applying the law: obviously the Earth is not a closed system; we radiate heat into space, and the sun provides massive amounts of solar energy. Current technologies are fairly inefficient at converting energy into work; heat is often mentioned as a waste byproduct. But if the law of conservation of energy holds, then technically we haven't actually lost any energy, it's just in a form we can't harness.

The question, then, is this: We're doing a lot now to make current processes more energy efficient, but what about reclaiming heat energy (and other waste energy, if it exists) and recycling it? What are the obstacles to doing this on an industrial scale? Could heat reclamation processes greatly increase energy efficiency? Would it be enough to offset the impending energy crisis, or at least soften the impact until alternative energy sources gain more ground?

In other words, why aren't we doing more to harness waste energy? Are there scientific obstacles? Cost obstacles? Or is it just that no one has really bothered?

Put my iMac to sleep or run Folding@Home?

DakotaPaul — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 13:18:40 -0800

Which would more benefit humankind in general (albeit in a tiny, tiny way): Putting my iMac to sleep to conserve energy at night, or running Folding@Home?

I'm looking advice about short courses (or potentially graduate work) in conservation planning

buttercup — Sun, 19 Nov 2006 18:37:16 -0800

I currently work as an ecologist and my job is taking in the direction of conservation planning. I am thinking about taking some courses in this field with some of professional development funding this coming year. Does anyone know of any good short courses in this field?
Also, if I chose to follow this field further, what are some good graduate programs (located in the northeast) that might fulfill my needs.

To unplug, or not?

box — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 11:29:41 -0800

Should I turn the thing off, or unplug it, when I'm not using it, or leave it plugged in/turned on? How can you tell? I'd like to save money, and save electricity, and have my mechanical/electronic devices last as long as possible. But I'm often confused.

It's my understanding that many people think it's best to keep computers on all the time, as problems are likely to occur because of the stress of components heating up, cooling down, etc.

I've also heard, though, in reference to things like video game consoles and VCRs, that it's best to cut their power off completely when not in use, both to save energy and to save wear on the components.

I'm no expert on any of this stuff, and I might have some misinformation. It's safe to say, though, that there's a lot of seemingly-contradictory information floating around, and so I'm wondering: Which devices should be turned off/unplugged, and which shouldn't be? How can you tell? Are there any rules of thumb or general principles or whatnot?

What if I don't really care about the electric consumption, and I just want my devices to last as long as possible? What if I'm only concerned with saving energy? What if I'm only concerned with saving money?

Helping the elephants

i_am_joe's_spleen — Sun, 08 Oct 2006 12:04:51 -0800

What are the most useful and effective things a person can do to assist elephant conservation?

How can I save money and energy and still have attractive lighting?

bradn — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 09:32:17 -0800

I understand that incandescent light bulbs are antiquated and extremely wasteful, but LED and fluorescent light looks horrible... I replaced my outdoor deck light with a compact fluorescent, and not only does it take minutes to warm up, the light it projects is stark and ugly. I recently bought a couple Philips LED rope lights to light the front porch, proud of myself for finding a cheap, long lasting, efficient solution that would allow me to leave the light on all night for security. When I got them home and plugged them in, the light they produced was the ugliest, starkest, harshest light I have ever seen. Back to the store they went.

I am somewhat obsessed with the light in and around my house, I believe that the quality of light you are exposed to effects mood and relaxation profoundly. I hate fluorescent and LED seems even worse. How can I save money and energy and still have attractive lighting?

Side question: Does anyone know a good chart online showing the electrical consumption of common light solutions, in particular, rope light?

wing on the back of a car increasing MPG? Color me dubious.

Wild_Eep — Fri, 05 May 2006 08:12:20 -0800

Last night on ABC news there was a guy with a VW beetle (silver) who put a wicked-huge wing on the back and claimed some ridiculously-high MPG figure. Alas, my google fu fails me. Why would this wing possibly work? They guy wasn't a tuner, AFAICT.

Trying to make my computer more energy efficient and quiet

bradn — Wed, 08 Feb 2006 08:05:49 -0800

Trying to make my computer more energy efficient and quiet: I am currently cleaning up, reformatting and reconstructing my home built Athlon XP 2000+ system. Since this system will also work as a file server for MP3s and video, I will need to leave it on most of the time.
I need any tips, suggestions and tools in order to make the system run as quietly and energy efficient as possible. The Asus motherboard has a Q-Fan feature which will decrease the fan speeds dependant on system load, which currently isn't working correctly, but hopefully will be soon. Should I set the HDs to turn off after an hour or so? What are the downsides to that?
Here's the specs: Athlon XP 2000+, 1.5gb PC2700, 400W PS, 2 WD 80gb in RAID 1, Geforce 4200ti, SoundBlaster Audigy 2 with front panel, Lite-On DVD-ROM, Optorite DVD-RW.
Thanks!

Minimizing the electricity drain of plugged-in items?

ericbop — Mon, 03 Oct 2005 07:57:09 -0800

I recently read that anything plugged in continues to suck up valuable electricity, even when turned off. What's the best way to minimize this wasteful situation without constantly resetting/rebooting clocks,microwaves,tivos,answering machines,etc or constantly unplugging/plugging lights,cordless phones,tvs,stereos,etc? Any special gadgets or outlet strips that will help? Other ideas?

efficiency and power consumption of computers

scarabic — Thu, 07 Jul 2005 10:30:33 -0800

I have two computers, each with something like 350W power supplies. By keeping them on 24/7, am I consuming the equivalent of seven 100-watt light bulbs around the clock? What can I do (either software or hardware) to make my machines more power-efficient? Also - while I'm on the subject - does an incandescent bulb consume less when it's on a dimmer and that dimmer is turned down? I'm an electricity moron, obviously.