3 years ago
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Could Rubber From Dandelions Make Tires More Sustainable?
By Maggie Gundersen
You learn something new every day! For example, who knew that rubber tires weren’t entirely rubber? According to EcoWatch, 65% of tires are made using fossil fuels because it creates more resilient tires than rubber alone.
Now a major tire producing company in Germany has partnered with the University of Aachen to create tires made from dandelion rubber!
“The Russian dandelion helped supply the Allied forces with rubber through the Second World War. Now, tire makers are hoping it could make a commercial comeback.
In 1931, Soviet scientists were on the hunt for a natural source of rubber that would help the USSR become self-sufficient in key materials. They scoured the vast and various territories of the Soviet Union and tested over 1,000 different species looking for an alternative to the South American rubber tree, Hevea brasiliensi. Eventually, on the steppes of Kazakhstan, they found one.
By 1941, the Russian dandelion, Taraxacum koksaghyz, supplied 30% of the USSR’s rubber. During the Second World War, shortages of Havea rubber prompted other countries, including the United States, Britain and Germany, to begin cultivating dandelion rubber.” [Emphasis Added]
After WWII was over, all the countries switched back to the cheaper Hevea tree rubber. Currently, the Southeast Asia Havea plantations produce 90% of all-natural rubber, linked to deforestation. In addition, the rubber plantations in South America, where all of the world’s rubber came from pre and post-WWII, have developed some type of blight that puts those trees at serious risk of destruction. We are better than this. There has to be a better way!
Our 2018 move, to Charleston SC, is the first time either one of us has lived in the deep South, and it has changed Arnie’s and my perception about the seasons. Every day is a lesson in the burgeoning climate crisis with local flooding and our perception about seasonal produce, our organic garden, and our local farmers’ market. We try to live sustainably, hoping our 2006 Honda Civic that still gets 36 MPG will last until an electric car approaches mainstream affordability!
Sustainability and Renewable Energy are entirely different mindsets compared to the current energy paradigm. Instead of listening to those people who simply want you to fill their coffers while destroying the world’s economy and life-giving natural surroundings and food sources, we must look at ways in which we can continue our 21st-century lifestyle with computers and electricity and protect the air we breathe, the water we drink and the food we eat!
In this fourteenth installment in our Nuclear Spring Series, I wanted to discuss dandelions! Yes, dandelions. Growing up in the Northeast U.S., dandelions were supposed to be the scourge of gardeners, homeowners, farmers, sports fields, and community land everywhere. Touted as a virulent weed, people tore out dandelions, dug them up, and spent thousands of dollars on toxic weed-killers in their homeowner lifetimes to get rid of them.
Before Arnie and I got married in 1979, the minister who was marrying us introduced us to dandelion wine, which he made every year, and dandelion greens in salads as an anti-toxin. Who knew? There was something good that could come out of all those dandelions people in the U.S. try so hard to eradicate! As long as toxic anti-weed cancer-causing chemicals do not contaminate these dandelions, they are part of the process of working with nature, not against it!
In May 2015 at Northwestern University (see full video below), Arnie was quoted in Forbes Magazine saying:
“We all know that the wind doesn’t blow consistently and the sun doesn’t shine every day,” he said, “but the nuclear industry would have you believe that humankind is smart enough to develop techniques to store nuclear waste for a quarter of a million years, but at the same time humankind is so dumb we can’t figure out a way to store solar electricity overnight. To me that doesn’t make sense.”
My take on Arnie’s comment is that I believe in human ingenuity. Many companies in the U.S. and worldwide are closing the door on old paradigms, including outmoded power production models. How the world operated during the 20th century does not work now, and it cannot push back against the ongoing climate emergency! For example, Scotland produced 97% of its electricity last year from renewable sources, and Denmark plans to sell wind power to England through a cable under the English Channel!
Sustainability and Renewable Energy impacts every aspect of our lives on planet Earth. Building a sustainable economy is not a pipe dream for the future. It is happening here every day right before our eyes.
Whether it's rubber tires, electric pickup trucks, organic farming, or ending atomic power, it's time for the world to think outside the box! There are new, better ways for life to progress on planet Earth!
SPOILER ALERT! Recently, Fairewinds was asked to speak about the atomic lie at an online symposium held in Austria. We did new research where we determined that the nuke industry manipulation is not regulatory capture; it is regulatory collusion. More on this topic in a significant post next week.
Throughout the remaining month of Fairewinds’ Nuclear Spring Series, as we continue to look at the flawed atomic power system, we will talk about nuclear power regulatory collusion as part of the atomic lies we all live with every day. And, we will also focus on the future with our eyes on moving forward with new sources of energy that put the power of energy generation back into the hands of people around the world.
