What Does Hemp Clothing Have To Do With Climate Change?

You know trees as heroes when it comes to sequestering carbon and combating climate change, but could hemp clothing challenge that reputation? As trees grow, they inhale carbon dioxide gas and convert it into carbon-based fibers, which locks up this greenhouse gas for as long as the tree is alive and growing. That's carbon sequestration. And that's why forests are so important in the fight against climate change, and why there's such a strong movement to project forests around the world.

So why are we talking about trees and clothing in a discussion of hemp clothing? Because when it comes to carbon sequestration, hemp may be just as effective, if not more. Recent scientific discoveries point to the fact that organically-grown agricultural crops such as hemp remove carbon from the atmosphere through biological carbon sequestration using the process described above.

Crops that are grown using nitrogen-based fertilizers are less effective at fighting climate change. That's because nitrogen-based fertilizers are made using fossil fuels and require energy to produce. Organic crops, on the other hand, make use of cover crops (that fix nitrogen in the soil for natural nutrient-boost) and manure, both of which further fix carbon in the soil.

Hemp is also an ideal crop for carbon sequestration because it grows incredibly fast, especially when you compare their growth to trees. Hemp plants can also produce an enormous amount of plant matter in a small amount of space, which means more sequestered carbon. Hemp is generally planted in a density of up to 300 plants per square meter, and can still be grown organically. This means it can produce between three and eight dry tons of fiber per acre.

In fact, one acre of hemp will produce twice as much fiber as an acre of cotton, and almost four times as much in the same space as trees. And since hemp plants reach maturity much sooner than trees - within one year - they can be harvested and new plants cultivated so that the cycle continues indefinitely.

Hemp is being recognized as having the potential to even reduce carbon emissions in the building industry. Hemcrete, a building material used for green buildings, is being touted as a much better alternative to tree-based building materials in terms of carbon sequestration.

So when looking for organic clothing, check out your hemp clothing options. You'll find that your purchase could go a long way to shrinking your carbon footprint!

Choosing an Insect Repellent

For most people, insect bites are a minor annoyance. The area may swell and itch for a while and then return to normal later.

This mild reaction is caused by the venom the insect carries and it normally occurs with the bite of a mosquito, fly, cockroach or bedbug. In this case, vinegar, diluted ammonia or phenolated calamine lotion will relieve itching and burning. Other insect bites can also be cleaned with alcohol, povidone-iodine or plain soap and water.

These simple measures, however, cannot protect people from the many diseases insects bring, some of which are life-threatening. If that's your concern, it may be a good idea to buy an insect repellent.

Thiamin or vitamin B1 has long been recommended for this purpose. Isolated reports say that large amounts of thiamin taken by mouth make perspiration offensive to insects, driving them away. To get this effect, dermatologists say you should take 150 milligrams of thiamin three to four times a day.

Good as it sounds, that formula doesn't work. The US Food and Drug Administration said that as early as 1960, thiamin was found to be ineffective as an insect repellent. In that experiment, volunteers took as much as 200 milligrams of thiamin three times a day and exposed their forearms to hungry female mosquitoes. The result: everyone got bitten in spite of the thiamin they took.

In choosing an insect repellent, look for a product with N,N-diethyl-meta-toluamide or deet for short. This chemical was first synthesized in the 1950s and remains the most effective repellent against a wide variety of crawling and flying pests. Concentrations of up to 95 percent were used by American troops during the Vietnam War and many manufactures have incorporated deet in their insect repellents since 1961.

Deet's performance depends on how much is used. A product that contains more deet is more effective and can ward off mosquitoes for over six hours and stable flies for over 4 1/2 hours. Tests made by Consumer Reports also showed that deet performed well against two of the most common and troublesome species of mosquitoes - the Aedes aegypti which causes dengue or H-fever, and Culux pipiens which causes filariasis.

But that protection comes with a price. Since deet is absorbed in the bloodstream, higher concentrations of this chemical can cause serious side effects.

"Among the most dramatic instances: six girls under age nine developed toxic encephalopathy, a swelling of the brain that can cause disorientation, convulsions and death. Three of the girls died. Deet repellents had been applied copiously to most of the girls for weeks or months, and one girl had metabolic disease that apparently made deet's effects worse. But another victim had been wearing insect repellent for just two days. More recent reports have noted brief seizures in five males - four boys under age eight and one adult - after they used deet repellent of varying concentrations, typically only once or twice daily," according to Consumers Reports. (Next: The trouble with deet.)

Understanding Your HVAC System

HVAC is an acronym for heating, ventilation, and air conditioning. It's main purpose is to heat air in the winter to warm our homes and to create cold air to keep our homes cool and comfortable in the summer. These systems take the air from outside, cool or heat that air, and send it through our home. Because of this, an HVAC system regularly ventilates your home and even filters the air before it comes in.

Let's start with the air conditioning part of your HVAC system. The AC system is split into two areas. The "cool side" is found indoors (typically in the attic or basement) and contains the expansion valve and cooling coils. The air handler uses a fan to distribute warm air over the chilled coils and send the cooled air into your home. The "hot side" is the condensing unit that is found outside of your home. The condenser takes any air that is not cooled and releases it to the outside. The expansion valve sits between the evaporator and condenser and monitors how much refrigerant is going into the evaporator. Both the condenser and the expansion valve (aka. the "cool side") are found inside your home such as in the attic or basement typically right by the furnace. The compressor is what pressurizes the refrigerant gas back into a liquid. The process of the refrigerant changing back and forth from a liquid to a gas is what absorbs heat and humidity from the warm air. All of this is conveniently controlled by your thermostat in your house.

Now that you understand the main components and their locations, let's take a closer look at the cooling process. The cooling process is a cycle and we'll start at the outdoor unit which is called the compressor. The compressor pressurizes the freon liquid into a gas. The gas moves through the coils in the outdoor unit and loses heat. As the gas cools it begins to condense back into a hot liquid that then flows into the copper tubing of the indoor unit. As the hot, liquid freon is allowed to expand it turns back into a cold gas. This cool gas flowing through the coils cools the air passing over them. This cold air is what you feel coming out of the vents from your ductwork. This process also removes access moisture from the air since cool air does not hold moisture the way warm air can. The moisture actually condenses on coils and drips into a drain. The freon liquid that becomes warm again then is cycled back to the outside condenser to begin the cycle again. The heating system works the same way only the concept is reversed.

Having an overall understanding of your HVAC system will help you to understand the importance of maintenance and the reasoning behind any repairs you may encounter.