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Walking the (non-tourist-trail) northern outskirts of Beijing, where there is no definitive boundary between urban and rural, but the gaps between houses where pigs are kept, the urban vegetable plots, gradually grow bigger as you move out till you are in fields, not city....I saw basic 1-room accommodation, trebling as sitting room, tiny kitchen, and bedroom, NO bathroom. The toilet facilities were communal, comprising a large room 15 x 25 feet, along the back long side of which ran a long bench with holes in (no partitions). Where did the poo go? The building backed onto a canal, which led down to some rice fields. In case you are now thinking "what's the rice like in Beijing restuarants", think, where do the rice pickers in Thailand, Bangladesh etc go to poo, whilst they're harvesting your nice tasty Waitrose Basmati rice? Not many plumbed-in public toilets in the rural Ganges Delta. Supremely environmental of course, 100% recycling, isn't this how its meant to be done, how nature does it. Soil must be almost 100% poo after all (worm, bird, animal, poo). We all (ultimately) eat grass, and grass is (ultimately) all poo. So enough scatology. Just a shame that good recycling is being subverted to fuel(?) something as un-environmental as snow ski-ing, rather than refertilising US fields. Dr Hillary Shaw Food and Supply Chain Management Department Harper Adams University College Newport Shropshire TF10 8NB www.fooddeserts.org Only those with bird brains should tweet -----Original Message----- From: Stephen Hall <[log in to unmask]> To: CRIT-GEOG-FORUM <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Thu, 4 Oct 2012 13:03 Subject: Re: Shitstorm: Arizona's Bizarre New Use for Human Waste “Good King Wenceslas looked out On the feast of Stephen When the poo lay round about Deep and crisp and even…” “Brownly shone the snow that night Though the frost was cruel Sewage methane in gas lamps Refuse derived fuel” Stephen Hall Department of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences, University of Hull, HULL HU6 7RX Telephone: +44 (0)1482 465313 (direct); +44 (0)1482 465385 (Departmental Office) Mobile: 07946220086 Email: [log in to unmask] Personal profile From: A forum for critical and radical geographers [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Jonathan Cloke Sent: 04 October 2012 12:56 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Shitstorm: Arizona's Bizarre New Use for Human Waste Every so often I stop and wonder if I might be too shrill, too hysterical, too inclined to indulge in hyperbolae. Then something comes along to convince me that, actually, I’m as sane and normal as they come: “Winter brings wonderland dreams of pristine, snow-covered landscapes. At the Arizona Snowbowl resort, you can ski on it. You can sip hot chocolate gazing upon it. You can even get married on it. But you might not want to make snow cones out of it. Because this year at Snowbowl, that twinkling white powder will be made from human sewage. Three cheers for America’s innovative capitalists, who are leading the world in turning shit into snow. This year, the Arizona ski resort, located near Flagstaff, will become the first ever to charge humans to glide about in their own waste: 100% pure sewage effluent.” (http://www.alternet.org/environment/shtstorm-arizonas-bizarre-new-use-human-waste?akid=9482.1073418._D-nQT&rd=1&src=newsletter721070&t=7) Christmas carol, anyone? After me: “Good King Wenceslas looked out On the feast of Stephen When the poo lay round about Deep and crisp and even…” Dr Jon Cloke LCEDN Research Assistant/Lecturer Geography Department Loughborough University Leicester LE11 3TU E-mail: [log in to unmask] Tel: 01509 228193 ************************************************** To view the terms under which this email is distributed, please go to http://www2.hull.ac.uk/legal/disclaimer.aspx **************************************************