#13. Wood ash

The most discussed and criticized part of the soap making process is the so-called lye. Lye is the chemical substance that transforms vegetable oil into soap. There are two kinds of lye: the lye from wood ash[1] —potassium hydroxide— and store-bought lye —sodium hydroxide—. The lye from wood ash is lesser caustic and should therefore be preferable. But it is not. I explain this in the following paragraphs.

The goods of trees

The wood ashes that are suitable for soap making are from trees like the oak, walnut, beech, elm, holly, and fifteen more[2]. The olive tree[3] is also on the list, but named ash tree, the English name for the Fraxinus family[4], whereto also the olive tree belongs. These twenty trees produce hardwood.

Trees are multitaskers: their wood is for instance used for furniture, houses, fences, doors, plates, boats, masts, boxes, and sculptures. Their leaves are creating wonderful colours in the surrounding landscapes[5]. The blossoms of several of these trees are used in the Bach flowers remedies[6], like oak, walnut, holly, beech, willow, cherry, elm, and olive.

Last but not least: trees extract CO2 from the air and convert it into oxygen and biomass (such as wood, leaves, and roots). They release the oxygen into the air. Trees mainly store extra CO2 when they grow. Trees play therefore an essential role in the climate change, and there even exist so-called compensation-forests, created to compensate the CO2 emissions from the industry[7].

Trees, wildfires, deforestation, economic fascism, eco-terrorism and the climate change

Worldwide, during almost three centuries, a by economic fascism[8] created violence against nature took place. It has increased extremely fast after WWII. Humans plundered nature, exploited nature. This has resulted in the man-made climate change. The 2021 report about the climate change makes clear that the natural balance of nature is irreversible destroyed. We experience an increase in extreme weather: droughts and floods. Extreme droughts create wildfires. The devastating effects of the wildfires of 2021 have created a catastrophic loss of CO2 converters. There is another worrying factor: tropical forests are losing their ability to absorb carbon[9]. Wildfires create carbon. Recent evidence indicates that as much as ten per cent of wildfire produced carbon remains in the atmosphere, contributing to global warming[10].

Not only wildfires create deforestation: because of the mining of coltan, enormous areas of the rainforests in Congo have been deforested. Coltan is used by the telecom industry, to create batteries for cellphones, but coltan is also used to create batteries for electric cars[11].

There can also be other reasons that trees are hacked down: criminality and ecoterrorism[12].

Olive grove in Crete. Thirty-five years old olive trees were cut, but not by the owner[13]. Also in Israel, West Bank, this happens. “Jewish settlers have gone on a rampage in occupied West Bank towns and villages, hacking down hundreds of olive orchards just as they were about to be harvested.”[14, story of 2003, but also in 2021 this happens[15].] This is named ecoterrorism.

A form of economic fascism[8] is the extreme violence against nature for economic profit: the hacking down of trees for the rollout of 5G. Where 5G is going up, all around the world where 5G is going up, trees are coming down. The reason is: trees inhibit the progress of 5G.[16, lecture Barrie Trower, part 2, at 06:03]. Trees suffer anyhow from the radiation of cell towers. Every time you use a wireless device, you attack the trees between your device and the cell tower[17][18]. Finally, parts of the tree die, or the tree dies completely[19].

Because this kind of economic fascism takes place on behalf of democratic governments and even unions like the EU, and USA, it is not recognized as economic fascism, but essentially it is economic fascism. It is blind naïveness that makes one believe that WWII brought fascism to an end. Is the urge for 5G making the cutting down of trees a responsible choice? No. We absolutely do not need 5G. Industrialists are masters in brainwashing minds in order to sell their unnecessary products. This has to stop. We cannot endlessly continue exploiting nature for the economic growth of the rich countries. On the long term—but not that long—there is nothing left. We stare into the abyss[20, PDF, page 36, conclusion].

Conclusion

When we add all these facts up, we can only conclude that making natural soap with wood ashes is not environmental friendly, not sustainable. Trees become endangered, worldwide. Soaps, made with wood ash, are therefore not environmentally friendly soaps. When the soap manufacturer uses the wood of a tree that died naturally, the use of wood ash is ethically correct. The price of each bar of soup should be adapted accordingly. The profit of each single bar of soap made with wood ash should be donated to rainforest protection groups, or scientists who research the dramatic effects of wireless radiation on trees[18].


References and additional information

  1. Ash – Wikipedia
  2. 20 Different Types of Hardwood Trees – Pro Garden Tips
  3. Is olive tree a hardwood? – Askingglot
  4. Fraxinus – Wikipedia
  5. Trees – Gallery on Flickr
  6. Dr Edward Bach flower remedies – Multerland
  7. Bossen voor niets geplant: CO2 compensatie in rook op – RTL nieuws
  8. Economic fascism – Foundation for Economic Education
  9. Tropical forests losing their ability to absorb carbon, study finds – The Guardian
  10. Wildfires, Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Climate Change – Future Directions International
  11. Deforestation in Congo – Multerland YouTube
  12. Ecoterrorism – Merriam-Webster
  13. He went to his olive grove and found the olive trees cut – Creta Live News
  14. Jewish settlers destroy olive groves – Al Jazeera
  15. Israeli settlers destroy 100 olive trees in West Bank – Anadolu Agency, Turkey
  16. Trees hacked down because of 5G — Lecture Barrie Trower, part 2, at 06:03 – Multerland
  17. Andrew Goldsworthy ~ Tree damage: Effects of Electromagnetic Stress in Trees ~ 2011 – Multerland YouTube
  18. Collection of articles and scientific research about the impact of EMF on trees – Multerland
  19. Tree Damage – Observation Guide, by Helmut Breunig, March 2017 – Multerland
  20. Report UNESCO – PDF
  21. Protecting Crete’s ancient olive trees from being fed to the fire – Ekathimerini
  22. Wildfire ash damaging to vehicles – Sonoma News
  23. Effect of Wood Ash Waste from Black Soap- making on Heavy Metals in Leaf Amaranth, Cowpea and Maize – ResearchGate

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