Category: Green Energy

NaPoWriMo Day 5

On By WinstonIn Embrace the Wild, Environment, Global Issues, Green Energy, NaPoWriMo, Nature, Personal Responsibility, Poetry, Reaping What We've Sown, Science, Society, spring, The Bill Always Comes Due, The Choices We Make, ValuesLeave a comment

So, the area I live in is currently in the grip of a massive, late season ice storm. Today’s poem is in recognition of this and looks at the dangers of climate change and our role in it. Enjoy!

Anthropocene

Ice yet lies thick upon the ground,

Though winter’s in the past,

Now any day the spring will come,

This mis’ry cannot last.

Yet ice still clings to every branch,

And turns the roads to glass,

But soon enough this all will melt,

Replaced by sweet, green grass.

And still the ice yet thicker grows,

What if this is the year?

The winter holds on just too long,

What will we eat my dear?

Ice covered fields, as yet unthawed,

Too late to plant a crop,

You think this just a farmer thing,

Wait ‘til you try to shop!

The ice is just our weather here,

Elsewhere it’s floods and drought,

With wildfires burning free,

Can be but little doubt.

This ice you see is just one face,

Of what our choices bought,

Now look in terror ‘round the globe,

What our own hands have wrought.

This ice will melt, do not despair,

The end is not yet writ,

We yet may change our future path,

If we but find the wit.

Yet even though the ice will melt,

Don’t think that all is well,

If we refuse to change our ways,

That tale’s too sad to tell.

Cheers,

Happy 40th Greenpeace!

On By WinstonIn Education, Environment, Global Issues, Green Energy, Personal Responsibility, Politics, Society, ValuesLeave a comment

http://www.greenpeace.org

Despite the fondest wishes of so many who opposed it, Greenpeace turned forty this year.  I remember as a child back in the early ’70s listening to all the talk about this group of “hippies” that were interfering with nuclear testing.  Because of the cold war, it seemed pretty obvious to a child like me that if no one could test nukes, maybe they wouldn’t be able to destroy the world with them.  Then I learned a little more.

From my late teens to my mid-twenties, I went through a more conservative phase where I believed they were a menace.  They hadn’t stopped nuclear testing to save me, but to save a bunch of wildlife.  I like wildlife as much as the next person, but let’s get our priorities straight shall we.  Then I learned a little more.

For the past fifteen years or so, I’ve been a dues paying member of Greenpeace.  I’ve watched the world stand by and allow the wholesale destruction of the natural world.  Only one group that I’ve seen has put out a consistent message backed by non-violent action to try an curb that trend.  That group is Greenpeace.

Contrary To Their Commercials, This Is What The Tar Sands REALLY Look Like

Yep, that’s beautiful northern Alberta in Canada.  The company’s that run the oil sands projects have been putting out commercials that make it look all clean and friendly.  (I was going to put a link to the ad here, but can’t seem to find that commercial anywhere.)

Greenpeace has been fighting for years to get some sort of environmentally responsible action from CAPP (Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers).  Activists have occupied sites, caused work stoppages and worked to make the rest of the world aware of this tragic rape of Canada’s wilderness.  It’s a slow process, made more so when the government at every level is on the side of those committing the crime.

They wanted to “save the whales” before it became a catchall phrase to describe anyone who cares about the environment.  They also worked to keep Antarctica free, to stop overfishing on the high seas, to stop deforestation in South America, stop toxic and nuclear waste from being dumped into high seas, to stop our society from creating toxic nightmares by selling our electronic waste to companies that dump it on impoverished, third world shorelines to be manually broken down, recycled and burned in open fires.

Yeah, I can see now why some people think they’re radicals.  Obviously, their opposition to genetically modified crops is just a ploy to cause famine.  It couldn’t possibly have to do with Monsanto and co. owning the genetic rights to an ever increasing slice of the worlds seed crops.   Nonsense, how could that possibly be a bad thing.  It’s not like they can claim the rights to seeds from plants which have been inadvertently been cross pollinated from a neighboring field.  Oh wait.  Yes they can.

So yes, I give money every month to Greenpeace.  I’m not out protesting or organizing or any of that stuff.  That’s not me.  Not at this time anyway.  Who knows what the future will bring.  I think it says enough that right now when money’s kind of an issue, I haven’t missed a payment.   Now I’ve learned a little more.

I’m still a dues paying member of Greenpeace.  Because once you learn some things, they can’t be unlearned.

Cheers, Winston

If “Not In My Backyard”, Then Whose?

On By WinstonIn Environment, Green Energy, Media, Politics, Society, TechnologyLeave a comment

Christina Blizzard, writing in the Ottawa Sun is slamming David Suzuki and Dalton McGuinty. One for being a “pompous ass”, and the other being praised by a pompous ass for wanting to build wind turbines where the wind blows.

Before I go any farther, I want to make it clear that this is not to bash Mx. Blizzard.  I subscribed to the Sun for many years.  I’ve always enjoyed Christina\s articles, and this is not an attack on her personally.  Only on the views expressed in the article in question.

Apparently, Dr. Suzuki endorsed McGuinty’s green energy initiatives and  stated bluntly that it would be “absolute insanity” for Provincial Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak to scrap them if voted in during our pending election.  She raises the point because of it’s status as a registered charity, The David Suzuki Foundation is not allowed to participate in partisan politics.  Fair enough.  On the other hand, Dr. Suzuki had apparently stepped down from the board, so is no longer bound by those rules.

Part of her ire stems from a plan put forward by Premier McGuinty’s Liberal party to place 260 massive wind turbines near the town of Zurich on Lake Huron.  According to Mx. Blizzard,  “Each turbine consumes 1.6 hectares of prime farmland – that’s some 405 hectares of farmland that could be use to grow crops.”  She then adds, “How green is that Dr. S?”

Just a couple of quick points.  If she’s so keen to preserve farmland, where has she been while the farms around Orleans have been sub-divided into the history books?  Oh and by the way:  Nice use of the diminutive “Dr. S” to undermine his standing with the readers.  She is an op-ed for a second string tabloid.  He is an internationally recognized leader on environmental issues who hosted a long running science program on national TV.  This probably has a lot to do with her later characterizing him as a “pompous ass” for telling homeowners to use energy efficient light-bulbs and caulk draft-causing leaks in a couple of “creepy” ads in partnership with the provincial government.  I suspect that when you can’t compare credentials, trash-talk is really all you’ve got left.

All of which serves as background for the point I want to make here.  In her unending quest for truth and objectivity, Christina Blizzard talked to the rural residents around Zurich, Ontario and discovered something remarkable.  They are “outraged” by the “monstrosities” springing up and feel they are a “blight on the landscape.”  I’m shocked, aren’t you?

Okay, maybe I’m being a little bit sarcastic there.  Realistically, I would have been more genuinely shocked if they had been happy about it and declared the turbines “paragons of aesthetics in harmony with their natural setting.”  That would have been news worthy.  The fact is, it’s another in a long line of “not in my back yard” issues.

Years ago, when I lived in  a different city, there was talk of building a Young Offenders Facility there.  Much of debate didn’t focus on the jobs such a facility would bring to a “one industry town” where the “one industry” had been declining for years.  Nope.  Most of what made the news were residents worrying what such a facility would do to property values and city councilors pandering to them.   Everyone agreed it was good, just not where they happened to live.

I don’t think you’ll find too many people who will argue in favor of coal burning generating plants over wind turbines in terms of sustainability.  Not unless they work for the coal industry, or they just want to be difficult.  As for the rural residents around Zurich, sorry, you just happen to live where the wind blows.  I’ve spent some time in the area myself, and I know how steady the winds are on the east shore of Lake Huron.  Nothing against the people there, but no matter where they wanted to put them, someone would complain.  It would be someone’s back yard.  This time, it’s in yours.

Sadly, coal, oil and other fossil fuels aren’t going to last much longer.  There are only so many waterways suited to hydro plants, and if the tragedy in Japan is any indicator, nuclear may not be the greatest either.  Barring any major breakthroughs, it seems probable that if you live in a naturally windy place, you could end up with a turbine or two… hundred.  By the same logic, if you live somewhere with a lot of sun, I see a high probability of solar panels in your future.

We need to develop these more sustainable energy technologies now, not when the last puff of smoke from coal drifts away on the wind off Lake Huron.  They have to go somewhere.

If “Not In My Backyard!”, then where?

Cheers, Winston