Clean Energy As A Priority For Canada!

[Kyla Farmer]

Transition Ottawa,

 

Election day is now upon us. Perhaps things will change, and perhaps they won't. Either way, clean energy is a hot hot issue and most definitely a topic that many have been discussing as of late. Many are still learning, many have adopted clean energy into their home or business, however, there is a lot of ground to cover.

 

I ask you this - Are you willing to stand up for clean energy? Why do you care about clean energy? Is clean energy important for you as a Canadian? Why?

 

Allow this discussion to be free reign for anything and everything clean energy. I want all of your thoughts, ideas, pros and cons. 

 

I appreciate it, and hope to talk with you even more so about this in the future. Take care!

 

 

Kyla Farmer

 

http://www.sierraclub.ca

http://www.elections.ca

http://www.canada.gc.ca

http://nrcan.gc.ca/eneene/index-eng.php

http://www.bluegreencanada.ca/

http://www.mei.gov.on.ca/en/

The Canadian Renewable Energy Network (CanREN) | Natural Resources Canada's CanmetENERGY | Leadership in ecoInnovation http://bit.ly/gFcil3

http://www.pembina.org/re/canada

http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/mib-dgif.nsf/eng/h_hu00001.html

http://www.renewableenergybug.com/renewable-energy-companies/canada/

Legislative Assembly of Ontario | Bills & Lawmaking | Current Parliament | Bill 150, Green Energy and Green Economy Act, 2009 http://bit.ly/hUixyQ

[David Wallace]

That's a big ol' can of worms to open! It's not important to me solely as a Canadian, but as a citizen of the planet.  Starting locally is of course the way to get at the "big fish" down the line but change will be difficult to witness by anyone who is not local.  I often encourage my employer to take a greener approach to running his business (biodegradable packaging, pushing our organic/local selection of product, requesting a proper recycling program from the landlord, etc.), but I am preaching to the unconvinced and uninterested.  It's frustrating to see him, being of an older generation than myself, still have an old school mentality regarding such topics as natural resources, aggregates, and fresh water.  Willingness to stand up for clean energy is growing in me as I grow into myself.  Caring about clean energy is a great way to begin change.

[Tess Frost]

My mother told me a sweet story about the San in Southern Africa. Many of these people, often known as Bushmen, still live the old hunter/gatherer lifestyle. They have, to us westerners, an incredible and encyclopedic knowledge of their environment. An obscure fact, or at least I heard it as fact, is that as a race these people score higher than any other group on maths aptitude tests. And, of course, they are trackers sans pareille.

The South African Defence Force, in its heyday of warmongering in Southern Africa in the years of apartheid recognised the San tracking skills, and set up a "tracker" battalion, consisting solely of San men (and probably a white commander). The members of this battallion were due housed in the army barracks, where a new problem surfaced - they were not toilet trained. Oh, they could hold it in until a suitable time to get rid of it, but they did not know about toilets. In their old lifestyle they would find a suitable bush in the bush where they live and make their deposit. The kind of population density they lived in was so small that this was just dandy, and greener than green of course. But in the barracks it wouldn't do. And I am sure they were retrained in short order.

The point is though, that thye had never thought this issue through. They had never had to. And we are just like them now, on a FAR grander scale with far more damaging results. Our waste is cluttering up and depleting our entire planet, not just our own barracks. We have to learn to think this one through to the logical conclusion, given current population pressures.

Maybe this little homily will help convince recalcitrant bosses and landlords?

[Tess Frost]

We need to pressure whichever govt comes into power to create subsidies for green transport development. Obama has subsidies in place to get an electric car charging network and electric cars available. This doesn't seem to be getting much attention in Canada, and some active resistance. BC is the only province that appears to be making headway on this.

As to public transit, I love the autonomous pod system:

http://green.autoblog.com/2010/01/23/masdar-city-testing-all-electr...

www.personalrapidtransit.com/

www.ultraprt.com/cms/index.php?page=overview

www.vectusprt.com/prt/overview.php

Got some of these from this discussion:

http://www.thezeitgeistmovement.com/joomla/index.php?option=com_kun...

 

I think we should lobby City Hall on this, especially for the outlying areas, though downtown would be good too. I favour the underground system from an out of sight perspective, but there are costs and possibility of crime opportunity creation to consider.

[Tess Frost]

Also we should make more use of the sun. Most people work during the day. Why are all offices lit by electricity, while warding off oodles of sunlight? Let's also lobby for a building code that demands lightpipes to be installed as a matter of course, so that daylight working hours can be done in daylight, not electric light.