Archive for Ecology & sustainability

As we attempt to preserve as much as we can of an economy that relies on enormous and cheap energy inputs, there is a temptation to turn to all kinds of desperate measures.  It has long been a concern of mine that energy crops will compete directly with food crops, to preserve a high-energy lifestyle for the world’s rich at the cost of food for the world’s poor.

Here‘s a UK report that suggests that food shortages will hit the world before climate change affects us.

Note that this article isn’t even anti-nuclear.  But still it points out that current nuclear technology is fundamentally incapable of solving global warming.  The scale of nuclear buildout that would be required would have each batch of nuclear reactors simply fuelling the construction of the next batch, and world emissions rising as quickly as ever.

They suggest investing in nuclear to make it more efficient.  I rather think there’s been too much “investment” in nuclear already.

At the transportation talk I attended the night before last, one audience member pointed out that Israel expects to stop selling internal combustion engine vehicles by 2020.  Here‘s support for that statement, though the details are a little different.

I’ve been participating in JustEarth, an environmental coalition spearheaded by former MP Lynn McDonald when the riding was called Broadview-Greenwood.

Although Lynn is an NDP member, she is pushing for a carbon tax, which the NDP has so far rejected.  If you have some time, download the carbon tax petition and get your neighbours to sign it.  In my experience, it’s actually an easy sell.

Be sure to mention that the petition specifically asks that the carbon tax be offset by a corresponding reduction in income taxes, and that these reductions be structured so that low-income Canadians aren’t hurt by the change.

The Calgary Herald recently reported here on the need for more energy to fuel expansion of tar sands extraction.

The tar sands require a lot of energy in extraction.  Most of it comes from natural gas.  And natural gas supplies are diminishing while the demands of the tar sands increase with expansion.  Nuclear power company Areva  sees great promise in these developments:

Speaking in Calgary, Areva CEO Armand Laferrere said continued oilsands development would consume virtually all of Canada’s current natural gas supply — some 92 per cent — by 2030.

“You need to diversify,” he said on the sidelines of the Canadian Energy Research Institute’s natural gas conference.     Read more »