Late last year Sweden ran out of garbage which caused problems in their energy network. In an ironic step, Sweden’s efficient waste diversion programs are so good that their trash-burning power plants couldn’t find anything to burn. To keep electricity flowing they turned to neighbour Norway for their trash. Let’s
Continue readingTag: energy
Eclectic Lip: Electron democracy
A long-belated companion to Steven Chu’s “Time to fix the wiring” essay I posted earlier, this is the white paper I co-authored for the same McKinsey & Company series. Given the roughly five-month delay in uploading this, I suppose “Time to post the writing” might be an apt subtitle… 🙂
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Is It Really That Hard to Imagine Cities Without Cars?
A blissful infographic of imaginative paradigm mechanics! Probably. That’s why really creative paradigm mechanics are thinking outside the box-y sedans to figure out how we could reorient cities and movement in cities with a changed premise: no cars. Imagine how much parking space we’d free up for human pursuits? Imagine
Continue readingThings Are Good: Saudi Arabia Starts $109 Billion Push for Renewable Energy
The end of cheap oil is inevitable and it’s clear that at least one oil-producing nation gets that. Unlike Canada, which seemingly wants to destroy half a province, Saudi Arabia (with the second-largest oil reserves) is looking to invest a lot of money into fossil-fuel-free energy. Saudi Arabia wants it’s
Continue readingThings Are Good: Using Behavioural Science to Lower Energy Consumption
Alex Laskey wants to lower people’s energy consumption by using tricks and practices from the world of behavioural science. It sounds great and would be great to see implemented, check out his TED talk for more:
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Keystone XL Tar Sands Pipeline Raises American Gas Prices: Report
If built, TransCanada’s proposed Keystone XL pipeline would force Americans to pay as much as 40 cents more per gallon for gasoline in some parts of the country, according to a new report by the nonprofit Consumer Watchdog. The post Keystone XL Tar Sands Pipeline Raises American Gas Prices: Report
Continue readingThings Are Good: Cheap and Easy Ways to Keep Cool Without Air Conditioning
I’m one of those people that can’t handle unrelenting heat and so I’m always looking for ways to stay cool. I’m also one of those people who doesn’t like air conditioning (for reasons beyond the obvious power consumption), as a result I love tips on how to make your home
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Stephen Harper Visits Lac Megantic
Mourning the senseless tragedy. Today I was very impressed when Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada, broke with his almost long-held position of not visiting Lac Megantic. While he and his wife took the opportunity to participate in staged political photo ops helping out with the Calgary floods, he has
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Climate Change Denial Affirmations
The sky is not falling. It’s just the end of this ice age. Extreme weather events are not related to each other. The climate is not a global system of feedback loops. Ecology is spin from tree-hugging, granola-eating hippies. Ice melts. The global insurance industry is only talking about climate
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: New, Better Jobs Building a Green Energy Infrastructure
Let’s go post-carbon and transform Big Carbon jobs into green jobs! We are so addicted to carbon-based energy: oil, gas, coal, LNG plants, fracking, pipelines, tanker spills. It gets so discouraging sometimes. But something that the post-carbon energy infrastructure advocates are missing out on, I think, is promoting more of
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: President Obama showed leadership on climate change: Environmental Defence
President Barack Obama (Photo: Pete Souza) In his much-anticipated speech on climate change and the environment this week, US President Barack didn’t exactly kill TransCanada’s proposed Keystone XL pipeline as environmentalists had hoped. He simply stated that Keystone should only be approved if it doesn’t lead to an increase in
Continue readingThings Are Good: Mongolia Builds Their First Wind Farm
Mongolia is entering the sustainable energy market and the country aims to export renewable energy to its neighbours. It’s great to see countries that are not as well-off as others build the needed infrastructure for a sustainable future. Mongolia is so windy and has such harsh winters, in fact, that
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Is new coal export infrastrucutre in the best interest of BC and Canada
Today’s CBC Edition Business Panel focused on the proposal by Fraser Surrey Docks to build a new coal terminal on the Fraser river to export US thermal coal (if you missed it, here’s the recording starting at 1:50). This may seem like a local issue for the West Coast, but
Continue readingThings Are Good: USA Raises ‘Carbon Price’
Climate change is happening and it’s costing a lot of money to deal with. More floods, tornados, hurricanes, and other natural events are happening with greater frequency thanks to planetary temperature increase. The reason the planet’s temperature is increasing is thanks to the way previous generations have dealt with waste.
Continue readingThings Are Good: Lower Your Energy Consumption in Easy Ways
With more technology around the home more energy is required to power the devices, and this adds up when millions of people plug things in. There are enough energy consumers out there that needlessly leave things running leads to a ton of wasted energy being produced. Fortunately there are many
Continue readingArt Threat: Mapping the world’s largest solar farm with Project 929
How large of a solar farm is needed to completely power the United States? The simple answer is that a solar farm 100 miles long and 100 miles wide would be “more than enough to meet the country’s entire energy demand.” The far more interesting answer, however, is that this
Continue readingEarthgauge Radio: EG Radio May 16: Our last show of the season! The human costs of climate change with Andrew Guzman
Download: earthgauge-podcast-may16-2013.mp3 This week is our last show before the summer break! I’m taking a few months off to recharge the batteries so we’re ready to come back strong in September for an all new season. On today’s program, we’re going to hear an interview from our friends at Generation Anthropocene
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: Taking the Pipeline and Tankers Debate to Enbridge’s Door
Thursday, May 9, 2013 It was a very long way to travel to be turned away at the door. As I noted in an earlier post, a delegation of us journeyed from BC to Enbridge’s Annual General Meeting, on Wednesday, May 8th, to deliver to shareholders and the Board of
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: Taking the Pipeline and Tankers Debate to Enbridge’s Door
Thursday, May 9, 2013 It was a very long way to travel to be turned away at the door. As I noted in an earlier post, a delegation of us journeyed from BC to Enbridge’s Annual General Meeting, on Wednesday, May 8th, to deliver to shareholders and the Board of
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: Wanted: strong provincial action to protect our coast and rivers from tar sands oil
Thursday, May 9, 2013 On Earth Day (April 22nd) we joined many other environmental organizations in applauding Adrian Dix and the NDP for standing up for our coast, and expressing opposition to the expansion of the KinderMorgan Pipeline. Although the NDP’s position is a bit less precise than the BC
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