Browsed by
Category: Energy

What Can We Do?

What Can We Do?

Comments 0 comment

At the University of Minnesota Dr. Nate Hagens teaches an honours course called “Reality 101: A Survey of the Human Predicament.” Hagens operated his own hedge fund on Wall Street until he glimpsed, “a serious disconnect between capitalism, growth, and the natural world. Money did not appear to bring wealthy clients more well being. ”Reality 101 addresses humanity’s toughest challenges: economic decline, inequality, pollution, biodiversity loss, and war. Students learn about systems ecology, neuroscience, and economics. “We ask hard questions,” says Hagens….

Read More Read More

Degrowth in the suburbs

Degrowth in the suburbs

Comments 0 comment

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeNaMlibiak&w=560&h=315] So what would become of the suburbs if we gave up fossil fuels and moved toward a low-energy, post-carbon society beyond growth? Suburban catastrophists like James Kunstler in the US argue that fossil fuel depletion will imminently render the suburban landscape an inhospitable wasteland. Such curdled imaginations fail to recognise suburbia’s latent capacity to become something new. Inspired by research and advocacy from the likes of Ivan Illich, David Holmgren, and Ted Trainer, we see the suburbs as an ideal place to begin retrofitting our cities according…

Read More Read More

New plant slated for Johnstown

New plant slated for Johnstown

Comments 0 comment

An Ontario company has chosen Johnstown to become the first North American site of a recycling operation that uses a unique technology to turn plastics into light diesel oil and natural gas. Grant Lawson, president of BBL Energy Inc., said the company will take such “dirty” plastic waste as water bottles, food containers like margarine tubs, plastic bags, hospital waste, straws and industrial drums. This plastic is now plugging up landfills because it can’t be recycled. The company’s same machines…

Read More Read More

Have your say on climate change, cancellation of Cap and Trade

Have your say on climate change, cancellation of Cap and Trade

Comments 0 comment

Bill 4, Cap and Trade Cancellation This Act repeals the Climate Change Mitigation and Low-carbon Economy Act, 2016 and provides for various matters related to the wind down of the Cap and Trade Program. It also establishes a requirement for the Minister to prepare a climate change plan and to prepare progress reports in respect of the plan The government’s Environment Ministry has  OPENED an online comment portal to seek public feedback about what it should do about climate change,…

Read More Read More

Breaking it down: how carbon pricing addresses climate change

Breaking it down: how carbon pricing addresses climate change

Comments 0 comment

  Pollution isn’t free. There is a real cost to the environment and our health when someone — an individual or a business — pollutes, leaving the air, water, or land less clean for everyone. Economists tell us that putting a price on pollution will reduce emissions; but there is often a misunderstanding or lack of clarity on exactly how it achieves this. As illustrated in our recent infographic series, it’s helpful to think of solutions in the near-term, mid-term,…

Read More Read More

10 overlooked low-tech ways of keeping your home cool

10 overlooked low-tech ways of keeping your home cool

Comments 0 comment

Summer is here and the air is full of the the sound of whining air conditioners, all seriously sucking kilowatts. Yet much of that air conditioning load could be reduced or the air conditioning season shortened if we did simple things, many of them common before air conditioning was common in North America. Here are some low-tech tips for keeping cool. The best ideas are those that keep the heat out of your home in the first place, rather than…

Read More Read More

How land under solar panels can contribute to food security

How land under solar panels can contribute to food security

Comments 0 comment

Adding plants to solar farms offers all kinds of benefits to the facilities’ primary aim of reducing carbon emissions and expanding renewable energy. “Solar development is happening on a massive scale as lands are being converted from agricultural land or unused land into solar projects,” says Jordan Macknick, energy-water-land lead analyst with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), which funds research on the impact of native and crop plants grown in solar farms. “That represents an amazing opportunity to improve…

Read More Read More

Nice shades: 7 Fast growing shade trees to slash your electric bill

Nice shades: 7 Fast growing shade trees to slash your electric bill

Comments 0 comment

Keeping the sun off of our homes and windows during the summer can end up saving us both money and energy, because we can avoid some of the heating effects and keep our homes cooler to begin with, so less energy is required to keep them comfortable. And one of the best ways to do that is by planting shade trees in the right location around our home, where they can block the sun from streaming in our windows and…

Read More Read More

Provincial Party Responses 2018

Provincial Party Responses 2018

Comments 0 comment

Make your vote count: find out where the parties stand. The next Government of Ontario will inherit a province facing many significant environmental challenges, from climate change and ongoing loss of biodiversity to a steady build up of toxics and pollutants in our air, water and land.  Strong actions will be required to address these problems and to position Ontario to benefit in a world rapidly moving toward a low-carbon future and embracing the need for more sustainable economic and…

Read More Read More

RetroSuburbia talk by David Holmgren

RetroSuburbia talk by David Holmgren

Comments 0 comment

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mk48lxgs-5c&w=560&h=315] Co-founder of the permaculture movement, David Holmgren, encourages permaculture activists to focus their energies on retrofitting suburbia for an energy descent future. David argues that the opportunities to retrofit are so much more important than new buildings because of the limits to debt based growth.