Oh, the irony

We did our monthly or so recycling run today. We like to let it build up so it barely fits in the trunk of the car. We pulled up to the recycling bins to see that someone had backed their Toyota Tundra right up to the little gate in the fence AND LEFT IT RUNNING! LP and I deposited our milk jugs and cardboard where they needed to be but not in record time. Just after we were done, the Tundra driving man finished as well. We noticed he took a few trips back and forth and wasn't speedy by any means. He had been there for a little while before we arrived by all appearances. I was left wondering why someone driving a nice looking Tundra who's taking the bother to recycle leaves his truck idling for 10 minutes in +10°C weather. Calgary is only just figuring out how to pick up recycling with regular garbage while Edmonton has been doing it for 15 years or more so it requires some effort by the citizens who do recycle so I assume anyone recycling in Calgary has some environmental awareness. I have a huge beef with the excess idling that goes on just to have a warm car instead of dressing properly and enduring the few minutes it takes to warm up the car while driving. I'm hoping more anti-idling laws will come into effect and be enforced. By the number of people who use the Fire Lane right in front of Superstore's doors as their own personal reserved parking spot without suffering any ill effects, I don't hold much hope.

Earth Hour Results

As you can read, Calgary actually used more power during Earth Hour than just before it. I'm not surprised but these numbers could be misleading. It was still light out when Earth Hour began so I would expect an increase between the reported times of 19:45 and 20:15 since some people, like me, didn't turn their lights out because they were already off. People who were like me but didn't participate in Earth Hour, would have just turned on their lights so they would cause pre-Earth Hour power numbers to be low. I would like to see some power graphs for Earth Hour and some other recent days. Since it was definitely dark when Earth Hour ended, a power graph spanning 21:00 would show if consumption quickly picked up. Still, it's a poor showing by Calgary as photos show most of the buildings downtown with just as many lights on as any other day.

Observing Earth Hour 2008

... or, "Lights on in Hidden Valley."

I observed Earth Hour today. I turned my lights and TV off and my computer spent almost the full time asleep. I did take my daily shower in the dark but, with my glasses off, I don't see much in the shower anyway. I also spent a little time snooping on my neighbours. Photojournalism is something that interests me quite a bit since I like photography and I don't believe anyone in politics or the media with the exceptions of Rick Mercer, Bob McDonald and Peter Mansbridge. I might believe Rex Murphy if I could understand what he's saying. Since I'm such a skeptic, I have to see things for myself and I'll be watching Futurama reruns during The National.

Since I was alone and bored in the house and too lazy to go out in the cold to get a good set of pictures, I aimed my telephoto lens out my bedroom window to see if one of the newer communities of Calgary would be turning out their lights. As you can see in the during and after pictures, the answer is pretty much, "no." I count about four lights coming on afterwards and one turned off afterwards. It would have been interesting to see the view of downtown from the top of Nose Hill and see a wider sampling of Calgary but, as I stated, I'm feeling lazy tonight so my sample is whatever I can see out my bedroom window. It's kind of like deciding the Cola War by asking one person if they like Coke or Pepsi.

From my small sample area, I'd have to say I'm disappointed. Turning out your lights for an hour is a token gesture so, ergo, it's not a tough one. One of my neighbours even had their backyard Xmas lights on. Oh well, next year I'll try to get some better pictures. I feel like a Barq's or a Dr. Pepper.

The Abolition of the Canadian Government

The Canadian government should be abolished. 308 people arguing and then doing what Stephen Harper wants them to do anyway. 27 ministers in the cabinet and a similar number shadowing them. As far as I can tell, the backbenchers are mostly used to boo and otherwise stifle discussion and create interest for C-SPAN viewers who can try and spot them napping. Canada's New Government hasn't done anything productive except giving Canada a black eye by siding with the U.S. at the climate talks in December in Bali, taxing an insufficient child care benefit and hiding upper-class tax cuts as a reduction in the GST.

Tax-payers would save a bundle of money if we threw out those 308 MPs and replaced them with just one person per province or territory per party. 13 provinces and territories and one Conservative, Green, Liberal and NDP each. By my count, that's 52 people; just like a deck of cards. I guess we'd have to let in one joker from Quebec to represent the BQ.

The good part of this idea is the direct democracy. Currently, you vote for someone in your riding in the party you like. Even if your constituency wants public day care and your Conservative promised he'd convince Stephen Harper to implement public day care once elected, as soon as your MP got to Ottawa, Steve told him to go to his desk in the back row, sit down and shut up. I'm suggesting that all decisions be made on-line in a referendum. This isn't as stupid as Reform's idea to hold referendums on everything if they got a petition asking for one. (I'm looking at you, Doris, uh... I mean, Stockwell Day.) This is 13 people for each party coming up with ideas about how to run Canada. One party submits an idea and then there are two weeks to lobby the position of each party and two weeks for Canadians to log in and vote. If logging in to do your banking and file your taxes is secure, then logging in to vote for the GST going back to 7% or being removed completely has to be possible. Estonia votes on-line! In the West we think they're a backwards, former Communist country yet they can go to their computers and cast a vote in elections. If a public voting computer was set up in every Tim Horton's, you'd easily beat the usual 40% or lower turnout on federal elections.

The best part is that Stephen Harper can no longer stick his fingers in his ears and sing, "la la la, I'm not listening." You wouldn't get John Baird going to Bali, refusing to co-operate with the rest of the world and then returning home to lament that more could have been done. You also would be saved from a government which won't think more than four years into the future because that's the time-line for the next election. If 90% of the population logs in and votes to agree to the next agreement after Kyoto, then 90% of the population realizes that they'll have to make some sacrifices to meet the country's goals. I wouldn't have to hear Harper complain that Canada's New Government will become unpopular because they happen to be governing when Canada starts to realize we need to make some big steps to fight global warming and some people might get upset when you ban their SUV from the road.

Of course, the absolute best part of this plan is that I don't have to see thousands of campaign signs on the side of the road every two years when the latest minority government gets ousted.

If it sounds too good to be true...

The Rick Mercer Report on Tuesday did a story about ZENN cars; made in Canada cars but currently illegal to drive here. ZENN stands for Zero Emission, No Noise. While the cars look great and don't create any pollutants themselves, I hope people realize that something needs to be done upstream to reduce their carbon footprint.

One litre of gasoline yields about 35 MJ of energy and I typically drive my car less than most people so I use around 50 L of fuel per month; that's 1.75 GJ of energy I put into my car. If I owned a ZENN car and used a similar about of energy, at 8¢/kWh that I get with EasyMax, I'd send Enmax an extra $39/month but I wouldn't be giving that money to Husky. Based on energy usage, that's like paying 78¢/L but my EasyMax rate is locked in for the next five years. Of course, I wouldn't drive the ZENN nearly as much as my Jetta because the range is 56 km on a charge and the car tops out at 40 km/h. I can almost ride my bike faster than this car. And at four hours for an 80% charge, the drive to mom's would take 27.5 hours; only 7.5 of that actually driving.

What people need to realize with all these "zero emission" vehicles is that the energy has to come from somewhere. Yes, the ZENN itself produces no emissions but, if I plug my car in in Edmonton, all that energy could come from the Genesee coal-fired power plant. I hope no one tries to tell me that is zero emission. Of course, if Enmax allowed reverse metering, I would install a wind turbine on my home 'cause it's always windy here. I only checked a few sites and my friend who's trying to manufacture and sell wind turbines here hasn't got back to me with his numbers but, if the wind speed averages 20 km/h for the month, I could generate up to 400 kWh (1.44 GJ) of electric power. That's slightly off the 500 kWh (1.8 GJ) my home used last month and also slightly off what a ZENN car would use per month but I don't mind giving Enmax $32 less per month. They'd make it up with their distribution fees, service fees, unfair fees and taxes.

If we're going to make use of electric or hydrogen cars, we need to improve how we generate the power we use in our homes. I'd love the government to anger big business by helping home-owners install their own solar or wind generation systems and allow the consumer to bill the company when an excess of power is generated. As unpopular as it is, nuclear power is also an option but has anyone calculated the planet's uranium reserves? I guess I'd better get back to work on my cold-fusion experiments.

Chinese Philosophy

Despite the West's objections to a law imposed on a society by a basically totalitarian government, I have to say I agree with China's one child policy. Though, I'm also glad my parents-in-law paid the fine when my wife was born as their second child. Before anyone asks me any "what ifs" because my wife is around only because of her parents' disregard for the law, you can ask "what if" about any decision anyone makes in life. I try to just make the best of the current situation. Hmm... What if I hadn't gone into geophysics? We'll never know.

Anyway, awhile ago I was listening to Dr. Bob McDonald on Quirks and Quarks talk to Alan Weisman about his book, "The World Without Us." I haven't read the book yet but I intend to and the idea I present here was presented during the interview so, if I don't have the facts of the book entirely straight, I'll try to straighten them out soon. I also apologize for skipping to the end of the book, but Alan Weisman suggests a worldwide one child policy.

If you consider the rapid and unsustainable growth of the human population, reducing our numbers a bit would make some sense. With 6.6 billion people in the world today and 9.4 billion expected in 2050, I don't see how the Earth can keep up with providing for all the humans. Each new person put on this planet requires a certain amount of resources.

Obviously, we're seeing today that the Earth cannot keep up and the ideas put forth about how to be sustainable/environmental without putting a limit on the number of humans on the planet are just ridiculous. The false environmentalist propaganda I like the most comes from the auto industry. Prices at the pumps were low across North America and then Hurricane Katrina blows through. Fuel prices take a big jump and the next day all the car ads have a new voice-over claiming this vehicle is now fuel efficient. Now everyone thinks hybrid cards or ethanol will save the planet. Take a gander over at Ford.ca at their Escape Hybrid. The regular model will set you back 10.7 L/100 km in the city and 7.7 L/100 km on the highway. The hybrid model uses only 5.7 L/100 km in the city and 6.7 L/100 km on the highway. I believe the reversal of economy is due to the sustained power to propel yourself down the highway is way too much for the electric engine so you're burning fuel the whole time. With a price difference of $7500 and assuming you do a lot of driving while gas still costs you around $1.10/L, you'll pay off the extra cost in a mere 136 000 km of city driving or 682 000 km of pure highway driving.

But I'm not concerned about how people are punished for trying to save the planet; I'm concerned about the pure consumption of humans. If I have two children and buy them each a Ford Escape Hybrid and they each drive 100 km per week in the city, they're using 11.4 L of fuel which is more than if I had only one child and bought her the regular Escape. Of course, it's also $41 000 cheaper to buy just one regular Escape. Someone else can do the math to see if two Toyota Priuses are more economical than one regular Toyota. That's also an argument purely based on fuel. The blog at Quirks and Quarks also pointed out that every car loses rubber from its tires which gets washed into the gutter and into our rivers, drips lubricant and requires its share of steel, aluminium and plasticsl. And don't tell me ethanol is the answer. With more people there are more mouths to feed yet we would rather that more people bought more cars powered by more corn which needs more water to grow. More is not sustainable.

If you want to cut greenhouse gases by 20%, why not let the worldwide population fall from 6.6 billion to 5.28 billion instead of making each person find 20% of their carbon footprint to cut. In fact, you'll have to cut more than 20%. Before the Earth's population has had much of a chance to fall under a one child policy, the population will have hit 7 billion in 2011. Now you have to cut your personal carbon footprint by 25%.

Sometimes an authoritarian figure has to step in and force people to do what's best. It should be obvious that governments and a few CEOs making obscene amounts of money aren't going to curb our consumerism or do anything to jeopardize their ability to make even more money.