Clay and Wattles

…coal acts like a sponge, soaking up mercury, uranium and other harmful minerals which are released when it is burned. The state of South Australia is home to the world’s largest uranium mine, yet its largest single point source of radiation is not the mine but a coal-fired power plant at Port Augusta. It’s no real surprise that lung cancers commonly result from burning coal.

-Tim Flannery, The Weather Makers

My “Beyond the One-Tonne Challenge Workshop” today went pretty well, though I only had three participants. It was a good opportunity for me to work out how to explain the concept of carbon offsets and green tags to people. There were lots of questions and I hope everyone was satisfied with my answers. I will probably try it again in the fall when I’m not competing with 10 days of other fabulous Earth Week events.

I prepared a worksheet to help people calculate their household GHG emissions. Click here to view it. I revised my original calculations to include transportation of food (which I will write more about soon).

Everything is connected – healthy families lead to a healthy environment.

Please consider signing this child care petition to convince the Harper government to honour the child care agreements made before the election. We were very close to finally getting a national child care program; don’t let the new government abandon the project.

Every time we thwart the Conservatives, it reduces their power to sabotage the things we value: Kyoto, universal health care, workers’ rights, etc.

Though in many ways it is indecent to compare the relative privilege of retail workers at the mall with the abuse and exploitation suffered by [Third World export] zone workers, there is an undeniable pattern at work. In general, the corporations in question have ensured that they do not have to confront the possibility that adults with families are depending on the wages that they pay, whether at the mall or in the zone. Just as factory jobs that once supported families have been reconfigured in the Third World as jobs for teenagers, so have the brand-name clothing companies and restaurant chains given legitimacy to the idea that fast-food and retail-sector jobs are disposable, and unfit for adults.

-Naomi Klein, No Logo

I will be conducting a workshop on Saturday about green tags. Here is the info in case you want to come:

Beyond the One-Tonne Challenge Worshop!
PSAV Room at the Multiplex, 3:30 – 5:00 pm. With Kevin Kennedy

This is a hands-on workshop to calculate your personal ecological footprint and learn how to reduce your impact on the environment. Find out how to reduce your greenhouse gas emissions to zero thanks to inexpensive carbon offsets! Free admission but you must register with the City at 920-5634

And don’t forget about the Ecology North Earth Week Coffeehouse on Saturday night at the Mildred Hall gym. There will be lots of great entertainment, a silent auction, and more. The coffeehouse is YK’s green event of the year, so don’t miss it.

Julian Darley, Director of the Post Carbon Institute, author of High Noon for Natural Gas and the forthcoming Relocalization, gave an Earth Week presentation in Yellowknife on Saturday. Darley argues that, although the natural gas production peak lags the peak for oil, it will have profound implications for our way of life – and soon. Canadians are very dependent on natural gas (it heats the majority of our buildings, for example) and free trade means that our supply can be commandeered to meet US demand.

I won’t attempt to reproduce Julian’s entire argument here (I may write more on the topic when I have finished reading his book). I feel convinced by the evidence he presents that a) our dependence on fossil fuels is extreme, b) we are running out of fossil fuels (except coal, but I will get to that later), and c) we need to change the infrastructure of our country very quickly or suffer dire economic, environmental, and social consequences. If you have seen The End of Suburbia documentary, you will be familiar with the general idea.

This is especially relevant to northerners because of the Mackenzie Gas Project. Using NWT natural gas to extract the Alberta tar sands is inefficient and won’t really solve our energy problems anyway. He also mentioned that many of the gas fields in the north may turn out to be empty due to leakage into the atmosphere.

I am mostly worried about fossil fuel use as a contributing factor to climate change, but Julian’s warnings are about a completely different, more immediate, problem; he is telling us we have to kick our fossil fuel addiction now before our supplies run out relatively abruptly – with all the attendant human survival problems that may result.

Alternative fuels could help in the long run, but it is nearly impossible to build the infrastructure we need to run our society on alternative energy in the short time we have left. Even though Julian’s case is not strictly an environmental one (and I apologize if I am over-simplifying), his prescriptions for our society are very similar to those of climate change activists: eliminate private cars, reduce the distances that goods must travel to reach markets, close production loops to eliminate wasted byproducts.

It occurred to me that the crisis in fossil fuel supply is arriving just in time to mitigate climate change – if we don’t have the oil or natural gas to burn, then we won’t burn it and climate change will stop. When I asked about this, Julian pointed out that we still have vast reserves of coal which we may be tempted to use. Julian seems to agree with Tim Flannery that coal is a poor solution to human energy requirements; if we get desperate enough to use coal as a mass substitute for oil and natural gas, then we will really be in trouble.

Unless we stop now, we will really doom the lives of our descendants. If we just go on for another forty or fifty years faffing around, they’ll have no chance at all, it’ll be back to the stone age. There’ll be people around still. But civilisation will go.

-James Lovelock, quoted in The Weather Makers by Tim Flannery

After much reflection and research, I have tried to boil down my personal sustainable living program to a series of rules I think will help me to make decisions. Each of these rules should lead me in the right direction. I have aggregated a lot of information to reach these conclusions, but other people still might have different ideas. Make your own list if you don’t like mine (but don’t be too easy on yourself).

Of course, each of these items should really be followed by the words “whenever possible.” It would be difficult to truly “buy nothing” or “waste nothing,” but the point is to keep the rules simple so I have to think about the exceptions I make.

Here is my list:

1. Travel using human power.
2. Be a vegetarian
3. Eat sustainable food.
4. Use low-impact shelter.
5. Don’t be a mercenary.
6. Buy nothing (but make it local and sustainable).
7. Waste nothing.
8. Don’t borrow money.
9. Love others.
10. Learn everything.
11. Carpe diem.
12. Promote these ideas.
13. Support others who practice these ideas.

Every one of these rules has many implications (some probably contradictory). “Eat sustainable food” where I live means growing or harvesting my own, but it might mean something else in an agricultural region. “Loving others” may mean volunteering at the food bank, supporting the rights of union workers, or donating to the SPCA. The mechanics change over time, but I feel like the rules should be pretty stable. I know I didn’t invent these rules and I don’t expect other people to take my word for them – the point of this is to spend time thinking about the issues and doing something about them.

Few people would disagree with the logic behind the majority of these principles (okay, I’ll admit some people might argue with #2). Even so, I could easily run down my list and remember excuses I have made to break every single rule many times over. I’m sure you could, too. We know what is right, but we always think we can make an exception for ourselves.

I love that these aren’t simply rules to save the environment, but rules for a healthy body and mind, rules for a just, equitable world, and rules for happiness and fulfillment. A life that conformed to all of these rules would truly be worth living.

I attended the Co-op AGM last week and made my little speech about organic food (read my letter to the Co-op Board here). I didn’t get much response at the time as it was a very large public meeting with many topics to cover. I am still hoping for a reply from the Board and will follow up soon.

Meanwhile, I was shocked by another aspect of the Co-op I had never considered: it subsidizes gasoline purchases at the gas bar. I knew the price was cheaper, but had never thought about why. It turns out that grocery sales may actually be subsizing gas discounts. As the Treasurer pointed out “we are not making money on gas sales.” The discussion of this issue included mention of times when Co-op was actually selling gas at below its cost.

As I understand it, the Co-op charges market prices for all goods and then takes whatever profit is left at the end of the year (after reinvestments in the business) and distributes that money as dividends to Co-op members. Gasoline is an exception. Instead of treating it like other products, the Co-op essentially gives out a guaranteed dividend (in the form of the discount) at time of sale. This means that even when the Co-op doesn’t actually lose money on gasoline, none of that potential dividend can be reinvested and that gasoline buyers get a better return on their Co-op investment than buyers of anything else. It also means that if the Co-op has a bad year, gas buyers will be sucking money out of the business, while grocery buyers will be paying the difference.

I had to leave the meeting early to go teach a class, but another member spoke up to suggest that the point-of-sale gas discount be dropped (gas purchasers would still get a huge discount on gasoline, they would just have to wait until the end of the year for a dividend like everyone else). I understand the idea didn’t get very far. Instead, the Co-op will be working on some expensive, ridiculous high-tech system to prevent non-members from buying subsidized gas.

Presumably, the gas discount was instituted on the assumption that all Co-op members would benefit equally because everyone drives a car. This is, of course, untrue. Even if it were true, it has never been the case that everyone uses the same amount of gas. I hate the idea that I (and even people who drive fuel-efficient vehicles for that matter) am subsidizing people who drive gas-guzzling SUVs, snowmobiles, and boats every time I buy a loaf of bread.

The first extant bits of the Epic of Gilgamesh, an ancient Babylonian story, date from about 2100 BCE, over 4000 years ago. I just finished Stephen Mitchell’s new translation and was amazed by the following passage.

Gilgamesh’s beloved best friend, Enkidu, has died. Gilgamesh is inconsolable, partly with grief for Enkidu, but also with grief for himself – he has suddenly grasped his own mortality. He sets off on an epic journey to find the secret of immortality. On the way, he meets a woman named Shiduri who tells him:

Humans are born, they live, then they die,
this is the order that the gods have decreed.
But until the end comes, enjoy your life,
spend it in happiness, not despair.
Savor your food, make each of your days
a delight, bathe and anoint yourself,
wear bright clothes that are sparkling clean,
let music and dancing fill your house,
love the child who holds you by the hand,
and give your wife pleasure in your embrace.
That is the best way for a man to live.

If we expand the sentiment to both genders, I think this plan is as reliable now as it was 4000 years ago. I notice she doesn’t mention anything about automobiles or DVD players.