Just when you thought Stephen Harper could get no slimier...

It seems he has invited three companies to join the official delegation to Bali, even though opposition MPs, aboriginal groups and environmental groups have been banned. Way to go, Steve.

From today's Globe:

Two companies from Ottawa, where Environment Minister John Baird is an MP, have been allowed to join Canada's official delegation to the climate-change conference, according to documents obtained by The Globe and Mail.

A major oil and gas producer, EnCana Corp. of Calgary, was also permitted to join the delegation.

By joining the Canadian delegation, the corporations could influence Canada's position at the Bali conference, where about 190 countries are trying to hammer out a new agreement to replace the Kyoto accord to solve the global-warming crisis.

Last month, the government announced that environmental groups and opposition MPs would not be welcome in the official delegation at Bali, despite a long-standing tradition of including them in Canadian delegations to international meetings. Aboriginal groups were also banned from the delegation.

Among those included on the Canadian delegation are four executives of Iogen Corp., a biotechnology company that produces cellulose ethanol, and PlascoEnergy Group Inc., a waste conversion company.

Both are based in Ottawa, and both have received substantial federal money. Iogen was given $7.7-million by the federal government last February, while Plasco has received $6.5-million from the federal government.

Plasco's CEO is Rod Bryden, former owner of the Ottawa Senators of the National Hockey League.

By joining the official Canadian delegation, the companies will gain a series of privileges, including access to government briefings and closed-door sessions at the Bali conference.

Harper has once again embarassed Canada on the world stage. He has joined forces with the US and Japan in stalling world cooperation on climate change. Read the Globe article here. I don't know about you, but this makes me furious. He is in a minority government acting directly against the wishes of 80% of Canadians who demand action on climate change. He is also disregarding urgent scientific evidence. If you're as angry about this as I am then attend Saturday, Dec 8th's Global Day of Action. The demonstration in Toronto is at Dundas Square at noon. Check here for information about your local Canadian rally... And here for everywhere else... or check out the Greenpeace site, and they'll direct you.

Clean cleaning

Here's a link to a story on the CBC website about eco-friendly cleaners you can make from stuff around the house.

Here's most of the good stuff from the story:

• To clear your drains Pour 125 ml of baking soda down the sink and add at least a cup of vinegar. Put the cover on the drain and wait a few minutes. Finish by rinsing through with a mixture of boiling water and salt.
• To clean your oven Make a paste of baking soda and water. First, scratch off burnt spots with a scouring brush and then apply the paste and scrub.
• To clean your windows and other glass You have two options: for every litre of water, add 75 ml of vinegar into a spray bottle. Or try club soda. Be sure to use a lint-free cloth to wipe up.
• To clean your toilet bowl Sprinkle baking soda around the inside of the toilet bowl and scrub with toilet brush. Add some white vinegar into the bowl and let sit for a few minutes before cleaning with the brush.
• To clean your bathtub and surrounding tilesMix 400 ml baking soda, 125 ml liquid soap, 125 ml water and a few spoonfuls of vinegar. Apply, scrub and wipe. Got mildew? Try vinegar and salt.
• Cleaning up in the kitchen Use baking soda on non-scratch surfaces and the vinegar and water mixture on all others.
• Cleaning your microwave oven Mix 30 ml of baking soda or lemon juice and 250 ml water in a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave for five minutes or until the liquid boils and condensation builds up inside the microwave. Wipe down.
• Polishing your silver Put a sheet of aluminum foil into a plastic or glass bowl. Sprinkle the foil with salt and baking soda and fill bowl with warm water. Soak your silver in the bowl. The tarnish will migrate to the foil. Dry and buff.
• Cleaning brass Cut a lemon in half, sprinkle it with salt and rub the lemon on the metal. Buff with a cloth.
• Cleaning your copper Make a paste with equal parts white vinegar, flour and salt. Rub it onto your copper, leave it on for an hour and then buff with a cloth.
• Cleaning your chrome surfaces Try toothpaste.
• All-purpose cleaner In a spray bottle, combine five ml borax, 2.5 ml baking soda, 30 ml lemon juice and 250 ml of hot water.
• Cleaning your wood floors Mix 125 ml white vinegar and 125 ml vegetable or olive oil in a spray bottle.
• Furniture Polish In a spray bottle mix 250 ml vegetable or olive oil and 125 ml of lemon juice. Shake well and apply a small amount to a cloth.
• Multi-purpose deep cleaner Mix 250 ml household ammonia, 125 ml white vinegar, 62.5 ml baking soda and four litres of warm water.

Fly the Eco-Friendly Skies?

What is the deal with flying? Using a plane to get around is, apparently, the most greenhouse gas intensive form of transport per person per kilometer. Hard to believe when you're cheek to jowl with a drooling golfer and a sullen teenager in a hot cigar tube smelling of feet! But what can we do about it? Everyone needs to travel: for business, for relaxation, for love...

Here's an interesting fact: after September 11, scientists could study the effect of air travel - in particular comtrails - on the temperature of the earth. They found that there was a greater swing (about 1 degree C.) in temperatures during those days of no air travel then on those days with normal air travel. Studies have shown that flying during the day is better for the environment than at night, as comtrails actually reflect heat back into space during the day...

Carbon offsets have become popular and are a relatively cheap way of assuaging our travel guilt. But how effective are they? Some offsets plant trees, others buy energy efficient light bulbs for developing countries, and others subsidize carbon free energy projects such as wind farms. There is controversy about how effective they are. Some argue that tree planting will take decades to offset carbon produced by one flight, while energy efficient light bulbs may take years to offset the carbon. Is that bad? I don't know, I suppose it depends on whether the trees are still there in a hundred years. Also, it seems to me, contributing to carbon neutral energy sources are a way to almost immediately offset carbon as they inject green energy directly into the grid.

There are lots of websites offering to take your voluntary carbon tax. Here, here, here and here are some examples. Experts say to do your homework. Not all offsets are created equal. In Canada there is a watchdog agency run by the government. Make sure that the money you are giving them is going toward a project that could not be built without it, rather than one that is using your money to create a profit.

Speaking of which, does anyone know of a green fund that would work in a similar way? For example, instead of giving my $16.22 for flying to Calgary and back as an act of charity, could I not invest it in a company that is eco-certified? That way, the company gets investments, and I get a potential return on my investment. At the same time, I've supported a company that negates my carbon footprint? For the realist businessman with a big heart? I can't find anything like that. Good idea, though?

I did find this website though: www.kiva.org It is an investment website in the spirit of Mohammed Yunus and Grameen Bank - Nobel Peace Prize winners of 2006. On it you can make a small investment that makes a big difference in the lives of small businesses in the developing world. Who knows? Maybe you'll invest in the next Bill Gates?

There is also this question: can we solve our lifestyle's unsustainability by offsetting our carbon? Is it possible that carbon offsets are a profitable way to salve guilt while doing little to address the root concern? Friends of the Earth Scotland's Chief Executive, Duncan McLaren, said: "Too often, carbon offsetting schemes are being used as a smokescreen to avoid real measures to tackle climate change." Does anyone know the logic of offsetting our overuse of carbon? Can someone find numbers and post them?

Going green in sunny Alberta

I've been hunting around for home-based solar panel options, and I came across a new housing development in Alberta, of all places, that will be the first solar-powered community in North America. Now, I'm certainly not advocating you move to Okotoks, Alberta, but why aren't more developers building these kinds of communities here in Ontario?

"The most immediate benefit of this project will be a decrease in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. An average Canadian
home produces approx. 6 - 7 tonnes of GHG per year. Estimates for Drake Landing Solar Community indicate the savings of
approximately 5 tonnes per home per year. This reduction well exceeds the Government of Canada's One-Tonne Challenge
goal and, over the life of the system, should reduce GHG gas emissions by about 13,000 tonnes – while providing
comfortable homes with excellent indoor air quality for 52 families."

Oh, and be sure to check out Tom Rand's latest Globe and Mail blog post, where he wrestles with the issue of profit vs. saving the planet.

Heat From Under Our Feet!

Can we heat our buildings for free? A vast, virtually untapped clean energy source is right under our shoes. I emailed last week with Robin McKim, who works for Earth FX Energy and is a strong advocate of "geo" or geothermal energy.

Does geothermal energy involve tapping into the heat from the molten core of the Earth? Isn't that incredibly dangerous and likely to cause volcanoes?

It taps into the heat stored in the earth, not the molten core. Soil everywhere is the same temperature (approx. 10-15 celcius). The system harvests this heat/cool depending on the season and incorporates it into the building. The only place in the earth that does not experience this constant temperature range is above the frost line where the ground can obviously freeze. Four feet is this frost line in our local climate, so ensuring that we dig below 5 feet is a guarantee that the system will function at full capacity.

You say that you need to only tap five feet into the ground to tap Earth's heat. How does that work?

This depth is only used in horizontal geo, one of four installation configurations. If the building has a good deal of land around it, 5 foot deep trenches are dug and several hundred feet of piping are installed in the horizontal configuration. In the case of having not a lot of property, vertical installation is necessary involving drilling around 200-300ft straight down. In the case of a small urban building this drilling would have to be done multiple times to accomodate the large load of energy needed to heat and cool the building. However, the holes for drilling are only about 6 inches wide.

What can you use that energy for? Home heat? Water heating? Electricity?

When I wrote my thesis paper on renewables in Canada, I was looking for the most practical technology to reduce emissions. I said to myself, "what takes up the most energy in the typical house." As one might expect, heating and cooling account for the greatest portion of energy usage (around 70% in the typical home). Therefore a technology that addresses that would be the most practical in terms of lowering household consumption and emissions.

Geothermal energy has nothing to do with electricity. It cannot operate a single lightbulb. It strictly provides energy in the heating and cooling form. As well as controlling the climate of the house with a water-to-air heat transfer, water-to-water systems are available as well so that one can heat the water tank and infloor heating if installed.

Why hasn't this technology been exploited yet?

This is the most puzzling question you could ask. No one really knows. People are afraid of the upfront costs, but as you'll see in the following question, it is not really an issue. Some people just can't believe it will work. They think it's too good to be true and are afraid. But finally, I would say that lack of exposure is chief among causes restricting it.

Can you point me to some good websites that can illustrate your point further?

nextenergysolutions.com is the national leader in systems distribution. They import American models and sell them nationwide. There site has a good background on the nature of the technology.

earthfxenergy.com is the company I currently work for and has the same information as nextenergy, but condensed a little more.

How much would it cost for a family of four in a modest house, both rural and urban, to set up the system? How long for there to be a return on the investment?

A 2000 sq. ft. house with 4 occupants in a rural setting generally costs about $20 000 for horizontal installation (around $9 000 more than the cost of a new furnace and AC unit).

The same dwelling with a vertical installation (urban) would be about $3 000 more.

As for the ROI, it is actually incredible. For example, EarthFX energy, the company I'm with has never installed a system that has been payed back in longer than 5 years. On top of that, 10% has been the lowest rate of return during that 5 year period. One client experience a 20% return while the system payed for itself in less than 3 years.

As far as environmental friendliness goes, given the same home we discussed above, the installation of a geo system equates to taking 4 cars off the road per year or planting 750 trees. The system lasts 25 years (like conventional systems) so that's the equivalent of taking 100 cars off the road or planting 18 750 trees.

Very interesting. Here are some more sites to check out:

• An overview of the heat pump in a home system
• A massive selection of renewable energy companies in Canada
• An simple overview of other geothermal harvesting
• Tom Rand's practical problems in making the urban jungle green
  

Guilt-Free Takout...

Here's  a shocking number:  13,510,000.  That's
how many tons of non-biodegradable waste -
plastics and styrofoams - that the USA used in
2003.  Here's a step in a different direction.
I got this letter forwarded through a friend:

We're about to launch a campaign next week, that will make Toronto a
much more eco-friendly city, and YOU CAN BE A PART OF IT!

All you have to do, is come down to the Gladstone Ballroom on Jan.
25th, see a kick-ass show of acoustic music, comedy, recycled art,
and then... SIGN THE PETITION!

Our organization, Naturopack, is aiming to ban styrofoam from
Toronto restaurants/cafes (because it's toxic to humans, and doesn't
ever biodegrade), and to promote the use of sustainable and
biodegradable containers (made of sugar cane, corn and potato).
Styrofoam has been banned in many US cities, and we have no excuse to
still be using it here. Also, plastic cups and cutlery can easily be
replaced with corn and potato plastics, which are completely
compostable and biodegradable.

Help us change Toronto! Please pass this on to anyone you know who
wants to see positive change in the city.

Hope to see you there!!!

Kurt Firla
www.naturopack.org

ps-we're lighting the Gladstone with bicycle power that night,
(seriously) so bring your bike shorts!


Sounds like a pretty good idea.  If you own a restaurant or just want to stop
using as much plastic, you can buy some alternatives here.  My wife will
bring already used (cleaned, of course) take-out containers to restaurants to
see if they will substitute them.  For the most part, they don't.  However, near
us, Utopia is a restaurant that uses recycled paper take-out containers.  If you
know of other restaurants that use ecofriendly take-out containers, let us know!

Also, check out the above links to find out about bicycle power, or 
GET NAKED this summer!