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2008 09 05
CKF Film Friday No. 8: Lush Uses Performance Art To Save Sharks
Humans have a capacity for destruction that is truly frightening, especially when we believe we will get something from it. For a while now a social meme has made the rounds that shark cartilage prevents cancer. Of course, this has as much basis in reality as Rhino horns enhancing virility. Still, millions of sharks are being killed every year to support the market demand created by this vague hope (not to mention the demand for shark fin soup). Lush Handmade Cosmetics staged a performance art piece to support the Sea Shepherd Society. Run by activist Paul Watson, the group is raising awareness that this mindless destruction of another species must be outlawed. The destruction of a key component of the ocean’s food chain will have consequences. Like global warming though, those consequences will take a while to manifest themselves.
Today’s film Friday documents the Lush performance art campaign. Warning: If you are squeamish you might want to pass on viewing this video.
2008 09 02
New Wind Turbine Designs
When you think of a wind turbine do you think of a oversized propellor on a tall stick? You are not alone. The world is being slowly land-marked by thousands of these wind power icons. There are alternative though, especially when thinking about smaller, lower powered turbines in urban settings. One unique design is the Quiet Revolution “elegant” turbines. Shaped more like a blender blade and less like a fan, the QR5 design brings a number of advantages to the world of green power generation.
2008 08 12
Comparing Responses To Oil Crisis
In August 9th’s New York TImes Thomas L. Friedman author of “The World Is Flat” writes about how Denmark faced down the last oil crisis. He then compares how the U.S. responded (and, by extension, how Canada is now responding). Big difference.
Friedman goes on to argue that regulatory intervention spawned innovation in Denmark not seen in the United States. How does he measure it?
For more about the Danish wind power industry, please go here.
2008 08 05
The Environmental Macroeconomics Of Predicting The Future
There was a time when predicting the future was best left to charlatans and religious leaders. Few legitimate academics, if any, were willing to bet their careers on some pie-eyed prognostications on what might be happening globally in, say, 2050. Unfortunately, guessing what might happen fifty years from now is easier than ever, with more and more respected literati lining up to take a shot at it. Why? Well, the world of economic theory has made predicting the future child’s play if you know the rules. Take, for instance, the world’s energy consumption. Were you aware that the world consumed some 13.5 terawatts of energy from all sources in 2002. BTW, a terawatt equals one trillion watts. That could power a lot of electric cars. The United States was by far the greatest consumer of that power. MIT professor Daniel Nocera calculated that if the world’s population is 9 billion people in 2050, and they consumed electricity like Americans do today, the world would need to produce 102 TWs of power, a staggering amount that could not be supplied with current technologies. (Read the story here) Economics suggests that in a supply and demand world people and governments will respond to this growth in one way. They will produce more energy. So how will they do it? Given the trend towards more and more energy use as the former third world continues its move to first world standards, possible scenarios get filtered out as being either unsustainable or ridiculous. The truth of 2050 is binary. Either we will have figured out how to produce adequate amounts of power in sustainable ways or we will live in a world that is apocalyptic—at best. The future’s big hope? Solar energy.
2008 08 01
CKF Film Friday No. 7: How Some Media Spin Green
We all know that in an open society voices from a range of the political spectrum have the right to state their views. In recent years media purveyors have built empires around an extension of this concept: There is no longer truth, there is only opinion. One of the most successful empires built on this strategy is Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News. So, when Al Gore releases “An Inconvenient Truth” it is no surprise that Fox takes a different position. After all, when there is no truth what remains is only ad revenue. Here are some egregious examples of how media influences the masses around green issues.
2008 07 18
CKF Film Friday No. 6: Al Gore Predicts The Future
In case you didn’t watch or hear about Al Gore’s challenge to citizens of the Untied States yesterday, our film Friday brings it to you in its entirety. What is Gore’s challenge? He wants the U.S. to generate all its electricity from carbon-free sources by 2020. Quite a challenge, but achievable through existing technologies now that oil is over $50 a barrel. Will his desired audience listen? If the comments on YouTube—where the video is posted—are an indication, we are at about 50/50 yes and no.
Here are some of my favourites:
This person’s answer is to invade Cuba and piss off the Chinese—not very good strategy for a host of rather obvious reasons.
Another was more thoughtful, even startling, but their conclusion takes a nasty turn for Gore:
Then there are the inevitable arguments over the validity of global warming:
My favourite piece of paranoia makes references to the movie “There Will Be Blood’s” long straw metaphor:
If you follow this person’s line of thought the Chines will soon be beating the U.S. over the head with a bowling pin. Enough of the commentary: here is the Nobel Prize winner speaking for himself. Enjoy.
2008 07 11
New York TImes: American Energy Policy Asleep At Spigot
Nelson Schwartz of the New York TImes takes aim at America’s glutinous consumer class and the country’s politicians in a critique of the country’s energy policy.:
While everybody knew that the 8 cylinder, gas-guzzling proclivity of the buying public was just not sustainable, turning off all that profit was not going to happen. Instead auto companies and their government enablers poured billions into a model that was never going to bring the North American auto industry the competitive success it wanted.
2008 07 02
Why You Should Care About Your CO2 Emissions
If you are a polar bear or a penguin, the news so far this year is not good. First, this summer may be the first time in recorded history that the Arctic’s polar ice cap melts. Not concerned about something so far away from your downtown condo? Don’t be too smug. These kinds of environmental changes will impact you no matter where you may live—you drink water, don’t you? Watch this video and you may be convinced high gas prices are a good thing if they keep another Hummer off the road.
Then there is the Antarctic. In a recent academic study from Australia, researchers speculate that a massive rise in the oceans’ water levels could be just a few years away:
Opdyke goes on to say that such a collapse could take place in weeks rather than decades. Now, aren’t you glad you support the local Sierra Club and your family has reduced its carbon emissions? What about your business? Is it part of the old economy—you know, the one that measures success by the amount of polar ice it melts—or is it embracing the future of green?
2008 06 27
CKF Film Friday No. 5: Shot-gunned Rainforests
Today’s film Friday is brought to you by the NASA Earth Observatory. Just in case you didn’t have enough to worry about, map-maker Robert Simmon wants to let you know that huge tracts of the Amazon rainforest are being decimated by illegal logging. Take a look at the above images. The last one shows the scattershot pattern of forest destruction taking place in Brazil. For all you architects and consumers out there who spec exotic woods, well, you’re doing your share to promote this activity. Can’t you get by with sustainable materials?
Now to the movies:
2008 06 20
CKF Film Friday No. 4: Something Different
We are offering something different. Today’s FIlm Friday is brought to you by the Evergreen Brick Works. Evergreen is not just a variety of tree, its a grass-roots movement dedicated to making cities sustainable through the entwined forces of “Community, Culture, and Nature.” Evergreen Executive Director Geoff Cape describes it this way: “Our philosophical basis is to move society through a value change that comes with interacting with nature in a fundamentally different way.” Last night the not-for-profit organization threw a 500 person $500 a plate fundraising dinner and party on the Brick Works property near downtown Toronto. The bucolic former brick quarry was painstakingly transformed into a series of cultural moments—think passion play here but not for religion, for sustainability. The still photos included here convey something of the experience. Jamie Kennedy, a tenant of Brick Works and one of the city’s great chefs, created the evening’s meal which turned out to be more than worthy of the cause. And if you imagine the modern eco-warrior to be cast in the Paul Watson mold, well, you’ve missed the revolution. Today’s environmentalists include affluent people who are happy to donate time and money, lots of money, to a great cause. Making the Brick Works a reality is apparently at the top of their list. Interested? Here are some films about the Brickworks including a brief clip of last night’s performance.
2008 06 12
Coal Power Lives On—People Pay
 The head of Ontario's opposition, Bob Runciman, released a report this week making some startling claims. When Premier Dalton McGuinty took office he promised that Ontario's reliance on coal generated power would end by 2007. One year later and it turns out not only are we still using coal, but as many as 9,500 Ontarians die each year from smog-related illnesses. If that figure were going down rather than up, we'd think that changes were being made for the better. In fact, smog-related deaths have gone up from 1,900 per year in 2003. "There are now more smog days per year in Ontario than in the entire eight years before the 2003," claims a report released by the Ontario Conservative Party (you know you've gone into some perverse alternate universe when the Ontario Torys are trying to lead the fight against pollution here). To add insult to injury, Torontonians now have their very own power plant on the waterfront—something considered unimaginable ten years ago but now an almost belching fact. What is going on? Has anyone vetted these figures? Is there truth in what the Conservatives are claiming? With a more positive spin to the story, http://www.modeshift.org writes: Though Premier McGuinty succeeded in 2005 in closing the Lakeview coal-fired plant in Mississauga – and demolishing it with explosives on June 28, 2007 — he missed the 2007 deadline for the other four. Last month, as another electrion approached, he announced in Toronto that wouldn’t happen again. His government just approved a regulation that requires all of the province’s coal-powered generating stations to close by 2014. ”There is only one place in the world that is phasing out coal-fired generation and we’re doing that right here in Ontario,” he said. From the Conservative report: The following list shows smog related deaths by census district for 2008:
2008 06 10
Absurd Green Architecture In Dubai
Building in Dubai will always challenge the idea of sustainability because of the extreme temperatures and lack of water in the region. In spite of that reality, capital generated by $139 a barrel oil is making it possible for architects to try radically new, untested technologies in designs that attempt to generate more energy than they consume and in doing so achieve something that could be called sustainability. So it is with Italian architect David Fisher’s design for the green environmental tower in Dubai. Named the “Dynamic Architecture” building, the sixty storey tower is also a power source. Forty-eight 0.3 megawatt turbines are contained within its rotating floors. Fisher writes, “Considering that Dubai gets 4,000 wind hours annually, the turbines incorporated into the building can generate 1,200,000 kilowatt-hour of energy.” The architect describes three technologies that the project relies on for its success. First is the ability for architecture to be dynamic, to constantly change its form. Second, is the integration of power-generating technologies that let the building generate more power than its inhabitants consume. Third, is the factory-based construction that will reduce the number of site workers, speed construction time, and improve the final finish quality. Take a look at this rather pretentious video for an explanation of the tower. What’s my take on it? Before I was an architect I followed a Buckminster Fuller inspired career path working in aircraft manufacturing for the de Havilland Aircraft Company. I’ve seen the technologies required to make this work from both sides of the technology spectrum, and odds are that this building will fail to meet its objectives. That does not mean it is an unworthy experiment. Inventing new ways of sustainable living will not be easy or cheap; however, we have little choice but to try and if it takes $139 oil to get us there so be it.
2008 06 06
CKF Film Friday No. 2
Film Friday number 2 is here and the impressive TED Conference offers the lead today. Al Gore is back with a new slide show first shown at TED in March. Did you know that in 2005 we put the equivalent weight of 1.2 billion elephants in CO2 emissions into the atmosphere? I didn’t. Gore’s idea of a “Cultural Distraction” is sobering. “We have the capacity at moments of great challenge to set aside the causes of distraction and rise tot he challenge that history is presenting to us.”
2008 05 26
Mars Landings: Do They Make Us Greener?
Yesterday’s NASA Phoenix Project Mars landing was a scientific and technological spectacle in the great tradition of the moon program. There are many reasons to engage in this kind of research and I won’t go into them here. I will say though that if I had a choice of spending $500 million dollars to possibly find life on other planets and further our understanding of the universe, or fund three more days occupying Iraq, the Phoenix Program gets my vote. The Futurist Buckminster Fuller argued from the perspective of the Sixties that the space program allowed us to do more with less—an essential tactic in a world where resources are becoming scarce. I’d like to adopt his argument. Programs like this one and other space related, non-military research allow us to amplify our knowledge in so many ways. We would not know, for example, the full impact of global warming and threats from pollution without satellite-based information gathering systems. Still, we do know that the endless striving for better technologies is not an end in itself. We have to use the tools and knowledge this research supplies to make positive environmental change happen. Without that as an end game we will only be left with one reason to continue these space missions: to escape an Earth that can no longer sustain us. Forget that! People and nations are on the verge of a green renaissance. Wind power, solar cells, electric cars are an integral part of that rebirth of a more human centred economy. All these technologies owe their start to the space program.
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