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2007 01 11
Green Roofs Everywhere
Now that Toronto is sliding precipitously towards hotter days year round, we all might want to consider ways to reduce our energy consumption. It turns out that one great way of doing that is with green roof technology. Simply put, a green roof is a living membrane that absorbs light and heat from the sun and converts that energy into living plants. This living layer of insulation helps keep buildings cool resulting in lower air-conditioning costs. Paradoxically to a North-American reader, auto manufacturer Toyota (you know, the one that makes the hybrid Prius and is about to become the world’s biggest car manufacturer because it builds cars people want) is leading the market in green roof technology. Can you imagine Hummer-maker GM doing this?
Inhabit.com has more on Toyota’s remarkable technology:
2007 01 09
Speaking Of Capitalism As If The World Mattered, Here Is How It is Done
Watch today’s keynote address by Apple’s Steve Jobs and see what responsible Capitalism is about . . . Wait, is that Al Gore in the audience?
Capitalism As If The World Mattered: Can We Change The Economic Machine?
 Image is from the website www.epseurope.org The list of books I want to read but have not yet managed to is growing to epic proportions. Being somewhat eclectic in my reading preferences doesn’t help. In a week I’ll go from the new translation of the “Art of War,” to “How to Change the World,” to revisiting Frank Herbert’s “Dune," to a recommended novel (too much time on my hands - we don’t have kids). One book that’s been on my must read list is “Capitalism: As If The World Matters,” by Jonathon Porritt. I’ve just started it.
Many in the environmental community have taken issue with Porritt’s thesis: We can’t be true environmentalists without changing the nature of capitalism. Well, what they’re really upset with is that Porritt seems to argue that environmentalists who don’t engage in forcing that change are, in effect, enablers of an ultimately destructive system. Here are Porritt’s words on the topic from the “Open Democracy“ web site:
It will be interesting to pour through the book with this internal debate as a context. An even better context is the Harper government’s recent decision to change its Environment Minister when it realized that pushing environmental issues to the bottom rung of the policy ladder turned out to be a big mistake. Mr. Harper was on Canada’s national phone-in show, “Cross Country Checkup,” yesterday and said that the future will see him to have been a great environmental leader. I somehow doubt it but I’m sure Mr. Harper wasn’t saying it for my ears. I wonder what Porritt thinks of the Canadian system.
2007 01 04
Toby Heaps On The Environment Change
Aside from going outside the party and making Elizabeth May a Green Party Senator, then enticing her to be Environment Minister with carte blanche for pulling Canada’s green socks up, the PM made the best choice available today for Canada’s new Environment Minister. I don’t know newly minted Environment Minister John Baird that well to say if he has a burning desire to save Canada’s environment. But if the green will is there, I like the prospects of him finding a way to lift Canada out of our increasingly fossilized abyss for three reasons: *He is a pit bull. Digging Canada out of the doldrums is no task for a poodle, especially considering some of the entrenched interests and status quo proponents that will have to be scared off. *As the former Energy Minister of Ontario, he knows Energy, the biggest source of greenhouse gases by a large margin and will have a better chance at effectively navigating this political minefield. *He is a great communicator. Leading Canada into battle into the war on climate change is going to take someone who can rile up the troops and public opinion to mobilise individual and industry action.
Now the big question is do the conservatives really believe it’s go green or go home (as in lose the next election)? If they do, then this could be an interesting next few months.
Harper Shakes Up Environment Portfolio
was out of her league and as the environment became more critical to politics in this country, Stephen Harper knew it. Putting John Baird in the role of Environment Minister indicates just how important the Conservatives think the position is. But are they too late? The Liberals have stolen the issue by selecting former Environment Minister, Stephane Dion, as the leader of the Liberal Party. By putting Ambrose in the role to begin with, Harper illustrated just how little interest he had in an issue that most Canadians rate next to health care in importance. We know as an Albertan he is unlikely to put any restrictions on that province’s oil and gas industry. Now, his mostly symbolic action may be too little, too late.
2007 01 03
Whole Foods Fights Back At Omnivore’s Dilemma
 The best-selling book "The Omivor's DIlemma," by Michael Pollan took a critical view of the mass-market organic food industry. That view included the market leading Whole Foods chain. Whole foods founder and CEO John Mackey objected to the way his company was portrayed and decided to write Pollan an open letter. Pollan, in turn, responded. Green Money Journal printed the entire correspondence and we are copying it here because it is an important public health issue.
2007 01 02
Toronto’s Warmest January 1st Ever
 We quipped yesterday that there is no need to go south - southern temperatures have come to us. The image of this glider trying to launch himself from the slopes of Riverdale tells the story of yesterday’s weather. December was the warmest on record. Yesterday’s highs were a record for January 1. What’s next? Will Toronto boast Vancouver-like weather with flowers in February? Anyone who did not believe in global warming has to be convinced now. Many, sadly, will say it a good thing. The Economist recently ran a story on how the Russian economy will benefit from access to Arctic shipping routes that are now navigable for the first time in history. Already, U.S. spokespeople are saying they will use Canadian Arctic waters to ship goods across the top of the continent. For someone who remembers a childhood with backyard skating rinks from December to March, the change in Toronto’s climate is disturbing. Unfortunately, we cannot turn the clock back but we can prevent further environmental damage. Yesterday’s weather is, if nothing else, a call to action.
2006 12 29
Losing The Ayles Ice Shelf
NASA’s www.visibleearth.nasa.gov web site has some good supplemental information and satellite images on the Ayles Ice Shelf. Just in case you have been too busy with family this holiday season, it was reported yesterday that a large section of this shelf broke off 16 months ago. NASA writes:
The fracturing of Canada’s ice shelves is blamed on global warming. A quick review of the world’s press illustrates that an event that takes place in Canada’s north is of interest to other nations too. Even Australia picked up the story:
Events like this are so far removed from our every day lives that they are quickly forgotten in spite of the “canary in a coal mine” message they send. Our job is to make the systemic changes required to reduce global warming and stop these dramatic changes to the environment.
2006 12 28
Who Killed The Electric Car?
We watched the movie and became indignant. Why hadn’t we ever heard of a car this remarkable - and good looking? It turns out that the car companies wanted it to fail.
The car was not without some problems. When first released its lead-acid batteries were prone to failure. That problem was fixed. The battery technology of the day allowed for trips of about 60 miles before recharging. It turns out that most people drive about 25 miles per day. OK. No issue there: Zip around all day, plug in at night when electricity is cheaper, then back to work again. Still, consumers wanted a car with about a 300 mile range. New, more efficient batteries with a longer range were developed in the state that Ford and GM built - Michigan. Turns out that a local inventor in Michael Moore’s home town of Flint, Michigan had a patent on a great new battery storage technology that could change the world. GM bought a controlling interest in the company. Then they did something that seems counter-intuitive: they sold that interest to Texaco. You don’t have to be a business game-theorists to figure out what comes next. The owners of the efficient-battery patent who are the world’s biggest supplier of gasoline sue any auto company who uses their technology to build long-range, electric cars. This is where our economic system fails the needs of the many. Call it the tragedy of the commons or just an inefficient use of non-renewable resources. However it is described, when a private company can suppress a technology that can benefit the well-being of the many then the system is failing. (There is an informed paper on the macro-economic underpinnings of this issue here) A few years ago Toronto suffered through 50 smog crisis days. 50. That air pollution was caused by cars and by coal-fired power generation. Would the availability of electric cars change the quality of our air? You bet it would. The problem that prevents us from achieving clean air is a regulatory one. If our government decrees that 10% of cars sold in Canada have to be electric by 2015, then the auto market will respond. However, do you think a our current federal government will create such a policy? WIll any? Ultimately, this is a consumer issue. If enough people demand environmentally responsible cars then we will get them. Waiting for the auto industries to do what is right won’t work. Waiting for government to make the policy changes needed to protect our health in the log-term won’t happen unless consumers (also known as voters) make it happen.
The last word in today’s post goes to the film’s producers and PBS:
2006 12 22
Sustainable Table
If you have read Micahel Pollan’s book, “The Omnivore’s Dilemma,” you know that industrialized food production is precipitating ethical and environmental disasters. Alice Outwater, an author I mention in yesterday’s post, argues that the biggest polluter of North America waters is not the manufacturing or chemical industries, it is agribusiness.
In that context it was a comfort to discover a web site that discusses issues relating to our food supply. www.sustainabletable.com’s mission is outlined here:
2006 12 21
Beavering The Canadian Landscape
Photo from www.timna.mines.com When I think of the forces that formed the Canadian landscape, I think of glaciers carving away billions of tons of precambrian rock. Georgian Bay’s serpent-like islands of orange and red stone remind us of the sculpting power of ice and water. Surprisingly, though, the forces that gave Canada its unique forests and water-created landscape not only include glacial ice: they include the innocuous beaver—or, at least, 200 million beavers. This insight comes from a remarkable book titled, “Water: A Natural History,” by Alice Outwater. The author makes a compelling case for the subtle, natural ecosystems that shape the landscape. A cornerstone of that natural system was Castor canadensis, or, for the rest of us, the beaver. When Europeans first arrived in North America there were more than 200 million beavers living here. Take a look at the above picture. This dam and the small lake it creates are the work of one small clan of beavers. Say it is the effort of ten beavers. That means there probably were at least some 20 million similar ponds and streams across the land. While that is impressive, the real impact of the beaver’s skilled hydro-engineering is the ecosystem it created. According to Outwater, a beaver family can build a 35 foot dam in one week. Some dams extended up to 4,000 feet in length. As interesting as that is, the real importance of the beaver’s work is its profound impact on the ecosystem. Their work creates a transition between two diverse conditions: water and land. In environmental terms this is known as an ecotone. Ecotones are home to organisms native to each environment - land or water - as well as organisms native to the ecotone itself. That in-between zone is called the “edge effect.” What is remarkable about the ecotone is that it creates habitats for a diverse array of wildlife from frogs, to herons, to raccoons. From the micro ecosystem perspective, the wetland creates millions of organisms many of which are microscopic in size. Planktonic communities abound here. They, in turn, provide food for organisms higher up the food chain. Wetlands made this way are remarkably effective water filtration systems. They also even out the highs and lows of the water supply, keeping water available during droughts and slowing down potential floods. Also critical to this eco-chain is that the beaver ponds allow water to filter down into the local water table. That means more clean water is available in the form of springs. The market-driven demand for beaver pelts to make hats in Europe almost eradicated the beaver. Now they are considered a novelty or a pest. In fact, they were an engine of our ecosystem. Their loss will, according to Outwater, have ramifications we are only now beginning to understand.
2006 12 20
Ontario Awarded For Anti-Sprawl Planning
 The American Planning Association awarded Ontario for its commitment to reduce urban sprawl. Why were we awarded this honour? Here is some history: Scaling Back OMB Powers a Good Start
The beginning of Toronto's long-needed urban design and architectural renaissance is at hand, if announced changes to the Ontario Municipal Board have the desired effect. Do not expect changes to happen soon, though -- unless city council proves itself up to its new powers. The OMB is a government body often loathed by municipalities and loved by developers. “People don’t always agree on how their communities should grow. When people can’t resolve their differences . . . the OMB provides a public forum for resolving disputes.” says the OMB web site With a dispute resolution mechanism skewed towards developer’s interests, many found the workings of the OMB to be overly complex. Neighbourhood groups complained that OMB members from Sudbury and London would overturn Toronto decisions in spite of having no first hand knowledge of the city’s communities. “The OMB is a planning casino where only developers win.” said provincial M.P.P. Mike Collie. For years, the OMB made city councilors apoplectic when it overturned local decisions. In time, developers learned where the real power lay. For example, after having his Sapphire Tower plan turned down by council a few weeks ago, Harry Stinson’s reaction was to go to the OMB because it would be, “more objective.” Affronts to city council aside, what precipitated the much-needed changes to the OMB’s powers announced by Minister Gerretsen? After all, changes to the OMB affect all municipalities in Ontario, not just Toronto. When development on Ontario’s environmentally critical Oak Ridge Moraine seemed out of control a few years ago, the Ontario Municipal Board made a decision that precipitated today’s announced erosion of its powers: it approved more moraine development in the face of well-informed opposition from almost every side of the social spectrum. With the support of nearly 90% of the public, the Liberals campaigned with a pledge to stop development on the moraine. In the end, the newly elected Premier halted construction for about a week before having to acknowledge there were limits to his powers. To the embarrassment of the new government, 6,000 additional houses went up on the moraine. This signaled to all Ontarians that Toronto’s sprawling suburbs threatened to permanently destroy environmentally crucial lands. The government answered with the sprawl stopping Green Belt Act. Reforms to the planning act and to the OMB have followed. Monday’s announced changes to the OMB return responsibility for municipal development to the hands of elected officials who know their communities. Are they ready to use this power or will myopic local interests rule our development choices? Don Schmidt of Diamond and Schmidt, a local architecture firm, says that council will have to take urban design and planning issues much more seriously than they have in the past when their decisions could be overturned. Paul Bedford, former chief planner of the city agrees saying returning development approval power to the city is long overdue and allows Toronto to have a much greater hand in its own future. “Councilors will have new freedom but they’ll have to know how to use it,” Bedford offers. “They’ll be limited by their creativity and their will.” Is our City Council ready for the task? Bedford thinks there is hope now that the mayor is making changes to the city’s governance structure. The Governing Toronto Advisory Panel recommended 11 changes that will provide mayor Miller with the tools he needs to lead while also strengthening community representation. The panel’s chair, Anne Buller, (...read more...)
2006 12 19
Aviation’s Impact On Global Warming
 Image from www.air-and-space.com The Globe and Mail had a somewhat laudatory story this weekend on the early days of Porter Airlines based on Toronto's Island Airport. After much hand-wringing on the part of Mayor David Miller - a staunch opponent of the airport - it seems that Porter Airlines is now a fact of life on the waterfront. While the marketplace seems to think that having more convenient access to short-hop flights is a good thing, the downtown airport does not reduce the need for a faster, more environmentally efficient link from downtown to Pearson Airport in Malton. That a so-called "world class" city like Toronto has not figured this out says much about our ability to hold that designation into the 21st Century. Effective cities make this connection from the business district to the major airport with modern solutions. Why can't we? What does it matter? The Oil Drum web site has a sobering story today on the impact of aviation on global warming. Aircraft use about 1,800 million (1,800,000,000) barrels of oil per year moving people around the globe. Aviation is one of the fastest growing industry sectors in the world, growing at 2.4 times the rate of world GDP. The industry consumes over 5 million barrels of oil per day worldwide, almost one tenth of all the oil used for transportation. In the UK, according to the Department for Transport, the UK aviation industry is growing at approximately 5% per year while its fuel consumption is growing at 3% per year.
2006 12 18
Greening Newspapers With Plastic Logic
 For years now the holy grail of the digital media industry as it related to sustainability was in reducing the need for paper-based media. We have all heard how computers would make for paperless offices. The truth turned out to be different. We now used much more paper than ever as a result of computers. That may change. The Plastic Logic company is closing the gap between paper and reusable, paper-like digital displays. That's important because it is hard to immerse yourself in a morning coffee and the Globe and Mail using a 17 inch digital monitor. When catching up on the day's news nothing works quite so well as newsprint. Plus, spilling your coffee on the day's paper is much more forgiving than doing the same thing on your sexy new MacBook. The ease of use and comfort of the morning rag may have met its match though: Manufactured on its Prototype Line in Cambridge, this is the latest advance in a long line of technical successes which the company has achieved within the last twelve months, including the fabrication of the largest plastic flexible active-matrix display in November 2005. The displays utilise E Ink Imaging FilmTM. If Plastic Logic is successful with its 2008 rollout, say goodbye to carrying that newspaper laden recycling bin to the curb every week. More importantly, the promise of paperless offices may finally be upon us.
2006 12 15
Truth Movie Party
Al Gore’s web site http://www.algore.com is promoting a U.S.-wide “Truth Movie Party" around his film, “An Inconvenient Truth.” The idea is to have people host a viewing in their homes of the newly released DVD version of the film. Good idea? It seems like it, but is there a Canadian version of the event? If you try to enter a Canadian postal code on the site—to see want events are available within 30 miles of your home—it is rejected. Does anyone know of a similar Canadian event? |
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We have been waiting expectantly all morning to see how Harper would restructure his cabinet. Of course, what we really wanted to see was how delicately or indelicately 
