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02 12
Alternative Forms Of Transportation: The Modern Bicycle Does 78 MPH!
Want to cycle past cars on the way to work? Easyracers.com has the answer. Their recumbent bicycles are designed to take the hard work out of going fast on two wheels. Take a look at this video for an example. The bike hit 78 miles per hour. The street version is not quite as streamlined but will easily test the limits of those 40 kph zones in urban Canada.
02 08
In The Environment, Nothing Is Free
I have a theory. It goes something like this. The western economy is driven by inefficiency. In spite of what you may have heard about techniques of continual process improvement and other such schemes to improve efficiencies on a micro level, on the macro level we try and make our economies as inefficient as possible. Why? Simply put it is because we want to keep as many people employed as possible while making the greatest return on investments possible. Why else have massively inefficient home building trades “custom” build every home in every suburb from Baltimore to Beijing. After all, building highly customizable, efficient, factory-built shelters is something we’ve known how to do for about 100 years now. The truth is that we want places in our economy for skilled people who don’t have access to higher education. Building trades fit that bill. Another example of our need for inefficiency is the desire for energy panaceas like “ethanol” fuel mixes. The idea behind this so-called energy solution is that it reduces the demand for foreign oil imports while having the additional benefit of making our existing automotive fleet fractionally more energy-efficient. We produce this ethanol fuel by growing massive amounts of vegetables like, say, corn and use that as the base for a sludge that gets converted to ethanol. Brilliant - at least according to George W. Bush’s latest “State-of-the-Nation” address. Well, nothing is free, It turns out that the reality of biofuel is not as simple as our simple concept oriented media would have us think. Most of North America’s ethanol is derived from corn. Corn, as many researchers will tell you, really is not that efficient a product. It requires vast amounts of fertilizers and other energy inputs to plant, grow, harvest, and convert to other uses. Exactly! It is so inefficient that taking the ethanol route will employ millions and continue our North American pattern of more industrialized mega-farms using more to produce less - at least products that offer less quality on a number of important measures. More importantly, it will be a disaster for our landscape. Perfect, if you love reckless inefficiency.
Here is what the Green Prices magazine writes:
This is another example of macro-economic thinking driving driving solutions on a micro level. It works if you are an energy superpower like Exxon. But from a grassroots, bottom up economic perspective it makes little sense as a sustainable solution. So, lets not kid ourselves any longer. Biofuel sounds good but it is yet another high-cost, ineffecient environmental solution that is acceptable to the same people who bring you big oil.
02 06
David Suzuki Wants You!
The Canadian environmental institution, David Suzuki, is on a cross-country tour asking people, “What would you do for the environment if you were Prime Minister?” You can participate by adding your video to David’s YouTube page. Here is his pitch to Canadians along with some responses.
02 05
Toronto’s Waterfront Goes Green
Torontonians are waking up from a century long nightmare where our city willfully industrialized then polluted a waterfront that could rival the Riviera’s. Toronto’s dark sleep is over though. We are once again embracing the lake, this time with a green renaissance that will make Toronto a global leader in sustainable waterfront development. New parks will soon edge the lakefront from Etobicoke to Scarborough. The shear size of this waterfront rediscovery is difficult to imagine. After all, isn’t the waterfront where Toronto puts highways, rail yards, and smokestack industries? Not any more—except for the Ontario Liberal government’s counter-intuitive placement of a gas-fired power plant in the eastern port lands. But that is an exception that proves the rule. Look at the newly proposed Lake Ontario Park for the latest example of our waterfront reawakening. Extending from the Harris Water Filtration Plant in the east to the end of the Leslie Street Spit in the west, the 925 acre park will boast 37 kilometers of shoreline. It also will create new marinas and give all Torontonians the lake access now only enjoyed by a few in the ever more costly Beach district. The park’s plan ties together three major city districts: The Beach, the Spit, and the Cherry Street industrial lands. In many ways, the master planners, Field Operations of New York, are referring back to the landscape of an earlier Toronto waterfront where sand eroded from the eastern bluffs formed the now lost Fisherman’s Island that once enclosed Ashbridge’s Bay. The Beach segment is primarily recreational and cultural while the Spit will become more of a nature wilderness. In between is Cherry Beach—referred to as the “Bar” as in sand bar—that will offer a mixture of recreational and natural amenities including an expanded marina. A unified park this vast is intended to be an international landmark on par with New York’s Central Park or, in a Canadian context, Vancouver’s Stanley Park. The agency responsible for bringing these plans to life—the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corporation—thinks big. John Campbell, TWRC’s President and CEO, says that in the future when people think of Toronto they will first think of Lake Ontario Park. “Cities are defined by the quality of their public spaces,” argues Campbell. It will be expensive too. When finished, the entire east to west waterfront revitalization project will represent an investment of about 4 billion dollars in public money and 17 to 20 billion in combined public and private funding. According to Campbell it may just be the largest such project in the world. Whether you are an Italian Medici or a Canadian TWRC, the capital required for any renaissance attracts the best artists and designers. Don Schmidt of Diamond and Schmidt Architects notes, “The project is absolutely thrilling. What is really remarkable is that right now we have three or four of the world’s top landscape architects in the city working on these projects.” It is money well spent. We know from City Hall’s Creative City research that this kind of investment is a critical part of Toronto’s 21st century economic strategy. Offering knowledge workers a livable city will be essential to our future global economic competitiveness. We will also need enjoyable leisure spaces to decompress from the increasing urban density that is part of Toronto’s future. Ted Tyndorf, Toronto’s chief planner, says that by 2031 Toronto’s population will grow by 540,000 from its 1996 census figures. 2031 seems far off but what is interesting, according to Tyndorf, is that when our condo building boom is soon done we (...read more...)
02 02
The IPCC Report Is Out: Time To Invest In Frobisher Bay Vacation Properties?
Even U.S. President George Bush and the global warming denying “research” firms funded by record profit-taking energy company Exxon gasped when the IPCC released its report today. The news is not good. The science behind global warming theories is irrefutable. It turns out that Nobel Peace Prize nominee Al Gore and virtually every other sentient being on the planet were right: human activity is warming the planet.
Here is the IPCC’s punch-line:
Now that the “junk science” disputes are firmly behind us it is time for Canadian policy makers and companies to act. We’ve all seen the recent headlines. Ottawa politicians we are now to understand are some of the greenest on the planet. Even Kyoto-bashing Prime Minister Stephen Harper has had an epiphany and seen the light - the green light that is. What was that he once wrote?
Okay, let’s let bygones be bygones and work together to fix the massive problems we are responsible for. We need the Canadian government, and indeed all governments, to buy into the idea that correcting global warming and its causes are an social and economic opportunity beyond the great U.S. led “race to the moon.” Political theorists have long argued that the only way for governments to work together would be in response to a threat that could only be dealt with by combined action. Now we have it and it is not science fiction, it’s science fact. Corporations too have their place in this “war on warming.” One of the things companies do best is optimize the use of capital and human activity. This new war represents infinite economic opportunities for those smart enough to embrace the challenge. What is your company doing?
The IPCC Report Is Out: Time To Invest In Frobisher Bay Vacation Properties?
Even U.S. President George Bush and the global warming denying “research” firms funded by record profit-taking energy company Exxon gasped when the IPCC released its report today. The news is not good. The science behind global warming theories is irrefutable. It turns out that Nobel Peace Prize nominee Al Gore and virtually every other sentient being on the planet were right: human activity is warming the planet.
Here is the IPCC’s punch-line:
Now that the “junk science” disputes are firmly behind us it is time for Canadian policy makers and companies to act. We’ve all seen the recent headlines. Ottawa politicians we are now to understand are some of the greenest on the planet. Even Kyoto-bashing Prime Minister Stephen Harper has had an epiphany and seen the light - the green light that is. What was that he once wrote?
Okay, let’s let bygones be bygones and work together to fix the massive problems we are responsible for. We need the Canadian government, and indeed all governments, to buy into the idea that correcting global warming and its causes are an social and economic opportunity beyond the great U.S. led “race to the moon.” Political theorists have long argued that the only way for governments to work together would be in response to a threat that could only be dealt with by combines action. Now we have it and it is not science fiction, it’s science fact. Corporations too have their place in this “war on warming.” One of the things companies do best is optimize the use of capital and human activity. This new war represents infinite economic opportunities for those smart enough to embrace the challenge. What is your company doing?
02 01
Turn Off Your Lights Today For Five Minutes
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Set your watches for 1:55 PM Eastern time today. France based environmental group L’Alliance pour la Planète