The winds of change in our energy consumption could still be light years away
August 26, 2008
The Globe and Mail’s Gary Mason looks at Canada’s wind power potential and the challenges in developing this renewable resource.
Full Story [The Globe and Mail]
Windsor inventor says new motor will solve fuel crisis
August 26, 2008
A Canadian inventor has developed an electromagnetic piston motor that will cut greenhouse gas emissions, however, some scientists are sceptical the technology will actually work.
Power, we have – infrastructure, not so much
August 25, 2008
Writing in the Globe and Mail, the CEO of Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro warns that Canada lacks the infrastructure to deliver the country’s growing clean energy resources.
Full Story [The Globe and Mail]
Slow start to environmental festival
August 25, 2008
Saskatoon hosted the We Are Many (WAM) Festival, focused on building awareness of environmental issues.
Criminal networks profit by collecting e-waste: report
August 25, 2008
Canadian criminals are tapping in to the lucrative market for recycled electronics.
House-hunting in the green
August 23, 2008
Canwest reporter Marta Gold explores the world of green realtors, who specialize in finding their clients sustainable, energy efficient homes.
Save some for the rest of us!
August 23, 2008
Ask anyone who’s tried to predict the vagaries of a changing climate and you’ll get the same response: climate models are tricky. From the greenhouse gas-chomping habits of the atmosphere, trees and our water to the usual problems of predicting any kind of weather pattern, the collective effect is a climate wrapped in an enigma.
And frankly, the muskoxen aren’t helping matters.
Research from Penn State suggests that one long-held assumption about climate change, namely that a warmer climate will lead to the growth of CO2-consuming shrubbery, might actually be mitigated by grazing muskoxen. Literally eating up the gains in the plants’ growth, as much as 19 per cent on average and 46 per cent in the case of the dwarf birch, these four-legged belching machines will not only be consuming the possible benefits of more plant life, but also adding to greenhouse gas emissions like their domesticated cousins.
With plant life capable of absorbing greenhouse gas being eaten by ruminants responsible for producing the same, it seems like a net loss for the planet, with hungry muskoxen sending us closer and closer to an overheated planet. Then again, if there’s anything to be taken from the complicated effects of crowing shrubs and hungry quadrupeds, it’s that with climate change you never really can be sure.
One little word
August 22, 2008
For any jaded conservationists or eco-skeptics convinced that small changes won’t ultimately change the way we use our energy, consider the impact of one little word: sustainable.
For Shell, the second-largest energy company in the world, that single word was enough to have its advertising pulled from London’s Financial Times, by the United Kingdom’s Advertising Standards Authority. The body, which regulates all advertising in the UK, ruled that the word “sustainable” could not be used to describe Alberta’s oilsands. The ruling was instigated by a complaint from the UK branch of the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) claiming that the term was “ambiguous.”
As the widespread practice of “greenwashing” shows, the words we use to describe our fuel have tangible effects on their use. The term “dirty oil,” for example, became the rallying cry for a group of US mayors calling for a boycott on oil produced by the oilsands. And business from Wal-Mart to casinos benefit daily from news releases touting new, “green” features of their operations.
Even governments are actively trying to harness the power of environmental words, with the Alberta government notably committing $25 million to a three-year PR effort designed, among other things, to confront the term “dirty oil.”
The primary concern for companies, then, isn’t whether green statements can have tangible benefits for their business (they can), but whether their claims hold up to criticism. What’s certain is that companies like Shell, whose website’s front page features a green frog clinging to a tree branch below the headline “responsible energy,” will continue to harness the power of those tiny but potent symbols: words.
After all, if one tiny word can change the course of an entire marketing campaign, consider what small changes elsewhere are capable of doing.
GM heads to future that’s electric . . .
August 22, 2008
General Motors has formed a partnership with the non-profit Electric Power Research Institute to create the infrastructure needed for the mass marketing of plug-in electric cars including GM’s Chevy Volt, which will be available in late 2010.
Hypermilers take energy conservation to the extreme
August 22, 2008
driving techniques to improve their vehicle’s fuel efficiency.
Full Story [Western Catholic Reporter]
