Canada

If you haven’t heard of James Howard Kunstler, you should watch this short CBC video focusing on the various skills that we will need to revive as we navigate through the impending energy descent…

CBC.ca - Life Without Cheap Oil

It's not a question of if, but when. Futurist and author James Howard Kunstler talks about life in a world without cheap oil

This is not some crackpot idea, (apparently like Urban Chickens and Goats in Castlegar – more on that later), but this is a balanced approach to a real issue – and James Howard Kunstler is not alone in his theories.

If oil production is in decline, oil consumption is increasing, and there are no technologies that have the energy capacity as oil, what can we do except use less of the stuff?

About six months ago I wrote a four post series (that could definitely be added to) entitled “Strategic Sustainability for Survival - Are you ready for change?”

Link: James Howard Kunstler’s Website.

HT to Craig at Our Green Year.

One of the fears with adoption of alternative energy technology is that it isn’t going to produce enough power. So maybe there’s just not enough wind, or maybe the sun don’t shine. But in urban areas, the challenge goes further when your neighbours change things around you. This has happened recently in Aberdeen, SK, Canada when a neighbour started building a home that will partially block the sunlight on the adjacent lot…

This was going to be our retirement home," said Annette Schewe, who moved with her husband Les into the home in Aberdeen, Sask., about 35 kilometres northeast of Saskatoon, on April 14. "We just can't believe this is happening. I can't tell you the mental anguish it's had on both of us."

A closet is filled with 12 large batteries that store the energy produced by the massive solar panels on the south-sloped roof. The sun powers and heats the entire home, including its ceramic floors. The house is also linked to the town's power grid as a backup source. The trouble is, a concrete foundation for what's to be a two-storey home - looming 10 feet higher than the Schewes' - has been built on a 25-foot lot behind them.

"It's our own stupidity. We didn't get a survey done when we bought the house," said Schewe, who assumed the lot was too small for any structures.

Owners of solar-powered home left in the dark

Do Canadians have a right to light? Certainly, the law is weak on many fronts when it comes to disputes that between neighbours that fall outside of municipal ordinances such as zoning bylaws.

The article states that other countries have “solar easements”, here’s an interesting document (pdf 100kB) from the Energy Policies Initiatives Centre in San Diego about Californian Legislation on the matter.

There is always more than one way to interpret a report...

The vast majority of B.C. municipalities spent too much money between 2000 and 2006 - engaging in out-of-control spending that put upward pressure on property taxes, according to a Canadian Federation of Independent Business report.

The report said overall municipal spending in B.C. increased by 36 per cent during the six-year period - 1.8 times more than the 20-per-cent increase that occurred with population and inflation growth. Only six of 65 B.C. communities in the report kept their spending below the 20-per-cent level between 2000 and 2006 - Port Alberni, Prince Rupert, Castlegar, Qualicum Beach, Terrace and Powell River.

Report says B.C. cities spend too much

I read this as saying that many communities are not getting the required funds from higher levels of government to complete necessary works such as infrastructure upgrades. If this is the case, the spending is hardly out-of-control, it would just be that the realization of aging infrastructure has come home and the municipalities are the one's who take the brunt of the load.

The Environment Minister for British Columbia, Barry Penner announced a water conservation program driven in part by the changing climate, but also by an acknowledgement that BC uses extreme quantities of water.

Under the plan, according to the Living Water Smart website, “by 2020, water use in British Columbia will be 33 per cent more efficient, and by 2012, government will require all large water users to measure and report their water use.”

Penner said the plan has the steps needed to protect B.C. rivers, lakes and watersheds....

B.C. environment minister announces plan for more effective water use

One big shift in this plan is a move towards Ecological Watershed Governance, something that has been rumbling around in environmental and scientific think tanks for a number of years.

But the thought without the requisite details doesn't cut it among many environmentalists...

"There's no details and the timeline says many of these things may be enacted by 2012. That's quite a ways down the road", said Craig Orr, executive director of the Watershed Watch Salmon Society.

"We need more details, we have severe water problems in B.C.", Orr said.

According to the government news release, in some areas, like the Okanagan and Gulf Islands, seasonal water shortages are already challenging community water systems, and the fish and aquatic ecosystems that depend on these systems for survival.

 read more »

I'm glad I'm not a planner, particularly one in Ottawa after reading this criticism...

Do not think that it is the city-employed planners who are going to negotiate with the developers a development project in the public interest," says Dimitri Roussopoulos, founder and CEO of Urban Ecology, a think-tank on sustainable urban development.

"A lot of what happens in neighbourhoods and cities is driven by very influential and powerful economic interests," he told a public meeting on intensification at City Hall last week.

"If the citizenry of the City of Ottawa is not organized to survey and to watchdog the urban planning process ... you are screwed."

Economics often drives city planning, expert warns

It's interesting to read this sort of thing, and I guess to some degree it is much more applicable in the larger cities, where things happen much faster, developers and planners are relatively anonymous in a crowd, and there are many more people to complain about things.

Relating this to what I see in smaller cities and rural centres, the development that is occurring is often tourism or amenity migration based, and can involve a great deal of gentrification. Most planners are pretty wary of any plan to change the face of their city, particularly if it's a small one and they live there.

Dimitri's point may well be valid in Ottawa, where one group of planners are determining the zoning and Official Community Plan requirements (policy planners) and another group is working at the individual site level with developers to determine an appropriate interpretation of the policy (site planners). In smaller towns and cities, the guy who wrote it is the guy who is referring to it to justify or approve developments - much less room for confusion.

Anyway - glad I'm not a planner!

While driving across BC this last week, one things that stands out in my mind is the removal of rails. Sure, in some corridors there are rails on both sides of the river; but in others, all that is left is the rail grade and a walking trail to commemorate an old mode of transportation.

I recently came across this celebration of all things Rail, (if you're in the States, its on May 10th. 2008)...

Home | National Train Day

The first-ever National Train Day is on its way, and there’s never been a better time to celebrate. With passenger ridership growing every year, more and more people recognize that trains are the best way to relax and enjoy the ride. To read, talk, work or snooze the time away. Which makes traveling by train the nicer way to get there.

From Amtrak's perspective, there's never been a better time to get on a train to travel across the country, which is a view in stark contrast to that of the automobile powered society we inhabit.

Canadian Train Day?

Canada doesn't have a day to commemorate trains, but just like America, Canada was built on the backbone of a transcontinental railway network. Until the end of WWII, the train was the main mode of long distance travel in Canada. These railways today provide almost no passenger travel, but exist solely to transport goods to factories and major cities. The main passenger network is run by ViaRail, who's network is shown below:

The days of short route trains may return one day. In my area, is would be possible to run a passenger train from Nelson to Trail via Castlegar on existing tracks. Currently these tracks are only used for freight - so with some investment into new stations, carriages and efficient locomotives, this route has the potential to revive rail travel outside of the large cities.

With the rising cost of gas and car travel, an efficient train network is not out of the question.