Climate Change Continues to Accelerate in 2018

As the Earth continues to evolve and grow, humans continue to impact the planet we live on. This is logical; the global population is approaching 7.7 billion people and, therefore, it makes sense that our species is having a significant effect on the planetary systems. However, the concerning trend is that we are not rapidly enough implementing changes to counteract these climate shifts, we are not taking responsibility for our choices. So, what can we do?

Here is a shortlist of personal changes that I am trying to make habit:

1. I take the bus as often as I can instead of driving.
2. My wife and I eat a 90% vegetarian diet to lower the impact of animal farming.
3. I haven't taken an international flight since 2012.
4. I limit my shower time to five minutes or less most days.
5. I teach about the shifting climate patterns every semester.
6. We grow our own garden to try to lower food miles on the vegetables we eat.
7. We also shop at the local farmers' market for the same reason (and to support the local economy).

These are still small efforts, I know, but making lasting change takes time and commitment. I encourage you to make a list of things you are doing to combat the Climate Crisis. Make a plan and then track how well you are following it. We must be mindful if we wish to make meaningful progress.

China makes a bid to become EV powerhouse

As the future markets of transportation and energy use scream out for alternative modes of clean transport China has made a brilliant move in its policy to make a bid for dominance in EV technology and production.

The strategy is for China to shift its auto manufacturing focus to the production of hybrid and fully electric vehicles so that within three years they will have the capabilities to challenge any auto maker on the planet for dominance of this vital future sector. Specifically, they hope to be able to produce 500,000 all electric vehicles by 2011; which will represent almost a third of the production of EVs (if other companies attain their goals: Japan and Korea together are hoping to manufacturer 1.1 million in 2011, North America will lag behind at about 250,000).

This bold plan by China is a shrewd attempt to close the technology gap with it's production competitors; China is decades behind in tradition gas-guzzling technologies, so by merely making this shift they become more competitive. Additionally, by putting the majority of their creative momentum into this thrust they will surely put pressure on other manufacturers to muscle up on 'green development' if they hope to stay afloat in the transforming climate of auto production.

It will be interesting to see if any of the auto companies out there can match this audacious strategy by China. A real test to see if a strong central government, coupled with a massive desire to communally dominant an emerging market is superior to democracy and free market innovations.

For more about China's plans check out this link to the New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/02/business/global/02electric.html?_r=1

Eco-War Frontiers: Brazil

Hello out there to all of my loyal followers (all four of you)! Today's topic is set to elucidate the dangerous and pertinent issue of what I call Eco-War Frontiers. Basically, this is an attempt to highlight the fact that there are sensitive areas around the globe where integral natural climates are under the threat of attack by rapid 'modern' development. By 'modern' here I mean the mentality that 'I' should get as much as I can right now for 'me' before anyone else beats me to it.

Over the last decade we have seen the use of the media as a tool to influence public perception, essentially to 'opiate' 'dopiate' and 'terrify' populations into compliance when world governments are acting like nasty greedy bandits and getting up to no good that they know they not should. One salient example of course is the Bush administrations "War on Terror" which really translated into "Now, because we've adequately subjugated you with fear, we are off to go on a romp with our toys, and your sons' and daughters' blood, to wreck shit so that our buddy's company's can make a bunch of money rebuilding it.". Well, thankfully there are no laws prohibiting the linguistic deployment of similar rhetoric in favor of the environment. As such I have coined the term "Eco-War".

I believe that there is a conflict going on across the Earth right now. The combatants? Us: the conservationist/ environmentalists vs. Big Industry {and those enslaved by their advertising budget and lobby wire funds}. An frontier that has not been getting enough media in this campaign is Brazil. Lauded as one of the 'emerging markets' of the world, Brazil threatens to do just that with bloodied hands. Not for want of trying: the government is actually working with moderate diligence to try and regulate and protect perhaps one of the most valuable and vital ecosystems left on the planet: The Amazon Rainforest. Better known as the southern lung of the Earth.

Quick ECO facts about the Amazon:
1. It produces between 15~20% of the Earth new oxygen.
2. It represents a third of the remaining vegetation on the planet.
3. It covers (presently) 2.5 million square miles/ 6.25 million square kilometers (roughly 7 times the size of British Columbia Canada!).
4. It is one of the most bio diverse areas left on the Earth and we currently don't even come close to knowing all there is to learn from the ancient library of Earth wisdom.

Disturbing Truths about what is going on there:
1. Already more than 20% of the Amazon Rainforest has been pillaged, destroyed, devoured and is gone forever.
2. It is being attacked on all sides by constellation of industrial interests. Including: Ranchers (McDonalds anyone?), Loggers (most of it illegal), Farmers, Oil interests and Miners.
3. Between 2000~2006 150,000 kilometers was clear cut {an area larger than Greece}.
4. 60% of all the land cleared is being used by Cattle Ranchers to raise cheap beef (need I say it again?).

What can we do about it?

This is an important question and I have been asked before by friends and students, "Well, Canada is developed... are you now going to tell the developing nations of the world that they can't seek their God given manifest destiny to root up, use and destroy his creation just as your forefathers did in your country to garner prosperity?" And all sarcasm aside this is a very valid point, what gives the most wasteful and energy inefficient countries in the world (USA and Canada are at the top top top of that list; face it guys we are fat, lazy and comfortable) the right to tell others how to manage their resources? I agree with this completely. Unfortunately, we live in a material world. So, if we want Brazil to manage their resources better than we have in the past then we are going to have to pay them for it. This means purchasing carbon offsets that will go towards protecting the Amazon Rainforest (or other like worthy projects). Think of it as a time share in your grandkids future. Of course this is not all that we should do. In addition you should write letters and send emails to your government representatives telling them that you want them to be more active in driving your governments towards trying to make carbon offsets a meaningful global solution. Finally, you should bug all your friends and relatives about this (like I am) and try to encourage them to take responsibility for the carbon that they use that they can't prevent.

If you want to find out more about how to purchase personal carbon offsets the following site has lots of useful information about companies from around the world that provide them, as well as what the projects those companies support are, where they are and how each company and project is rated again Kyoto protocol standards.
http://www.carboncatalog.org/guide/how-to-buy-carbon-offsets/
If you are in Canada or America here's a list of the North American providers.
http://www.carboncatalog.org/providers/north-america/

Here's the Canadian offset company that I just purchased a $100 dollar offset from, amounting to 2.28 tonnes of carbon (roughly the amount that HJ and I used in our flights in China this past winter).
http://planetair.ca/

Earth Hour 8:30~9:30pm Saturday

So this weekend Saturday evening has been designated 'Earth Hour', which means (theoretically) that people around the globe should be turning off their electricity for one hour in hopes of saving energy worldwide. More or less it is a symbolic measure adopted in order to increase the awareness of the need to be conservative with energy resources. The slogan is "Vote Earth: Your light switch is your vote!" and the idea behind it is a good beginning. But let's be clear, it is only that, a beginning. To check out the campaign visit the following link http://www.earthhour.org/home/

Spread the news! Tell all your friends about it and try to promote this idea as much as you can. The more people that we can get thinking about this kind of active conservation the more significant effect it will have. It is great to see these types of initiatives becoming more popular and it shows that in general the awareness of the need to change is permeating human society.

Personally though I think that bolder initiatives need to be implemented. Why is it that 'Earth Hour' is a singular event? The true goal here is to make this sort of thing habitual. I would say that the aim should be to do this every day. It doesn't have to be a co-ordinated effort we can just look at our own schedules and figure out when we can fit in an hour of turning off all the lights and power in our houses. I'm a bit of a green-freak in is regard and before leaving the house I go around and turn off everything and unplug all the energy vampires (vacuum charger, computer, cell phone charger, TV, things like that). Epiphany: I like this idea so much that I am going to keep track of how many hours I can live electricity free in a week and report back on it.

Why not take this simple campaign and turn it into a life choice. Many of us are far too dependant on electric sources of entertainment. We run our computers for most of the day and burn valuable resources frivolously. I am going to try to be more conscious of making as many hours as possible "Earth Hours". Wanna join me?

Sorry for the mix up.

Please read the first part of the article on Electric scooters first... then move on to Electric scooters part 2...

I'm still getting the hang out it!

Electric Scooters part 2

Interesting fact 2: there are already 10 million electric scooters on the roads in China and there is no reason to believe that this dramatic shift will not continue in the future.

The European market is opening up and there is no reason that Canada and America should not follow suit. The main reason that they are so popular in China right now boils down to one essential fact: they are a lot cheaper than their gluttonous counterparts. They cost less to purchase, to fuel and to maintain. In addition another obvious benifit within crowded cities is that they have no tail pipe emissions which is easy on the nose and the lungs and much better for everyone's health.

One of the common things that I hear 'nay-sayers' say when the topic of electric vehicles comes up is something to this effect, "Sure they don't let out any air pollution when you are driving them but then you have to charge them off your house, where do you think that energy is coming from... it's probably from a coal powered plant. It is putting just as much CO2 into the air as me driving my car!" I wanted to know the truth on this point so this is where I focused my research this week. I found a very useful article that has tonnes of information specifically on comparing electric scooters to other forms of transportation in China. If you want to check on the info first hand @ http://www.scribd.com/doc/1960031/Electric-Bike-Use-in-China-and-Their-Impacts-on-the.

This extremely informative article points out that the key fact that should be considered is the Environmental impact per person per kilometer over the lifespan of the vehicle in question. Here is the meat and potatoes on the issue of overall CO2 emmisions (this means taking into consideration the CO2 produced in the power plants that are recharging the bikes through powering the home):

Car=> 306 grams of CO2 per person (pax) per kilometer
Bus => 48.4 grams of CO2 pax/kilo
Bicycle => 4.70 grams of CO2 pax/kilo
Electric Bike Model 1 (BSEB) => 22.08 grams of CO2 pax/ kilo
Electric Bike Model 2 (SSEB) => 30.44 grams of CO2 pax/ kilo

Clearly, not only do the two different models of electric bikes vastly outperform the common car in terms of environmental efficiency (they produce ten times less pollution than your standard gas driven motor) but they are also significantly these harmful to the environment that public buses. In fact the only form of transport shown to be less polluting in this study was the good old trusty pedal bike (my personal favorite).

The article goes on to outline other elements of pollution and the electric bike follow the same trend in all of the categories except for one. This is the area of lead pollution, which the bikes produce when their batteries need to be replaced. This is mainly due to the fact that older lead batteries are being used in the bikes that are being produced in China right now. With advances in battery technology, which are currently available (the new lithium batteries are amazing) this issue could be address and improved upon (and the efficiency of the bikes would most likely be greatly improved as well). One additional significant fact should also be noted with regards to the pollution for charging units like this coming from a coal burning factory; it is actually a very good thing to have that pollution centralized, because as carbon capture and storage techniques are improved isolated sites of pollution such as power plants can be dealt with whereas individual tail pipe CO2 is sent into the atmosphere indiscriminately, in the middle of the most populated urban centers of the world.

Basically it seems to me that there is no reason for everyone not to be purchasing and hopping on electric bikes. In fact I'm amazed that there is not a massive back order list for them in Canada and America right now.

Here are some sites with E-bikes for sale!
http://www.e-ride.ca/ (in Vancouver)
http://www.daymak.com/ (in Toronto)
http://www.greenwit.com/ (for North America at large)

Think about it... gas guzzling cars should be put where they belong... in museums!

The Electric Scooter versus Other Forms of Transportation.

This week I've decided to take a look at some of the ways that we choose to get around and compare how they affect the envirnoment. This post is brought on by a recent trip to China. Over the winter break my wife, my good friend Rob and I were lucky enough to go to southern China and explore a few of the provinces there. We traveled for just over three weeks before heading north to Beijing to hook up with my folks. For me one of the most impressive things that I encountered on this journey were the signs of 'Green Alternatives' that seem to be popping up even in the rural districts of Southern China. We saw tonnes of solar heating cells, mostly for heating up water, some self operating off grid innovations in the area of things like street lights, but the most noticable and prevalent alternative option that Chinese people seem to be taking advantage of is the recent evolution of the electric scooter, which is literally running rampant from Yunnan to Guangdong.

I first noticed them in Guilin city. Sleek and silent they zipped by us emmitting nothing more than a soothing purr. They literally sound like happy cats! And it was a welcome relief compared with the smoky congestion that we encountered in Honk Kong and ShenZhen. At fist I thought it must be an anomoly of the region but as we pushed south and then west we kept descrying more and more of them. I vowed to do it little research when I got home and this week set about doing just that. In particular I was interested to find out how electric scooters compared to other forms of motorized transportation. 'There must be a reason that there are thousands of them on the streets and highways of rural south China' I thought. Interestingly enough it is not a trend that is taking off in China but encouragingly is spreading far and wide, from Europe to India to Canada and beyond (indeed my sister's husband's wife has recently purchased an electric pedal bike combo {way to go Rick!} and though he's encountered a few issues it is a move in the right direction.)

In my search for 'hard and fast' evidence I uncovered some intersting facts when it comes to the issues of electric vehicles in general. Here are just a few of them:

Interesting fact 1: Gas powered motors do not actually outperform their modern electric conterparts. In the past this was true, but with the new lithium batteries and improved motor components the electrics have caught up and in some cases are surpassing their gas guzzling (dirty sticky polluting) cousins.