The new microwave in the Mill Creek NetZero Home tries to burn 35 Kg of coal every year to display the time.

When discussing the environment with non-converts, the debate often degenerates to someone commenting “you want us to go back to living in caves”. The sentiment reveals a shocking but widespread ignorance about the vast quantities of energy and materials that we squander. Energy is cheap and ubiquitous, and it seems that humans are doomed to waste whatever is abundant.

The answer to the living in caves comment is that we could reduce our materials and energy consumption by 50% in a heartbeat without touching our standard of living. In fact, we could reduce consumption by over 90% and still live better than kings and emperors did 300 years ago. (Yes, monster truck rallies would have to go. If by “living in caves” you mean “stop driving my Hummer around while Tweeting on my cell phone”, then I stand corrected.)

The microwave at the top of page is state-of-the-art; we purchased it this year from IKEA, a company that makes claims of environmental responsibility. The problem is, it draws four Watts of electricity, all the time, day or night. The useful work that it manages to produce out of the 100 grams of dirty coal that it needs every day is to display a digital clock.  Quick! Raise your hand if you need another clock in your house!  read more... »

The Riverdale NetZero Project, one of twelve projects to emerge from CMHC's EQuilibrium Housing Initiative, is now complete. It is a groundbreaking project that is the result of many people putting in many volunteer hours. It looks like the duplexes will each actually be NetCredit homes, because their performance is exceeding expectations so far.  read more... »

Resiliency

Thomas Homer-Dixon is a smart Canadian with some keen insight on the problems that our species face. His book The Upside of Down is an exploration of the biggest threats facing us and the planet. Two of his top five are the problems that I think will have the most influence on our way of life this century: Peak Oil and Climate Change.  read more... »

Edmonton is gorgeous this time of year. It's rained a few times, the leaves are out, and the weather's great. When we do see rain clouds coming, we're confident that they will do their job and then get the heck out.

This is the season for romantics and husbands who want to stay out of trouble to gather and give flowers to their loved ones. In fact, eco-minded flower givers should be making hay while the sun shines (so to speak).

The cut flower industry is hugely damaging to the environment. Most of the flowers that we buy here in Edmonton are grown in very intensive greenhouses in South America. They are heavily sprayed with herbicides and pesticides. The worst part is flying them in refrigerated planes from there to here. In fact, "the transit of each individual flower generates vastly more than its own weight in CO2" (source).

We're in the middle of a climate crisis that is so huge, we really can't understand how much it will affect us and future generations. So exacerbating it with something as frivolous as cut flowers seem shameful. Especially when there's an alternative: local flowers.

Right now lilacs are in bloom all around the city. These are gorgeous flowers that range in hue from almost white to deep purple. And they are so common that almost any favour-seeking male can get a hold of some. Ask your neighbour, cut some from your mom's yard, or, if worse comes to worse, use the old "it was leaning over the alley" excuse.

It seems to me that a summer's worth of flowers should make up for giving other things (compliments? hugs?) during the winter months. And for the flower receivers out there, maybe send a message that your husband/partner/whatever can get away without flowers for the winter as long as he (who are we kidding here?) makes up his quota when the sun shines on this fine summer city of ours.

This is Anna Talman. She's a member of Edmonton’s Children-Organized Anti-Idling Recruiters (Eco-Air).

I saw Anna speak to a City Council committee last year about enacting an anti-idling law. It was awesome. Being characteristically timid, our fine councillors backed off on a law and instead committed $140,000 to beg educate people to stop idling their cars unnecessarily. Better than nothing.  read more... »

Believe it or not, you can drastically reduce your carbon emissions this summer without having to afford a several hundred dollar appliance purchase. These 8 carbon-cutting actions offer fun and easy choices you can make to fight climate change.

1. Grow something tastier than grass

According to calorie-count.com, one hour of gardening will take care of 280 calories - about one grande Starbucks whole milk latte. Plus, New Brunswick’s Fallsbrook Centre tells us that the average meal travels 2400 Km to reach our plates. That’s roughly the distance between Montreal and Winnipeg - every meal!  read more... »

Driving is going to have to become a novelty if we're going to avoid the worst of the climate crisis. Plus, Peak Oil is going to force us into drastically reducing car use whether we like it or not.

The best thing to do is move towards car-free living. That means moving to a more central location and/or biking, walking and busing as your primary means of transportation.

Still, there are still justifiable reasons for owning a car. Your livelihood is a big one - I can't imagine how a realtor or roofer could run a successful business without driving most days.  read more... »

Alberta's electricity is mostly coal-fired. And coal is the enemy of the human race. So what is a green Edmontonian to do?

The first, most profitable and greenest thing you can do is to reduce your energy use. The easiest ways to do that, all of which have better paybacks than most any mutual fund, include lighting with only compact fluorescent bulbs, replacing your 15-year old refrigerator with a new energy efficient model, and plugging your consumer electronics into power strips to that they don't suck juice while they're turned off. We'll cover all of these actions in future posts.  read more... »

As I sit on my bike in the mornings at the 109th Street and Saskatchewan Drive intersection, I sometimes count how many passing cars are single occupancy. The percentage is about 90%, which is shameful given that many of them are driving from the same neighborhood to the same general area.

Concerned citizens should make their transportation choices in this order of preference:

1. walk or bike
2. bus
3. carpool
4. drive alone

There's a very cool new tool for Edmontonians who want to carpool: carpool.ca.  read more... »