keeping sane, one word at a time
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Male; Age 25; Likes Ultimate Frisbee;
Here's a favorite quote of mine from Tropic of Cancer p.99, "I have found God, but he is insufficient. I am only spiritually dead. Physically I am alive. Morally I am free. The world which i have departed is a menagerie. The dawn is breaking on a new world, a jungle world in which the lean spirits roam with sharp claws. If I am a hyena I am a lean and hungry one: I go forth to fatten myself."
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Monday, January 01, 2007
Nation Builders
As a believer in Kyoto, and global warming, it was really interesting to get a chance to speak with Dr. Darrel Reid, Chief of Staff for Rona Ambrose (current federal environment minister). This converation was the inspiration for this rant.
The environment ministry is currently facing a potential reshuffling because it has not lived up to expectations (at least there are rumours). The Clean Air Act was a definite flop, because none of the major parties [Liberals, Bloc, NDP, Greens] thinks it's aggressive enough to mitigate climate change. Plus, it seemed to take a long time for the Act to be delivered, with Miss Ambrose travelling the globe to inform everyone that Canada won't meet its Kyoto obligations in the meantime.
This might be true. It's very possible that we should take a more "realistic" stance. We've trained ourselves to emit GHGs in such large quantities that we've past the point-of-no-return, and that we'll have to deal with a certain amount of adaptation. There are many reasons why I don't believe in this position. The first is that, as an engineer, I believe we can create whatever world we want. When the human race is inspired to make something happen, it can do anything. Canada's mobilization during WWII is a good example: 4000 troops in '38 to over a million by the end of the war. The entire country was transformed into a warmachine.
What motivated Canada to mobilize? Fear, I suppose, but also an interest in helping countries in need. The problem was initially more obvious as well (i.e. invasion of Poland), but it is now equally apparent that global warming is taking place, and the public is starting to notice.
So what to do? Regulation of GHGs won't take nearly as much humanpower as that needed to mobilize during WWII. The governments job should be to motivate these changes by setting serious emission caps. Emission caps that will immediately be quantifiable in company budgets. And I mean in the next couple fiscal quarters. This will create R&D, and motivate companies, and universities to investigate the various proposed solutions (Hydrogen/Electric Cars, Renewable Energy, Carbon Storage) with more vigor. Because it's not enough to simply decrease our emissions anymore, we need to permanently regulate them, and this means "terra-forming" - large-scale geo-engineering of the planet's atmosphere. This is a very useful tool, that the human race will need in the near future. If Canada can gain an edge in this technology, it will likely pay big dividends down the road.
And what else should the government be doing? Well, after heavily regulating the country for GHGs, we'll likely alienate Alberta and Ontario: the major centers for the Oil and Gas Industry and the Automotive industry, respectively. One way to reunite the country is the following. Both Alberta and Ontario desperately need cheap electricity to run their economies, to get the oil out of the ground and to build the cars. BC, MB, and QC all have access to existing and potential clean hydro power that doesn't produce GHGs. The solution: use government capital to bridge the grid across all provinces. Just like the national railway project. As an example, Manitoba Hydro, like the hydro companies in the other provinces listed, is a net exporter of electricity, and is considering over 2000 MW of new generating capacity in the coming years. Hydro Quebec has even more planned. These are considerable amounts of baseline power, that could allow much larger dependance on the grid. A dependance, for example, that might come from plugin-hybrid cars, and growing populations. Near zero emission cars getting their energy from a clean grid. Just watch Canada's emissions stabilize and fall.
Geo-engineering of the planet's atmosphere might be a bit farther off, but the above goals are very tangible, and could be implemented within a decade or so. But its going to take true leadership. Politicians who care more about their country, and their planet, than their political affiliation. And who realize that it will not liikely be the government's job to find the right technologies, but to simply motivate their discovery and implementation. As someone who considers this problem often, it is simply refreshing to see all the major parties fighting to see who can be greener. I'll be voting for the party that sets real goals, such as the ones mentioned above, for falling inline with Kyoto within the next decade.
5:39 PM
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