Ceci n'est pas un lawn

Ceci was a lawn, as grassy and pristine as they come.

Doing the right thing for the environment sometimes means messing up a bit with it first. The alarming photos are of a geothermal heat pump installation. The good news from the trenches is that in the end it's all worth it (at least for a more rural kind of property): cheaper heating during the long winter and cooling during those couple of weeks of summer, and some hot water too. A FAQ also mentions cuts in your personal emissions (something we already avoid in social situations). Can't go wrong.

NextEnergy has a simple explanation of how this works and generally what's involved. Our friend rw indicates that the extent of the digging (for the underground pipes) is dictated by the size of the house to heat, and that it can also be done vertically (which is more expensive, unless of course you hit oil). Several federal and provincial grants make this enterprise somewhat more affordable.

Mind you, last year my front yard looked pretty much the same. Some guys painted Plumbers on their truck but couldn't find a sewer pipe if it dripped on them. Then recently NASA used a similar technique to ascertain there is water on the moon; luckily, NASA employs more competent people.

Back to the geothermal thing. It's also good for the environment. Just installing it should give one a warm feeling.

Photos by rw.

And no one knows why the wine is flowing...

Good grief, time flies. Who would have thought!? A friend of mine became, just like that, a grandma. (A very young one, it should be noted, just to be on the safe side.) It all happened overnight. Yesterday worried about the upcoming geometry test, today grandma. QED... Hi there, baby. Howdy, grandma!

And Welcome, welcome cries a voice,
Let all my guests come in.

All this business of time flies babies et al. makes one ponder even deeper and wider. So, here it is. We should do our better best, so that the new babies of today and their babies of tomorrows will enjoy this planet as much as we still do. We are all party guests of these majestic green lands, and should pay our respects to the generous host. Time is running out. Let's not throw scraps beyond the garden wall...

Images: Greenland, photos by fs.

Family energy savings and the slow return to prosperity

The world's foremost financial shaman started his latest post with:

Eh? What's going on? Why am I writing on a Saturday afternoon? Is there something wrong with me? No, dear reader, I'm just feeling a bit bored...

As for me, no, I'm not bored, though I am writing on a Saturday night. Instead, I'm poor again. Empty as a pocket with nothing to lose. The #%$* US dollars from my account vanished. For an illuminating cause, but just like that. Yeah baby, no more dance for you tonight.

I am poor again.

To compensate somewhat for this sorry state of affairs, save the day, and edge forward, I'm watching Le plus grande cabaret du monde on TV5.

On voudrait des sous pour acheter des frites, on voudrait des sous pour aller dancer...

The lyrics are emboldening, the dance phenomenal. Moreover, it seems that many more are looking for some kind of change.

At the same time, as someone raised for, and used to, multitasking activities, I'm reading with reasonable optimism through this interesting research paper, 'Smart Family' Opportunities for Energy Savings. It claims to allow families to save up to $10,000 per year per home in energy bills (emission abatement included), by using a range of simple technologies. [The practical Canadian home owner may want to refer to CMHC's Renovating for energy savings and, in Ontario, also to OPA's Every kilowatt counts.]

Who knows.

Sous by sous, one might become riche again...

Another man's treasure

Among the garbage and the flowers. Toronto streets have been getting unheralded summer detritus ornaments for a week now. And the sun pours down like honey. And it all spills onto the sidewalk.

Guy next door, as usual when details of the benefits of unionized gangs are disclosed in the news, offered no opinion other than to say "it stinks". Us Toronto taxpayers, mortals who effectively pay a handsome rent just to stay in our own homes, we prove to be a generous and stoic bunch. (And kudos to the folks in Windsor!) Notwithstanding the high taxes that go towards the many unions and the few services, this is not really much of an inconvenience.

Torontonians already spend a good time faithfully screening, sorting, bagging, dragging their oversized multi-coloured bins back and forth, and once in a while visiting the Drop-off Depot for special occasions. We know caulking tubes don't go in the Blue Bin but in the Gray One. Catheters are rinsed, double-bagged, and go into the Gray Bin. Oversized items are put 0.5 m away from the Garbage Bin, toilet tanks first removed from the bowl. Cheese paper, but not chewing gum, goes into the Kitchen Container and then is reassigned to the Green Bin. Kitty litter goes into the Green Bin, pet fur into the Gray Bin. Dead animals are not accepted by the City. (So to get rid of a pesky pet, doing away with it first will get you nowhere.) The circumference of our bundled brunches (no Bin here) never exceeds 0.6 cm. And we all know what to do in case there is excess Green Bin material.

The last step, hauling the accumulated rubble away to transfer stations and scuffling with the picketers, is a natural progression. I'm confident debris scientists are busy applying for government grants right now in their quest to discover new ways to torment us.

And she feeds you tea and oranges, that come all the way from China. With all this intensive debrial (debriferous?) activity and the odiferous litter piling up, I could not help pondering on the reasons there is so much garbage stuff in the first place.

It is, of course, because there is so much stuff. The Story of Stuff tells us as much. Of the stuff, by the stuff, and for the stuff.

Deliberately a bit rough, a bit too instructional (reminiscent of a high-school lecture, Annie Leonard the stern teacher; Will this be on the exam?), and not as in-your-face strong as The Corporation. But the documentary is a nice overview of a big problem, and it's not merely for those pure raucous sanctimonious souls who are trying, a bit too hard, to save the planet (as we all were once). It makes the fashionable frugal even cooler, and more pertinent.

This story of stuff (21 minutes long) is divided conveniently (as you cannot rewind) into seven parts: Intro, Extraction, Production, Distribution, Consumption, Disposal, and Another Way. You'll learn quite a few things along the way: shoe buffing (the Corporation is bigger than the Government), the need for more planets. Synthetic chemicals (100,000 of these), such as the BFRs in your pillow, and the need to find a better way to prevent our heads from catching fire at night. Breast is (still) best (but we kinda suspected that much). Whole communities getting wasted (sic). Low lower lowest prices at Big Box-Mart and externalized costs. Consumption as a way of life. Designed for the dump (planned obsolescence) and skinny heels (perceived obsolescence), as 99% of the stuff we buy is trashed within just six months. Working, shopping, and the national happiness. And, sure enough, garbage. Brought to you by the letter G.

But really, yes, stuff is bad. The System, it stinks. It is high time to switch to something else entirely.

Carbon trading: world's next biggest market

Almost two years ago, the New York Times ran a rather visionary article which quoted Louis Redshaw, head of environmental markets at Barclays Capital, claiming that "carbon will be the world's biggest commodity market, and it could become the world's biggest market overall."

Currently valued at over $60 billion, the carbon credit trading market is set to skyrocket to over $1 trillion as the price of carbon becomes more and more valuable, and the US joins the world in cap-and-trade regulation this year.

This is an institutional market, played by the large polluters, major financial institutions, and some hedge funds. For retail investors, the easiest way to benefit from this huge market is to invest in companies that gain from reduced emissions simply by the nature of their business. Companies that generate clean energy would benefit by selling both their power and the carbon credits they acquired while producing it. ETFs are bound to appear sooner or later.

The Montreal Climate Exchange (MCeX) - Trading Canada carbon dioxide equivalent (CO₂e) units. Each CO₂e unit is defined by the Government of Canada as an entitlement to emit one metric ton of carbon dioxide equivalent.

The system proposed by the Canadian government is based on the allocation of units to a company for exceeding its intensity-based greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction targets.

GHG emissions (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, sulphur hexafluoride, and perfluorocarbons) are calculated based on the equivalent quantity of CO₂ required to produce a similar warming effect.

The European Climate Exchange (ECX) - Trading European Union alowances (EUAs) and Certified Emission Reductions (CERs). Each EUA is an entitlement to emit one tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent gas. Trading on ECX began in April 2005.

The Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) - Trading Carbon Financial Instrument (CFI) contracts, each of which represents 100 metric tons of CO₂ equivalent. CFI contracts are comprised of Exchange Allowances and Exchange Offsets.

The Chicago Climate Futures Exchange (CCFE) - A subsidiary of CCX, it's a derivatives exchange for futures and options contracts on emission allowances and other environmental products.