With the Hallowe’en Season upon us, I thought this might send a few shivers down a few spines.  Enjoy.  Bwahahaha……

“Genetically Modified Organisms will save the world!”  If that’s true, one has to wonder why many of the companies that pioneer GMO seeds and crops spend so much time and money fighting against all efforts to label their products as either containing GMOs or are GMOs in their entirety.

(see: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/29/us-usa-gmo-labeling-idUSKBN0FY08W20140729 )

Like many consumers, I like to know what is in the products that I buy; I want to know what it is that I’m putting on my body, or in this case, in my body with the food I’m consuming.  I’m not too keen on eating a tomato that has had some genetic material from a fish that doesn’t freeze in the arctic inserted to enable said tomato withstand periods of cold temperatures, or eating an apple that has been modified to never go brown when cut open.

I also take issue with the idea of “Terminator Genes” engineered right into the seeds to make the plants sterile, so poor farmers are not able to save the seed and replant for the next year’s crop; necessitating expensive outlays of money every year to purchase new seed.

(see: http://www.globalresearch.ca/genetically-engineered-terminator-seeds-death-and-destruction-of-agriculture/5319797 )

In many parts of the world, suffering from extreme poverty, the idea of keeping the most vulnerable in crushing debt to satisfy the greed of a few biotechnology companies is offensive.

GMO technologies do offer some benefits.  In many cases, yields are higher in a smaller area; plants are engineered to be more drought tolerant (which will be more important as the world undergoes widespread water stresses); and quite often are able to give the farmer a higher income selling the increased yields of product.

(see: http://www.rff.org/Publications/WPC/Pages/The-Benefits-of-Genetically-Modified-Crops-and-the-Costs-of-Inefficient-Regulation… )

Many people wonder if we, as a global society, are on an unsustainable path. It certainly wouldn’t be surprising to think that we are heading straight for the brick wall with no brakes, when we read of increasing global temperatures, rising sea levels, melting polar ice caps, and the like.

I would like to suggest that we have the tools to change the tide; we are able to measure, with an accuracy that was unavailable to us in the past, ecological footprints of various kinds (water, carbon, energy). With these tools, we are able to identify embodied energy that goes into the making of an object; the life cycle assessments of most any object/product that we consume.

It is then up to us to demand that full, true cost accounting be added to the pricing of every product, service, or foodstuff that we consume. It is then that we will see, and fully understand, the true cost of shipping in a product, such as strawberries, from the other side of the world just so we can indulge in a strawberry in the middle of winter, whilst the snow be “ a blowin’ ‘gainst the side of the house”.

However, it is heartening to learn that we are fast approaching Peak Everything. (Jonathan Tomkin “Sustainability: A Comprehensive Foundation”) The reason I say that is because it means that the global society is fast approaching a level of financial sufficiency where one is not wholly concerned about their next meal, having a roof over their heads, or medical care for their loved ones. (Jeffery Sachs “The Age of Sustainable Development”) It is safe to say that when one’s main concern is to procure the necessities of survival, ecological footprints are the last thing on one’s mind.

I am hopeful that we are approaching that level where, as a global society, we have the necessities that we need, and we are able to make fully informed decisions on how our actions affect others and the planet we live on

As of late, I have been quite busy with a few free online courses (MOOCs: Massive Online Open Courses) that I would certainly advise anyone to look into, as it gives you the knowledge base that you can acquire from a university without the high costs.

Having said that, in one of my courses, “Sustainability: A Comprehensive Foundation” taught by one Professor Jonathan Tomkin from the University of Illinois, we were to write a discussion paper on renewable energy in our country of origin.

I was quite surprised, and a little shocked at how much investment we do have in Canada, and a little annoyed at how much investment is being stifled for the benefit of our fossil fuel industry.

Below is my submission; please enjoy.

Renewable Energy: The Future Of Possibilities.

As has been postulated on many a forum, the reliance on the oil and gas industry for all of our energy needs is becoming increasingly tenuous and costly; as well as being deleterious to our environment.

While the oil and gas industry has enjoyed many decades of prominence in supplying all of our energy needs, the time has come for us to consider moving away from those sources of energy and move into a new era of energy supply: renewable energy.

In Canada, there are many actual and potential sources of renewable energy, all with varying degrees of success in supplying energy needs to various communities. They are as follows:

Tidal Power:

Probably the best known source of potential tidal power is located at Minas Passage, in the Bay of Fundy, Nova Scotia. ( http://www.fundyforce.ca )

With 160 billion tonnes of seawater; the highest tides in the world; incredibly fast currents (10 knots, 5.1 metres per second), there is potential for 300 megawatts of power. Enough power for 100,000 homes. As research continues, there is suggestion that there is more than 7000 megawatts of potential and 50,000 megawatts of energy in the entire Bay of Fundy.

Wind Power:

Canada’s current installed capacity for wind power is: 8,517 megawatts, which is 3% of Canada’s electricity demand with enough power to meet the needs of over 2 million homes.
( http://www.canwea.ca/wind-energy/installed-capacity/ )

Below is the list of installed wind power per province:

Yukon: 0.810 MW
British Columbia: 488.7 MW
Alberta: 1,419.10 MW
Northwest Territories: 9.2 MW
Saskatchewan: 198.4 MW
Manitoba: 258.4 MW
Ontario: 2,855.51 MW
Quebec: 2,398.3 MW
New Brunswick: 294 MW
Nova Scotia: 335.8 MW
Prince Edward Island: 203.56 MW
Newfoundland: 54.7 MW

Landfill Methane Gas Capture:

In 1999, 16 installations were utilizing landfill methane gas for energy production; of those, 8 installations produced a total of 85.3 MW of electrical power, sufficient to meet the annual demand for 57,000 homes.

Today, 300,000 tonnes of methane is recovered from 42 sites across the country annually; experts predict that the volume of methane captured from landfills could be doubled within 5 years.
( http://www.lfgindustry.org/Landfill.asp )

Biomass Energy:

In Canada, there is 1,700 MW of energy produced. 1.4% of annual renewable electricity production.
( https://www.nrcan.gc.ca/energy/renewable-electricity/7295 )

Solar Power:

In Canada, solar power only accounts for 0.1% of total energy production, but potentially could increase to 5% of Canada’s energy needs by 2025.
( https://www.nrcan.gc.ca/publications/statistics-facts/1239 )

However, in 2001, 12,000 residential solar hot water heating systems and 300 commercial/industrial solar hot water systems were in use.

In 2010, Ontario had the largest solar farm in the world: Sarnia Photovoltaic Power Plant which provided power to over 12,000 homes. Ontario is expected to reach 2,650 MW of solar PV by 2015.

Run-of-River Power:

As of 2011, 32 Run of River projects have been installed in British Columbia; and 3,400 MW of installed capacity in Canada.

In Run of River projects “running water is diverted from a river and guided down a channel, or penstock, which leads to a generating house. Here, the force of the moving water spins a turbine, which then drives a generator. Used water is fed back into the main river further downstream. The difference between run-of-river and large, conventional storage hydro, is the absence of a dam and reservoir. Run-of-river relies on coursing rivers to generate electricity, as opposed to stored water.”
( http://www.energybc.ca/profiles/runofriver.html )

Geothermal Power:

At this point, very little is being done to actively pursue geothermal power for the Canadian market. However, as of 2007, it was estimated that geothermal power could meet half of British Columbia’s electricity needs.
( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geothermal_power_in_Canada )

The largest coventional resources for geothermal power are located in British Columbia, Yukon, and Alberta, with a potential 5,000 MW in traditional shallow geothermal resources with currently available technology.
( http://www.cangea.ca/where-are-canadian-geothermal-resources-found.html )

Nuclear Power:

Most of Canada’s nuclear power production is concentrated in Ontario, with 17 of 19 reactors producing 96.4 billion kiloWatt hours annually (15% of Canada’s electricity needs).
( http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/Country-Profiles/Countries-A-F/Canada–Nuclear-Power )
( http://www.aecl.ca )
It is interesting to note that all 19 reactors have shutdown dates ranging from 2014 to 2037.

As we can see, there are many sources of renewable energy. The challenges are mostly two-fold: political will and economic costs. Being that long distances tend to decrease the effectiveness of transportation of renewable energy, it may be better for communities of varying sizes to set up their own renewable energy sources, or join forces with nearby communities to share the costs of setting up localized renewable energy power plants.

It would also be wise to diversify the renewable energy inputs so that if one is not producing at maximum power (eg. Solar panels on a cloudy day) then another source is available (such as tidal power) to make up for the shortfall.