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A monumental tug-of-war is raging between an elite small group of insanely wealthy fossil fuel pushers and a growing number of regular people that favour more enlightened clean alternatives.
This is one battle that the people will eventually win because our lives depend on severely curtailing the carbon economy. We can see that the tide is turning, regardless of what the MSM tells us (or doesn't tell us). Things are looking up for green energy.
Already there are more jobs in renewable energy in Canada than in the tars sands, the dirtiest oil source in the world.
Investment in renewable energy is up globally. Locally, my tiny town of Digby, Nova Scotia is becoming known as a centre for research and development in wind and tidal energy. Wind farms are popping up like flowers in the spring.
The municipality owns and operates a biodigester that processes biomass (including material from green household waste) to create methane used to generate electricity.
Increased investment in renewable energy is good news for the green economy, the environment, everyone's health, and future generations.
The future is bright... and clean - the transition has begun.
You're right but we still have a huge fight on our hands. Locally, our Council wanted to build a waste incinerator. Despite huge local opposition to what the EU have said is old, discredited technology and adjacent authorities having digestors, like yours, the Council and the company they are hand in glove with are getting their incinerator.
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DeleteCharlotte,
It will be an epic battle as the carbon profiteers will not let go of the dirty sack of cash easily. 10s of billions of dollars in personal fortune just isn’t enough for some unbalanced people. Their mental illness, and collusion with our "leaders", is having far-reaching effects.
Europe (and the UK specifically) is falling behind in renewables in 2014 due to political apathy, and if things are going well in Canada, it is in spite of our federal government rather than because of them.
Our current government is working with their oil industry friends and backers to spark another climate-harming oil boom. It’s all about digging, pumping and fracking for fun and profit, and damn future generations.
But there are more of us than them, and we are making our voices heard from anti-pipeline pressures to banning the idiocy of unchecked fracking.
We can work toward becoming less reliant on harmful energy sources, both at home and in our local areas. I would love to see renewable energy cooperatives here (and everywhere) like there are in Germany.
Perhaps I will start one.
Dear Gregg, my first comment sounded rather negative...I am sad that the incinerator is going ahead, but there are green shoots of renewables here too. Our neighbours just had solar panels fixed to their roof (unfortunately, ours faces the wrong way) and a local farmer who just built a big new barn has covered the roof with solar panels. He's added a big wind turbine behind the barn too. Fracking is a big issue here too...mighty unpopular with the public, but guess what, the politicians love it. Politics is in a sad state here, our own MP actually said in a meeting last week "we don't need dog-end voters in outlying regions" (fortunately, the press picked it up)...and guess what, we are an outlying region!
DeleteOne of the largest oil companies who has busted all records in terms of profit only employs about 80,000 people. That alarms me. I just read the Wikipedia page on Exxon Mobile and then looked up the stats on how many employees they have. It is alarming that so much money is being made and so little paid back to the people. At one point, I had to start skimming the wiki page, it is so upsetting to learn all that.
ReplyDeleteI love that your blog reading/commenting community is international. I've learned a lot from their comments and your discussions.
Terri
Terri,
DeleteIt is the same with the oil and gas industry in Canada. They do employ a lot of people, but it is not the only money maker in our economy and shouldn't get the attention it does.
Our government is spending hundreds of millions of dollars promoting the industry with all eggs in one basket. Most of our oil is owned by foreign companies that take profits out of the country.
If we were serious about providing the people with a good return on THEIR resources we would nationalize the oilfields, then wind them down as renewables take over.
I also love hearing from readers the world over. While comments tend to come from specific countries, NBA has had visitors from darn near every country in the world.
The readership and participation here is impressive. Smart folks here. Nearly every country, WOW!
DeleteI didn't realize that Canadian oil was owned by outsiders, interesting. It' got me to thinking.
Terri
Hi Gregg,
ReplyDeletesome good news - the town of Uralla, just 15 minutes down the road from me, will become Australia's first Zero Net Energy Town - hooray!! This is incredibly exciting, and hopefully a sign of better things to come for Australia. I'm not sure how much you hear about us in Canada, but our newest government has an absolutely shameful record as far as the environment goes. Not only are we not moving forward, we are moving backwards (for just one example, the carbon tax has been withdrawn, so big polluters can just keep on polluting).
I tried to get solar panels on my house a few years ago, and was told by our very backward council that I couldn't put them on my north facing roof as it faces onto the street and i live in a 'heritage' area. This struck me as completely crazy, and I'm sure there would be no resident complaints were I to go ahead. However, things are starting to heat up around the world now, and councils and governments will soon be forced to change. For one thing, natural disasters cost them a lot of money, and pretty soon the cost of that is going to outweigh the profits from selling dirty fuel.
In the meantime, the best we can do is OUR best, and try to inspire and support others to do the same. Every homegrown tomato and every rag that replaces a bought dishcloth is a step in the right direction. All those little actions add up, and hopefully soon the tide will turn.
I listened to a podcast the other day where it was said that Germany now runs on 74% clean energy, and that the use of disposables is deemed very unacceptable - the times they are a changing :)
Madeleine.x