magazine / jun08
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June 2008 issue |
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Reverberations
Plug in, power up
Your article on solar power (“Sunpower,” April 2008) made
me think about installing panels on my roof. Another great green story
would be on electric cars or plug-in hybrids that could be charged
by panels on the roof.
JOHN THUSS
STRATHROY, ONT.
It is great to see the exposure you gave to a story on renewable
energy. People need to know that these options exist.
Nevertheless, I was disappointed in the article on two scores.
First, there was no mention of the pilot project called PowerHouse
Loan Program that the Ontario government is operating in parts of
Greater Toronto’s Peel and York regions. Under this program,
residents who install more than $2,000 worth of renewable-energy
technologies (including solar) are eligible for a zero-interest
loan. If this pilot program were expanded to the whole province,
then it would really be considered “a daring new plan that
pays you to harvest the sun.” As the sidebar to the story
acknowledges, the current standard offer program (42 cents per kWh)
really doesn’t pay the consumer enough to cover the costs
of installing a solar-photovoltaic system. Without the zero-interest
loans, I feel your headline is misleading. Second, the story notes
that the total installed capacity of solar power in Germany is almost
2,500 MW and that this output is equivalent to one reactor at the
Darlington Nuclear Generating Station. Admittedly, there is always
some confusion when talking about the variable power output from
solar and wind installations. The conventional method is to talk
about the peak or maximum power (during full sun or wind). That
appears to be what was being done in your article, since the measure
is in megawatts (MW), which is a unit of power. If this is the case,
then each reactor at Darlington is rated at a maximum power output
of 881 MW, making the German solar capacity (on a bright sunny day)
equivalent to nearly three reactors of this size, not one as the
article states.
A better comparison could be made with the Pickering Nuclear Generating
Station, where each reactor has a capacity of 500 MW. Thus the total
solar-power output in Germany is equivalent to five of these reactors.
Indeed, since only six of the original eight reactors are still
operating at Pickering, one could say that Germany’s solar
power capacity is nearly equivalent to the whole Pickering station — and
with no expenses for annual maintenance, security, refurbishment,
and eventual decommissioning. And no worries about storage and disposal
of spent nuclear fuel.
PETER J. NELSON
OTTAWA
Your story ignored altogether some of the most efficient and effective
ways of using solar energy. If a building has south-facing windows,
that alone may reduce the winter heating fuel requirements by 20
or 30 percent. And if there is appropriate roof overhang or other
shading over those windows to keep out the high-angle summer sun
but lets in the low-angle winter sun, then passive solar heating
can be taken advantage of in winter, while excessive heating through
those windows in summer is avoided. And it need not cost anything
extra to build for passive solar heating.
Maybe that’s the problem. All the solar energy referenced
in the article, including solar-thermal water heating, involved
somebody making money. Passive-solar space heating can be incorporated
in new housing without anybody making an extra buck from it. The
consequences of not tackling global warming are very serious, but
if measures to combat it don’t make a buck for somebody, the
authorities (mostly) won’t do anything about it, commercial
interests aren’t likely to do anything either, and maybe nobody
will write about it.
The City of Lethbridge’s municipal development plan seems
to be the rare exception, an official document that promotes passive
solar heating. It recommends running streets east and west “to
maximize solar access through either back or front windows.” It
even suggest developers could use solar access and energy efficiency
as selling points for their subdivisions.
DAN WILLIAMS
COLDWATER, ONT.
Germany is no shining example of green power, solar or otherwise.
More than 60 percent of Germany’s electricity comes from polluting
fossil-fuel power plants, mostly coal-fired. Around 30 percent comes
from nuclear power, with most of the balance from wind. However,
the German government plans to shut down the nuclear plants by 2022,
which means even more pollution as coal replaces nuclear. Berlin
has already asked the European Union (EU) to allow for the phase-out
of nuclear energy when the EU is allocating carbon dioxide permits
to member states as part of its plan to reduce the region’s
emissions. Obviously, the German government does not have much faith
in its renewables.
DONALD JONES
MISSISSAUGA, ONT.
Solar cells are made of crystal silicon, which is obtained from
amorphous silicon — basically white sand. This process requires
a tremendous amount of energy: the manufacture of computer memory
chips, for example, requires the energy equivalent of burning seven
litres of gasoline. Given the size of a memory chip — one
square millimetre — compared with that of a solar cell, imagine
how much more energy is required to manufacture one photovoltaic
panel. People who bought into solar electrical power might do a
better job by not buying solar panels and saving all the energy
that goes into their production.
The second problem always conveniently missed in the media is
that the manufacturing process is highly toxic, and much of the
by-products will remain toxic forever. The manufacturing of solar
cells is commercially viable only because energy and waste collection
are subsidized by governments around the world.
I’m afraid there is no easy solution, no escape, and solar
electric power is definitely not a solution.
VLAD KRIVOROUTCHKO
CONCORD, ONT.
Like many environmentally friendly articles, John
Lorinc’s
story failed to put this renewable technology into perspective. Switching
to solar is just another feel-good quick fix, not a solution by any
means. First is the problem of disposal. You must have a plan from
start to finish for a resource. The batteries of solar panels contain
heavy metals that have to be disposed of later. How often do you
need to replace the batteries to maintain maximum efficiency? Where
do we put all that battery acid? Compared with mining waste, battery
acid has significantly higher concentrations of heavy metals.
Second, the article says that a new 10-megawatt solar farm will
require “hundreds of thousands of photovoltaic panels.” From
the photos, I estimate that each panel takes up about a half a square
metre. The Bruce Power nuclear reactors produce 6,200 megawatts
and occupy less than three square kilometers, so I estimate that
for a solar farm to produce as much energy, it would need 34 square
kilometres. Then add all the infrastructure into this. Although
it doesn’t seem considerable, that’s how much habitat
you are removing from the environment. As an environmentally friendly
citizen, would I rather destroy 3 or 34 square kilometres of what
little we have left?
Finally, housetop panels seem like a good idea, but you still
have the disposal problem. It seems odd to me that all of these
renewable-power options don’t receive the full top-to-bottom
investigation. They should be compared with the mining industry.
BEN MOULTON
HALIFAX
My wife and I made a major buying decision last August when we
put a deposit on a condominium to be built in Burlington, Ont. The
exterior walls will have 13 centimetres of high-tech polystyrene
foam combined with 20 centimetres of concrete. The sliding glass
doors and windows are Low E-Argon. The roof will have 25 centimetres
of rigid Styrofoam insulation with an R-50 value. The lighting in
the garage and hallways will be motion-activated. On the roof, we
will have four 20-metre-long solar arrays and wind turbines. Combined,
we will produce 30 kilowatts of power. Another major feature is
the geothermal heating and cooling system. I estimate our operating
expenses, including taxes and condominium fees, will be about half
of what we are paying in our current home. Your article on solar
power just reconfirmed our buying decision.
C. PETER CAMPBELL
OAKVILLE, ONT.
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I have thought about wind power for years, but land was always
an issue. Solar
panels seem a better way for me to help out in a
small but effective manner.
I live in Eastern Passage, Nova Scotia, and when I contacted Nova
Scotia Power, I was informed that I could do it but that there was
no incentive program similiar to the one in Ontario. Not deterred,
I am still interested, but now the hard work begins. I need to find
out whom to contact and what permits to apply for.
CHRIS GREEN
I installed photovoltaic panels on my house in 2006, so I wanted
to see how John
Lorinc’s perception of Ontario programs compared
with my own. Your cover and the captions in the article give the
impression that Ontario wants individuals to produce electricity.
The press overall has been very complimentary to the Ontario government
for encouraging homeowners with inducements similar to those found
in Germany and California. However, the article itself accurately
reflected my experience: the standard offer program does not make
it easy for individual homeowners to install photovoltaics and earn
42 cents per kilowatt hour.
When I pursued this, my local electrical distribution company,
the Ontario Power Authority and the Ontario Ministry of Energy all
said the same thing: the standard offer program was not created
to encourage rooftop photovoltaics by individual homeowners. It
will encompass “early adopters,” but its main purpose
is to reward bigger commercial installations.
I think rooftop photovoltaics are part of the climate-change solution.
Right now, even in Ontario, it is difficult to justify their installation
purely on a payback basis. If Canadian governments and utilities
are serious about getting distributed electrical generation at the
household level, they will have to make their processes easier and
their support stronger.
DON FUGLER
OTTAWA
“Sunpower” is a most brilliant piece of work. It gets
information out to us all in Canada — and even British Columbia — about
the fascinating developments and potential of renewable-energy technologies
in Ontario. Your mention of B.C. Energy Minister Richard Neufeld’s
reluctance to move forward more progressively with the standing
offer feed-in program, as practised in Ontario, is really bad news,
and we have to work on this.
Not in your article was what else is going on in British Columbia.
What you missed is the fact that we have a very active BC Sustainable
Energy Association, working with affiliate SolarBC that has a program
called 100,000 Solar Roofs.
GUNTHER HONOLD
VICTORIA
Fair treatment
Thank you for the article about the Tsawwassen
Treaty (“No reservations,” April
2008). Tsawwassen First Nation is a member of Naut’sa mawt Tribal
Council, of which I am the CEO, so I know the more complicated story
behind your story. You presented the situation fairly, intelligently
and in a style that was easy to read and understand.
KEITH WILSON
NANAIMO, B.C.
Homesteader kids
When I read the first line of your recent article on hippie
homesteaders,
I literally had chills run up my spine. The April edition was waiting
for me when my older brother and I returned from a nostalgia-filled
trip to New York and New Jersey, where our parents were born and
raised before they immigrated to Canada in the late 1960s.
While there, we discovered some photos and postcards in our grandmother’s
home that we had never seen before, which documented the earliest
days of our parents’ arrival in Cape Breton, N.S., in the
spring of 1972. The depth of emotion triggered by these images
as we sat around our ailing grandmother’s dining room table
surprised us both.
We enthusiastically agreed that now was the time to chronicle our
family’s story, before memories faded and more lives passed
away, and that we would be the ones best suited to spearhead the
task. You see, in 1972, our parents also, to quote the first line
from your article, “bought a 100-acre abandoned farm for $2,000.” And
the photo from the story looks remarkably similar to our own homestead
in the Boisdale Hills of Cape Breton Island.
JUDAH (AND ADAM) BUNIN
DOUGLAS, N.B.
My wife and young family lived for two years in a communal
home in Old Chelsea, Que., and spent a year in an Ottawa apartment before
migrating to southwestern Nova Scotia in 1973. I remember packing
dozens of shipping boxes with all our worldly possessions and sending
them by CN Rail from Ottawa to Tusket, the train station nearest
to where we would be living in an old farmhouse in Central Argyle.
In our mid-twenties, we departed Ottawa in a yellow VW bug with
two toddlers with a yellow canoe right side up on the roof filled
to the gunwales with the rest of our belongings, including a child’s
rocking chair.
When we arrived, a wonderful farmer next door lent me his pickup
truck to retrieve the boxes from the train station in return for
a day’s labour haying a rocky field. He said we’d
last a year. Chickens, goats, woodcutting and walking a kilometre
with supplies lasted a year, but we’ve stayed 35 years, although
on the grid.
Over those years, Vietnam-era refugees have come and gone, but
those who stayed became schoolteachers and dance instructors, boatbuilders,
businessmen, farmers, fishing-industry spokespersons, blacksmiths,
welders and ironworkers, writers, artists, coaches of national athletes
and participants in grassroots municipal and provincial affairs. Many
of our children have departed for university and the city, but the
country is still in their blood.
ANDY SMITH
CENTRAL ARGYLE, N.S.
Our own homestead
Reading about the back-to-the-landers (“Hippie
homesteaders of the Fundy Hills,” April 2008) brought back a ton of memories.
In 1973, my then husband and I bought an old farm for $11,500 which
included 75 acres of land, a derelict Loyalist house (built around
1847), a barn and a shed, in Carsonville, N.B., a settlement not
far from Sussex. I was born and raised in Montréal but had
been living in Vermont, where we met. We decided to move back to
Canada after spending the previous summer hitchhiking from coast
to coast. During a visit to Saint John, where my husband was interviewed
for a position at the shipyards, we contacted a realtor to see what
was available in the area. The farm, which had been abandoned for
many years, had basic electricity but no plumbing of any kind, and
part of the foundation had collapsed, so the house was leaning badly
toward the middle. But we were enthralled. It was just what we were
looking for. All the windows in the house were broken, and the floorboards
and the banister leading to the upstairs were gone. Grain had been
stored in part of the house, and rats had chewed the windowsills.
We could see how the house had been built in stages. The oldest part
had laths split by hand and huge beams put together with pegs.
We moved to the farm in October and spent the first night in our
tent in the field beside the house, with all our belongings stored
in the barn. The following day, we set up our bed in the barn and
slept there for the next week, while awaiting delivery of furniture
and a wood cookstove. To say our neighbours were extraordinary would
be a huge understatement. We were given use of a hunting camp, which
had a wood stove, few kilometres up the road from the farm. My husband
quickly found a job in Sussex, and after he left for work, I would
go to the farm with the two pups we had adopted and work on pulling
the old plaster off the walls in the two rooms where we intended
to live initially.
Once we had replaced the glass in the window frames in that part
of the house, the owners of the hunting camp provided us with a
small wood stove so that we could move in. My husband borrowed house
jacks from neighbours and jacked up the house and rebuilt the foundation.
We found out that the house had been built by a man known in the
community as Squire John McLeod and that it had, at one time, been
the settlement post office.
The first winter, I stayed home and kept the fire going and went
into Sussex once a week to do our laundry and buy food. Our source
of water was a pump in the yard. We had one of those metal boilers
(used to provide drinking water for animals), which we kept in one
of the two rooms we occupied. It rested on bricks to keep it off
the floor. It didn’t have a cover so we ended up sharing the
water with the two dogs! Our toilet was the original outhouse in
the oldest part of the house. Baths were taken standing in front
of the woodstove. We purchased firewood from a neighbour and split
it ourselves with a splitter borrowed from yet another neighbour.
When we were removing all the old plaster from the house, our neighbours
from the farm down the road brought us plates of food. Neighbours
from another farm lent us a wagon to haul the plaster to a spot
below the house. Our “refrigerator” was an old doll’s
trunk, which was kept outside the door of the two rooms we occupied.
We bought loud orange shag carpeting to lay in the room we were
using as our bedroom and orange-flowered wallpaper, which was next
to impossible to put up. since nothing in the house was plumb.
The following spring, we purchased a Jersey cow, pullets, chickens
for meat, a beef calf and a real refrigerator (second-hand) and
began planning our vegetable garden. We also bought a used tractor.
My husband had been raised on a farm, but I was a city person with
an intense love of animals and the outdoors. Our vegetable garden
was a huge success. We had a big crop of tomatoes, melons, corn,
peppers, yellow and green beans, sunflowers and cultivated strawberries.
The land around our house had mostly been cleared, and alders
had begun to grow all along the banks of the small streams crossing
the land. The fields were filled with wild strawberries and roses,
which gave us rosehips in the fall. There was an ancient apple orchard
behind the house, but the apples were no longer good to eat, so
we cut some of the dead branches but left the trees intact, as the
spring brought clouds of white and pink blossoms. There were also
old lilac bushes. Our neighbours brought their young cattle to spend
the summer in our fields, which helped keep down an impressive thistle
crop.
I joined a quilting group and learned enough to make an appliquéd
baby quilt for my nephew (from a design I found in the Sussex library)
on an old quilting frame we bought at an auction. I set it up in
the oldest part of the house and did all the stitching standing
up, since the frame was too high.
One of the best things about being there was the feeling of self-sufficiency.
The lack of plumbing really didn’t bother us a great deal.
We had a crop of vegetables from our garden, which I canned using
the hot-water-bath method. I had to fire up the wood stove in late
summer to do this and keep the door closed due to the flies, which
meant it was stifling in our two rooms. I gained a huge appreciation
of what women had experienced before the coming of electricity.
There were acres of wild blueberries on the land of a neighbour,
who allowed us to pick them, for jam and freezing. My husband was
now working in Saint John and traveled to work with the neighbour
across the road, while I took care of the animals, the food and
the house.
We stayed on the farm full-time for about three years, but then
my husband was hired as a town engineer in a bedroom community close
to Saint John, which obliged us to move there, although we went
to the farm on weekends. The rest is history.
Our experience in Carsonville is, without a doubt, one of the
most important and precious in my life. I want to hold on to memories
of the farm the way it was in 1973, the strength and self-reliance
we found in ourselves and the amazing generosity and kindness of
our neighbours. At the time, we didn’t particularly feel we
were part of a movement or a trend, but I guess we were.
Thank you again for your lovely article.
ALWYNNE K. WISE
HARRINGTON, QUE.
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And where’s North Shore?
Being from Quebec’s Lower North Shore has been a wonderful experience
(“It’s the freedom, b’y,” Jan/Feb 2008). Unfortunately,
I no longer live there. I left home at an early age to pursue my education
and have returned only a few times to visit my parents, who will never
leave the coast. I do have mixed feelings about the road. Yes, it
would be nice to have one. The cost of a plane ticket is outrageous.
But I think it will be detrimental to the way of life and the environment.
Over the years, I have attempted to explain where I come from, and
it has been an eye-opener. A majority of Canadians have no idea where
the Labrador-Quebec border is and I am tired of saying, “No,
it is not near James Bay or Gaspé.” Happily, I can now
share your article with my colleagues and friends.
CHERYL LESSARD
WHITBY, ONT.
NOxious gases
I found the map of worldwide
NO2 emissions (“À la carte,” April
2008) a fascinating illustration of a complex matter, but I was surprised
that the text made no mention of these emissions being linked to greenhouse
gases and global warming. Also, although the article’s specific
focus is NO2, your readers might wish to know that this gas is one
of a group of gases referred to as nitrous oxides, or NOx.
Among the primary sources of N2O is another nitrous oxide, adipic
acid, one of the most widely manufactured and used chemicals in
the world, particularly in the production of nylon 6.6, foams, paints
and tires and also as a food ingredient in gelatin, desserts and
many other products.
This radioactive and chemically active gas is contributing to the
recent increase in the Earth’s surface temperature because
N2O absorbs reflected infrared radiation. At 150 years, the estimated
atmospheric lifetime of N2O is long, and it contributes to ozone
depletion.
Airplane emissions are another significant source of not just CO2
but also NO2. Nitrous oxides along with water vapour represent
about 66 percent of the industry’s impact on global warming.
These will continue to increase with more airplane travel and will
not be offset by an improvement in aircraft or engine technology
but only by a reduction in flying (at least human!).
P. E. CAMERON
HALIFAX
Regarding your map of nitrogen
dioxide hot spots, I found the text
to be biased against Alberta. There did not appear to be any glowing
areas on the map in Alberta comparable to those in say Vancouver
or Toronto, yet Fort McMurray and Edmonton merit mention as significant
offenders. Although our emissions here need to be reduced, readers
should realize that the consumption of fossil fuels has more impact
on the environment than their production.
BRUCE LORD
KITSCOTY, ALTA.
Cousin to the crab
The “Discovery” story on horseshoe crabs (“Crabby
ancestors,” April 2008) says they are part of the phylum Arthropoda.
However, in order to understand their relatedness to ticks and spiders,
it must be stated that they are part of the subphylum Chelicerata.
Ticks and spiders, along with horseshoe crabs and sea spiders, are
all included in the subphylum Chelicerata. Without this statement
and a brief explanation, it is difficult for the reader to understand
how horseshoe crabs are more related to spiders than to other crabs,
which are also part of the very large Arthropod phylum.
KEVIN MCEWAN
BAMFIELD MARINE SCIENCES CENTRE
BAMFIELD, B.C.
More unwanted imports
Once again, the United States, in general, and North Dakota, in
particular have done it to Canada’s prairies. First they want
to drain the polluted Devils Lake into the Red River system and
pollute our rivers and lakes. Now they are selling their CO2 to
EnCana for injection in the Weyburn, Sask., field. Has the author
of “Carbon cemetery” (Jan/Feb 2008) read William Marsden’s
book Stupid to the Last Drop? Marsden reports that the
farm life and health of one family have been seriously affected
from leakage into their well and home property, forcing them off
the land to seek accommodation in Weyburn. EnCana calls the project
the world’s largest natural laboratory. Recent water tests
show a presence of chemicals that would normally be kept in the
lab, not freely spread to the atmosphere.
KEN WOODMAN
CALGARY
Ceremonial otters
As someone who feels that Canada’s native people have suffered
terribly and so often continue to do so, I was nonetheless distressed
to read that West Coast First Nations want to be able to harvest the
rebounding population of sea otters for “cultural and ceremonial
uses” (“Welcome back, otter,” Jan/Feb
2008). I thought
that aboriginal people respected life and the land and killed for
food only when necessary. To take lives for ceremonial purposes seems
to me to be very, very wrong and out of tune with the Earth.
Furthermore, the paragraph on the Pacific Urchin Harvesters Association
seems full of contradiction. Otters are being blamed for a decline
in shellfish, yet they eat sea urchins, which themselves eat mussels.
Perhaps the harvesters are overharvesting both urchins, and shellfish,
as they are in it for commercial reasons, just like the East Coast
fishermen who ludicrously blame seals for declining fish stocks.
Nobody mentioned above seems to be living in balance with nature.
RUBEN KAUFMAN
CALGARY
Under a foreign flag
Inspired by your story about the Royal Canadian Legion (“Meet
me at the Legion,” Nov/Dec 2007), I thought I’d tell you
about what is happening at the Legion in Grimsby, Ont., where I live.
It is twinned with a post of The American Legion in Allegheny, N.Y.,
and at the nearby cenotaph, the Stars and Stripes flies very permanently
and very proudly, albeit lower than the Maple Leaf.
The former Commander of the Legion found no difficulty with this
practice. The MP for Niagara West-Glanbrook defends a property owner’s
right to fly whichever flag he or she chooses. Admittedly, the Grimsby
cenotaph sits on land owned by the Legion, right next to the town
museum.
But however private the land it occupies, isn’t a cenotaph
essentially a public space of national significance to honour Canadian
servicemen and servicewomen? So it seems to me and, I suspect, most
Canadians.
To fly the American flag on a permanent basis at such a memorial
seems rather an inappropriate way to honour those who have served
in the Canadian Forces, some of whom have, in recent years, paid
dearly for errors made by the U.S. military. And some of whom, in
the early 19th century, struggled against invading U.S. forces in
order that Canada might ultimately have its own flag.
In Grimsby, a mere three kilometres or so from the cenotaph, Canadian
militia won an important victory on July 8, 1813, at the mouth of
Forty Mile Creek. Some veterans of the War of 1812, perhaps even
some who fought at the Forty, now lie in St. Andrew’s Churchyard
less than a kilometer from the cenotaph. Do they wonder if their
service and sacrifice are valued or if they have passed their expiry
date?
PETER BENNETT
GRIMSBY, ONT.
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* Letters may be edited for length, accuracy and liability.
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