Regina Landfill To Produce Gas From Solar Energy

I saw this on Global news and I thought it was quite interesting, especially since it has to do with Regina.

The City of Regina has put our waste to good use by installing a $2.5 million gas collection system. This gas collection system has been placed in Regina's landfill and a private company named "Solar Hydrogen Energy Corp" are going to market and make this project profitable.

Now usually, a mixture of methane and carbon dioxide is created when garbage decomposes and then it goes into the atmosphere and therefore, contributing to global warming.

Yet, this landfill gas will use solar energy to break the methane down into clean-burning hydrogen gas. This landfill project will also be involved in the carbon credits system fabricated by the ICAP climate control agreement. This agreement was discussed in my last post...
If these credits are bought and distributed between large companies it is expected that the project will make up to $100,000 a year. That's pretty amazing if you ask me!

B.C. Premier Campbell Signs Treaty To Fight Climate Change

The Premier of B.C. Gordon Campbell has signed onto the "International Carbon Action Partnership." This partnership will set up a carbon emission trading system and protocol.

Already several European countries, some U.S. states and two Canadian provinces and New Zealand have signed onto this agreement. So far, Manitoba and B.C. are the first provinces to step forward and partcipate in this "Western Climate Initiative."

The ICAP hopes to become a role model for the creation of a global market for heat-trapping gases. These gases many scientists believe are linked to extreme weather such as; violent hurricanes, earthquakes and tsunamis.

Also, the European Union has pushed ahead of the group by forming the EU emissions trading scheme in 2005. The scheme's main goal is to reduce emissions by putting a price on carbon that businesses use. The goal is for the EU and the ICAP to form together ideas and reduce greenhouse emissions.

Gordon Campbell was invited by the prime minister of Portugal on behalf of Canada to the ICAP conference. Prime minister Stephan Harper knows of Campbell's intentions on the climate change crisis. It is reported that they are both to meet tomorrow and brief about the ICAP conference.

I think that ICAP agreement is a great initiative to get countries to reduce their carbon emissions. This agreement is going to do wonders for our earth, if we can get the countries who produce the largest amount of emissions to sign and agree.

"The Golden Compass" And "WWF" Team Together To Educate Public On Global Warming

*Note: This is not of high importance to Canadian politics, but I still found it appropriate for my blog.

The Golden Compass is a fantasy movie made by New Line Cinemas due to come out on December 7th, 2007. New Line Cinemas has partnered with the World Wildlife Fund to help raise money for endangered animals due to climate change.

Polar bears, snow leopards and monkeys are featured in the film and are high amongst the engaged animals today. This partnership between New Line Cinemas and WWF will involve an adoption process of "real-life" animals. People will be able to log onto www.worldwildlife.org/goldencompass, where they can see the animals featured in the film and show support for WWF by adopting one of them.

Since polar bears play such a huge part in the film, New Line Cinemas director of marketing Chris Carlisle said he felt compelled to help the bears. The project will include many public service announcements on global warming and a sweepstakes that features a grand prize as a trip to Manitoba, Canada, to view polar bears in their natural habitat.

This a great way to get the word out that global warming is not only affecting us but also, the magnificent creatures we take for granted. These animals all need our help and we must support organiztions like WWF, in their effort to stop the extinction of these animals due to the harsh changes in climate change.

Canadians Purchasing Environmentally-Friendly Cars?

I found this article quite interesting and important to what we were talking about in the Green Party presentation, we had on Thursday.

The Green Party brought up many important environmental issues and educated us very well on the issue of global warming. Also, a HUGE point was made by..(I think her name is Ariel) and that was that, "yes Canadians are saying that global warming is such a big problem, but are they doing anything to change that...?"

Well as reported by the Globe and Mail, the answer is NO. Clearly it's cool to say that you care about the environment, when really it's all talk.
The Globe and Mail conducted a survey on public issues and the number one issue was the environment. The conductors of the survey commented that environment being number one was not at all surprising. This has become number one because of the publicity on global warming and it also helps that Al Gore won the Nobel Prize.

Anyways, the survey showed that since the high rate of publicity on global warming has rose, people have come to assume that the purchasing rate on gas-guzzling vehicles such as SUV's, Trucks and Mini-Vans has gone down. Yet, stated by Stats Canada in August alone the rates grew by 5 percent!

This might have a little to do with the higher Canadian dollar and that Canadians are wanting to spend more money on nice vehicles. So, with the growing Canadian dollar, it is becoming much harder to persuade Canadian's to buy smaller, more fuel efficient vehicles.

So are Canadian's purchasing environmentally friendly cars? Well the answer is no. Yet, everyone supports such cars as the Hybrid and agrees they are good vehicles. But the reality is that fuel efficient vehicles are not yet the norm. Clearly, truth be told if you have the money... your not going to spend it on Hybrid, even if your intentions on the environment are good.

Good Ole Al Gore Wins Nobel Peace Prize!

*Note: This is not of high importance to Canadian politics, but I still found it appropriate for my blog.

Al gore and the intergovernmental panel on climate change won the nobel peace prize for "their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change", as quoted from the nobel peace prize website.

On October 12, it was announced that Al Gore and the United Nation's intergovernmental panel won the nobel peave prize. This was first announced on CNN before it was even announced to Al Gore himself, which is wierd.

Anyways, I thought that was interesting.

There are many, MANY critics out there who think that Al Gore does not deserve this prize. I personally don't agree with that. Al gore has done so much in making this environmental issue into a political one. Even if you don't believe in everything Gore says in his documentary...global warming is real. Al Gore has helped bring publicity to the topic of global warming and inspired people to make a difference! I mean HELLO, you see those "evergy saving light bulbs" everywhere now. It's like global warming and saving the planet has become the new "in-thing."

The Nobel peace prize committee deserve credit for giving this prize to Al Gore and the UN. They have recognised Gore's strong efforts and achievements in the environment and helped publicize this very important matter in society. I think we should all take a page from Al Gore's book and help out the environment in need.


What a hunk!

Government Gives $5 Million To Ethanol Plant

The Conservatives seem to be thinking green these days.
Stephan Harper has given $5.05 million dollars to a ethanol facility in Unity, Saskatchewan. This ethanol facility will help the good ole environment in a fuel related matter called E85 gas. E85 gas is a mixture of gasoline and ethanol, 85% of it being ethanol, which i think it kinda cool.

The Ethanol will be made from 68, 000 tonnes of high starch and soft wheat. This project is being conducted by the company: North West Terminal or NWT. NWT are an independent grain-handling company and they plan to employ 16 workers for the new ethanol plant in Unity. This plant will produce 25 million litres a year of ethanol for E85 gasoline.

The idea of an ethanol plant was created by NWT last year. The idea became a sucessful one when they became the "first project in Canada to receive money from the ecoAgriculture Biofuels Capital Initiative." The only downside I found to this article is that, a U.S. engineering firm has been hired for the construction of the plant... it would of been better if NWT and the government would of hired a Canadian company. But, in the end the my main thought is that at least we are getting this much needed plant anyways.

Yet, there has been rumours circulating that funding so much money into an ethanol project plan is a bad idea. These rumours come from the fact that E85 is yet to be seen at the pumps. But, I believe this is an awesome idea and I definetely see others following in Unity's direction.

Concern for the environment has become such a huge issue today and with ideas of E85 ethanol fuel on rise, this will truly help out our Saskatchewan farmers.
Who knows, maybe in the near future we'll see Arnold schwarzenegger promoting ethanol fuel as he did with the Hybrid.
So, it's time for everyone to think green and start burning that starch!

Global Warming Quiz

Quiz
Clean up your act...

Free Knowledge Day

Ok, so clearly I'm behind in putting up my blog on free knowledge day here....
I did of course, go to free knowledge day but I didn't know we were supposed to blog it!
So, Free knowledge day was Thursday September 20th and I went to see a fine gentlemen named Jim Elliot.

Jim Elliot spoke of a council of Canadians that are currently looking at; health care, energy use, water care and the intergration with the U.S.

Jim mainly focused on Canada's free trade agreement(1989) with the U.S. and how the U.S are changing their customs, mostly because of 911.

The fact here is that 80% of Canada's goods are sold to the U.S. and vice-versa. Yet, what happens when the U.S. tries to sell us something we don't want?

Well, Jim's example was: "a U.S. company wanted to sell leaded gasoline in Canada, but our Canadian government has decided to stay away from leaded gasoline. So, because Canada did not allow the company to sell the gasoline, Canada was taken to the courts.

So, how does this all have to do with my global warming blog? Well, Jim also spoke of NAFDA agreements and the fact that, if Canada decided to switch to natural gas right now.... it would only last 9 years. At this moment in time, Canada doesn't have enough natural gas, we are not ready.

Not only is Canada not ready for natural gas but also we are not ready to share our water. Canada is already starting to see major water draughts because of climate changes. Jim's example was, the south Saskatchewan river does not have as much water comming down as it did 10 years prior. Canada is lacking water and with the principle of exporting everything with the U.S.... well we will be seeing a lot of court dates. Canada is going to find it impossible to sell water to the U.S. because otherwise, we also will face water problems. Jim joked about this problem by saying that, "hey maybe, the U.S. will just invade us!"

I found Jim's presentation very interesting and it brought up some very important issues we face in Canada today.

Thanks Jim, great presentation!