One Square Inch

It's not everyday that a book actually changes the way you perceive the world, but this week, I finished reading One Square Inch of Silence by Gordon Hempton and John Grossmann and I am changed. As I write, I am acutely aware of the periodic traffic passing outside; the whir of the laptop's fan; the roar of the crowd at the Olympic hockey game in Vancouver. I almost expect to sense parenthetical dBA measurements around me.

One Square Inch of Silence chronicles Hempton's journey from Olympic National Park, Washington state to Washington, D.C. in order to campaign for the protection of naturally quiet places in America. Along the way, he meets with a few like-minded experts and crusaders and reveals a vast, decentralized network of individuals who have come to same conclusion... quiet places at are risk. Additionally, armed with his professional sound recording and noise measuring equipment, Hempton draws attention to the wide variety of human produced noise that impinges on silence everywhere, from railways and interstate highways, to coal mines and high-flying airplanes.

As one might expect, some of the quietest places to be found are deep in national parks around the country, but surprisingly, the natural quiet is very often interrupted by jets far overhead or worse, air tours by small plane or helicopter. Apparently, the Grand Canyon is impacted by over 90,000 air tours per year, reducing the number of quiet moments to mere seconds at a time.

My favorite part of the book was reading about Hempton's visit to a secret location within the Canyonlands National Park in Utah. I visited a different, but very similar part of that park a few years ago and was struck by the remoteness, yet even miles off of the closest highway, oil rigs pumped away in solitude. I'm sure that now I'd be completely aware of their impact on the surrounding aural landscape, despite their small geographic footprint.

I highly recommend this book for all of you who are concerned about environmental issues... I suspect you will be looking at a whole new type of pollution around you, one that may not be exactly novel or unknown to you, but one that you will be more conscious of in the days to come. Treasure your quiet places and if you desire to help Hempton's cause (or for more information), be sure to visit his website, onesquareinch.org.

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Project: Insulating the Hot Water Tank Pipes

An efficient and well-insulated hot water tank will help conserve energy whether your tank is heated by electricity (like mine) or by oil or natural gas. Unfortunately, a lot of the pipes leaving the hot water tank are not well insulated, at least in older homes (also like mine).

Luckily, putting insulation on exposed copper is a quick and easy way to help! All you need is some pipe insulation and a knife. Measure the various lengths of exposed pipe and cut appropriate lengths of insulation. Simply wrap over the pipe (careful! it might be hot!) and seal if necessary.

This is what is looks like when complete. Relatively painless. Total time was about fifteen minutes start to finish. Total cost was $0.00 as the insulation was just laying around my garage. You should expect to pay about $2 a metre or less.

Insulating the hot water pipes in the walls is a job best done when building a new home or when renovating walls. My next step for this system is to wrap the water heater with an appropriate thermal blanket.

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Reducing Your Electrical Footprint

Some days I really love my job. This is one of those days because I got to spend part of my time working on a list of ways for university students to reduce their electricity use for an environmental challenge that's coming up.

Residence provides an interesting challenge for power use since it is quite different than living at home. For example, you never see a power bill. You rarely cook a meal for yourself, but you probably have a fridge and microwave in your bed room. Your computer is probably a 24/7 work centre and entertainment system.

Here's my list. Did I miss anything really critical?

1. Replace any incandescent bulbs with CFLs.

2. Turn off lights when not in use (when leaving the room, etc). Use task lighting where possible (i.e. a reading light for reading, rather than a desk light and ceiling light).

3. Set computers to go into standby mode or turn off when not in use for a 1/2 hour or more.

4. Use a power bar to turn off devices that use vampire power (like stereos, tvs, printers, computer peripherals, gaming consoles, etc).

"Standby power, also called vampire power, vampire draw, phantom load, or leaking electricity, refers to the electric power consumed by electronic appliances while they are switched off or in a standby mode. A very common "electricity vampire" is a power adapter which has no power-off switch. Some such devices offer remote controls and digital clock features to the user, while other devices, such as power adapters for laptop computers and other electronic devices, consume power without offering any features." - Wikipedia.

5. Hang dry your clothes when possible. If you must use a dryer, follow the manufacture's directions, use a proper full load, and clean the lint trap before and after every load.

5b. Wash clothes in cold water. Use an appropriate detergent.

6. Unplug chargers (cell phone, ipod, etc) when they are not charging a device (they consume standby power).

7. Take the stairs and not the elevator.

8. Unplug everything when going away for the weekend.

9. Study in the library where the lights are on already.

10. Open your curtains in the day and use natural light instead of the overhead light. Close the curtains at night to reduce heat loss and increase privacy.

Speak for Our Rivers

I'm posting tomorrow's post a little early because this is action you should take right away:

More than a million MEC members use Canada's lakes, rivers, and streams to pursue their passion for canoeing and kayaking. For over 100 years, access to and protection of Canada's waterways has been upheld by the federal Navigable Waters Protection Act.

Now our waterways are under threat from proposed amendments to the Act, which are included within the budget bill that's before the House of Commons. If enacted, the changes will limit Canadians' right to navigate and access our waterways and subject many of them to development without review or public consultation.

MEC has voiced our concerns to federal MPs. We encourage you to do the same.
Time is short though. MPs will vote on the budget bill early next week.