Solar Furnace 2.0

Hey Lower Footprinters!

It's been a quiet few months, but we're now into the beginning of the heating season. Even if you don't plan on turning the heat on yet, you know that many of your friends and neighbours already have that thermostat creeping up. I, for one, enjoy waking up to the crisp morning chill, even if some days it means an extra few minutes under the blankets.

To that end, this weekend is going to be a construction weekend. I have a summer's worth of soda cans stockpiled. I have left over bbq paint from last year and I also have four south facing, vertical windows and three more ceiling windows that are ready to take the cans.

While I may not get to it this weekend, I also intend to put two uni-directional vents in the wall between my solarium "heat room" and the rest of the house. One flows into the house at the ceiling, the other out of the house near the floor. With proper louvers and good interior temperature control, this should mean very little heat loss to the solarium on cloudy and cold days.

Photos will update my progress as the weekend unfolds!

Green Shut Out of Canadian Election

While over 6% of Canadian voters supported the Green Party today, the party failed to secure any seats within the parliament. Leader Elizabeth May faired well against Tory Peter McKay, but was not actually close enough in her rural Nova Scotia riding.

The Liberal Party lost roughly a quarter of their seats while only only losing 3.3% of the popular vote (or roughly 10% of their previous total vote). Much of this loss is attributed to a weak leader and his Green Shift carbon tax platform.

While the NDP gained 8 seats, they were effectively taken from the Liberals, who share common ground in terms of environmental attitudes.

Welcome to the world of Canadian politics at the end of 2008. Environmental issues and environmental policies have never had so much support from the population, but with a lack of unified, coordinated leadership to take these issues and form them into policies and platforms that are understood by the people, we face more years of being on the outside of the process.

Certainly, our first-past-the-post electoral process is partly to blame, but given that reality, three contenders in each riding that more or less represent some part of my environmental concerns means that the voters remain confused. I'd like to say it's time for the "Left" to unite, but the environmental issues we face cannot wait for that to happen.

The economic crisis we now face is a perfect parallel for the environmental crisis we also face. Corporate greed causes catastrophic damage. Individual overconsumption and irresponsibility is encouraged and rewarded. In the case of the economic crisis, however, governments the world over recognize the need to step in and commit.

How bad does the environmental crisis need to get before similar action would be possible? Would the damage be as reversible as a few bad weeks on Wall Street? What if you lost 25% of your environmental capital in less than six months?

As we enter into a new period of minority government, the green mandate of the majority of Canadians needs to find a new voice. It needs to become the bargaining chip in everything that the Conservative government gets to do in the coming months. We can't afford to wait for the political "Left" to sort themselves out.

I put it to you. What do we do next?

Drill Baby Drill

Last night, my blood ran cold when I heard a mostly full arena chanting "Drill Baby Drill" at the RNC. I had no intention of making my blog a political platform in a partisan way, but I for one can't let this pass.

An energy strategy that involves drilling for more oil and natural gas, especially in protected areas, is not a solution... it's simply a stop-gap measure that only delays the inevitable energy crisis while also putting more CO2 into the atmosphere.

If you're reading my blog, you're probably already against the GOP's energy strategy. If you need convincing, you should check out Obama's New Energy for America page.

I'm not an American, but this is one issue where I need to make my voice heard, even if I cannot vote, because the US energy strategy will affect me and everyone else on the planet.

Are you an American undecided or non-voter? Will you cast a vote on my behalf? Tell me and we will feature it on this blog between now and November 7.

I've Joined the Other Group

If you recall my earlier posts about water conservation, I firmly came down on the side of the "jiggle the handle" toilet flushing debate. I thought an unflushed toilet was something terrible, something only found in the morning when your parents are visiting.

Well, at the risk of affecting my future dating life, I'm happy to announce that I've switched sides. I'm now in the "if it's yellow, let it mellow" camp. So far, it's been no big deal. I have my own en suite, so I don't have to worry about guests or roomies. It's been relatively cool, so I don't have to worry about anything stewing, even if it is left for a workday or overnight.

Thus far, I'm saving two to three tanks of water per day, maybe more (some days), maybe less (since I was doing the jiggle thing anyway).

Do you have any experience with this? Is there a safe, eco-friendly trick to this to keep it cleaner or more sanitary? I sincerely doubt dropping a bleach tablet in the tank is the eco-friendly option I'm looking for...

Toyota Joins the Fuel Cell Ramp Up

This article was just sent to me from Meg about the new specs of the Toyota Fuel Cell.

http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2008/06/06/toyota-fuelcell.html

Definitely worth checking out!

So this is called grazing?

As I type, I have a lot more food in front of me than usual. My office assistant and I decided to start making coffee in the morning rather than getting the usual take-out stuff. Reusable mugs, less cost, just as good. Additionally, my spread includes a container of plain roasted almonds, half a bag of baby carrots, a home-made muffin, and the yogurt is in the fridge behind me.

So this is the new munch-all-the-time-on-food-that-is-good-
for-you plan. Lunch yesterday consisted of a big bag of carrots and broccoli.

We won't talk about last night's supper just yet.

Eco-Friendly Dorms Are Coming

I'm just arriving back at work and I find this in my inbox:

How green is the College?

Very neat to see that a little bit of competition can go a long way...