The PenOpticon

"Whenever we have an economic activity, we've got to do it in an environmentally friendly way". That's what Federal Environment Minister John Baird told the Globe and Mail yesterday when it reported that 500 birds were killed after landing in a toxic lake of "oily tailings". Baird added, "Something went wrong here. I'm not happy about it and I want to get to the bottom of it." Perhaps Mr. Baird should get to the bottom of Syncrude Canada's toxic lake and see if the sludge will stick to him.

Supposedly this tragedy happened because Syncrude had not yet deployed "noise cannons " around the lake to scare off the birds. I dunno — when I first saw similar cannons a few years ago, they were loud and obnoxious, but many birds simply ignored them and came and went as they pleased. I suspect that the tar sands tailing ponds, positioned in the middle of a migratory bird flyway are bound to attract and cause the death of hundreds, if not thousands of birds every year. The Federation of Alberta Naturalists has complained about the tailing ponds for years.

What's troubling (though not surprising) is that Baird is comfortable talking about open lakes of toxic sludge and environmentally friendly "economic activity" in the same breath. No wonder six Alberta conservation groups are suing Baird for failing to protect endangered bird habitat.

When will this "New" free-market, Conservative government start to encourage sustainable energy development and cancel all oil and gas subsidies.  It's tragic and immoral that tar sands development is causing the death of so much wildlife. The fact that Canadian taxpayers are helping to fund this carnage through billion-dollar subsidies is just plain stupid.

Despite what the folks at the Pembina Institute think, today’s Globe has a different view on all of the weird and wonderful things the oil moguls in the west are doing to lessen environmental damage caused by oils sands extraction and production.  David Ebner’s The Greening of the Oil Sands, reads more like a list of excuses and threats from the oil industry.  Essentially we are told not to threaten the Canadian oil industry with environmental regulation and other "rash decisions" or we stand to lose 20% of Canada’s gasoline capacity. As Marcel Coutu, CEO of SynCrude told the Globe: “That’s a big, big number. I don’t think the country wants us to stop being a leading oil producer.”  Well, maybe we do. Maybe some of us want to see Canada’s gasoline requirements drop by 33% or more.

But not these guys. They want us to keep the exploration subsidies flowing and consider "innovations" such as the use of underground nuclear reactors so that the oil sands can be processed in situ. Or how about EnCana Corp’s plan to reduce the amount of fresh water steam required to bubble up the bitumen by mixing  solvents such as butane and propane into the steam.  Oh, and Shell wants to pipe CO₂ emissions to Edmonton where they will be pumped into older wells to be "permanently" stored.

Doesn’t it just all sound so, so "sustainable"? 

We just got back from a three-day stay at the Algonquin Eco-Lodge. It was an interesting and pleasant way to experience the southern region of one of Canada’s most famous parks. The folks who run the Lodge are good people and we also got to meet some interesting guests: like the bowling alley “facility manager”, a U.S. parks and wildlife employee and some Italian tourists who only wanted to see “nature” in Canada. During those three days without electricity we were able to disconnect from the insane tangle of world events that has tied the airwaves — and our stomachs — in knots.

This dearth of news afforded us all a kind of grace and clarity, as well as the gift of time. Cynical curmudgeon that I am, I started thinking about what we were doing out there and whether the whole concept of eco-tourism is really an oxymoron.

It’s true that for three days we were disconnected from the grid and used considerably less water than the small lake that most North Americans use every day. Cooking, refrigeration and lighting were accomplished with miserly (i thot) amounts of propane. On the other hand, we had to drive several hundred kilometres just to get to the place. Guests are expected to hike 3km from the parking area to the lodge, but food, supplies and visitor’s luggage are ferried in by ATV. There is a fast flowing creek right next to the lodge and we heard rumours that a microhydro system was in the works, but I’m not sure a small stream could generate enough hydroelectric power for cooking and heating. If not, they would have to continue using wood and propane. But every little bit helps, right? Still, the total eco-experience would be enhanced if they added passive solar water heating and some token amount of photovoltaic and wind power generation — just to say they did. On the other hand, the costs for such systems are not trivial and payback is uncertain.

So, while we were mostly dependant on propane, we found two apparently “natural” examples of alternative energy use. The frog in the photo on this page took advantage of beer cooling in a small brook to sun himself in the parabola of an upside down can. Clever little guy! We also found a plant that uses “alternative” energy: Indian Pipe is a waxy, white plant that gets its nutrients from a fungus, which in turn, gets nutrients from the roots of green plants. The irony of these examples is that both the frog and the Indian Pipe rely on the resources, work and or technology of other organisms. You could say they are opportunistic sponges. You could say they are a bit us: opportunistic and lazy. We become risk-takers only when circumstances offer no easier path.

While the Algonquin Eco-Lodge is a work-in-progress, it is interesting because it does not take the easiest path as far as energy use is concerned. The place could be greener, but compared to the vast amount of energy and resources consumed on a cruise or at any luxury resort, the Algonquin Eco-Lodge looks like an environmentalist’s dream destination.

On our final night there was a severe thunderstorm in the area. During the storm we sat in the common area drinking coffee and laughing nervously while lightning flashed and the pine floor rumbled and shook after every thunder clap. We left the next morning and drove though a ravaged swath of the Kawartha lake area to find numerous downed trees and damaged roofs. More than 100,000 people lost power during that storm, but life at the Eco-Lodge continued as per usual.

Sometimes the harder path really is easier.

It is strange and peculiar that a large swath of Queens and La Guardia airport in NY has been without electricity for five days. Utility workers are  repairing feeder lines and transformers, but they have not yet found the root cause of the failure. Con Edison officials told the New York Times that damage was “significant and extensive.”

So where has all the power gone? If I didn’t know better, I’d guess that the protagonist in Ralph Ellison’s 1952 Invisible Man just might know the answer. Ellison’s guy is alive and well and living near Harlem, but in order to survive, the Invisible Man must live underground, must operate beneath the radar of a dominant culture that refuses to include him. He writes:

I have been carrying on a fight with Monopolated Light and Power for some time now. I use their service and pay them nothing at all, and they don’t know it. Oh, they suspect that power is being drained off, but they don’t know where. All they know is that according to the master meter back there in their power station a hell of a lot of free current is disappearing somewhere into the jungle of Harlem… My hole is warm and full of light. Yes full of light. I doubt there is a brighter spot in all New York than this hole of mine, and I do not exclude Broadway. Or the Empire State Building on a photographer’s dream night.

In many ways the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank and almost everyone in southern Lebanon seem to be invisible these days. How else can one explain the indiscriminate way in which Israel has been pulverizing Beirut? Who would drop bombs on young children if they were not invisible? Of course, Hezbollah and Hamas are living in a dream world if they do not believe in Israel’s right to exist. But, at the same time, the only way Israel can truly disarm these militant factions is by offering Palestinians a full share of life in the region. They could start with an equitable distribution of water and electricity. Since israel bombed a power station serving Gaza City, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have gone with out electricity and without enough water (since electricity is required in order to pump it). As far as water goes, it is interesting that Israel wants to push Hezbollah north of the Litani river. As Marq De Villiers noted in Water:

The Israelis have never really given up thinking of the Litani as rightfully theirs. And since almost half the water used in Israel is already captured, diverted, or pre-empted from its neighbors, why stop there?

Although much of the electricity in Queens, Lebanon and Gaza has gone “missing” of late, it will ultimately be restored with the help of engineers and line workers. But these electrical repairs will only be temporary fixes unless we also repair cultural and economic circuit breakers. Anything less and the global grid will remain broken and increasingly unreliable. The displaced and the invisible will get some of what they need one way or another.

Greenpeace’s initial “response” to the Ontario government’s nuclear development announcement was nothing short of sad, pathetic and ineffectual. Members of that group boldly chained themselves inside Energy Minister Dwight Duncan’s office. Police eventually “freed” them with pneumatic bolt cutters and then charged them with trespassing. Useless and embarrassing. We need more brains and less chains, Greenpeace. The goal of renewable energy will not be won unless it can be shown that it is the only solution we can afford.

Ontario’s 40-year tryst with nuclear energy has been marked by two things: luck and money: We have been lucky enough to avoid the kind of catastrophe that would require the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people. The Pickering Nuclear Generating Station (PNGS) is just a stone’s through from Toronto, after all. It’s also kinda close to the good people of Ajax and Pickering, not to mention the community of Bay Ridges which is situated right at the plant’s doorstep (I lived there as a kid while the plant was being built). We have been lucky, so a point goes to Ontario Power Generation and AECL for not killing us all — yet.

But this kind of luck has not been cheap. We have poured boatloads of taxpayer dollars into Ontario’s nuclear plants. Let’s call it what it is: a corporate subsidy that has made a small number of people quite rich. And now once again the Liberals — and the Conservatives — want us to pony up for 20 years of additional financial servitude to this expensive, dangerous and unsustainable technology. The European Nuclear Society estimates that Canada, Australia, Kazakhstan and 7 other nations possess about 2 million tones of Uranium that can be “economically” extracted for $80 US per kilogram:

With their 2 million tonnes, all 439 world-wide operated nuclear power plants can be supplied for several decades. If mining costs of up to 130 $/kg are taken into consideration the global uranium reserves are increased by further 3 million tonnes.

In other words, by the time Ontario’s 20-year, $46 billion project ends, the real cost of fueling these reactors will increase dramatically. It is easy to blow holes in the arguments for continued nuclear development. The hard work lies in convincing ourselves and our governments that sensible conservation, wind farms, solar arrays, co-generation, and maybe even Sterling engines will allow us to keep the juice flowing.

Update - I’ve been reading Dr. Jeremy Whitlock’s instructive Canadian Nuclear FAQ. In addition to clearly presented (though understandably biased)  information on the Candian nuclear scene, Dr. Whitlock is a great communicator and has some excellent advice for would-be anti-nuclear activists.