Canadian Environmentalism

[zubin]

If anyone is interested in Canadian environmentalism, these are just excerpts from some climate change experts and business people in Canada.


Going Green: Limited time offer: guilt-free shopping
The Vancouver Sun
Sat 18 Nov 2006
Page: L7
Chantal Eustace

In a Vancouver Sun article on environmental consumerism, UBC Political Studies Prof. Cara Camcastle says green shopping should be supported by the government.

Camcastle says individuals often feel it is unfair for them to make personal lifestyle changes, such as paying higher costs for organic vegetables, while rich corporations cause so much environmental damage.


Going Green: First question: How big is your footprint?
The Vancouver Sun
Sat 18 Nov 2006
Page: L4
Darah Hansen

UBC ecologist William Rees comments in a Vancouver Sun article on ecological footprinting.

"Picture a tiny perfect planet -- partially covered with forests, partially covered in ocean -- pumping out as much oxygen and food that you would need to continue to live as you do. It's a measure of your ecological footprint," says Rees, who coined the term more than a decade ago.


Going Green: Celebrating sensibly
The Vancouver Sun
Sat 18 Nov 2006
Page: L5

UBC professors Kai Chan, Bill Rees and John Robinson are among five sustainability experts asked by Vancouver Sun how to incorporate green philosophies into Christmas.

"Instead of having a culture of giving gifts to everyone, we have a Secret Santa where each person only gives to one other person," says Chan. "This greatly reduces how much we buy, and [has] increased the utility of the things we do buy. We've made Christmas much more a celebration of being together."


Going Green: Right now, for the first time in tens of thousands of years, you can swim to the North Pole: Kerry Gold explains why, having ignored global warming, she is suddenly paying attention
The Vancouver Sun
Sat 18 Nov 2006
Page: L4
Kerry Gold

UBC professors John Robinson and William Rees comment in a Vancouver Sun article on environmental guilt and denial.

Rees says: "The deep denial that politicians experience over specific issues like climate change is complicated by the fact that, if society acts decisively to avoid it, there will be winners and losers and the potential losers happen to be politically powerful oil companies and car makers."


Going Green: Valuable education
The Vancouver Sun
Sat 18 Nov 2006
Page: L2

The Vancouver Sun reports: Balancing sustainability with business practices has moved from the boardroom to the classroom at UBC, where the Sauder School of Business is launching its first MBA program in sustainability and business.

Starting in January, the program, a collaboration between the business school and the university's faculty of forestry, will offer studies in a range of sustainability topics, including environmental economics, sustainable development and corporate social responsibility.


Going Green: The S-word is paying off: Business: Starting as a buzzword, 'sustainability' gains wide acceptance
The Vancouver Sun
Sat 18 Nov 2006
Page: L9
Gillian Shaw

In a Vancouver Sun article, Peter Nemetz of UBC's Sauder School of Business says in a lot of cases on sustainable business practices can add to companies' bottom line.

Nemetz says corporations loathe being seen as the companies that destroy habitats with pollution, and realize that aligning themselves on the side of sustainability can win customers at the same time as it keeps them on the right side of regulatory authorities.


Going Green: Saving our planet, more or less
The Vancouver Sun
Sat 18 Nov 2006
Page: L2
Darah Hansen

UBC professors John Robinson, William Rees and Kai Chan comment in a Vancouver Sun article on definitions of sustainability.

Robinson, head of UBC's Institute of Resources, Environment and Sustainability, says: "It is an attempt to get beyond a doom-and-gloom story and to articulate a positive and integrated vision of a desirable future." He argues it is important we accept that sustainability is not simply an environmental or ecological agenda. It also incorporates social and economic dimensions.


Going Green: Face the facts about 'natural' ingredients: Preservative-free products aren't always better for you, experts warn
The Vancouver Sun
Sat 18 Nov 2006
Page: L15
Jenny Lee

In a Vancouver Sun article on green toiletries and cosmetics, UBC Medicinal Chemistry Prof. Adam Frankel says marketing campaigns, whether for conventional or alternative product, can be misleading. As an example, he notes that "natural" ingredients may have been extracted with the help of harsh chemicals.



Going Green: 'Buy Green' Movement: Hot, here and trendy: Consumerism: It's influencing our choices in food, housing, clothing and travel, and B.C. is on the leading edge
The Vancouver Sun
Sat 18 Nov 2006
Page: C5
John Wiebe

UBC is cited in a Vancouver Sun op ed by John Wiebe, president and CEO of the Globe Foundation of Canada, an international environmental business consultancy.

"Examples of green building and ecologically sound urban design include ... major residential developments underway on the campuses of UBC and SFU," writes Wiebe.

[Khorsheed]

Nice information

[zubin]

you are very welcome. the issues raised by these commentators I think are each very interesting topics and hopefully we get to discuss them and find solutions to make life more enjoyable for ourselves and everyone else.

Some of the discussion points include the following. Everyone feel free to provide your reactions down the list.

1) Justice: the burden of justice is often slapped onto the citizen and not the corporation or politician who gets away with much more illegal and harmful activity

2) Consumerism: it gets too much in terms of health, well being, and damage to environment & culture

3) Enjoying nature: its natural and everyone wants a house with a pond and a frog in the pond. Also, everyone likes fresh air and a good dose of sunlight. So how can education, architecture and urban design achieve this goal for the future?

4) Food: what's healthy food? is vegetarianism or moderate vegetarianism feasible? does it make you happy? should macdonalds go to hell? do animals suffer unnecessarily?

5) Government intervention vs. delusional neo-liberalism: are corporations going to act ethically and will justice in society in general be served without government enforcement like the delusional neo-liberals believe?

[Rasputin]

Good and important subject.

Thank You my friend :=) .

[zubin]

no problem. hopefully we will all be really free to breath oxygen and enjoy life someday

[Nutcase]

did u know greenpeace started in vancouver?

[mike435]

contrary to my own belife that free market cant be conciounse about the enviorment i found this artical
i also used this to defend free market and its ability to advance a better enviorment


Investing in clean energy

Tilting at windmills

Nov 16th 2006 | LONDON AND SAN JOSE
From The Economist print edition


The clean-energy business is turning into the next big investment boom, in which risks are lightly brushed aside

IT barons are busy investing in clean-energy technology.
Among them is Vinod Khosla, a celebrated Silicon Valley financier. He is touting ethanol as the next big thing. Applied Materials, where Mr Gay works, has branched out from flat screens and computer chips into solar cells. Sun Power, the solar subsidiary of Cypress Semiconductor, is now worth almost as much as its chipmaking parent company.
Investors are falling over themselves to finance start-ups in clean technology, especially in energy. Venture Business Research reckons that investment in the field by venture capitalists and private-equity firms has quadrupled in the past two years, from some $500m in 2004 to almost $2 billion so far this year. The share of venture capital going into clean energy is rising rapidly (see chart 1). New Energy Finance, another research firm, reckons that investment of all sorts in the business will reach $63 billion this year, compared with just $30 billion in 2004. The lure of big money is leading investment banks to ramp up their analysis of the latest boom industry.
Clean-energy fever is being fuelled by three things: high oil prices, fears over energy security and a growing concern about global warming. The provision of energy, the industry's cheerleaders say, will change radically over the coming decades. Polluting coal- and gas-fired power stations will give way to cleaner alternatives such as solar and wind; fuels derived from plants and waste will supplant petrol and diesel; and small, local forms of electricity generation will replace mammoth power stations feeding far-flung grids. Eventually, it is hoped, fuel cells running on hydrogen will take the place of the ubiquitous internal combustion engine. It is a bold vision, but if it happens very slowly, or only to a limited extent, boosters argue that it will still prompt stupendous growth for firms in the business.



Such hyperbole might seem reminiscent of the dotcom bubble. But clean-energy advocates insist growth is sustainable because of the likes of Mr Schwarzenegger. The Gubernator is a hero in green circles because of his enthusiasm for environmental regulation. He easily won re-election partly because he seized on global warming as a concern and signed into law America's first wide-ranging scheme to cap greenhouse-gas emissions.
article).


Renewable states

Other government policies ensure that making ethanol from corn is a lucrative business, despite lingering concerns that the manufacturing process consumes almost as much energy as the resulting fuel provides, so that the effort does no good for the environment or the cause of energy independence. Farmers receive subsidies for growing corn, refineries for mixing it into fuels, service stations for installing pumps to sell it and consumers for buying it. Moreover, several states have laws requiring that a certain amount of ethanol is mixed into petrol, helping to bolster demand. A recent study by the Global Subsidies Initiative, a pressure group, estimated that all this will cost American taxpayers at least $5 billion this year.
America's incentives for clean energy, however, are relatively modest compared with Europe's. The European Union, for example, wants 5.75% of all transport fuel to come from non-fossil sources by 2010. Big refiners say the measure guarantees them a market for as much biodiesel as they can produce.
The EU also has a target for power from renewable sources of 18% by 2010. Analysts at Goldman Sachs, an investment bank, calculate that solar output would have to grow by over 30% a year to meet it. By their count, 49 countries have policies on renewables in place that will foster rapid growth at clean-energy firms, including big emerging markets such as Brazil, China and India.


What is more, the subsidies are not supposed to be permanent. Applied Materials' Mr Gay points out the cost of generating solar power falls steadily over time. The first cells, in satellites, cost about $200 per watt of generating power. By last year the price had fallen to about $2.70 per watt. That equates to a price decrease of about 18% every time production doubles, he calculates. Price decreases come inexorably with volume, he argues, so subsidies simply help to speed the process up by stimulating extra sales.

[mike435]

When subsidies go




That leaves the clean-energy business largely dependent on government handouts. Shares in the sector rose after George Bush's state-of-the-union address in January, when he swore to wean America off dependence on foreign oil. They also rallied on hopes that the newly Democratic Congress would spend more money on greenery. Several of those elected, after all, tried to burnish their environmental credentials by running uplifting advertisements of themselves roaming the countryside amid majestic wind turbines.
EU. The price of permits had fallen because European governments had handed out too many of them to polluters, thus flooding the market.
Voters, too, sometimes lose heart. In the recent elections, Californians, normally a reliably green lot, voted against a proposal to tax oil production to fund research into renewables. Yet clean-energy investors are gambling, essentially, that governments and the taxpayers who fund them will continue to spend lavishly on the industry.
A dramatic fall in the oil price will almost certainly prompt governments to tighten purse-strings, since subsidies become relatively more expensive. Developing new, carbon-free technologies will seem less urgent if there is plenty of cheap oil about. When oil prices fell in the 1980s, governments quietly dropped many of the grand plans for energy independence developed during the oil shocks of the 1970s.

For the time being, however, keeping pace with demand is more of a worry. Most manufacturers of wind turbines have full order books for the next few years. Executives at Neste, a big Finnish refiner, doubt Europe's output of biofuels can expand fast enough to meet the EU's target. The EU has also had to reduce its target for renewable power, since the industry could not grow fast enough to meet it.

[zubin]

did u know greenpeace started in vancouver?

thanks for the fact. I didn't know that though I think I have heard of it. Cool! It makes sense too because its Western Canada and everyone smokes enough weed to get out of the hussle and buss of everyday life and realize that oxygen is damn good!

[zubin]