November 2009 Update
www.eco-sense.ca

First the technical stuff…our humanure compost pile is maintaining a steamy 120*F (49*C) and our root cellar is slowly dropping and is currently at 44*F (6*C). All of this achieved with mud and shit…mud for the root cellar and human waste resources for the compost. Highly civilized, low tech, and affordable.

We have included our most recent net zero energy graph. This graph plots our weekly energy numbers by subtracting what we use from what our solar panels produce on a weekly basis. This graph is a cumulative total. We started keeping track Feb 2, 2009. In April of this year we starting producing more electricity that we consumed. Our goal is to be net zero in a 12 month period which means that by the end of this graph (Feb 1, 2010) this line will be above the zero line.

The next graph is great too because is really shows the seasonal differences between what we produce and what we use.

BCSEA Eco-celebrity award: We were recently honored at a BCSEA sponsored event at David and Norma Butterfield’s place in Victoria. Other “Eco-Celebrities” attending were Brandy Gallager, Andrew Weaver, Joe Van Bellingham, and Kevin Pegg. It was actually quite humbling for us to be included in such a gathering, but to be honest, it was the inspirational boost we both needed. So, we cleaned up a bit and headed out for a really fun evening of socializing with so many of the movers and shakers trying to make our world a better place. There is so much positive action going on right here in Victoria/Vancouver Island. It gave us hope…because as Elizabeth May said at a recent indoor Climate Action Rally attended by over 1000 people…Hope is a VERB and looks like people with their sleeves rolled up. All the people at the BCSEA definately have their sleeves rolled up. Check out http://www.bcsea.org/blog/tom-arnold/2009/11/19/celebrating-local-climate-heroes to see the full story.

Emily writes a letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper: Never to be left out and not do her part, our daughter Emily, who is 9, is also rolling up her sleeves and took it upon herself to ask Mr. Harper to help with climate change. She hand wrote this in a kids workbook and then typed it into the computer.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper

I Thought for Christmas instead of asking Santa for the best present, I know about Santa I know who he is, even if Santa was real he couldn’t provide this gift. So I’m asking you to help my generation and (if you have them) your kids generation. Please help with climate change. I have heard lots of horrible things about it and my brother and I have cried about the things that have happened. Think, people have died. I want help, I don’t like animals dieing from climate change. What if you were them? What if you were suffocated? I don’t just want you to go out and say “All right everybody turn off your lights for two minutes every year” I want real help I want something to live. Although I care about myself I want other things to live too. So I’m asking you one more time PLEASE help with climate change.

Will you help?
Please answer all my questions.

Sincerely,
Emily
Age 9

Arcade Journal (Architecture and Design in the Pacific Northwest): We have also been practicing our writing skills for an article on Rain water harvesting for this amazing architectural journal. Issues are available on line and we will post on face book when the article comes out on Dec. 2, 2009. Check out http://www.arcadejournal.com/public/currentIssue.aspx for current issues. We were invited to head down to Seattle for the celebratory launch of this new issue with guest editor Jason McLennon, but decided it was best to stay home.

Website update: The Eco-Sense website will be updated in a couple days with more info and policy work that we have done. Our links and resources section will also be redone to keep it current and will include a section for downloads. www.eco-sense.ca
Falling apart: Ice sheets disintegrating, CO2 levels rising, floods, storms, ocean acidification, droughts, rising sea levels, and even a bit of lime plaster falling off our house. But we all saw it coming…no surprises. Our brown coat plaster was way too smooth on parts of our home’s east wall and for three months we have been waiting for a loose piece of lime plaster to fall off. We were just praying that it wouldn’t fall off during a tour we had a couple weeks ago with a group of enthusiastic VP’s of banks from Ontario and Quebec. Well the plaster finally fell of during that big wind storm last week to reveal beautiful smooth and completely dry brown coat plaster. See photos below. The good news is that because this is a cob house it’s mainly cosmetic. A house like ours without a lime plaster would probably only last 100-200 or so years…as opposed to 500 or so with the lime plaster. The section will be re-plastered next March with the addition of an expansion joint as this is the area where the first and second floors come together. If anyone out there would like some more technical advice for their own jobs to avoid this same issue, we would be more than pleased to share our experiences here.

101 solutions to global climate change: Guy Dauncey’s new book is out and it is an excellent read right from the sobering facts of the problem to the inspirational solutions. Our family photo (below) made it into the book for solution number “Solution 1: Calculate Your Carbon Footprint”. Our calculated footprint is about 2.85 tonnes each. For comparison the average Canadian carbon footprint is 18.8 tonnes. The average footprint world wide is 4.5 tonnes. The science tells us we need to drop to a global average of 1 tonne per person. See the latest science released this week at http://www.copenhagendiagnosis.com/

Local food: Eating local has been a passion of ours for many years. From organic to a lot less meat we have explored the local eating opportunities. I have also just read the 100 mile diet and would recommend this book to everyone. (Thanks Joy for passing this book on to me). It made me laugh until I cried and it was so comforting to read something that I could really relate to. The challenge and the fun that comes from getting to know your local farmers, preparing food, the excitement of the always changing seasons, and the frozen hands out harvesting winter veggies in your own garden are the simple joys that truly give meaning to ones days. We have become so much more in tune with food and the seasons and have discovered some amazing pleasures such as the first taste of every bit of seasonal food…and who new that fresh roasted acorn squash seeds are better than potato chips…and that so much emotion could be attached to sharing our only cauliflower with a mouse. I have come to realize that the simpler my tasks are the happier I am. And I don’t mean to imply that growing food is simple; it’s damned hard work; but just that it’s a basic task related to my food, my health, my environment, and my family dinner time…my own simple pleasures! It’s a lot more rewarding than fighting with my computer and an outdated operating system.

If you do anything for climate change…eating locally (and preferably organically) will have the biggest impact on your environment, your community, and your health.

GST refund for owner built home: I have been working on claiming the GST credit for our cob home…Very challenging paperwork indeed as every purchase (all 402 GST eligible purchases) has to be placed into one of the standard categories…there is no category for solar, and I am still scratching my head as to where to put all that sand…wall framing, wood floors, exterior finish, interior decoration…? Thank goodness I didn’t pay GST on the horse manure. I ended up putting the solar PV, solar thermal, and the rain water system into utility connections – after all, our home is connected… to Mother Nature’s bountiful utility.

Embodied Energy: One of the most disturbing revelations for us is realizing that all the carbon calculators out there from municipal to personal conveniently omit the GHG’s that come from the raw extraction, manufacture, and transport of all of our stuff. This is huge! The atmosphere does not have a gate and decide which CO2 molecules to allow up there, but we decide which ones to include in our calculations. I am told that people can’t agree on how much that it should be…so, while we debate this issue it’s best to just not include it. I am also told that the general population can’t handle this reality. So am I to understand that the public would view the carbon footprint of a pair of runners made in China as the gas they expended to drive to the store to purchase them, how stupid! So for now all of the data on GHG emissions is based almost solely on direct operations. Meanwhile CO2 levels continue to rise. Once again, check out the latest science at http://www.copenhagendiagnosis.com/

To see a really entertaining and informative lecture by Saul Griffith, an engineer who specializes in embodied energy of STUFF, check out this link. http://www.poptech.org/popcasts/?viewcastid=243

Facebook: We have finally succumbed to social pressure, I mean social networking tools, and are becoming quite active on facebook. If you want to hang out with us and share rants, spews, and other relevant and or fun postings on this crazy reality we call life we would love to have you join us. This is a powerful tool to share news and events on what is really going on locally and around the world.

And now…the reality rant…Life in the Twilight Zone!

We wade through the news, the email lists-serves, the internet, and keep an ear open listening to people, credible people like Andrew Weaver saying that we have to transition to a near zero carbon planet NOW. This means a total carbon footprint of less than 1 tonne per person globally within the next 10-20 years. (Our family is at 2.85 tonnes each). This data doesn’t come from some financially motivated flake spewing unverified pseudo science. This is PEER review science backed up by hard cold facts from the most well respected scientists on the planet…not the entertaining headlines of the national Enquirer. If we don’t achieve this reduction in GHG emissions the science tells us that it is highly probable that by the end of THIS century we could hit a 6 degree Celsius rise in global temperature, obliterating life as we know it. The threat doesn’t get any more real than that!

Obliterating life as we know it! Hmmm, adaptation strategies don’t cut it. If we don’t change, kids born into this world now will die prematurely from the direct and indirect effects of climate change. Not a thought a parent relishes, but unless the human species completely changes now this is what is coming.

So given these highly probably global outcomes what do we see in our culture… we see people talking about a crib recall after four children have died, while the headline news should have been the release of the newest science from the consortium of (IPCC) scientists discussing highly probable environmental collapse. What we should have been hearing is a recall on carbon… not cribs! Let’s see…four babies (terrible)…all babies (unthinkable). Which is I guess why the majority of people can’t think about this…we can deal with the crib…just improve it a bit, and create some more regulations…but climate collapse…head in the sand…or the bottle…or the TV.

Had enough yet…to go on… the latest science says we absolutely have to stop emitting CO2, yet the news is all about trading carbon. Wait a minute… why would we want to trade something we shouldn’t have… shouldn’t this be illegal? Simply put, there is money to be made trading carbon by the few who understand this financial perversion. We vote for a carbon TAX.

I asked our kids if they ever have anyone else in their lives discuss climate change with them, teachers, friends, their other parents (we have them half time)… nope again! “Why do you think this is?” I ask. They respond with “because parents don’t want their kids to be different at school and be called climate nerds.” “Nope!” I respond. “It’s because parents don’t want to scare their kids.” Then I questioned myself, and thought instead that too many parents would have to do something if they acknowledged climate change existed. Our generation and those before us created this problem and we must stand with them. We are abandoning our children…this is not what parents normally do.

We listen to all the tragic decisions coming out of Ottawa, the list is long, and yet the conservatives are gaining strength? Climate denial adds on CFAX from the Friends of Science (funded by Exxon Mobile) when 99.5% of the science supports climate change? Even the Fraser Institute has you tube videos denying the science, and then there is that guy on Cross Country Checkup… with the huge head… the martian guy.

There is this huge gap between what is physically occurring to our planet and the global ignorance of human civilization. We don’t get it and regularly question our own sanity. Why do we observe something so terrible yet others do not? Its like reality doesn’t exist, the plane we exist on is one level removed from the rest of civilization where we have this one way looking glass and can watch this zombie society knowingly destroy itself; watching them smile and unquestionably walk into a CO2 gas chamber. It’s like one of those really terrifying childhood nightmares where we are screaming the warnings but our voices are nothing more than noise.

The world doesn’t have to be like this…the future can be joyful and beautiful. But we have to accept some realities first; take a deep breath and get to work. The science tells us we have a bit of room to transition to this better world and we need to use our allowable quota of oil and GHG emissions wisely. Our entire world society needs to re-tool, build transit, grow local organic food, create a sustainable economic system that mimics ecology where resources evolve and change but do not grow, and most of all we need to share our full creative potentials in this fully engaging expression of humanities beauty.

What can you do? Demand climate change deals at Copenhagen, and all levels of government. Write letters. Get involved politically. EAT local organic food. Eat less meat. Buy less stuff from the old economy and spend your money locally on more sustainable products. Drive less…a lot less! Celebrate and protect nature. Join local groups for friendship and support; join non profit groups trying to make a difference. Create your own group. Talk to your friends and family about climate change.

Remember…HOPE is a VERB and looks like people with their sleeves rolled up.

HELP!

Ann and Gord

Prime Minister Stephen Harper

I Thought for Christmas instead of asking Santa for the best present, I know about Santa I know who he is, even if Santa was real he couldn’t provide this gift. So I’m asking you to help my generation and (if you have them) your kids generation. Please help with climate change. I have heard lots of horrible things about it and my brother and I have cried about the things that have happened. Think, people have died. I want help, I don’t like animals dieing from climate change. What if you were them? What if you were suffocated? I don’t just want you to go out and say “All right everybody turn off your lights for two minutes every year” I want real help. I want something to live. Although I care about myself I want other things to live too. So I’m asking you one more time PLEASE help with climate change.

Will you help?
Please answer all my questions.

Sincerely,
Emily
Age 9