Don't Park Your Bike Now

It's that time of year again, the time when folks who have enjoyed cycling in summer, park their bikes. I say, whoa, not so fast! True outside mobility, whether it's walking, jogging or cycling is different in winter than it is in summertime, however that is not reason enough to eliminate it. I have noticed this summer, that there is a spike in bike traffic mornings and evenings when folks are coming and going to work. These folks will need to decide how they get to work, but in this column I want to address folks in my situation: retired but active.

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Embodied Energy – What is It?

In last week's column, Wade Wiebe described some of his experience in building his strawbale garage. But why build strawbale? One reason for Wade's choice was the low embodied energy in the building materials used in strawbale construction. In this column I want to explore low embodied energy.

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The Straw Bale Garage Experiment

Since my early 20’s I’ve dreamt of building a straw bale house. I love the deep windows and the smooth, warm aesthetic of the walls. Building with bales creates extremely energy-efficient homes using materials which themselves have very low embodied energy.

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Spirit of the Buffalo

Most of us have been following the controversy surrounding the proposed Trans-Mountain Pipeline which is to carry crude oil and dibit from the Athabasca region of Northern Alberta to ocean ports in Burnaby and Vancouver. Did you know that at the same time Enbridge Energy has been quietly expanding its own Line 3 pipeline from the Athabasca region through Saskatchewan and western Manitoba into North Dakota near Gretna? I did not, until last week when I responded to an invitation to join others on a visit to the Spirit of the Buffalo Camp near Gretna.

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A Tax on Carbon and Agriculture

Recently I was discussing a tax on carbon with some farmers. Readers of this column know that I strongly advocate for a tax shift away from income to a tax on consumption, more specifically the consumption of fossil based energy – carbon. My argument is that it is essential that we move away from our dependence on fossil fuel and cheap energy, and that a tax on carbon is the most practical way of motivating such a move. On the other hand, anyone following the Tax of Carbon discussion knows that on the whole farmers are opposed to such a tax. The discussion was interesting.

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