Can we find an energy-efficient apartment?

My hubby asked that question recently as we embarked on the mission of finding a different place to live - closer to Dave's office, that's the main issue. His commute is too long, his time spent with his family too short. The answer to the questions is maybe. There's apartments with new and old appliances, lots with the same stupid windows, one place had new double glazed windows but it's on the third floor with a narrow staircase. Oh bugger, once you have a baby and a stroller the entrance to the building and apartment is as important as the apartment itself. Since we can't just move our current place it's got to be a compromise. We'll be giving up space, either in room size or in storage space, the easy access to several river valley parks, the balcony, the basement storage. Unfortunately bike storage is not common inside or outside many buildings, this fact goes hand in hand with the car culture here. The thought of keeping my bike outside in every weather does not please me though. May I build a shed? We gain a quieter location and the chance to have lunch with daddy, daddy will be fitter since he'll walk or bike to work, we are still close to library, leisure centre, shopping, health centre and buses, including a direct bus to one of my favourite parks in town. 
I will be miles away from my favourite mums & tots group but we'll just take the bus back to the other end of town once week - urban sprawl sucks. We'll also get a different city councillor who might or might not be as great as our still current one who showed up to our monthly community league meeting yesterday. 
Anyway, our Christmas party on Dec 19 might almost be our home-leaving-party as well, if there's such a thing. We are off on an adventure, as one of the best persons in Ed would say.    

It's sad

I started the continuation of yesterday's post but have not gotten it ready yet. Instead I fitted in a few pages of still the same book while watching baby. Vanessa meets a bloke, environmentalist of course, and at some point he says something like "what we really need is an apocalyptic environmental catastrophe to wipe out  a significant amount of the world's population and then finally people might be willing to stop driving SUVs and actually live responsibly." It sounds more than harsh I know but I agree. It's sad to see hundreds and thousands of animal and plant species die because human beings interfere with just about anything on the planet that's been here way before us. It's sad to see oceans and waterways collapse under the burden of pollution due to the waste dumped into them every day. It's sad to see forests chopped down for fields that will erode anyway, to see land depleted under ever-growing cities, to see soil suffocate under the chemicals of big-scale agriculture and the machinery used for mining. It's sad to see the Earth's resources exploited due to the greediness of industries, economies, consumers, and for the quick buck. Being the "smartest" creatures on Earth we have still no right to trash the planet - so the planet might as well pay us back one day. I hope it wipes out all the SUV drivers and those that live stubbornly in ignorance and denial about our environmental problems. I'm not trying to be overly pessimistic - it just happens to be, kind of looking out the window.  

On some other issue: I came across an interesting article in the Edmonton Journal about the low approval ratings of Alberta's Premier - http://www.edmontonjournal.com/business/Rising+from+deep+unpopularity/3930721/story.html. 
So when do we get rid of him?   

Addicted to cheap power

I started admiring Mennonites who live without electricity because in the long run I think they might be better off than our ‘advanced’ society. Their way of life does not kill them but has a lot less impact on the environment than our wasteful,automated and motorized life style. Besides, I don’t think I have ever seen an obese Mennonite. One day, if not already, they might laugh at people who need leaf blowers and snow blowers, all kinds of power tools for gardening, a miniature tractor for lawn mowing, air conditioning and humidifiers, and lots of other electrical appliances in order to cope with daily chores. In Edmonton humidity is so low that I can watch my laundry dry. There’s no decent reason why clothes dryers are sold here at all – impatient people and money making are bad arguments. I always air dry the laundry and it helps humidify the air in our apartment. No big deal.

In Mexico black tanks are set on roofs of houses to provide hot water. This is a logical, very easy way to heat water. Meantime, in “developed” countries energy is produced in a power plant, usually in a dirtier way than through sunshine, and then transported to where the water needs to be heated. Consumers seem even happy to pay for this service and, as mentioned before, there’s little or no motivation to save energy because the biggest chunk of the bill is administration and distribution costs. Obviously, for places like Edmonton it will not work in winter but for the rest of the year - cheaper than solar panels.  Mexico is only an example, I am sure there are numerous other countries that use similarly simple methods for simple things. They should laugh at us too, or realistically, get mad at us for the pollution we cause by burning fossil fuels. It does not need to be, not at the current level anyway. 

Our Advent calender

Of course we have an Advent calender and of course we did not buy it in the store. It's essentially a little box with Christmas pictures glued to the sides and a number in the front. The numbers are cut out of cardboard and we change it every day - Dave fills it one day, I fill it the next day, each of us gets 12 turns. It's exciting because you never know what's in it, maybe a riddle, a quote, chocolate, coupon for a head massage (by the other person obviously). I told Dave not to go shopping but he can use everything that's already in the household. Seems to work fine ... 20 days to go.          

Renewable Energies - Bullfrog-powered

We receive the Organic Box (www.theorganicbox.ca), fresh organic produce sourced in Northern Alberta, Southern BC, and a few Western US states such as California. They also offer local organic milk, bread, eggs, flour etc. They tell you the name of the farm or producer where your food comes from which is nice. Anyway, in their last newsletter they informed us that their operations, running the office, the warehouse, the coolers, are now bullfrog-powered.   

The Rocky Mountain Soap Company produces its "100% natural skin care" in Edmonton. Besides their own shops their products are being sold at the gift shop of our favourite museum in the city, the Royal Alberta Museum. That’s how I found out. Reading the website of the Rocky Mountain Soap Company I learn that they not only care about the ingredients of their products but also about the packaging, shipping, lighting, and the energy they use. They are bullfrog-powered.      

                 

Bullfrog is an Alberta power company offering 100% wind power for an extra 2 cents per kilowatt hour. They reckon it adds 40 cents per day to the average family’s electricity bill. I pulled out our last monthly bill – we used 85 KWH. For us that would be $1.70 per month extra, no big deal. But that would mean that the average household uses as much electricity in 4 days as we use in a month. We then thought about the average household … must be a house, with bigger or lots of rooms and possibly lots of appliances. Admittedly, our heating is not included in our electricity bill, we have a coin laundry in the basement and we don’t have many appliances or a block heater for our non-existing car. That leaves us with lights, phone, fridge & freezer, stove and laptops. Period.

Our power bill is actually something that terribly annoys me. We pay less then $30 per month, $5 is for the power, the rest is distribution and administration fees. Where is the incentive to save energy, please? Seriously, if we weren’t renting, we should simply install solar panels on roof or balcony and get off that grid. Even more so, because most of Alberta’s energy still comes from coal. Edmonton (and the rest of the prairies possibly) gets so much sun every roof here should be plastered with solar panels. It works fine for Germany and the sky there is more often grey, overcast, or something else but sunny.  I can hear the scepticism already, like, what about the angle of the sun in winter? Will it produce enough? Probably not, but winter does not last 12 months here. What about summer?! Imagine operating your air conditioning with solar power. Fancy! I mean, wind power seems to work and really it is not that windy in Edmonton. When I first came here I used to mark in the calendar when there was actually a breeze outside, it seemed so rare to me.With everything humanity has invented I am sure there's a way to install solar panels so they catch the most sunshine possible. Some smart brain will now how.   

The harm of living in the countryside

Until a few weeks ago I thought living in the countryside is the solution to escape air pollution in cities. But a report about Prince Edward Island (PEI) on the East coast of Canada revealed that the asthma rates on the island are the highest in the country although there’s no industry there. The reason seems to be the monoculture of potatoes widely grown on PEI and sprayed with pesticides as frequently as every 4 days! A mother interviewed for the documentary stated that the breathing problems of her daughter practically disappear when they leave PEI for holidays.

I wonder. Living in areas of high cattle density such as Lethbridge, Southern Alberta should consequently come along with lots of exposure to the greenhouse gas methane which is emitted by cows. I have not heard about any ill-effects of it though – let me know if you have. Maybe methane in the air acts differently than pesticides and fertilizers and the effect on our health is not quite as obvious. Isn't it terrible that even living in the countryside is not any more what it used to be?! Now I have to be careful about what is grown and raised in that particular countryside that I want to move to!

sustainable or not sustainable

Vanessa Farquharson went to an Anti-Styrofoam party Toronto. The goal of the supporters is to get rid of polystyrene and replace it with something biodegradable like NaturoPack. It’s made out of corn, sugar cane and potatoes. That’s a little controversial to me because we have seen the consequences from ethanol where farmers suddenly produce more corn for fuel than for human consumption and market prizes go through the roof so that people who depend on that food can’t actually afford it any more. This can’t be it.  

Colin Beavan, aka No Impact Man, writes instead in his blog “To hell with sustainability”. He then makes the point that we can not actually sustain our current life style without destroying our planet and we therefore have to seek a life style that is better for us and the environment. This change includes that we shouldn’t try to make the packaging for junk food, or any take away as for that, more sustainable as in bio-degradable. The goal should be to make our kids, and ourselves I would say, eat food that is biodegradable to start with such as an apple. Since that is very idealistic and against the odds I suggest we should consider a bring-your-own-container-policy for take-away restaurants. At least for the transition period to healthier eating habits for everyone.