Are you shivering in your home? It may be your house that needs an extra sweater, not you.

If your house is under insulated to withstand the effects of old man winter, you may get the shivers when you open your next monthly heating and bills.

The beginning of winter typically means we consume more energy in our homes, from heating to lights to appliances and electronics.

The stress on our electrical generating capacity often creates annoying power outages. The most important thing to remember is to keep your electricity use to a minimum between 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. every day when demand is at its peak.

Here are some additional tips to help make your home more energy efficient and reduce the chance of brownouts.

1. Maintain your heating system to keep it safe and operating at maximum efficiency. Clean or change the filters regularly.

2. Better yet, replace your furnace and hot water heater. Be on the lookout for units that carry the EnergyStar label or that have a high EnerGuide rating (the higher the number, the better). You might even be able to save on your home insurance, or receive manufacturers‚ or service provider rebates, by installing these products in your home. (Check out the websites www.LiveSmartBC.ca, www.fortisbc.com, and www.ecoAction.gc.ca for financial incentives available for most of these 10 suggestions.)

3. Check the foundation walls for cracks and leaks that may be letting cold air in and seal all that you find.

4. Weatherstrip/caulk the gaps, cracks, and holes around your home. Key places to check are doors, windows and vents. This will help keep the heat in and your energy costs down.

5. Remember to turn down the thermostat when you‚re not at home and while you‚re sleeping. Consider installing a programmable thermostat.

6. Check to make sure that heat registers are open and not blocked by furniture or drapes. This will help distribute heat more evenly and eliminate fire hazards.

7. Upgrade the insulation in your home. Choose insulation with a high R-value, and start with the attic. Heat rises, and a well-insulated attic will help keep heat from escaping through the highest part of your home. Attic insulation should be at least 12 inches thick.

8. Replace old windows with energy-efficient ones. Choose options such as low-emissivity (low-E) glass, gas-filled glazing or windows that have insulated spacers. Keep in mind that the metal in metal-framed windows acts as a heat conductor, both into the home in the summer and out of the home in the winter.

9. Unplug electronics and appliances when not in use. Electronics and appliances like microwave ovens use energy even when they‚re not in use. Plugging them into a power bar when you‚re not home or asleep will reduce power usage.

10. Brighten shorter days with energy-efficient lighting. Be sure to buy compact fluorescent (CFL) or light-emitting diode (LED) bulbs.

Remember that the materials designed to prevent heat loss from a building, for draft proofing, and for energy conservation are exempt from provincial sales tax. That‚s an instant seven percent saving.

Some of these recommendations are easier and cheaper to implement than others, but all of them should be on your to-do list. The environment and your electricity supplier will thank you.

And when the coolest night of the year next arrives, you won‚t get the shakes.

Containing approximately 87 percent of the world’s ice and 70 percent of the world‚s fresh water, Antarctica is often represented on maps merely as outlined white space since it is 98 percent covered by an ice sheet that averages 2,164 metres (1.5 miles) in depth.

The remaining two percent of Antarctica is bare rock and constitutes Earth’s largest desert. With under five centimetres (two inches) of precipitation per year, it averages less than Africa’s Sahara Desert.

Antarctica’s climate is characterized by temperatures rarely above freezing, high wind velocities, and frequent blizzards. High altitude and continuous darkness in winter combine to make the interior of this land mass the coldest place on Earth. In 1983 the world’s lowest temperature, minus 89.6 degrees Celsius (-128.6 Fahrenheit) was recorded at the South Pole. Yet during Antarctic summer, more solar radiation reaches the surface at the pole than is received at the equator in an equivalent period. In the dry, dust-free air, one can see for tens of miles in clear weather. Distances are deceptive and mirages are common.

Maps of Antarctica date back to the time of Roman geographer and astronomer Ptolemy who envisioned a land in the southern hemisphere to counterbalance that in the north to satisfy an ancient sense of proportion. Claimed to be discovered in 1820, Antarctica is mostly known through the exploits of a trio of adventuring explorers; Robert Falcon Scott, Ernest Shackleton, and Roald Amundsen. Today the world’s most mysterious continent is home to about 1,000 scientific personnel during the winter, swelling to about 4,000 during the Antarctic summer.

Antarctica has long been perceived as a frigid, pristine part of the world and as such inhospitable to flora and fauna. The French nature documentary March of the Penguins introduced the world to the yearly journey of the continent’s emperor penguins, receiving the 2005 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. In addition, adélie and chinstrap penguins inhabit the sea ice and open waters of Antarctica. The climate supports only a small community of land plants - two types of flowering plants and many varieties of lichens and mosses - but the rich offshore food supply sustains penguins, aquatic mammals, and immense seabird rookeries of migrating petrels, skuas, terns, cormorants, and gulls. The largest and best-known of the Antarctic petrels are the albatrosses, which breed in tussock grass on islands north of the pack ice. With a wing span of three metres (10 feet), they roam freely over the westerly wind belt of the Southern Ocean.

But this ‘terra incognita’ at the base of our world has been undergoing rapid changes - changes that scientists conclude could have profound effects on the rest of Earth.

Recent climate change has driven significant changes in the physical and living environment of the Antarctic. Environmental change is most apparent in the Antarctic Peninsula. Adélie penguins, a species well adapted to sea ice conditions, have declined in numbers and been replaced by open-water species such as chinstrap penguins. Melting of perennial snow and ice covers has resulted in increased colonization by plants. A long-term decline in the abundance of Antarctic krill in the southwest Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean may be associated with reduced sea ice cover. Albatrosses are declining in alarming numbers as they are drowned in the nets of long line fishermen.

Large changes have occurred in the ice cover of the peninsula. Many glaciers have retreated and around 10 ice shelves that formerly fringed the peninsula have been observed to retreat in recent years and some have collapsed completely. Furthermore, 87 percent of glaciers along the west coast of the peninsula have retreated in the last 50 years, and in the last 12 years most have accelerated.

The Antarctic region is an important regulator of global climate. The Southern Ocean is a significant sink for both heat and carbon dioxide, acting as a buffer against human-induced climate change. The sea ice that forms around the continent each winter controls the exchange of energy between the Sun and the Earth, and its partition between atmosphere and ocean. As sea ice forms, brine rejected from the ice increases the density of the upper ocean. These waters then sink and form the deep ocean currents that carry heat around the globe.

Antarctica made big headlines over three days in March 2002 when one of the most dramatic alterations to the map of the continent since the last ice age occurred. The 650-foot thick Larsen B floating ice shelf, larger than Luxembourg, had been attached to the peninsula for thousands of years. But at the end of that Antarctic summer, it fractured like a plate of glass, shattering into hundreds of huge icebergs that floated into the South Atlantic.

“Really we don’t think there is much doubt that the collapse of the Larsen B shelf was caused by man-made climate change,” says John King, chief climatologist at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS). From their base at Rothera, on Adelaide Island, BAS researchers have mapped in detail how a pulse of warmer air temperatures has pushed south across the peninsula over the past fifty years, lengthening the summer melt season, sending glaciers into retreat, and destabilizing ice shelves.

Antarctica started turning green over the southern summer of 2004. Beginning at its northern tip, great green swards of Antarctic hair-grass began forming extensive meadows in what was once home to only rock and ice. Then the air above Antarctica began behaving strangely. A 2006 study of archived data collected by weather balloons positioned above the continent over the previous thirty years revealed a heating of Antarctica‚s atmosphere three times higher than the global average.

March 2007 to March 2009 was the fourth International Polar Year (IPY), following those in 1882-83, 1932-33, and 1957-58. In order to have full and equal coverage of both the Arctic and the Antarctic, an IPY covers two full annual cycles. Organized through the International Council for Science and the World Meteorological Organization, IPY 2007-09 involved more than 200 projects with thousands of scientists from more than 60 nations examining a wide range of physical, biological, and social research topics.

Canadian filmmaker Mark Terry, president of Toronto’s Polar Cap Productions, decided to make a documentary on Antarctica focusing on studies made there during the most recent IPY. His film, The Antarctica Challenge: A Global Warning, brings its audience face to face with what global warming actually looks like in one of the most delicate ecosystems on Earth.

Already nominated for Best Picture in the Climate Change category of the New Delhi Environmental and Wildlife Film Festival to be held October 27 to 31, Terry’s film premieres at the Blue Planet Film Festival in Santa Monica, September 5, 6 and 7. It will also be shown September 9 to 12 at the International Film Festival in Tipperary, Ireland, to the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition in Washington, D.C. on September 22, the MIPCOM television and film marketplace in Cannes, France from October 5 to 9 and the Planet in Focus Film Festival in Toronto October 21 to 25.

Its most influential showing, however, could be in Copenhagen, Denmark in December. Terry’s film has been chosen to be screened before world leaders at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change that will seek to forge a successor agreement to the Kyoto Protocol.

Terry’s documentary explores new discoveries about the ozone layer, diminishing populations of penguins and other marine life, the greening of the world’s largest desert, and global warming.

Footage of field study and interviews with scientists stationed in Antarctica reveal some startling data never before included in a television documentary for the public at large. Here are just a few of the findings The Antarctica Challenge showcases:

• Several species of insect life indigenous to Antarctica are facing extinction due to the increase of temperature caused by the increasing hole in the ozone layer situated over the continent.
• Other species of insect life have evolved a unique means of surviving the deadly increase in ultra-violet rays from the sun. They have developed a hormone that acts as a sunscreen lubricant protecting their bodies.
• Many varieties of starfish have stopped reproducing and their numbers are exponentially diminishing as they no longer procreate. Their species is expected to face extinction in the coming years due to a two-degree increase in water temperature.
• Certain varieties of penguins are exhibiting a disturbing behavior pattern. Groups gather away from their feeding and nesting grounds for a period of time. They then split up and return to their respective areas, except for one. This sole penguin turns and faces the interior on the continent and begins a march that doesn’t end until he dies.

There is evidence to suggest that all these catastrophic changes to the wildlife of Antarctica are directly related to the warming temperatures and the unprotected solar rays bombarding the continent over the past five years.

“We were all stunned at the findings being made there this past year,” says Terry. “From penguin suicide to grass growing in the world’s largest desert, the environmental face of Antarctica is changing faster than anyone had previously thought - and the impact on us is imminent.”

Polar Cap Productions (http://www.youtube.com/user/polarcapproductions) formed a partnership with the United Nations Environment Programme to present the screening as part of the United Nations ‘Seal the Deal’ campaign, a call to action to clinch an ambitious and effective agreement on climate change.

“Of all the canaries in the climate coal mine, the polar regions and the mountain glaciers are singing the hardest and the loudest,” said Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme. “Mark Terry’s new climate change documentary underlines these realities with some of the latest and increasingly sobering scientific findings, providing further stark evidence as to why governments need to Seal the Deal in Copenhagen.”

The conference, held from December 7 to 18, will be attended by nearly 190 world leaders and ministers and about 11,000 delegates.

It is planned to screen the film’s trailer on a giant video screen in the centre of Copenhagen, and on the ‘Climate Express’ train commuting delegates between Brussels and Copenhagen.

Terry said there is an historic trend of temperature increase in Antarctica that indicates it’s going to continue for the next 100 years.

Recently, researchers at the University of Leeds writing in the journal Geophysical Research Letters said the Pine Island Glacier in West Antarctica is thinning at a rate four times faster than just a decade ago. The glacier is the largest in West Antarctica and at 175,000 square kilometres is roughly the size of the province of New Brunswick and the island of Newfoundland combined.

Professor Andrew Shepherd, a co-author of the research, suggested warming waters around the continent are likely responsible for the thinning of the glacier at a rate of up to 16 metres a year. The resulting ice melt could have implications on estimates of sea level rise around the world, Shepherd said.

Speaking about his film, Terry says, “I think the important thing is to have the scientists talk very frankly, bluntly and honestly about both the good and the bad of what they’ve discovered down there.”

“I didn’t want to go in with an agenda,” he adds. “I simply wanted to do a reportage of what the scientists were discovering right now today.”

There is no denying that this is happening and there’s no stopping it from happening but they are trying to find a way that would save us and protect us,” Terry says.

“The main thing they‚re trying to do now is educate. They have to get the word out and films like this will help do that.”

The Antarctica Challenge could become the ‘little engine that could’ of the film world, propelling the continent at the bottom of the world to the top of the planet’s climate change agenda.

The news media gives us daily reports on the rise and fall of the stock markets; the fate of the Canadian dollar in relation to the American greenback is cause for constant concern.

Yet the current heat wave and spate of forest fires should remind us that there is a reason why our Earth is hotter and extreme weather is proliferating. That reason is the amount of carbon dioxide we humans are putting into our atmosphere - we’re adding about 30 billion tonnes of CO2 annually.

We need to transform our economy to be less dependent on carbon sources of energy or else the media may be giving daily updates on the rise of sea levels and the fate of many of Earth’s species.

We are ‘oil-aholics’; we are addicted to fossil fuels. This year we‚ll burn eight billion metric tonnes of oil, natural gas and coal. Next year we will undoubtedly burn more.

Three spoonfuls of crude oil contain as much energy as eight hours of human labour. Even at last summer‚s market price of $150 a barrel, oil was an extraordinary bargain. We pay only about a tenth of energy‚s real value to our economy.

We need to explore ways to ‘get off this sauce’ and the solution is to embrace the low-carbon economic model.

Simply stated, a low-carbon economy is one in which carbon dioxide emissions from the use of carbon based fuels such as coal, oil and gas are substantially reduced. Such an economy features low energy consumption, low pollution, and low greenhouse gas emissions.

The low-carbon economy offers the potential to create new businesses, provide new opportunities for existing businesses, and in doing so create and support jobs.  A number of governments have already indicated they believe a low-carbon economy is an integral part of economic recovery, not an optional extra.

The Obama administration in the U.S. is ready to make a $70-billion commitment to energy efficiency, renewable energy, transit, and fuel economy programs as part of its economic stimulus package, creating 459,000 jobs by the end of 2010; Ontario expects it recently introduced Green Energy Act to create over 50,000 ‘green collar’ jobs and generate billions of dollars of economic growth in communities across the province.

In neighbouring Washington State, Governor Christine Gregoire set a goal of having 25,000 green jobs in her state by 2020, but that goal has been met in just two years with 47,000 jobs in the state now considered ‘green.’ When the state created an incentive for wind energy development, it became the U.S.‚s fifth largest producer almost overnight.

And it was recently announced the world‚s largest solar photovoltaic plant, capable of generating 75 megawatts of electricity (enough for 45,000 homes), will be constructed in the state. The Teanaway Solar Reserve will be located on 400 acres of formerly-logged private property four miles north of Cle Elum, in Kittitas County, Washington. Comprised of approximately 400,000 photovoltaic panels, the energy generated will offset about 275-million pounds of carbon dioxide annually compared to the same amount of energy produced by coal plants.

Many people believe that to grow our economy, we need to continually use more energy. The good news is that our economies expand not so much because our energy inputs grow, but rather because our efficiency in using these inputs constantly rises. Research by Robert Ayres and Benjamin Warr, authors of The Economic Growth Engine: How Energy and Work Drive Material Prosperity, shows that while our economies are deeply dependent on massive inputs of cheap fossil fuel energy, those economies will have to find ways to reduce the amount of fossil fuel energy input per unit of work in order to have continued growth. Energy conservation and energy efficiency are key to economic and environmental sustainability, they write.

These two pillars of the low-carbon economy ‘conservation and efficiency’ are more than affordable; they are literally a source of new wealth. Research by McKinsey & Company shows that developing countries could slow the growth of their energy demand by more than half over the next 12 years - to 1.4 percent a year from 3.4 - and demand would be 25 percent lower in 2020 than it would otherwise have been. Just by using existing technologies that would pay for themselves in future energy savings, consumers and businesses could save some $600 billion a year by 2020.

The picture is no different in the developed world. In a report - Unlocking Energy Efficiency in the U.S. Economy - released July 29, McKinsey says Americans are wasting $130 billion a year on energy. Businesses and individuals could save money, curb emissions of global warming pollutants, reduce dependence on foreign oil and cut energy consumption by 23 percent by 2020, merely by taking sensible, practical steps to use energy more efficiently says the report.

To get a real understanding of the low-carbon economy, just take a look at the Low Carbon Transition Plan unveiled July 15 by the United Kingdom government. By 2020, more than 1.2 million people will be employed in green jobs; 7 million homes will be made more energy efficient and 1.5 million homes will be supported to produce their own energy; the average new car will emit 40 percent less carbon than now; and there will be a five-fold increase in renewable energy generation.

Kicking the carbon habit is crucial to both the economy and the environment. That makes it a good topic for your next coffee klatch and a priority for government policy.

“A series of studies clearly show that low-carbon growth is not only good for the planet, but it is also the most logical long-term way out of the economic crisis,” says Erik Rasmussen, founder of the Copenhagen Climate Council. “Huge opportunities await in new, green markets. It is no coincidence that the two most energy efficient countries in the world ‘Denmark and Japanˆ are competitive and wealthy.”

A low carbon economy is humanity‚s next big leap forward ˆ or next industrial evolution. The scale of needed change is daunting but achievable.

Why is life filled with transience, uncertainty, and suffering? How can I make my life problem-free and fulfilling? What if climate change results in catastrophe?

How we approach such questions charts the journey of our lives. Conventional wisdom (also known as the status quo) tells us to go for the easy, in fact the easiest side of easy. Yet, deep within us, we know that anything worth answering isn’t easy.

The awareness that humans can alter the Earth’s climate has dawned slowly on our consciousness. World governments continue haggling about the correct responses to this problem.

In my columns, I have always attempted to help the reader see the climate change issue as it is, rather than as we might wish or believe it to be. I have offered explanations to the problem of global warming and what we can do about it.

My foundation has always been that global warming is real and not an opinion. Meaningful action to reverse the saturation of our atmosphere with carbon dioxide must involve us all. It is not enough to ask only the motivated to act.

It matters less what each of us does to personally cut emissions; what is more important is that we ensure that everyone on the planet does what we do. We need to insist that governments and businesses stop dickering with the lives of future generations and drive the scale of change necessary at the speed required.

Last week the Synthesis Report of the Copenhagen Congress, a climate change conference held in March where 1,400 scientific presentations were made to 2,500 participants from 80 countries, was presented to Danish Prime Minister Lars Rasmussen.

The conclusion of the report is blunt, inaction is inexcusable. “The scientific evidence today overwhelmingly indicates that allowing the emission of greenhouse gases from human activities to continue unchecked constitutes a significant threat to the well-being and continued development of contemporary society,” it states.

Such news is daunting and challenging, but humanity has lived in a sustainable world before, during most of our grandparents’ time.

Last Saturday I attended the Yasodhara Ashram’s annual strawberry social and I saw sustainability in action. The retreat centre on Kootenay Lake has a solar photovoltaic system to heat water and uses geothermal heating to warm buildings. It has retrofitted, reinsulated, weather-stripped, improved lighting and replaced windows. It uses vinegar, borax, washing soda, and non-chlorine bleach as cleaning agents.

Currently 25 percent of all fruits and vegetables used in the Ashram kitchen are grown in its own orchards and gardens and a large amount is preserved for winter. It is working with neighbouring growers to get even more of its food locally.

Last October, Fortis BC presented the Ashram with its PowerSense Conservation Excellence Award for outstanding achievement in energy efficiency. The Ashram has a goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2013, the year of its 50th anniversary.

When Swami Radhananda recently accepted the 2009 Tourism BC Environmentally Responsible Tourism Award for the Ashram’s decade of efforts, she said: “We at the Ashram take sustainability personally and seriously. Living in BC, we are privileged to have beauty all around us. We feel that maintaining it is our first responsibility to our guests.”

The Ashram realizes that environmental action to reduce CO2 emissions involves social responsibility and ecological integrity. It has examined the nature of the problem, what it is and where it comes from, and then it has got down to basics and acted.

The Ashram’s community is learning by doing that everything matters. It has as the poet Rainer Maria Rilke wrote “learned to ‘love the questions’ and is living the answers.”

Our homes and workplaces are over-lit and under-insulated; their structural, electrical, plumbing and mechanical systems are aging, outdated and inefficient.

They waste: resources, water and energy.

The result is heating and lighting bills that are 50 percent higher than they need to be.
With poor eco-IQs, our buildings not only cost too much to operate, they are profound contributors to planetary global warming.

That’s not to say they should be torn down and thrown away.

There are many examples of buildings that have been successfully renovated and restored to productive uses, even after standing dormant for many years.

It’s obviously time to rebuild, renovate and remodel, especially since utilities, federal and provincial governments are offering a variety of rebates, grants and tax credits to help finance building performance improvements.

By using the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) rating system as a guide, your building rehabilitation will result in sustainable upgrades and operations.
“Retrofitting existing homes to boost energy performance will create millions of jobs, and by cutting energy use, we will reduce carbon emissions,” says Alex Wilson, author of Your Green Home (New Society Publishers, 2006).

“While public works programs can tackle low-income homes, different programs are needed for middle-class homeowners,” Wilson wrote in a recent issue of Fine Homebuilding magazine. “To reduce the total energy consumption of their homes by one-half to two-thirds (a challenging but realistic goal), a variety of tax credits, deductions, loan guarantees, and other inducements will be needed.
“We need new incentives that are performance-based, unlike most of today’s tax credits. By basing subsidies directly on improvements in energy performance – not simply on how much money is spent – we can encourage energy conservation retrofits and renewable energy systems that provide an attractive return on investment.”
Wilson suggests the performance-based focus could also apply to mortgages and loan guarantees using the home energy rating system (HERS), a 0 to 100 scale in which 100 equals the energy performance of a home meeting the 2004 Model Energy Code and 0 represents a net zero energy home.

“If the secondary mortgage market required a HERS index of 25 for new homes and 50 for existing home, we would see a dramatic ramping up of energy performance.”

Wilson advocates that building codes should be revised to promote a concept called “passive survivability.”

“In colder parts of the country, such requirements could include minimum R-40 walls, R-60 ceilings, triple-glazed windows, and passive solar features. By mandating such high levels of energy performance, homes would never put their occupants at risk – even with an extended power outage or loss of heating fuel – because the homes would never drop below 50 or 55 degrees Fahrenheit.

“By targeting as a top priority the energy performance of homes, we could not only put millions of people to work and achieve dramatic reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, but also significantly reduce our vulnerability to wild fluctuations in world energy prices or energy availability while improving the comfort and security of homeowners and renters.”

Thanks to the federal government’s recently introduced Home Renovation Tax Credit, homeowners may be eligible to receive a credit on their renovation expenditures.

Let’s start with the rules. The 15 percent credit can be claimed on the portion of eligible expenditures exceeding $1,000, but not more than $10,000. The maximum tax credit that can be received is $1,350.

The HRTC will apply to eligible home renovation expenditures for work performed, or goods purchased, after January 27, 2009 and before February 1, 2010.

Properties eligible for the HRTC include houses, cottages and condominium units that are owned for personal use.

Renovation costs for projects such as finishing a basement or remodeling a kitchen will be eligible for the credit, along with associated expenses such as building permits, professional services, equipment rentals and incidental expenses.

Routine repairs and maintenance will not qualify for the credit, nor will the cost of purchasing furniture, appliances, audio-visual electronics or construction equipment.

Taxpayers will be able to claim the HRTC when filing their 2009 tax return. Receipts do not have to be submitted with the return, but should be kept in case they are asked for by the Canada Revenue Agency.
Eligibility for the HRTC is family-based. For the purpose of the credit, a family is generally considered to consist of an individual and, where applicable, the individual’s spouse or common-law partner. Family members will be able to share the credit. More information on the tax credit can be found at http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/gncy/bdgt/2009/fqhmrnvtn-eng.html.

Renovation supply retailers are eager to piggyback on the federal government’s tax credit and some have already announced offers of additional incentives to attract your spending dollars. Be sure to ask about special deals at your local building supply store. Both Home Depot (http://www.homedepot.ca) and Rona (http://www.rona.ca) have gift card offers.

Canadians who spend money on home renovations will also be eligible to receive an ecoENERGY Retrofit – Homes grant. To be eligible for this grant, homeowners must first have a pre-retrofit evaluation. The grant provides homeowners with up to $5,000 to offset the cost of making energy efficiency improvements.
Before you start your renovation project, it’s wise to visit the CMHC web page on home renovation. Go to http://www.cmhc.ca/en/co/renoho/ to get started.

There are about 12 million dwellings in Canada according to a 2006 database compiled by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. In that same year, residents reported that almost 840,000 of them fell below the adequacy standard and required major repairs.

Home renovation spending was calculated at $49.5 billion nationwide by CMHC in 2007 and about $7 billion in home-renovation business is expected this year in BC alone.

The world’s houses and office buildings consume 40 percent of global energy and emit the same proportion of greenhouse gases, making them the single biggest source of pollution in the world. (Transport is the next biggest culprit at 30 percent.)

A new study says a $400 billion annual investment in building efficiency would lead to a 60 percent cut in building emissions globally by 2050. The savings achieved would mean a five to 10 percent annual return on that investment, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development study found. (See the report at http://62.50.73.69/transformingthemarket.pdf)

Buildings and communities are “sustainable” when they are designed, built and operated with low environmental impacts while enhancing the health and quality of life for the people that live in and around them. Climate change, species extinction and a host of other environmental problems are already creating a very different world for our grandchildren than the one we enjoy today.

We need to make our residences and office buildings healthier, more comfortable, energy and water efficient. By following green building renovation principles, it is possible to achieve those goals and decrease their greenhouse gas emissions and maintenance costs.

And yes, our buildings will be smarter too.

Being responsible and undertaking right action usually merits a reward, but the recently announced Home Renovation Tax Credit (HRTC) just makes one feel dirty.

A 2006 survey by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation found that almost 840,000 of the country‚s 12 million private dwellings failed the adequacy standard and required major repairs.

Combine this knowledge with the fact that buildings are the single biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption and one could have anticipated a Civilian Conservation Corps-type program to superinsulate homes and mandate energy efficiency.

Instead we have a program that gives tax credits for putting in a swimming pool, building a fence, resurfacing a driveway, or laying new sod.

Buy an automobile that is super efficient on gasoline use, you are eligible for an ecoAUTO grant from the federal government; buy Energy Star qualified windows, doors, refrigerator, freezer or clothes washer in BC and you save the seven percent provincial sales tax.

But spend $1,000 renovating your kitchen, bathroom or basement, and you get zilch under the HRTC which requires expenditures of between $1,001 and $10,000 to be eligible for the 15 percent tax credit.

The HRTC is administered by the Canada Revenue Agency so the credit reduces the amount of federal tax you have to pay. If you spend the maximum $10,000, you won‚t receive a cheque for the maximum $1,350 credit.

It’s obvious that our federal government didn‚t consult green building guru Alex Wilson who has spent 30 years working to improve buildings and the planet.

In a letter in the March issue of Fine Homebuilding magazine to US President Barack Obama, Wilson urges him to launch a massive superinsulation program to reduce the energy consumption of low-income homes and buildings by one-half to two-thirds.

“Retrofitting existing homes to boost energy performance will create millions of jobs, and by cutting energy use, we will reduce carbon emissions,” says Wilson, author of Your Green Home (New Society Publishers, 2006).

“While public works programs can tackle low-income homes, different programs are needed for middle-class homeowners,” Wilson writes. “To reduce the total energy consumption of their homes by one-half to two-thirds (a challenging but realistic goal), a variety of tax credits, deductions, loan guarantees, and other inducements will be needed.
We need new incentives that are performance-based, unlike most of today‚s tax credits. By basing subsidies directly on improvements in energy performance ˆ not simply on how much money is spent ˆ we can encourage energy conservation retrofits and renewable energy systems that provide an attractive return on investment.”

Wilson suggests the performance-based focus could also apply to mortgages and loan guarantees using the home energy rating system (HERS), a 0 to 100 scale in which 100 equals the energy performance of a home meeting the 2004 Model Energy Code and 0 represents a net zero energy home.

“If the secondary mortgage market required a HERS index of 25 for new homes and 50 for existing home, we would see a dramatic ramping up of energy performance.”

Wilson advocates that building codes should be revised to promote a concept called „passive survivability.‰

“In colder parts of the country, such requirements could include minimum R-40 walls, R-60 ceilings, triple-glazed windows, and passive solar features. By mandating such high levels of energy performance, homes would never put their occupants at risk even with an extended power outage or loss of heating fuel ˆ because the homes would never drop below 50 or 55 degrees Fahrenheit.”

“By targeting as a top priority the energy performance of homes, we could not only put millions of people to work and achieve dramatic reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, but also significantly reduce our vulnerability to wild fluctuations in world energy prices or energy availability while improving the comfort and security of homeowners and renters.”

Another major failure of the HRTC is the fact it doesn‚t apply to rental properties, meaning the homes of low income Canadian renters won‚t be eligible for energy efficiency upgrades.  This takes on added importance because persons with lower incomes spend a higher proportion of their income on energy expenditures.

The HRTC is definitely not a perfect program and we should all inform our MPs of this fact. Since it only applies to the 2009 tax year, there is hope improvements can be made if the program is extended.

If you can afford it, by all means take advantage of the HRTC for eligible home renovation expenditures for work performed, or goods purchased, after January 27, 2009 and before February 1, 2010.

Properties eligible for the HRTC include houses, cottages and condominium units that are owned for personal use. Alterations and additions to new construction are also eligible.

Renovation costs for projects such as finishing a basement or remodeling a kitchen will be eligible for the credit, along with associated expenses such as building permits, professional services, equipment rentals and incidental expenses.

Routine repairs and maintenance will not qualify for the credit, nor will the cost of purchasing furniture, appliances, audio-visual electronics or construction equipment.

Taxpayers will be able to claim the HRTC when filing their 2009 tax return. Receipts do not have to be submitted with the return, but should be kept in case they are asked for by the Canada Revenue Agency.
Eligibility for the HRTC is family-based. For the purpose of the credit, a family is generally considered to consist of an individual and, where applicable, the individual‚s spouse or common-law partner. Family members will be able to share the credit. More information on the tax credit can be found at http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/gncy/bdgt/2009/fqhmrnvtn-eng.html.

Renovation supply retailers are eager to piggyback on the federal government‚s tax credit and some have already announced offers of additional incentives to attract your spending dollars. Be sure to ask about special deals at your local building supply store. Both Home Depot and Rona have gift card offers.

Canadians who spend money on home renovations will also be eligible to receive an ecoENERGY Retrofit ˆ Homes grant. To be eligible for this grant, homeowners must first have a pre-retrofit evaluation. The grant provides homeowners with up to $5,000 to offset the cost of making energy efficiency improvements.

Before you start your renovation project, it‚s wise to visit the CMHC web page on home renovation. Go to http://www.cmhc.ca/en/co/renoho/ to get started.

The HRTC is better than nothing, but the seriousness of our global warming problem merited more than just a token response.

Given that writer and critic John Ruskin lived from 1819 to 1900, he must be forgiven for the above quote gone wrong.

Just ask residents in Mexico, the US Midwest, China, Northern India, Bangladesh, Jamaica and South Asia. August’s weather was anything but good to them.

According to the United Nation’s World Meteorological Organization, 2007 has been a year of extreme weather conditions. Prior to August, the WMO said the world experienced a series of record-breaking weather events in the first seven months of the year, from heavy rain and flooding in Great Britain and Asia to heat waves in Europe and snowfall in South Africa and Bolivia.

The UN agency said global land surface temperatures in January and April were likely the warmest since records began in 1880, at more than one degree Celsius higher than average for those months.

August didn’t get any better. The US National Climatic Data Center has a list of all the hazardous weather events for the month.

Of course, we all remember Dean the hurricane that chugged its way through the Caribbean before crashing into the Mexican Yucatan as a category five colossus – the same scale of hurricane that slammed into New Orleans two years ago.

Forest fires were prominent in Italy, Romania, Bulgaria, and Greece where a Herculean effort was required to save the 2,800-year-old temples and stadiums of ancient Olympia, the birthplace of the Olympic Games.

Although some of the Greek fires are believed started by arsonists, the fires came on the heels of a summer-long drought and three consecutive heat waves that sent temperatures soaring over 40 degrees Celsius.

Extreme drought conditions were also felt across the United States in the west and southeast regions and parts of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan. Exceptional drought hit Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, and parts of Mississippi, North and South Carolina. More than 40 cities, mostly in the southeast, had their warmest August ever.

By August 28th, 64 percent of the western U.S. was in moderate to exceptional drought, while the third week of August saw a major flooding event in Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio. Six cities in these states set August precipitation records with more than 35 centimetres of rain.

While many European countries had their warmest January on record, England and Wales experienced their wettest May to July since records began in 1766.

Heavy rainfall devastated Mozambique in February, Uruguay in May and the Sudan in June. By August, monsoon-related rainfall that began in June was ravaging China, Vietnam, the Philippines and North Korea.

And thanks to a warm, sunny summer, scientists have reported that there is less sea ice in the Arctic than ever before recorded. Dry conditions also contributed to Lake Superior reaching its record lowest level for August.

By August’s end, negotiators from 158 countries reached basic agreement on rough targets aimed at getting some of the world’s biggest polluters to reduce emissions of the greenhouse gases blamed for global warming. A week-long U.N. climate conference in Vienna concluded that industrialized countries strive to cut emissions by 25 to 40 percent of their 1990 levels by 2020.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change notes there has been an increasing trend in extreme weather events observed during the last 50 years.
Climate change projections indicate it to be very likely that hot extremes, heat waves and heavy precipitation events will continue to become more frequent.

September has started with ominous news of another category 5 hurricane named Felix (the first time two such powerful storms have hit land in one Atlantic hurricane season) and tropical storms Henriette and Gabrielle.

This year’s extreme weather events have caused thousands of human deaths and resulted in millions of dollars of destruction. Such weather has become the insurance industry’s biggest nightmare.

About the weather, many people say it is what it is. There was a day when that was true, but not today. Scientists are now saying it is what we make of it.

We humans are now, as Tim Flannery titled his 2005 book, the weather makers.

RESOURCES – Flannery’s book “The Weather Makers: How We are Changing the Climate and What It Means for Life on Earth” is available in paperback from HarperCollins Canada. It contains many suggestions for individuals on how to combat climate change. You can read an excerpt from the book at www.theweathermakers.ca.

Another must read is Fred Pearce’s “With Speed and Violence: Why Scientists Fear Tipping Points in Climate Change,” 2007, Beacon Press. As Pearce says in his introduction, “Nature is strong and packs a serious counterpunch.” His analysis of the evidence for global warming and the large climatic effects it may unleash will cause you to ponder your and your children’s future.

The National Geographic has photos of 2007’s weather related disasters and a disaster-planning guide.

August also saw the release of Leonardo DiCaprio’s feature length documentary “The 11th Hour” concerning the environmental crises caused by human actions and their impact on the planet. The film offers hope and solutions with one scientist stating that current technology could reduce the human footprint on Earth by 90 percent. Check out 11th Hour Project and 11th Hour Action for more information on what you can do.

Michael Jessen is a British Columbia eco-writer. He can be reached by telephone at 250 229-5632 or by e-mail at zerowaste@shaw.ca.

Frosty is photogenic but freezing isn’t fun.

Cross-country skiing is great exercise but so is swimming somewhere in a warm ocean.

It’s the shoveling that eventually gets to me and this winter there’s been a ton of white stuff to remove from my roof and driveway. So who can blame a person for fantasizing about a sun-drenched beach far away from the Great White North?

After all, Canadians have had this dream since 1917 when Canadian Prime Minister Robert Borden suggested the Turks and Caicos Islands become part of Canada. The idea was shot down by then British Prime Minister David Lloyd George.
NDP MP Max Saltsman tried in 1974 to use a private member’s bill to persuade the government to consider annexing the islands. What could be better, he reasoned, than a warm weather destination where Canadians could spend their dollars on a Canadian beach?

The idea was brought up again in 1986 by Progressive Conservative MP Dan McKenzie and also in 2004 by Canadian Alliance MP Peter Goldring who visited Turks and Caicos to explore the possibility once more.

The province of Nova Scotia voted in 2004 to invite Turks and Caicos to join the province should the islands ever become a part of Canada thereby avoiding any problems with admitting the islands as a separate province.

Currently a British overseas territory, the Turks and Caicos are actually a grouping of 40 islands located 250 kilometres east of Cuba with an average wintertime temperature floating between 28 and 29 C.

Only one problem: snowbirds fleeing winter need to fly to the sun and sand and the small aviation industry has a disproportionately large impact on our climate system, accounting for between four and nine percent of human-made greenhouse gases. (Airplane manufacturer Boeing disputes this figure, saying it is only two percent.)
Since 1990, CO2 emissions from international aviation have increased 83 percent. Cheap fares are turning out to have costly effects on climate change. Air travel increased fivefold from 1970 to 2000 and carbon dioxide emissions from aviation are expected to triple by 2050.

Compared to other modes of transport, such as driving or taking the train, travelling by air has a greater climate impact per passenger kilometre, even over longer distances. It’s also the mode of freight transport that produces the most emissions.

When jet fuel is burned, the carbon in the fuel is released and bonds with oxygen (O2) in the air to form carbon dioxide. Burning jet fuel also releases water vapour, nitrous oxides, sulphates, and soot. Aircraft emissions trigger the formation of contrails (condensation trails seen in the sky behind airplanes) and contribute to the formation of cirrus clouds.
Aircraft emissions are mostly produced at cruising altitudes high in the atmosphere where scientific studies have shown that these high altitude emissions have a more harmful climate impact because they trigger a series of chemical reactions and atmospheric effects that have a net warming effect. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has estimated that the climate impact of aircraft is two to four times greater than the effect of their carbon dioxide emissions alone.

If you want to kiss winter goodbye and flying is in your future, there is a way to mitigate your climate impact – purchase carbon offsets to account for the emissions from your flight. Many airlines now offer carbon offsets with every flight, for a small fee on top of the ticket price. You can expect to pay between $5 and $20 per ton of CO2 offset.

But better yet, check out the special offers page at www.offsetters.ca where participating airlines use a portion of the ticket price to purchase complimentary offsets on the customer’s behalf. This ‘climate friendly’ option is only available to customers who connect to the airline’s online reservation system through the Offsetters website.You can book flights with WestJet and Air France by clicking on the airline logo and with Air Canada by clicking on the FlyGreen.ca logo. Offsetters will receive one dollar for every flight booked online through the Escapes.ca logo.
Escapes.ca, a Canadian company specializing in vacation packages and last minute deals. has been donating $1 from every online booking to the World Wildlife Fund since 2001, with over $23,000 in donations.
Offsetters.ca is a Canadian not-for-profit carbon offsetting organization that was co-founded by Dr. Hadi Dowlatabadi and Dr. James Tansey, both of whom are professors at the University of British Columbia.

The organization helps create renewable and permanent energy sources to replace outdated carbon emitting sources. One such way is by installing ground source heat pumps to heat new buildings instead of natural gas or electricity.

Other tips to reduce flying impacts: Try to book your flight on one of the new generation of fuel-efficient aircraft like the Boeing 777 and Airbus A340 series; fly direct since the most emissions are produced during takeoffs; fly in the daytime as night flights have a greater impact; fly economy because more people per plane means fewer emissions per person; pack light because heavier planes burn more fuel.

British journalist and author of the book Heat: How to Stop the Planet from Burning, George Monbiot has concluded that the only way to reduce the impact of flying is to fly less.

So if you normally take ten flights a year, your first step is to cut that back to three and offset them with carbon credits.
The climate impacts of air travel are not adequately regulated under national or international laws. The onus is thus on individuals and businesses to limit their flying unless absolutely necessary.

And if the Turks and Caicos Islands do become part of Canada, I hope there’ll be plenty of sailboats to help us get there.

RESOURCES – The carbon offset marketplace may have some unscrupulous companies with offers too good to be true. Look for Gold Standard companies. Check out the Voluntary Carbon Offset Information Portal at http://www.tufts.edu/tie/carbonoffsets/TCI-offset-handout.htm for more information before you buy. A November 2000 report by the IPCC on Aviation and the Global Atmosphere can be found at http://www.grida.no/publications/other/ipcc_sr/?src=/Climate/ipcc/aviation/. A November 2005 report by the National Aerospace Laboratory entitled Fuel efficiency of commercial aircraft: An overview of historical and future trends challenges some of the IPCC report’s aircraft fuel efficiency improvements as too optimistic. This report can be downloaded from http://www.transportenvironment.org/Publications/prep_hand_out/lid:398.

And because of that, we shoppers are the most powerful people on the planet. Sadly, many of us just don’t know about the influence that resides in our wallets.

Now is a particularly good time to ask if our spending dollars are making a difference or just making a bad company rich.

April saw retail sales in BC reach a record high $4.71 billion, 8.1 percent higher than the same month last year and 1.5 percent higher than March according to seasonally adjusted Statistics Canada data.

“We’re firing on all cylinders and almost every retail category is strong right now,” Retail BC president Mark Startup said in a recent Vancouver Sun interview.

When you pull a box of cereal, a bottle of shampoo or soda off the store shelf and put it in your shopping cart, how much do you know about the product’s manufacturer?

Does the product maker care about the environment and human rights? Does the company mistreat animals through laboratory testing or factory farming and its employees through unfair wages, union busting, and discrimination? Is the corporation the subject of class action lawsuits, government fines, political corruption, or unethical business practices?

Weighty questions for someone just out to buy an energy bar, an article of clothing or a bottle of wine.

Yet with average BC household consumer spending topping $16,000 annually, putting your dollar on the counter can have a huge impact.

Basically, shopping is just an extension of voting. By buying the product, you’re not only endorsing the quality and ingredients of the product, but also the manufacturer’s ethical behaviour.

If you buy products made by Exxon-Mobil, Altria (Philip Morris/Kraft), Wal-Mart, Chevron-Texaco, Pfizer, Nestle, Tyson Foods, General Electric, Archer Daniels Midland, or General Motors, you are supporting the 10 worst companies (in the above order) on the planet based on their overall social and environmental records.

You’ll learn that and much more by purchasing a copy of The Better World Shopping Guide at your local bookstore or by visiting author Ellis Jones’ web site.

The book is published by New Society Publishers (NSP), a Gabriola Island, BC-based firm that is one of Canada’s most environmentally sensitive book printers and a leading publisher of books to build a better world.

Jones gives the scoop on the ten worst and the ten best companies as well as the top ten shopping habits you should alter to make a real difference. He also highlights ten small companies you may not have heard of, that are true social and environmental leaders in their industries.

According to Jones’ research, the ten best companies to patronize are Seventh Generation, Patagonia, American Apparel, Eden Foods, Tom’s of Maine, Ben & Jerry’s, Working Assets, CLIF Bar, Stonyfield Farms and Aveda.

In 73 product categories, the book ranks companies on an A+ to F scale for a quick guide to the product you are thinking of buying. There’s also information on some of the differences between the best and worst companies as well as links to online resources to learn more about some of the companies listed.

If you want to begin with the changes that will make the most difference for people and the planet, Jones suggests starting with these ten things: your bank, the gasoline you buy, the supermarket you shop at, the retail stores you patronize, your car, the seafood, chocolate and coffee you buy, your credit card, and the cleaning products you use.

Jones is also the co-author of the recently published revised edition of The Better World Handbook, originally published in 2001 by NSP. He is currently a sociologist at University of California, Davis and a scholar of corporate social responsibility, global citizenship and everyday activism.

Jones says it is difficult to find good, solid information on the business practices of the world’s companies.

“For the past five years, I’ve dedicated myself to researching this very problem by compiling a database of every reliable source of information available on corporate behaviour and synthesized the information into a single report card grade for every company,” he writes.

While the book has a distinctly American focus, most of the listed products are available in Canada, some only at specialty stores.

Jones picks a corporate hero under each product category and under hair care the hero is Druide, a Quebec-based company that uses 100% sustainably harvested fair trade ingredients and follows strict ECOCERT organic standards.

The book is sized to fit in your back pocket or a small purse and organized in a shopping friendly format in order to help you change the world as you shop.

Thinking of buying a new car? Toyota is the most ethical automaker while General Motors is the worst.

How about a new outfit of clothes? Patagonia and American Apparel get A+ rankings. Well-known brands like Ralph Lauren, Polo, Calvin Klein, Bill Blass and Guess get Ds.

Looking to buy an energy bar? CLIF gets a top ranking A while Powerbar comes in at D-.

Need a battery for some piece of electronic equipment? Duracell rates a B- and the Energizer bunny hops in with a D.

If you are in doubt about which product choice to make, a local alternative is almost always the best one.

By using this book, you can turn your shopping list into a potent tool to change the world. Your money is your purest form of power. This book will help you spend it wisely.

RESOURCES - Labels on products can be confusing. The Consumers Union Guide to Environmental Labels and this Public Works and Government Services Canada site are good guides to the symbols used on products to indicate they are certified to meet specific environmental and social justice criteria.

Michael Jessen is a Nelson eco-writer. He can be reached by telephone at 250-229-5632 or by e-mail at zerowaste@shaw.ca.

Canada’s federal government is considering financial aid to the country’s auto sector. Centered mainly in Ontario, the industry is linked to one in six jobs in the province and generates $28 billion of annual economic activity.

But continuing to prop up a commercial enterprise dedicated to building vehicles and car parts that are major contributors to climate change makes neither economic nor environmental sense.

There is no question that the stakes are high, jobs are at risk and there is a need for economic recovery. With so much riding on the right decision, it is most prudent to think long-term instead of short-term. With only so much money to go around, it’s important to spend it in the most appropriate place.

According to Kevin Gaudet, Ontario director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, the Ontario government has given $352 million in loans to the Big Three automakers in the past five years, along with $430 million from the federal government, and since then the companies have laid off 6,000 Ontarians.

Last month’s U.S. car sales figures revealed that GM sales were down 45 percent, while Chrysler’s fell 34.9 percent and Ford’s dropped 30.2 percent. In Canada, by contrast, there was actually a slight increase in purchases of new vehicles compared to last year.

Once a titan of industry, General Motors has said it might not survive through year’s end without a government cash infusion. Chrysler has been seeking a merger partner for months and is rumored to be facing bankruptcy. Only Ford has said it feels it can weather the current economic turndown.

With empty pockets in their slick suits, the Big Three’s CEOs are asking for more ˆ from Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, from federal Industry Minister Tony Clement, and the U.S. Congress.

But the industry made a number of poor decisions well before the credit crunch that led to their current position. Detroit’s dependence on big, non-fuel-efficient vehicles was its own doing. Their strategy ˆ not shared by rivals such as Toyota ˆ was focused on trucks, SUVs and minivans; it was profitable like the goose that laid the golden egg, but it proved costly.

U.S. President-elect Barack Obama has signaled to the automakers and the unions that his support for short-term aid now, and long-term assistance once he takes office, is contingent on their willingness to agree to transform their industry to make cleaner, more energy-efficient vehicles.

The Big Three auto makers are American. Yes they have factories in Canada, but 90 percent of what is assembled here is exported to our neighbour to the south.

It is time to worry more about how to protect Canadian manufacturing jobs than how to protect an ailing, ancient American industry. Canadian auto factories and workers should be used to convert our manufacturing centres into clean technology leaders.

We can do it with policy, instead of payola. We can do it by taking a page from Obama’s New Energy for America playbook. We need a Canadian industrial policy to build a green economy with investments in basic research, technology demonstration, commercial market deployment, and job training targeting renewable energy like wind and solar, energy efficiency, advanced electric vehicles and biofuels, and a smart electric grid.

The President-elect has proposed creating five million new jobs by strategically investing $150 billion over the next 10 years to jump start private efforts to build a clean energy future.

Obama’s vision is shared by many others. Former Vice-President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore has challenged the U.S. to commit to producing 100 percent of the nation’s electricity from renewable energy and carbon-free sources within 10 years, saying the goal will both revitalize the economy and save the planet.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt unveiled his Clean Energy 2030 plan last month which aims to wean the United States from its dependence on fossil fuels within 22 years. Schmidt said the plan requires $4.5 trillion in spending to pull it off, but it’ll pay for itself with $5.5 trillion in savings.

For its part, Google has invested $10 million in geothermal energy and another $10 million in wind technologies.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) last month requested international support of a „Global Green New Deal,‰ a proposal similar to the Depression-era policies of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. If green jobs take off worldwide, the concurrent crises of global energy shortages and climate change could also be alleviated, said UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner.

The UNEP report ‘Green Jobs: Towards decent work in a sustainable, low-carbon world,’ says: „Given rapidly rising interest in energy alternatives, future years may well see worldwide employment soar ˆ possibly as high as 2.1 million in wind energy and 6.3 million in solar photovoltaics (PV) by 2030 and on the order of 12 million jobs in biofuels-related agriculture and industry. Projections for individual countries all indicate strong potential for large job creation in coming years and decades. Installations and maintenance of solar PV and solar thermal systems in particular offer tremendous job growth.‰

Renewable energy and supplier industries have created an estimated 2.3 million jobs worldwide, and more are expected as wind, solar, and geothermal power sources expand across the globe, according to the Worldwatch Institute.

Energy efficiency has long been touted as a policy option for economic growth. In California, efficiency mandates implemented in the 1970s saved residents $56 billion between 1972 and 2006, while creating about 1.5 million jobs, according to a recently released University of California at Berkeley study.

According to architect Edward Mazria, investing about $20 billion in building energy efficiency would save consumers $8.46 billion in energy bills annually (a less than three-year payback) reducing annual CO2 emissions by the equivalent of taking almost 16 million cars of the road for a year and create more than 200,000 new jobs.

The most impressive building project to date is the German Alliance for Work and the Environment, a retrofitting program serving 342,000 appartments as of March 2006. From 2001 to 2004, this project was responsible for creating 25,000 jobs and saving an existing 116,000. In 2006, an estimated 145,000 full-time equivalent jobs were attributed to this building retrofit program as a result of increased levels of public-private spending.

In Canada, it is estimated that a national retrofit program focusing only on municipal buildings would create 5,600 to 7,840 full-time equivalent jobs.

Our way forward to a sustainable lifestyle lies in overcoming mental and political status quo barriers. It’s time to forge a new path. Combining job creation and energy policy into one economic stimulus plan is worth supporting.

Canada has the opportunity to make the right decisions to escape from our current crisis. Why not use the money we have to solve the issues we’re debating ˆ energy security and a lack of manufacturing jobs.

The age of oil dependency is nearing an end. Compared to fossil-fuel power plants, renewable energy generates more jobs per unit of installed capacity, per unit of power generated and per dollar invested.

Using our former auto workers and their factories, we can build our own energy future, or like our automobiles, buy our wind turbines and solar panels from someone else.