Abandoned Stuff by Saskboy

CBC reports that deaths due to smog will rise if we maintain current smog levels in the coming years. This is indeed bad news, because for decades we’ve heard that deadly air pollution levels “are coming”. Well they are here now, and your parents and older relatives are going to start dying first. Young people with cardiovascular problems will also feel the pinch of pollution, and Canada’s track record is increasing energy consumption at a time when we most need to embrace conservation.

I’m tempted just to “whine” about this issue, but instead I’ll give a few solutions to the problem. They aren’t complete solutiosn but we can make them happen without much effort and without a lot of delay.

First we have to require vehicle manufacturers build fleets of electric cars. By 2009, 1 in 3 cars rolling off the assembly lines should be electric or fully plug-in hybrids. Smart car production and competeing products of similar size would reduce parking congestion downtown and gasoline consumption for city drivers [partly because they use deisel fuel instead of gas]. If someone needs a car that usues quickly replaced fuel, gas cars will still be available as will all cars made until that date.

Next we can require that all new public buildings be designed as Net Zero utility users. The energy that goes into heating and cooling them is self generated through wind, geothermal, or solar sources when that energy is present. When it isn’t there, they use power from the grid. They can sell power back to the grid when the weather is right. There are jobs to be made from this, as well as energy to be saved in the long term.

And another idea is to have 3rd World countries become more developed so they don’t have to use wood sources to heat their homes or cook their food. There are too many theroies on how to make that happen, to digest into one blog post, however.