[All] Energy Futures and Heath Conference Part II notes.

[Louisette Lanteigne]

Energy Futures and Health Conference 
Part 2: How Ontario Can Lead Canada to a Low-Carbon Economy
Notes taken on Sept 12th at First United Church in Waterloo
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First Speaker: Rev. Ted Reeve

"Climate change is a spiritual issue" says David Suzuki. Spirituality is at the core of how we think.

Traditionalists view Genesis 1:26 that states Humankind is in our own image, that man has dominion over the earth. It places man in the #1 position.  Politician Rick Santorum spoke out against President Obama saying that human well being should come first, stewardship #2. 

Moderates believe that we should be good stewards. 

Radicals have the view that the faster we conquer the earth, the faster the rapture. 

Eco Theology places greater emphasis on the second chapter of Genesis where humans are a part of creation.  We are connected to it and with each other fostering a feeling of awe and respect. It embraces science, biology, Quantum logic in a creative way.  It connects us with all of creation in a web of life that governs our choices.

Pipelines are not just about humans and money issues. It places nature 2nd as an outcome. We need to plan holistically to plan forward. 

Faith communities need to rethink their places of worship to do things more sustainably with awareness of our own actions and connections to nature and community. 
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Second Speaker: John Howard MD

Death per 100 GWH according to study published in Scientific America Magazine 
US health burden of fossil fuel. 
4040 Pneumonia
9720 Cardiovascular
30,100 Premature deaths
5, 230,000 Lost work days
603,000 Asthma
59,000 Bronchial 
(for Canada's rates, take 10% of the figures) 


Envision three circles drawn one inside the other. The centre circle has Health as the core representing nutritional, community, mental, and physical health. 
The second circle in the middle shows Environmental, Social, Economic and Political factors influencing health
The third circle enveloping all others is Spiritual, Moral and Ecosystem health. 

Aboriginal communities cherish the earth as a mother to life. Decisions made must have regard to the impacts of people born 7 generations later. 

Currently, the costs associated with human need are high. We need to secure safe water, our national debt is growing, we have housing and education expenses to deal with. The list is long but we can actually pay off ALL of it for $150.5 billion which is equal to 19.1% of military spending in the US.  Alternative security can be changed. 

What is the crisis? War, overpopulation, climate change, pollution? NO...It's EXPECTATIONS ie: car, personal luxeries, house etc. 
Collisions of expectations means our culture has a lust for energy as long as we can't see it, smell it, hear it or feel it. 
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Third speaker: James Glaive from Tides Canada. 

Imagine a company called tape master. They had a plan to make lots of money but it unravelled. Technologies were replaced with mail in movies, wireless technologies and a shift happened but they ignored it. They were arrogant and defiant. The shift continued and Tapemaster went away because it was only a service provider, not a retailer. 

How to relate to this? Canada with it's dependence is like Tapemaster.  Any changes will take decades to manifest. The current model is to dig, drill, sell and ship and burn for energy for transportation, water, manufacturing. 15% GDP for revenue funded services. We rely on fuel today but the model is changing. 
Other nation's are using safe clean renewable and local solutions for energy and services. 
In 2010 more was invested in renewable than on gas, coal or oil.  Huge money is being spent by China to reduce oil was 27 billion this year. There are 1/2 a billion green energy jobs in China.
In the US, young people are not interested in driving cars. They are using alternative means of transportation. 
In Europe, 70% of their new electricity is renewable energy
Japan has seen a solar boom since Fukushima. 
The global transition to clean energy is cheaper, better, gives more savings and produces more local revenues. 
EV cars can go farther on the same charge due to battery advancements
The world's thirst for green energy will decline before resources do. 
Investments will slash demand as the world shifts and like Tapemaster, Canada's economy will collapse unless we change the plan
This is real, it's not going away, we need a strategy to help us through the change.
Energy strategy does not mean more pipelines and if we can embrace the changes we could do something regarding Climate change.
Canada is a resource commodity nation today but it won't last because change is happening. 
A National Energy Strategy must address efficiency, green jobs, reduce fossil fuels down to only 30% oil and gas. 
In July all premiers wanted to pursue a more integrated approach to climate change carbon reduction and the implementation of renewable energy but the Prime Minister declined to discuss the matter. 

Tides Canada is calling for bold initiatives to secure a Clean Energy Accord. It is supported by 700 Companies, CAW, Canadian Sustainable Energy Association, Oil Sands Workers etc.  For more information please visit: http://cleanenergycanada.org/

History is in your hands. Make the change happen!
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Fourth speaker: Tim Weis Pembina

Advancing Ontario's Clean energy Future

Technology to go to renewable energy already exists.

Airborn mercury, emissions, CO2 are serious problems and Pembina is working to do projects to help save energy to reduce impacts. 

Arctic Melt is not really making the news as shocking but Greenland melting is a canary in the mine.  
We will all be affected by climate change by way of food, transportation, crop failures etc. 
2 degree difference is the safe limit according to scientists from now until 2040 but after that the issue is out of our hands. 
We must act today as if today is 2040. 
We must commit to 607 megatonnes for 2020 and there is no quick fix for that. We have 10 sources of Green House Gas emissions to deal with and we must tackle all of them.
Between 2004 to 2007 renewable investments doubled In 2010 half of new electricity was renewable. There has been 30% growth since 2009. 
From 2005 to 2010 solar saw 80% growth, wind saw 27%. 
The US is leading Green energy movement followed by China and Germany
In Germany green jobs in renewable are going up, coal is going down. 
Over 1/2 the US states have mandated renewable energy programs
Texas gets 600MW from Wind employing 9000 people. 
Sarah Palin started a renewable energy program in Alaska so there is Republican support too. It is a non-partisan issue. 
Graph shown re: Normalized to Baseload NGCC by TransAlta   

Denmark will have 52% wind power by 2020 and 100% renewable by 2050. This motion was passed 171 to 8. They stated: We know it costs but it is the best insurance policy for Denmark.

Ontario is phasing out coal by 2014
Ontario wind/bioenergy/solar is the future. Natural gas is only transitional.
Energy prices will rise normally over time but we did witness a spike in prices when Darlington Nuclear went on-line.
Pickering Nuclear is at end of life. 
Much of our energy infrastructure needs rebuild/refurbishment. Approx. 1/2. 
We can use funds to expand renewables.  We can remove gas using wind power.  
IESO report released December 2011 www.ieso.ca/imoweb/pubs/corp/IESO_2011AnnualReport.pdf
3rd Party data with US and Natural Resources shows without renewable energy, energy prices will still increase. 
If nuclear is on time on budget (it would be the first time ever, highly unusual) Prices will go down. 
Alberta prices will go up 50%
Green House Gas and Mercury levels in Ontario are going down
32% of our GHG is linked to transportation.

General Q&A to all panelists:

Nuclear like natural gas is a transition tool. We prefer to promote nuclear. 
On budget on time for nuclear is a very generous assumption. New Brunswick struggled with it and went bankrupt. Quebec is phasing it out and it doesn't look like the puck is going towards nuclear power.
When it comes to nuclear energy we still don't realistically examine health costs associated. It's not safe and we still don't factor in the costs of nuclear debris which should be included. 

In European framework, individual communities are taking the lead to go 100% renewable energy. Some communities use sheep as lawnmowers!  We need to create overall policy and still allow for local solutions. 

We have the technology but the choice is do we want it or not. We could establish new rules for feed in tarrif where we sell 1/2 the project to community and community gets 80% of the cost. Do Ontario residents think that way? Do we have the culture to make it happen? We need to speak with government about ideas like this. 

Faith communities make up 8-10% of return with faith community projects. 


End of notes. 
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