Rethinking Lifestyle

Mark your calendars for Saturday, April 16. The South Eastman Transition Initiative (SETI) is putting on a Renewable Energy Show. The show will consist of presentations by advocates of renewable energy and display booths from a range of suppliers of renewable energy technologies. More information at the SETI website.

So why, you may ask, should anyone take an interest in renewable energies now, when non-renewable energy is the same price today that it was fifteen years ago and significantly cheaper than it was in 2008. I suggest that even if that is your opinion, there are still significant reasons to check out what renewable energy technologies offer.

First of all we should note that there is such a thing as sustainable development – it is not an illusion. Sustainable development occurs whenever an available resource is used in a way that does not deplete that resource – when we leave as much for our children as we got from our parents. It is this conviction, that the development we pursue must be sustainable, that drives the interest in renewable energy. And any development that depends on non-renewable energy is, by its very nature, not sustainable. When we use non-renewable energy, we are robbing future generations. The non-renewable energy that we have consumed, is simply gone. It is not available to future generations. But there are ways of living that do not deplete resources.

Furthermore, to a disquieting degree, we, here in southeastern Manitoba, are dependent on energy produced thousands of kilometres from here, either in southern Alberta or northern Manitoba. This creates a vulnerability that should leave us all uneasy. Its not hard to think of events that could disrupt this flow of energy. A disruptive event could be natural: an ice storm. The event could be human error or equipment failure. We all remember the pipeline explosion near Otterburne two years ago and the one near Emerson last winter. The disruptive event could be the result of anger. It could be sabotage. The fact that other cities are as vulnerable as we are changes nothing. We can reduce our vulnerability. Technologies that make us more self sufficient will be on display.

And there is wise investment. True, we do not know what will happen to energy prices. Ten years ago most of us thought energy prices would go in one direction only – up. They did not. Nevertheless any investment in housing today will still have value thirty, even fifty years from now, and I think it is a safe bet that an investment in an energy efficient house today will have more value in thirty or fifty years than a similar investment in a “conventional” house.

Advances in renewable technology in the last ten years are really quite astounding. There has been advancement in the actual technology, but most of the advancement has been in the manufacturing of the technologies. A Stanford University study finds that in 20 of US states solar power is now as economical as energy from fossil fuels.

So mark it on your calendar. Check out the program on the SETI website.