Facts of Renewable Energy

Part B – Some of the Facts

We cannot continue to build on the amount of CO2 we are adding to the atmosphere. What makes perfect fiscal sense for short-sighted political policies now is going to be a blueprint for total disaster in the near future.

Saskatchewan itself emits 72 tonnes of CO2 per capita per year. Northern European states emit about 10 – which is still considered to be 10 times too much if we are to have any hope of reversing the effects of manmade climate change. While climate talks in Copenhagen were a disaster, more recent talks in Cancun ‘helped’ to restart discussions. Inevitably, carbon pricing is going to come into effect, even as the price itself of fossil fuels goes up – we have already used up the cheap stuff.

Visible effects of climate change include a faster rise in temperatures in our northern hemisphere of 5oC already and melting of our polar ice caps. Sea levels around the world will begin to rise and since the world’s largest cities are near coastlines, they will flood – billions of people could be looking for a new place to live.

The global climate has warmed by 0.8 oC and already we are seeing more extreme weather events than ever before. If temperatures warm enough, methane hydrates currently locked under the arctic ice and also in marshlands that are currently covered by permafrost will release such large amounts of greenhouse gases that the pace of climate change could spiral out of control. Absorption of carbon by the oceans is causing them to become more acid.

Imminent need

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In Saskatchewan – Our northern lakes have a pH of 7 but the rain that is falling onto our northern lakes and forests has a pH of 5. This means that the rain contains 100 times more acid than is contained in the surface water. It is caused by the acid rain created by the tar sands operations in Alberta. Our northern lakes and forests will die and release even more carbon if we don’t do something. – Last summer was extremely dry in our north and fires were allowed to burn uncontrolled. Our Saskatchewan rivers emerge as glacial fed rivers from the Rocky Mountains. These glaciers are disappearing. Southern Saskatchewan was wet last summer. While this may be of dubious benefit now, the long term picture is drought.

Pre-industrial CO2 levels in the atmosphere were 280 ppm, currently they are 389 and rising by 2 ppm per year. We need to reduce CO2 levels to 350 ppm if we are to expect to limit global warming to 1.5 to 2 degrees C.

Our politicians can have an important role to play as well – lobby them to get on the bandwagon for non-polluting renewable energy before it is too late.