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Published by the Kingston Greens
GREEN LIGHT KINGSTON #225 |
Issue #225
Monday, February 01, 2010 |
Printed in cyberspace on recycled electrons
Compiled and edited using 100% clean, renewable power (wind and low-impact hydro) from Bullfrog Power.
To publicise future events, corrections and/or if you have comments, please email Green Light Kingston:
We welcome new submissions!
Quote of the Week:
A decent provision for the poor is the true test of civilisation.
-Samuel Johnson, lexicographer (1709-1784)
In This Issue:
| 1. Website of the Week | |
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| 2. Cartoon | |
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| 3. Current Events | |
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| 4. Coming Events | |
| 5. Elsewhere Events | |
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| 6. Community Action | |
| 7. Worth Reading | |
| 8. Community Notices | |
| 9. Wanted! | |
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| 10. Local Organic Produce | |
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1. Website of the Week
| New! Solar roadways |
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An interesting idea. Traditional asphalt roads are already extremely expensive to build and maintain. Would these be more expensive? Possibly, possibly not. But there would be a great offset.
http://solarroadways.com/ |
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2. Cartoon
3. Current Events
4. Coming Events
| New! Mulberry School - Open House |
| Mulberry School invites you to our Open House on Saturday, February 27th from 10:00am to noon at 25 Markland Street. Teachers will offer talks on Waldorf Grade One at 10:30am and Waldorf Kindergarten at 11:00am . Walk through our beautiful classrooms and view student academic and artistic work. For more information phone 613-542-0669. | Top |
| New! Awakening The Dreamer - Changing The Dream |
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Saturday, February 27, 2010 9:00 AM
Where on Earth are we going? And what can we do about it? Awakening the Dreamer Changing the Dream Symposium Sisters of Providence of St. Vincent de Paul $ 10 per person Registration Contact: Bridget Doherty 613-544-4525 ext. 145 email: RSVP Friday, February 12, 2010 This symposium will bring forth an environmentally sustainable, spiritually fulfilling and socially just human presence on Earth. “The symposium is a journey of discovery and hope. It's global, it's local and it's you! Don't miss it.” PROVIDENCE MOTHERHOUSE AUDITORIUM 1200 Princess St. Kingston, Ontario Saturday, February 27th 9 a.m - 3 p.m. |
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5. Elsewhere Events
6. Community Action
| New! Save our downtown - Save our rinks |
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From a concerned citizen
Kingston's downtown is fading. How can we make sure our town does not suffer the same fate other towns in Ontario have faced. Do we really want that ghost town look? Is this good for attracting business or families? If we are serious about our community we must save everything that speaks to our community. We must save our down town rinks. The struggle Portsmouth's Harold Harvey arena is facing is reminiscent of the S&R versus the big box store. The INVISTA centre is not doing as well as hoped and now our downtown community rinks are at risk Attached is the city staff report that calls for the closing of Harold Harvey at the end of this season – in just over a month. The report is from the City’s website: http://www.cityofkingston.ca/pdf/cityhall/committees/community/agenda/2010/ARC_A0310-10013.pdf The CAL board will meet to decide CAL’s position on Monday evening. The Arts, Recreation & Community Policies (ARC) Committee of the City will receive the staff report on Wednesday February 3rd, 6:00 pm at the Portsmouth Olympic Harbour. The recommendation of the ARC Committee is expected to go to City Council very soon after Wednesday. Please help preserve the Harold Harvey Arena. Phone or write to the Church Athletic League board and contact all councilors. This is about much more than one hockey rink. It's about our community. |
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7. Worth Reading
| New! China powers the global green tech revolution |
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From Grist.org
By Todd Woody http://www.grist.org/article/2010-01-11-china-powers-global-green-tech-revolution Forget Red China. It’s Green China these days—at least when it comes to making big renewable deals. eSolar power plant. Friday night, a Chinese developer and eSolar of Pasadena, Calif., signed an agreement to build solar thermal power plants in the Mongolian desert over the next decade. These plants would generate a total of 2,000 megawatts of electricity. It’s the largest solar thermal project in the world and follows another two-gigawatt deal China struck in October with Arizona’s First Solar for a massive photovoltaic power complex. Altogether, the eSolar and First Solar projects would produce, at peak output, the amount of electricity generated by about four large nuclear power plants, lighting up millions of Chinese homes. Is China the new California, the engine powering the green tech revolution? Yes and no. When it comes to technological and entrepreneurial innovation, Beijing lags Silicon Valley (and Austin, Boston, and Los Angeles)—for now. But as a market, China is likely to drive demand for renewable energy, giving companies like eSolar the opportunity to scale up their technology and drive down costs. [We’ll pause here to state the obvious: China’s investment in renewable energy and other green technologies is miniscule compared to the resources devoted to its continued building of coal-fired power plants and efforts to secure dirty oil shale supplies in Canada and elsewhere.] “All the learning from this partnership will help us in the United States,” Bill Gross, eSolar’s founder and chairman, told me. “I think as soon as the economy improves in the rest of the world and banks start lending, there will be a lot of competition in the U.S. and Europe. But, until then, China has the money and the demand.” In a one-party state, a government official saying, “Make it so,” can remove obstacles to any given project and allocate resources for its development. Construction of the first eSolar project, a 92-megawatt power plant, in a 66-square-mile energy park in northern China, is set to begin this year “They’re moving very fast, much faster than the state and U.S. governments are moving,” says Gross, who is licensing eSolar’s technology to a Chinese firm, Penglai Electric, which will manage the construction of the power plants. Another Chinese company will open and operate the projects. For the past two-and-a-half years in California, meanwhile, the state’s first new solar thermal power plant in two decades has been undergoing licensing as part of an extensive environmental review process. The goal is to maximize production of carbon-free electricity from BrightSource Energy’s 400-megawatt Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System project in the Mojave Desert while minimizing its impact on fragile ecosystems. The end game begins Monday in Sacramento at a public hearing where BrightSource will face off with environmental groups that argue the project will harm the imperiled desert tortoise and destroy the habitat for a host of plants and animals. In contrast, it was only six months ago that executives from Penglai Electric first contacted eSolar as they scoured the world for a technology to use in that nation’s first big foray into solar thermal power. China leads the world in production of photovolatic panels like those found on residential and commercial rooftops, but the country has had little experience with solar thermal technology, which uses arrays of mirrors called heliostats to heat a liquid to create steam that drives an electricity-generating turbine. Penglai executives flew to Los Angeles last fall to meet with Gross and examine a five-megawatt demonstration power station called Sierra that eSolar brought online in August in the Southern California exurb of Lancaster. “A parade of people came over—we probably had 20 different government officials from China come to look at Sierra and review its operation,” said Gross. “The most convincing aspects of eSolar’s technology is the fact that it is the only commercially operating technology in North America,” Eric Wang, a Penglai Electric spokesman, told me in an email. That’s not quite correct—a solar trough plant was recently built in Nevada and solar power plants from the 1980s continue to operate in California—but eSolar’s technology is particularly suited for China. As I wrote in a Green State column about eSolar last year, eSolar’s innovation is its sophisticated software controls systems and imaging technology which controls heliostats that focus the sun’s rays on a tower that contains a water-filled receiver. That allows the company to use small mirrors packed closely together as the software positions them to create a virtual parabola to focus sunlight. The mirrors are cheap to make and easy to install. “When we do solar fields in California, we use $8 labor to open up the fields,” said Gross. “It takes 15 minutes training. In China, they wanted to use untrained labor as well.” Since eSolar can place the mirrors close together—its standard 46-megawatt solar farm has 176,000 of them—the power plants needs half the land of an equivalent photovoltaic farm, according to Gross—a feature attractive to China, Wang said. China, however, is not merely importing eSolar’s technology. Biomass power plants will be built alongside the solar farms and will use the same turbines, cutting the project’s costs and allowing the energy complex to operate when the sun goes down. The sand willow plant, a shrub planted in the surrounding region to fight desertification, will provide the fuel for the biomass power plants, according to Penglai Electric. ESolar already makes its heliostats in China and will begin manufacturing its proprietary receiver technology there as well. While eSolar, which counts Google among its investors, retains ownership of the intellectual property behind its solar technology, China will gain valuable experience building and operating large-scale renewable energy facilities. Much the same is happening in the nascent electric car industry, where China is pushing ahead and partnering with California companies like Coda Automotive to develop advanced battery technology. All of which is not necessarily a bad thing. But one has to wonder if it won’t be too long before we’re cruising down the Pacific Coast Highway in our Chinese-made electric car and plugging it in to our Chinese-made solar array. |
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| New! Drought drives Middle Eastern pepper farmers out of business, threatens prized heirloom chiles |
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From Grist.org
By Gary Nabhan http://www.grist.org/article/2010-01-15-drought-drives-middle-eastern-peppers Most Turks live on the water’s edge in the far western reaches of their vast country. But many of the spices that perfume the air in Turkey’s famous urban bazaars come from the nation’s southeastern farming areas of Sanliurfa and Kahramanmaras. In fact, spices from this region rank among the most highly prized condiments and herbs you can find in any spice emporium anywhere. As I wandered through the Misir Carsisi Spice Bazaar in Istanbul, and the Kemeralti Bazaar at the western terminus of the Silk Road in Izmir, I could see the chile powders, pastes and dried fruits from Sanliurfa and Kahramanmaras proudly and prominently displayed. Urfa and Maras peppers from Turkey have the same international fame that Aleppo (Halaby) peppers do from Syria, Tabascos do from Louisiana, or Habaneros do from the Yucatan. But their prices are soaring and supplies are becoming scarce—not merely because of international demand, but because of drought and agricultural water scarcity triggered by global climate change. The same climate-driven pressures are affecting the survival of the Halaby pepper and its traditional farmers near Aleppo, Syria. In the past three years, 160 Syrian farming villages have been abandoned near Aleppo as crop failures have forced over 200,000 rural Syrians to leave for the cities. This news is distressing enough, but when put into a long-term perspective, its implications are staggering: many of these villages have been continuously farmed for 8000 years. As one expert puts it, this may be the worst long-term drought and most severe set of crop failures since agricultural civilizations began in the Fertile Crescent many millennia ago. One of Turkey’s gifts to the globe’s cuisine: ground Maras pepper at the celebrated Misir Carsisi bazaar in IstanbulThe thousands of tourists and residents who purchase Urfa and Maras chiles in Istanbul’s Spice Bazaar may not yet realize it, but their access to these world class spices is being disrupted by climate change. Since 2007, rains in some forty Turkish provinces, northern Syria and eastern Iraq have been 30 percent to 40 percent of their normal levels. The drought in southeastern Anatolia has reduced harvests by 80 percent. In Syria, 60 percent of the agricultural lands have been affected by these droughts. In Iraq, 2 million rural residents have been left without water. Many irrigation canals remain dry, as the only water reaching rivers like the Euphrates is being usurped by cities upstream. Downstream on the Tigris-Euphrates delta, saltwater intrusion is making domestic water unpotable. Between the three countries, perhaps five million people have been directly affected. Peppers are perhaps the most widely-used spice, condiment and vegetable in the world, but the devil is in the details. Many folks cannot tolerate the heat of a Bhut Jolokia or Habanero, but prefer the milder, smokier aroma of a Urfa or Chilpotle. And yet, we can no longer take unrestricted globalized access to such culinary treasures for granted. Our own patterns of consumption and proliferation of greenhouse gases are endangering the very things that give us pleasure. Think about it. The loss of farmers from Saliurfa, Kahramanmaras and Aleppo—far away places you may have never heard of before—is our own plight. Our food security and access to treasures of world food culture are linked to their water and land security. One heirloom chile pepper blinking out may not be all that great of a loss, but the cumulative loss of food biodiversity driven by climate change will touch us all. |
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| New! Can You Identify the Worst Polluter on the Planet? |
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From Planet Green
By blogger Mickey Z http://planetgreen.discovery.com/tech-transport/identify-worst-polluter-planet.html No matter what we're led to believe, the world's worst polluter is not your cousin who refuses to recycle or the co-worker who drives a gas guzzler or that guy down the block who simply will not try CFL bulbs. "The U.S. Department of Defense is the largest polluter in the world, producing more hazardous waste than the five largest U.S. chemical companies combined," explains Lucinda Marshall, founder of the Feminist Peace Network. Pesticides, defoliants like Agent Orange, solvents, petroleum, lead, mercury, and depleted uranium are among the many deadly substances used by the military. What does this mean for us? To start with, it can help illustrate how to best foment a green revolution. In the words of Richard Marcus: "Even if every single person in the United States were to change all their light-bulbs to fluorescent, cut the amount they drive in half, recycle half of their household waste, inflate their tire pressure to increase gas mileage, use low flow shower heads and wash clothes in lower temperature water, adjusts their thermostats two degrees up or down depending on the season, and plant a tree, it would result in a one time, 21% reduction in carbon emissions." For those of you scoring at home, that's a one time, 21% reduction in carbon emissions. We compost, we drive hybrids, we bring our own bag to the market but meanwhile, the U.S. military and fellow polluters--transnational corporations --treat the planet like it's a porta-potty...with little or no opposition from the general population. In fact, the military typically enjoys unconditional support even from those who identify as "anti-war." Keep this in mind the next time you hear the phrase "war on terror": Our tax dollars are subsidizing a global eco-terror campaign and all the recycled toilet paper in the world ain't gonna change that. In other words, if we don't want our legacy to be one of inaction, we must create drastic, permanent change very, very soon. For starters, there are billboards to be liberated, seed bombs to be detonated, whale killers to be stopped, monkey wrenches to be utilized, and other forms of direct action waiting to be created....because here's the most inconvenient truth of all: it's time to embrace a darker shade of green. |
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| New! Worth Watching - Harper pilloried |
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Kingstonian Trever Strong, of the Arrogant Worms, pillories Harper in this YouTube video:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPgc9pimoTs&feature=player_embedded# |
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8. Community Notices
| New! Call for Proposals: CFKA Spring 2010 Community Grants |
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The Community Foundation for Kingston & Area is now accepting Letters of Intent for innovative projects that strengthen and enhance the quality of life within our community. We are particularly interested in
applications related to areas of poverty reduction and housing, as highlighted in our Vital Signs report. However, we still encourage applications for projects in all other granting areas. In partnership with The Sunnyside Children's Foundation, we are also accepting Letters of Intent for creative projects/programs in the KFL&A area that enhance the mental health and well being of children and youth up to the age of 18. To be considered for either program, please submit four copies of a Letter of Intent by 4:30 pm on Friday, February 12, 2010. All Letters of Intent are reviewed by an independent committee, and a limited number of applicants will be invited to submit a full Grant Application, due on March 26, 2010. The Letter of Intent Form and more information are available online: http://www.cfka.org or by email: |
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| New! Organic Vegetable Growing Workshop |
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an evening workshop that covers all the basics of growing a small and efficient garden. Topics include ordering seeds, garden design, making transplants, and soil health. Wednesday evening, February 3 in Hartington. The cost is $40. For information please contact janettehaase@gmail.com
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| Join the Kingston Greens |
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Get involved in community actions (for example: Lobbying Council for a Ban
on the Cosmetic use of Pesticides, Fighting Urban Development on
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Canvassing etc.). Green momentum is building in Kingston. Come out and help us bring a sustainable future to Kingston! Membership to Kingston Greens is free but we encourage membership to the Green Party of Ontario ($10) and the Green Party of Canada ($10). Remember: You can get up to 75% of your donation to the Kingston Greens back at tax time! The current government will help you subsidize the greening of their own non-Green policies! Give generously and you'll receive a generous dividend in return: a 75% tax credit and more progressive government. Please send your cheque made to: KINGSTON GREENS (please specify Provincial or Federal membership on your cheque. Unfortunately, separate cheques are required for each.) - P.O. Box 1691, Kingston ON, K7L 5J6 More info: 384-8504 or ( |
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9. Wanted!
10. Local Organic Produce