NOW IS THE TIME! Blog # 17
Harnessing Community Heart & Soul
Re Engineering Local Communities for Greater Resilience
Advanced Release 4/3/23.
UN Secretary General Gutteres’ Climate Crisis Plea
March 10, 2023: UN Secretary General Gutteres’ Climate Crisis pronouncement based on the latest report from UN scientists called for “an end to new fossil fuel exploration and for rich countries to quit coal, oil and gas by 2030.” He went on to say “humanity is on thin ice and that ice is melting fast …our world needs climate action on all fronts everything everywhere.”
The High Tech Green Economy
The US Biden Administration approved (IRA) Inflation Reduction Act, has little to do with reining in inflation but is trans-formative with respect to the massive tax incentives in support of the newly named High Tech Green Economy of the future. The US legislative IRA is forcing similar actions everywhere around the world including in Canada as reflected in the 2023 Canadian Federal Budget. Everything is now green washed into the new Green Economy including the production of more oil to produce the new technologies and products to reduce GHG emissions…such as batteries, semi conductors, electric trucks and cars, solar panels, windmills, and nuclear reactors.
Effectively the new US led High Tech Green Economy frees up the burning of every drop of oil in the name of producing the new high tech low GHG emissions economy and nullifies any chance of reducing Global GHG emissions to well past 2050.
Long term bet for the High Tech Green Economy
The long term bet is that hydrogen will replace the rare earth minerals based technology in the transportation sector and that SMRs (Small Modular Reactors) will replace wind energy and the need for high voltage transmission lines (supported by Bill Gates) to transmit solar electricity to places where the sun is less reliable, as the primary source of green energy.
The High Tech Green Economy is an effective pronouncement that the UN war on global GHG Emissions has
already been lost through to at least 2050…..it’s time to build Energy Resilience in the new high tech green
economy of the future. The dangerous risk calculation in this new economic growth strategy may well be the
huge amount of energy required to run a high tech economy while also supporting a growing military industrial
complex.
US President Biden’s message to the Canadian Parliament..
US President Joe Biden delivered his folksy message to the Canadian Federal parliament in a 24 hour visit to Ottawa last month ….here is Joe’s message to Canada in plain language …you can be with us on ceasing this new opportunity for quality jobs in the new economy or you can provide us with the raw materials and we will do the manufacturing ..it’s your choice …I’m just pointing out your options.
Further, Joe Biden iterated that he was happy that Canada is joining with the US to beef up the joint NORAD defense with the purchase of the F-35s and now making a new commitment to build F-35 infrastructure in the far north in support.
Behind closed doors with Justin ..I’m certain that Joe traded off the refugees and Haiti issues against Canada getting busy at converting its submarine fleet to nuclear to patrol the far north shipping lane through Canada that will make it easier for Japan to join the NATO Alliance on the way to a 2% of GDP commitment to the NATO Alliance … .Lets celebrate our partnership together ..together we can make it happen!
Canada won’t be left behind in the new High Tech Green Economy!
Justin Trudeau’s response to President Joe Biden despite the probability of deficit budgets for at least the immediate future… and likely as far as the eye can see …we are all in!
We won’t be left behind … a new SMR is currently under construction in Pickering Ontario to support the large increase in immigrant population from the Climate Crisis forecast ed for the Greater Toronto Area. The Canadian Federal Government is also a strong supporter of the new SMR technology which in a different form has been operative for nearly 75 years accident free in nuclear powered submarines.
It’s not an unfounded speculation to suggest the worlds naval fleets and much of the large commercial container ships will become nuclear powered by 2050-2060. This development alone will fuel the need for more fossil fuel production and produce higher emissions. We are already removing the pressure on Alberta Tar Sands Oil and now that you have announced the Willow oil drilling project in Alaska there is now more pressure to complete the Keystone XL pipeline to access US refineries with Alberta Oil. Will you have a look at that Joe …you know that we are heavily invested in that pipeline and your fracking boom seems to be coming to an end?
The War in Ukraine, the rising threat from both China, Russia, and North Korea, and our new NORAD defense
commitments change everything.
As Canadian citizens we need to face the fact that we will be harvesting Alberta Tar Sands Oil likely well past 2050. It’s simply not possible to build out the new green high tech/hydrogen/nuclear economy without oil. The clear reality of this is that neither Canada nor the US will meet their respective Net ZERO 2050 GHG emissions targets as committed to the United Nations. Other major GHG polluters including China, Russia and India have already pushed their Net Zero commitments to 2060 or beyond.
So global GHG emissions will continue to rise through 2050 causing catastrophic harm to the survival of mankind and many of the living species on the planet.
Re-Engineering Local Communities for Greater Resilience
Communities everywhere on earth have always been the unit of our survival and in the parlance of the 21st century the center of our human experience of security and happiness..as for local economics ..they too have been understood as the economics of happiness.
The challenge that lies ahead for every community on the planet is to move away from emphasis on reducing GHG emissions to building local resilience through all means of Energy Descent.
This strategies key component is the generation of a high percentage of the remaining energy requirement with local renewable sources such as solar wind geothermal and Small Modular Nuclear Reactors (SMRs)
The time frame to get 80% of this done everywhere is 2035.
Only by then will we be able to access where we are on Global GHG Emissions
What does the Re-Engineering of local Communities look like?
Most municipal jurisdictions including Peterborough Ontario Canada where I live are ill prepared to switch to the new High Tech Green Economy while building in much greater community resilience…let alone 8o% by 2035.
The most important strategies that City Councils have to implement is the creation of a formal time phased Planning Cycle to shorten the time frame for new initiatives and then secondly engage the public at the front end of the process rather than hiring consultants providing cover to easy inaction …..this is what we should begin to understand as Harnessing Community Heart & Soul.
As an example of a Heart & Soul project of merit that was recently presented and basically rejected by the Peterborough City Council was the TINY Home initiative to help the homeless get over this past winter. The project was brought forward by a volunteer group called PATH Peterborough Alliance for Tiny Homes… The project was near shovel ready when presented and the new city council essentially punted on such an easy decision call for action.
Former Mayor Sylvia Sutherland now a writer for the local Peterborough This Week in her March 30, 2023 Column put it this way “Why should 10 sleeping cabins continue to sit vacant while the homeless live in tents? If they are lucky enough to have one.”
Carrying on with the City of Peterborough debacle on TINY Homes, I contacted one of the two City Councilors who embraced the project and asked if the City’s self declared Climate Emergency remains in effect….I was assured that it was.
The whole world understands by now that the first outcome of more frequent and severe devastating climate events is homelessness…followed by chronic food insecurity. We only have to look to recent events in the Maritimes and BC and south in the US to hurricanes, floods,forest fires and tornadoes. The climate emergency effects the rich, the middle class and the poor now in virtually every country …unfortunately those living at the margin are the most vulnerable to become permanently homeless. They need our support now!
The Recommended Municipal Planning Cycle
It’s very simple with four phases Concept/Feasibility/Design/Implementation.
It is used throughout industry and is familiar to City of Peterborough staff. In industry the Concept Phase is often developed by a Task Force of people from different departments in the company that have “skin” in the game for it to be completed in both a timely and comprehensive manner.
When applied to the City of Peterborough….its job is to appoint the Citizens Task Force give it nominal resources to complete the Concept Cycle Phase and approve the passage from one phase to another. Generally the major Citizen involvement would be at the Concept and Implementation Phases. The Feasibility/Design Phases generally require financial and design planning professionals
The problem with the PATH TINY Home project was it skipped over the Feasibility Phase when it came to thinking about municipal requirements. It actually went to the Design /Build stage and was looking for immediate Implementation. This situation often happens in industry as well ..a troubling case in point is that the High Tech Industry has built a monster called Artificial Intelligence with nothing in place to control its use and like the Bit Coin has no idea how much renewable energy it will require to be operational.
Key Projects for Peterborough to Build Community Resilience by 2035
1. Homelessness
2. Energy Descent with the full implementation of the electrification of public transportation by 2035.
3. Energy Descent including both residential/commercial building R value upgrades
4. Energy Descent 50% Local Food by 2035.
5. Economic Localization through the electronic Local Currency and a Local Re-investment Initiative.
6. Local Renewable Energy Incentive Program.
These initiatives will be covered more thoroughly in subsequent Blogs
Fred Irwin
NOW IS THE TIME!
www.fredirwinauthor.com