Blow Me Down

Published Monday, December 04, 2006 by Dan Gainsford | E-mail this post

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Monday, December 4, 2006
Location: Pincher Creek, Alberta

First off, I would like to yet again express my gratitude towards the people who have welcomed this humble pilgrim into their home. Although the –40C weather has now broken, it’s still very nice to find some warm hearts with whom to share ideas and enjoy warm food. My deepest thanks to Bud and Sue West for their generous hospitality.

Heading South into Montana, I decided to travel via Pincher Creek, Alberta, in part due to its reputation as Canada’s leading location for Wind Energy production.

I’ve been here a few days and have shot some great footage of the Wind Farms in all the image formats I have at my disposal. But what doesn’t come through in the photographic images… is the silence. The calm and meditative whooshing of the blades put me into a trance as I film. For me, they not only provide energy, but also demonstrate the potential of what we can create if we dedicate ourselves in earnest. They add to the landscape in a way that through their silence, screams sustainability. Standing here before them, I wonder why are government isn’t doing more to support this green source of energy and industry.

“After years of neglect, Canada’s alternative-energy sector produces just 4.5 percent of Canada’s total production. As if declaring its preference, Ottawa gives the oil industry $1.6 billion in subsidies each year, and companies such as Suncor and Canadian Natural Resources will spend nearly $100 billion to develop the Alberta oil sands over the next two decades. In doing so, vast amounts of new carbon emissions will be created in almost open defiance of the Kyoto Protocol.

We are light years behind, oil has a built-in subsidy advantage, and haven’t compensated the other side by giving subsidies to other energy sources.
– David Anderson, Former Canadian Environment Minister

In 1999, Spain produced the same amount of electricity generated by wind as Canada. Now, Spain has 8,000 megawatts in place and expects to have 20,000 by 2011. Canada, by comparison, has 590 megawatts of installed capacity and is aiming for 7,500 megawatts by 2013… Germany put in 10,000 megawatts of wind energy in the last four years – and yet Canada has much better wind resources. In fact, the Wind Energy Association calculates that Ontario alone has the potential to produce 40,000 megawatts, and puts Quebec’s potential at a whopping 100,000 megawatts – nearly the equivalent to the country’s entire electrical consumption.

…since 1997, when Canada first agreed to reduce greenhouse gases, Ottawa has been spending $2 a barrel on oil and gas tax subsidies for every $1 it has spent on reaching it’s Kyoto goal… How can this be part of a consistent government policy?”

- Excerpt taken from The Hydrogen Generation, Walrus Magazine, December 2005

peace,
d

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