“This report of my death was an exaggeration.” So said Mark Twain in 1897. He died in 1910. And so said nuclear power in 2014. But though, like Twain in 1897, nuclear power today is in its early sixties, don’t…
How carbon-heavy are your personal assistants?
by Stephen E. Aplin • • 3 Comments
Item A1 on the left sidebar shows the current concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the global atmosphere, as measured at the Mauna Loa CO2 observatory in Hawaii. Right now it is 399.16 parts per million. What does that mean,…
Zero-carbon electricity, electric transit, clean cities, in ten years: an easily achievable plan for Ontario
by Stephen E. Aplin • • 13 Comments
Starting today, Ontario could completely de-carbonize its electricity system—i.e., reduce its electric grid CIPK to zero—by the end of the year 2024. That would put the carbon dioxide (CO2) content of every single kilowatt-hour of grid electricity in this province…
Open letter to Glen Murray, Ontario’s first minister of climate change
by Stephen E. Aplin • • 4 Comments
Dear Minister: I would first like to congratulate you on your new portfolio. I wish you every success in your effort to inform Ontarians on the dangers of human-induced climate change, and to forge consensus in the actions that will…
Baseball, not carbon: Ontario needs to stop filling Rogers Centre
by Stephen E. Aplin • • 0 Comments
Ontario power plants running on “clean” natural gas dumped 34,317 metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the air yesterday—enough to fill Rogers Centre, the huge domed stadium that is home of the Toronto Blue Jays, nearly 12 times. The…
Storing our own energy waste: an oil barrel per hour, versus 3 milk containers per half-century
by Stephen E. Aplin • • 0 Comments
We hear a lot these days about our personal carbon footprint. What does that mean? It means the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2), the principal man made greenhouse pollutant, that goes with the energy we use. In some cases, this…