Brockville Climate Action Group

Cornwall Standard-Freeholder / Greg Peerenboom / 11 March 2010

Barring a huge worldwide reduction in fossil fuel use, global warming could pose massive environmental challenges on the St. Lawrence River ecosystem within 50 years or less.

The river could drop one metre as the Great Lakes basin receives less precipitation--one of the expected fallouts from climate change, said Jeff Ridal, executive director of St. Lawrence River Institute of Environmental Sciences.

New York Times / Elisabeth Rosenthal / 08 March 2010

In its haste to create a solar industry, Spain made some miscalculations: solar plants can be set up so quickly and easily that the rush into the industry was much faster than anticipated. And the lavish subsidies inflated Spanish solar installation costs at a time when they were rapidly decreasing elsewhere — in part because of increasing competition from panel makers in China, but also because higher volumes produced economies of scale.

Recorder & Times / Nick Gardiner / 09 March 2010

A fledgling organization with hopes of being a catalyst for developing sustainable practices in Merrickville has planned an eco-friendly fair April 17.

Merrickville Goes Green was formed in January with seven core members and six other people willing to participate on a project-by-project basis, said spokesman Scott Kelland in an e-mail exchange with the Recorder and Times.

Kelland said the group shares a common belief that businesses and people need to move to more sustainable practices.

BrockNews / Media Release / 09 March 2010

The location of the WEEE (Waste Electronics and Electrical Equipment) drop off site in Brockville has been changed to the north side of the old SCI building off of Central Ave., next to the Upper Canada District School Board.

The drop off site is open weekdays from 8:00 am to 3:00 pm. Currently computer components and television sets make up the majority of the electronic waste left at the site.

The Oil Drum / Brian Gordon / 09 March 2010

If employment is inversely proportional to oil prices (it is), and oil prices are only going to trend up - then employment by necessity is going down. Because oil is so fundamental to our economy, oil price increases ripple through the entire economy.

Take food as an example: current factory farming methods are entirely dependent upon oil from planting to processing to getting the food to market. Certain types of food are also heavily subsidised, especially meat and dairy. Note that these subsidies do not necessarily include oil subsidies, taxpayer-provided roads, subsidised water, and so on. As the price of oil increases, so goes the price of food; in fact this has already been happening in Canada and the United States. Note especially the increase in transportation costs, and both sources cite rises in fuel as a primary driver of inflation, so-to-speak.

Author Sharon Astyk provides a list of 100 things your household can do to prepare for peak oil, season by season:

[ FULL ARTICLE HERE ]