Savings in the Energy Account.

A lot of people think that conserving energy means doing without, but it's really a question of learning not to be wasteful and finding new ways to meet our energy needs

Our greatest source of new energy is the energy we don't use; the energy we conserve. Yet, in transportation, we have continued to pursue many of the most energy-wasteful options. We have invested public funds heavily in roads and withdrawn public funds from railways.

And, in the 1990s, we've been filling up those roads with sport utility vehicles (SUVs). These gas-guzzlers are the most energy-wasteful form of transportation to come along in decades.

In October 1999, Canada's federal Environment Minister David Anderson suggested the possibility of green taxes. So, people who insisted they had to have an SUV in the garage would pay extra for the privilege. This would certainly reduce the popularity of SUVs and control pollutants that cause global warming.

On the home front, we have made some progress through way more efficient furnaces, insulation, and energy-saving construction. But, we're still building sprawling suburbs that dictate the use of private vehicles rather than public transportation.

The idea that standard of living is directly tied to use of energy isn't necessarily true.

The countries of Western Europe generally have a higher per capita income than the countries of Eastern Europe, but not a higher per capita consumption of energy. West Germany's per capita income is 30% higher than East Germany's, but the West consumes 20% less energy per capita.

The United States, Switzerland, and Sweden have similar standards of living. But, Swiss wealth is based on tourism, bank deposits, Swiss watches, chocolate, and cheese, none of which is particularly energy intensive. So, it's not surprising that the Swiss need about one-third the amount of energy used by the Americans. But, the Swedish use about half as much energy as U.S. citizens - more than the Swiss but much less than the Americans - and part of the reason is that Sweden is less wasteful.

As a report in the Globe and Mail pointed out in October 1999, conservation doesn't necessarily mean lowering living standards by doing without, giving up conveniences, and being cold.

Giant strides have been made in recent years in using energy more efficiently and in generating electricity from non-polluting renewable sources, such as wind power.

Rather than moving backward, we're actually moving forward in learning not to be wasteful.

According to one energy-efficiency expert, big cuts can be made in reducing greenhouse-gas emissions, while also saving money, and enhancing the quality of buildings. Buildings can be made more efficient by improving lighting and heating systems and revamping other energy-using processes.

We can invest in cars that go farther per unit of fuel, or use less-polluting types of fuel. We can capture waste heat in factories, and insulate our houses. Substantial energy savings began to be made in the 1970s, and some experts say further savings of 30% to 40% appear possible without dramatically affecting the way we live.

Some new office buildings constructed in 1980, for example, use only a fifth of the energy used in buildings put up just ten years earlier. They do it, in some cases, by using passive solar heat, avoiding overlighting and using better insulation and storm windows. Older buildings can be updated to save energy as well.

Individuals can help too. Our disposable society has given us some wasteful habits. The three Rs - reduce, recycle, re-use - is a message we've been hearing since the 1980s reminding us that we can make a difference. Conservationists across the country sort their garbage, re-use their shopping bags, adjust their thermostats, buy paper products with recycled content, install low-flow shower heads, buy compact fluorescent bulbs and water-saving toilets, and use public transit. Some of us have even started using rain barrels to save thousands of litres of water each in peak summer months. And, the garden composter, now a common sight, has been described as the cheapest form of waste management we have. Industrial composting has picked up as well: according to the Composting Council of Canada, an association of academics, governments, and businesses, the composting industry was worth about $200 million in 1995, up from $10 million in 1991. By 1992, a nationwide survey found that three out of five offices in Canada had waste reduction programs. Along with paper and aluminum can recycling, they included everything from two-sided photocopying, to reycling toner cartridges used in laser printers and fax machines.

As the Worldwatch Institute points out, new energy technologies are emerging continually. It says shipments of solar cells doubled between 1994 and 1997. These are now used to power highway signals and water pumps as well as homes not connected to a grid, "where solar power is the most economical source of electricity. Fuel cells are first appearing in buses, hospitals, military bases, and wastewater treatment plants, and are being developed for cellular phones, laptop computers, and cabin lamps. One day, they could be found in most buildings and automobiles." Worldwatch also points to the possibility that hydrogen will be as dominant an energy source in the 21st century as oil was in the 20th.

SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES:

1. The federal Office of Energy Efficiency of Natural Resources Canada presented the first National Energy Efficiency Awards during the Energy Efficiency Conference and Trade Show in Ottawa in May 1999. Find out who won the awards and the reasons they won. The office can be reached at the Website listed below.

2. In his book, "Energy From Heaven and Earth" (1979), author Edward Teller wrote that: "Energy conservation is possible only in the advanced countries; but it will not suffice. Savings in rich countries cannot offset the continuing and very real needs for more energy in poor countries." How can developing countries advance without destroying the environment by following the example of the western world?

3. Continuing our quest for perfect lawns, we spread and spray endless chemicals into the environment to fertilize, and kill pesky bugs and weeds. We use billions of litres of tap water to keep the grass green, and gasoline-powered lawn mowers which can spew out as much smog-causing hydrocarbon in an hour as a modern car. Come up with some ideas on how to solve this problem, and find efficient and Earth-friendly alternatives.

FACT FILE

Ten seconds of idling uses more fuel than restarting the engine and it has been estimated that 3% of Ontario fuel is wasted by idling: an idling diesel engine will burn about 2.5 litres of fuel an hour; an idling gasoline engine about 3.5 litres.

FACT FILE

According to Environment Canada, two people saved more than 10,000 kilograms of carbon dioxide emissions from entering the atmosphere each year by switching to public transit - one person had driven a car nine kilometres to work; the other used to drive 125 kilometres to his job.

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By 1970, environmental problems were cropping up everywhere, largely because of the fossil fuels we burned in the name of progress. Pollution became an international issue. The World Health Organization and the World Meteorological Organization started a global program to monitor pollution levels. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) launched a major scientific program directed toward the problems of "Man and the Biosphere," and an international conference on environmental problems was held in Stockholm in June 1972. Later, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) was formed to act on the recommendations of the Stockholm meeting.

But, as far as conservation is concerned, not everyone is listening. In February 2000, the Washington-based World Resources Institute and Global Forest Watch reported that Canadian forests are being logged at an unsustainable rate and the country is not living up to its commitments to protect them. The international environmental group says that logging companies will strip what remains of our old-growth forests if left unchecked. The report found that, because of government budget cuts, forest management is being left increasingly in the hands of a few large forestry companies. It's a big business, worth about $68 billion in Canada.

While logging companies are chopping down trees, environmentalists are trying to persuade major wood buyers to stop buying trees cut from old-growth and primary forests. According to the report: "At both the federal and provincial levels, deep budget cuts have drawn down the staffing and resources required to implement and enforce new policies and legislation [to protect our forests]."

Less than 8% of Canada's forests are fully protected from future logging, and the group says logging would have to be cut by up to 25% in Canada's boreal forests and by up to 40% on the B.C. coast, to preserve the forests and the array of plants and animals they protect.

Concern about forest conservation goes back a long way. People in 17th century England and France started to worry when their natural forests began to disappear partly because of the increasing demand for wood fuel for industrial uses.

RELATED ARTICLE: VROOM-VROOMS

According to the British Medical Association, even in the United Kingdom's most hostile traffic, the health benefits of cycling - reduction in coronary heart disease, obesity, and hypertension - outweigh the risks of accidents by about 20 to 1. Aside from these health risks, traffic accidents kill about 885,000 people each year - equal to 10 fatal jumbo jet crashes per day - and injure many times this number.

We have to end our love affair with cars: if developing countries follow our example, the resulting pollution will be astronomical. Take China, for example. By 2030, China's urban population is expected to be 828 million. Now, transportation accounts for 15% to 20% of the annual six billion tonnes of carbon emissions from human activities that are leading to climate change. If Chinese city dwellers drive as much as the average North American, the carbon emissions from transportation in urban China alone would be more than one billion tonnes, about as much as released from all transportation worldwide today.

Car sharing is one possible solution. It's a concept that was introduced in Canada in 1994 in Quebec City. By 1999, there were an estimated 1,200 users in six Canadian cities. Worldwide, there are about 90,000 car-share members, about half of them in Europe. In Switzerland, for example, more than 20,000 people share 1,000 cars at 600 locations near public-transit stations.

Car sharing allows people to book the use of a car for a fixed period. Users pay a monthly administration fee plus a charge per kilometre travelled, the total of which is less than the cost of renting a car.

In Toronto, Auto Share has 14 cars located near selected transit stations and has plans to add another 20 cars during 2000.

In Europe, car-sharing networks have been working since the late 1980s. Members pay for a card that opens the lockers that hold keys to cars parked around the city. By 1999, there were 100,000 participants in 40 organizations in 230 cities in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. Copenhagen has extended the idea to bicycles: the city maintains a fleet of bikes for public use, which it finances through advertising on the wheel surfaces and bicycle frames. The city estimates that the fleet's 2,300 bicycles are used on average once every eight minutes. Dutch cities too have among the world's highest rates of bicycle use, thanks to city planning that gives priority to bike paths. About 30% of all urban trips in the Netherlands are made by bike.

Websites

Office of Energy Efficiency - http://oee.rncan.gc.ca/oee_e.cfm

Car Sharing Links - http:// www.autoshare.com/links/ links.html

National Energy Conservation Association - http:// www.mbnet.mb.ca/~neca/