Windmills should stand on the rooftops of every house in Calgary. Solar panels should line the south face of every building. Condominium walls should be solid bricks of straw, while the walls of single-family homes should be thick sod packed into discarded tires. The dishwasher should drain into the toilet tank, as should the shower, and then we could flush our toilets with the recycled water. And our sewage should be treated by willow marshland in the countryside.
Why not? Why aren't there urban wind turbines everywhere? Why don't we use grey water to flush the toilet and water the garden? Why aren't there more rain collectors? And community gardens? And buildings made from salvage? Why are all of our homes stick-frame structures? Why don't we used straw or cob or rammed earth? Is there any reason the next infill house in Calgary can't be an earthship? Why is everything made of lumber and sheet rock and fibreglass? Why do our homes and workplaces need so much heating in the winter and so much cooling in the summer? Why is it so difficult to travel in Calgary without a car? Why? There are reasons for all these things, but are they good reasons?
ENERGY
According to volunteer-run Sustainable Calgary, "Calgarians are among the most wasteful resource users on the planet." The city's total consumption has increased 38 per cent since 1990 and is continuing to increase along with its rapidly expanding population.
Dr. Jim Love holds the University of Calgary's chair in sustainable building technology. He says one of the reasons we use energy the way we do is because it's relatively cheap here. If it was as expensive as it is in Europe, or created the intense pollution we see in major cities like Beijing, we would be acting much faster to reduce our consumption and find clean alternatives.
For the rest of the article by Suzy Thompson in Fast Forward Weekly, click here.
Image courtesy of Mariella Villalobos, Fast Forward Weekly.