On the occaision of their 10th anniversary, we speak to The Energy Mix publisher Mitchell Beer who founded the independent media service 10 years ago. Since then they have published 30,000 stories on climate change.
Climate change, once seen as a distant future concern, is now an urgent issue for towns and cities grappling with wildfires, floods, droughts, and extreme weather. In Pincher Creek, Alberta, they are taking proactive steps, conducting a risk assessment, and implementing adaptive measures through the MCCAC program.
Edmonton has a goal of planting 2 million trees to help fight climate change and make a much more beautiful city. We dive deep to explore their efforts to plant trees, naturalize landscapes and expand the urban canopy and build a climate-resilient city.
The consultants said it wasn’t affordable–it couldn’t be done. But Salvation Army architect Michaela Jones pushed back hard requoting their 175-unit supportive living complex as net-zero-ready at the last minute. Now this amazing solar powered, geothermal heated and cooled, energy-efficient building will save Sally Ann $6 million.
On the 53rd anniversary of Earth Day, we talk to Denis Hayes the coordinator of the first Earth Day in 1970. Earth Day defined environmentalism in the 1970, but sadly being green in 2023 is as hard as ever as we learn from Hayes who bemoans political populism and the incredibly challenging mother of all environmental issues – Climate Change.
As a young economics grad Hazel Thayer did some reading on the climate crisis and decided the “grown-ups” were not going to solve it. So she started a TikTok channel where in 60 seconds or less she blends comedy with facts in short videos. Oh, and she’s already racked up 120k followers while doing it. This week on GreenEnergyFutures.ca meet Hazel Thayer AKA @hazelisonline She just might be the Rick Mercer of TikTok.
One of the coolest things about Edmonton, Alberta is its community leagues. There are 162 volunteer groups representing every neighbourhood in the city doing everything from running sports, cultural and recreational programs, to operating halls, tennis courts and skating rinks AND as it turns out taking action on Climate Change. Interest in solar, energy efficiency, local food and sustainability was so high the Edmonton Federation started the Green Leagues program – this week we find out what’s happening in the ‘hoods.
You often hear oil and gas pitted against renewable energy as if they are in an all-out either-or war for supremacy. But Alberta, Canada’s oil province is also blessed with the best renewable and clean energy resources in the country and the energy expertise to build the net-zero economy of the future. We have done so many stories about inspired Albertans building the economy of the future we thought we’d take the conversation live. In this preview, we speak to four Albertans who believe their province has the right stuff to thrive in a net-zero future.
Canada has a new Emissions Reduction Plan to reduce emissions by 30% by 2030. Binnu Jeyakumar of the Pembina Institute says “This is a turning point for climate action in Canada. It’s the first time we have a detailed plan on how we get 40% emissions reductions…by 2030. We zero in on new measures to decarbonize Canada’s electricity grid.
Dagmar Knutson was growing very tired of the rhetoric and polarization that swirls around climate change and energy transition in oil-rich Alberta. So she formed Ten Peaks Innovation Alliance and has organized a conference to bring teachers and students together to transcend polarization and begin collaborating on building the low carbon energy future we all need.
By day Mark Dowson works on solar projects in the United Kingdom, but when the sun goes down he’s the author of a series of post-climate change, dystopian, SciFi thrillers.
Schneider Electric was named the most sustainable company in the world by Corporate Knights a Canadian sustainability rating firm. The France-based global company already used 80 per cent renewable energy for its operations and wants to be carbon neutral by 2025.
Edmonton has a bold plan to live within a 1.5-degree carbon budget, get to zero emissions and build a sustainable 15-minute city of the future.
The media loves a good headline – The Energy vs Climate expert panel tackles energy and climate change in the media with Laura Lynch of the CBC’s What on Earth show.
Canada just updated its climate plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30 per cent by 2030 and get Canada to “net-zero emissions” by 2050. Is the plan going to work? Green Energy Futures checks in with the Energy vs Climate panel of experts to find out.
Is nuclear power the only way we can reach net-zero emissions or is it a threat to civilization and a distraction from the development of other low carbon sources of energy such as solar and wind? We discuss this with energy experts Ed Whittingham, Dr. David Keith, Dr. Sara Hastings-Simon and former Canadian Green Party leader and current MP Elizabeth May.
Kent Rathwell’s new big idea is to create Carbon Plunk Parks near cities to plunk carbon back into the Earth where it came from by planting trees and actively sequestering carbon.
They said it couldn’t be done, but Kent Rathwell created the first zero-emissions wild bird seed company and then created the longest green highway in the world where you could charge your electric vehicle for free.
First came evidence-based decision making, then Halifax declared a climate emergency and now HalifACT 2050 is their plan to get to carbon neutrality by 2050.
E-bikes are selling like hotcakes. We go for a spin with Leon Milner to learn why he ditched his car to ride an e-bike in the most northerly big city in North America.
“We’ve got abundant opportunity in Alberta and in Canada more broadly to be part of [the clean energy] transition and to benefit from it,” said Dan Woynillowicz, a policy director for Clean Energy Canada.
Nathan Kuptana and Eriel Lugt, two of the youth filmmakers in the TukTV collective are creating a film entitled “Happening to Us,” a film about the impacts of climate change on their home in Tuktoyaktuk in the Arctic. They took a preview of their film to COP25, the IPCC climate change conference in Madrid, Spain.
Climate change may be the Canadian Press story of the year in 2019, but when we cast our eyes back on the year that was we find inspiring stories of people working on solutions to climate change. From the largest carbon-neutral community in the world to the largest solar project in Canadian history it was a year of firsts.
Edmontonians have already been recognized as pioneers of net-zero homes, and now they are building the largest carbon-neutral community in the country: Blatchford.
Raffi’s song “Young People Marching” is a tribute to Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old Swedish climate activist who has inspired millions of youth around the world to call for action on climate change.
People in the movies carry disposable cups like people in the ‘60s were portrayed smoking cigarettes as the norm. Has the recycling generation lost it? Some believe we need to recycle recycling to tackle huge waste issues and tackle climate change.
His friends said he was crazy, but when Derek Leahy came to Alberta to start Rural Routes to Climate Solutions he found fertile ground for this ground-breaking project. He says engaging Alberta farmers in farm solutions that are climate solutions has been “a walk in the park.”
The county of Osnabrück in northern Germany produces 80 per cent its electricity from renewable sources, smashing national goals that call for 60 per cent by 2050. We look at one county’s response to the challenge of the national goals of Energiewende (energy transition) in Germany.
Saerbeck, Germany calls itself the “Climate Community of the Future.” Today they produce 400 per cent as much renewable energy as they need.
Insurance payouts for severe weather events tied to climate change have gone up 250 per cent from $400 million/year to $1 billion/year in just ten years in Canada.
Julia Pyper grew up on a horse farm in Milton, Ontario. But at a time when journalism seems like a tough career, she went to university in New York, landed an internship reporting on what she calls the “apocalypse beat” (climate change) for Climate Wire in Washington DC and today she’s senior editor with Greentech Media in Los Angeles. We talk about clean tech in the Trump era and much more.
A Calgary-based medical device manufacturer sees solar as key in the global marketplace, important to attract new talent and a key part of the new energy economy.
Metamorphosis the film takes viewers on a poetic, visually stunning journey through the climate crisis to a brave new world of clean energy solutions and a new relationship with nature. It was inspired by climate change itself.
Edmonton is getting set to host the first international conference on Cities and Climate Change Science. We talk to Seth Schultz from C40 about Edmonton, climate change and the action thats required. Schultz is an organizer and director with a global organization of 90 megacities helping mayors and cities taken action on climate change.
Life is a carnival! Sustainival, the world’s first green carnival started in Edmonton, Alberta. It’s a biodiesel powered full scale carnival infused with a message of sustainability.
The Gener8 Youth Energy and Climate Summit is a place for academics, experts, and industry insiders to inspire high school students to bring change to their community.
What’s in a name? Quite a bit actually! This week, we examine Alberta’s carbon levy and the affect it will have on Albertans.
We examine the state of the world’s renewable energy investment and meet BlueGreen Canada, an advocacy group that seeks to secure a fair shake for workers affected by the sunset of the coal industry.
Alberta students present a white paper on Climate Leadership in Alberta Schools to the ministers of education and environment calling for climate change to be added to the curriculum and schools to become models of sustainability.
This past March, students from around Alberta and beyond collaborated on a white paper that seeks to influence the future of climate change education in the province.
This week we follow students at Prairie Waters school in Chestermere, Alberta to seek out and destroy energy vampires, increase energy literacy and save energy in the Classroom Energy Diet Challenge.
