Sustainable Living 101

How to Be a Carbon Friendly Creature

With the number of wildfires currently burning across the province, and last week's smoky haze descending to turn the sun into a spectacular, though faintly armegeddon-like tangerine, it's no wonder that carbon footprint is a phrase on everyone's tongue these days.

Smoke from wildfires is comprised of released carbon from our Boreal and pine forests across BC. Smoke adds particulate matter to the air, making breathing more difficult and visibility low. But fires, both human and lightning caused, are just one way of adding to the greenhouse gas and carbon emission problems of today's world.

Driving our cars, of course, is another big one. Oil and gas contribute significantly to the warming of the planet when burned out our exhaust pipes, used to heat our homes or used for the manufacturing of goods. And where does that oil and gas come from? Well, if you're driving a car on the island, chances are, you're using oil from Alberta's Tar Sands project, a mega-excavation project the size of England, that's currently supplying much of North America with fossil fuels.

Oil from the Tar Sands is extracted using either surface or in-situ mining techniques. Extracted material--a combination of bitumen and sand, is then separated using large volumes of water, pressure and heat. Whether you support the Tar Sands project or not, the fact remains that it's a challenging way to source crude oil--some measurements put the amount of energy exerted for tar sands extraction at two to four times the amount of energy required for conventional oil extraction. So what can we do to help lower our carbon footprint and keep Canada in the green?

1. Consider where your oil comes from, and support projects that extract oil in the most environmentally safe manner possible.
2. Leave your car at home one day a week (or more!) and set your thermostat lower in winter, higher in summer.
3. Check your investments and make sure they're acting on your behalf, not on behalf of environmentally suspect companies.
4. Take longer holidays, and fewer plane trips--plane travel is an enormous contributor to greenhouse gas emissions.
5. Get back on your bike. Remember that childhood feeling of freedom? You can still have it on a bike today, and after a month of riding, you'll wonder why you didn't start biking to work ten years ago.
6. Support local and international groups that are fighting to reduce greenhouse gases and protect carbon reserves through protection of ecosystems. Check out RAVEN trust, The Land Conservancy or The Nature Conservancy of Canada.

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