Strategic voting

Avaaz.org are organising a grass roots effort to prevent a Harper majority government...

Dear friends,

For the last two years, the Harper government has done everything it could to wreck the world's efforts to fix climate change. Given the "fossil award" by environmental experts, Canada (our Canada!) has been repeatedly voted the WORST country in the world on climate change. Now, it's election time, and we have to make sure that Harper pays a real price at the polls for his reckless and un-Canadian climate policy.

Our first step is to target 3 of Harper's top MPs, including Environment Minister John Baird, and try to stop their re-election by telling their constituents just how irresponsible they've been, and what they've been doing in the name of all Canadians. Our ad campaign is ready to launch in these ridings, but we urgently need Canadian Avaaz members to donate $50,000 this week to get started. Click below to see the ads and donate just $10 or $25:

https://secure.avaaz.org/en/stop_harper

In an initial 3 target ridings, we'll be appealing to all voters to help save the planet by voting for the candidate most likely to beat the Conservative candidate. In one riding, we'll be supporting an NDP candidate, in another a Liberal, in another a Green. We're making sure to be "tripartisan" - we don't support any particular party, we just want to make sure the Conservatives pay for their almost criminal record on the environment. A large majority of voters in these ridings oppose Harper, but have split their votes among the 3 progressive parties, so even just a small shift in strategic or "smart voting" to favour the most popular progressive candidate will likely defeat the conservatives. That's the pitch our ads will make.

There's so much at stake, and no time to lose, let's pull out all the stops for Canada, and for the world.

With hope,

Ricken, Lisa-Marie, Laryn and the Avaaz Canada Team

PS - Canadian Avaaz members have a long record of campaigning against Stephen Harper's environmental policies, from calling him out on his failure to implement the Kyoto Protocol, to challenging his wrecking tactics at the Bali summit. In our online poll, 90% of Avaaz members strongly opposed a Harper majority. We've won some of these fights before, and if we all pull together in the next 2 weeks to give our voices, our time, our talent and our money, we can do it again!

PSS - Here are some links to more information:

Green party leader Elizabeth May calls for 'strategic voting' across party lines to stop Harper:

Straight.com writer analyzes the stakes of the Canadian election for the world:

This site shows that at a national level, strategic or smart voting will benefit all the opposition parties and prevent a Harper Majority:

The initial three ridings that Avaaz are targeting are:

Central Nova, NS - Vote GREEN, Elizabeth May
Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge—Mission, BC - Vote NDP, Mike Bocking
Ottawa West—Nepean, ON - Vote Liberal

Dictatorship in the making?

There is an excellent article in the Globe and Mail today by Margaret Atwood. She is commenting on Stephen Harper's attack on the arts and culture community, in particular his comments suggesting that "ordinary people" don't care about "the arts."

One sentence in particular stands out:

Every budding dictatorship begins by muzzling the artists, because they're a mouthy lot and they don't line up and salute very easily.

The more I read about this man, the more worried I get. Take a look at The Harper Record and make your own mind up. Vote ABC, or ABC.

Atwood's article is an excerpt of her speech to be delivered at the Hurtig Lecture on the Future of Canada, Wednesday October 1, 2008 at the University of Alberta.

The magic of mushrooms

Here is Paul Stamets presenting "6 ways mushrooms can save the world". The presentation seems terribly rushed. I had trouble understanding some of it, but found these links useful: Prototaxites, medicinal uses of fungi, mycoremediation, mycofiltration. He even suggests using mycellium to convert cellulose into fungal sugars which can be turned into ethanol.

Bicycle safety

More and more people are taking to their bikes as a means of transport. Here is a film by the (US) National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on safely driving, fitting and maintaining a bicycle.


They also have a leaflet about cycle safety.

Diseconomies of Scale

Last weekend I was at Moncton Market and picked up an interesting booklet at a table selling environmental cleaning products. It was produced by the Conservation Council of New Brunswick and titled 'Roadmap to a self-sufficient energy future' (pdf).

They report that New Brunswick is already experiencing the effects of climate change. The snow pack in the southern part of the province is only half the long-term average; extreme weather events have risen five fold; sea level is up 30 cm; the average annual temperature up 0.7C.

Greenhouse gas emissions in NB are up 37% from 1990-2005 and the province is the third highest per-capita emitter in Canada. The government has committed to get back to 1990 levels by 2012, and 10% below that figure by 2020. The problem is, New Brunswick Power is responsible for over half of the province's emissions, and while they do use hydro and wind power, every year they send $500 million out of the province to purchase nuclear and fossil fuels.

These are used in large and inefficient power plants. Coleson Cove, Belledune and Point Lepreau run at about 30% efficiency. They tend to be located a long way from where the power is needed, resulting in further transmission line losses. They dump large amounts of heat into the ocean.

What the Conservation Council of New Brunswick are proposing is a move to smaller combined heat and power stations which typically run in excess of 70% efficiency and can be as high as 80% or more. They would be powered by locally produced biomass, creating employment and keeping money in the province.

Since the 1980's it has been widely acknowledged that larger power plants are inefficient, expensive and time consuming to build, and down-time for repairs is hard to manage. Smaller systems however can be mass produced, more easily financed and rapidly deployed. They are faster and easier to maintain, and down-time of one generator has much less impact on the whole system. This is what is termed the Diseconomies of Scale.

NB Power Nuclear are considering building a second reactor at the Point Lepreau Nuclear Generating Station. Elizabeth May, writing in her blog about the inability of AECL to commission two medical isotope reactors at Chalk River, Ontario, asks the Government of New Brunswick:

Are you sure you want to buy a reactor from AECL that so far is only at the design stage? That's what the MAPLE reactors were. Reactors on paper. Why would anyone have confidence in AECL? Why go with a nuclear reactor when New Brunswick has so many other options?

Bus ridership increasing

I heard on the CBC recently that transit companies in both Halifax and St.John are seeing increased ridership. With the cost of gas, this is hardly surprising.

Other areas are reporting similar increases. In Colorado, bus driver Chris Gray says he has seen plenty of evidence that people are using transit as an alternative to driving themselves. In Michigan ridership is up 7% this year, and "Gas prices are doing what all the practical and common-sense arguments for mass transit have been unable to do -- driving people to change". In Bournemouth, England, figures show the number of bus passenger journeys has increased by 18 per cent in the last year. In Adelaide ridership is up 18% since 2000 and some services are reaching capacity.