well, this will be a great experience. You'lll love it - and do us all proud. (Be sure not to through your gum wrappers on t he floor.)

one idea - you might build on the fact that many of us feel frustrated because the decision-making is so remote from us, and so slow to happen. So a couple of questions...

1, Is there something direct that we can do in our daily lives to help the environment directly and immediately?

2. Is there something we can do right now to get the politicians to move?

graeme

Hi sighsnootles,

I hear that Jack Layton will pay big bucks for you to give her a sucker punch to the back of the head and scream "long live the NDP" into the mic.

You'll have to be Jedi fast because there will probably be a digital delay in place.

Grace and peace to you.

John

well, the reason i'm on the panel with her is because i run my home environmentally friendly...  we have solar panels on the roof, and generate more power than we use so we sell power back to the grid. 

we also have:

-2 composters going in the back yard.  icompost all my yard waste, as well as all my compostable kitchen scraps.

- 3 low flush toilets

-2 rainbarrels.  i don't even turn on my outside water line anymore, i collect enough rainwater for the kids' water play in the summer, as well as any garden water i need.

- only 1 vehicle.  my husband uses public transit all the time, and we also bike pretty much everywhere we need to go in the summertime.

- high efficiency appliances

- outdoor clothes lines.  i don't use my dryer at all in the summer.  i can usually dry 2 loads per day out there.

- recycling containers for all paper waste, as well as all the plastic and glass containers the city will take.

- cloth bags for all my grocery use... i haven't gotten a plastic grocery bag in years.  in fact, i even reuse all my vegetable bags, because you can't recycle plastic bags here in ottawa.

i think thats all... i'll probably think of more.  the solar panels are the biggies, though... everyone is just curious as all get out about those.

HOw did it go sigh?  

it was awesome!!  about 100 people showed up, and it was very casual.  i have a few pictures, i'll see if i can post them...

yahoo!!!  I'm cheering, and bowing down to you. Great list of stuff.  I've done all the cheap easy stuff on there, short of the rainbarrels, and we drive 2 vehicles, though my sweetie has a hybrid owned by his company.  We aren't on useful bus routes.    But OH!  to have solar panels!

HEY - my inlaws just put in geothermal!!!! We're going to go see the set-up this weekend.

How did yours work out Graeme?

Sigh - Like many others, I'm really curious about your solar system - how much did it cost, how many kW does it produce winter/summer, what price do you get paid for feeding into the grid, were there any subsidies to take advantage of?  (I've been wondering if I could interest our church in this. It would certainly make a statement to the community about our values).  We have had a solar hot water system on our house for the past two years now, and we thought a lot of environmentally-minded friends would follow our lead, but no one has to date. I wonder what it would take for people to opt for buying an energy-saving gizmo as opposed to the lastest home theatre system.

Woohoo Sigh...you rock!  It's too late to ask Elizabeth, but maybe you know the answer to this:

Why is there talk about removing the wind farms (you know those big fan things)? 

Sighs,

you're lucky :3

So tell us, what is she like in person? I've only seen her on TV.

Just a lovely shade of green,

Inannawhimsey

hope this works... thats a picture of elizabeth may, me, and my husband taking questions from the floor yesterday...

Lovely!!!  So cool :)

well - (thinking of Spirt Bear's comments) - how about posting the brands & links to the companies that have supplied you/us with our respective solar/water/geo... systems

I'm interested in the hot water system too.

well, i got my rainbarrels from RONA... about $60 each, and they are ready to go right out of the box.  the beautiful thing about them is that they all interconnect, so you can line them up in sequence.  when one is full, it transfers the excess water right into the next, and the more barrels you have in a sequence, the higher the water pressure... they have a hose connect on them, so just put on a soaker hose and you can water your lawn.

my composters were made from scrap lumber by my husband.  you can get a basic design from the internet.

now, the solar panels were purchased from ottawa solar power... their website is

www.ottawasolarpower.com

if you go to 'generate electricity - home', the first picture of the four that you see on that page is our house... we currently have a five panel array, and we are saving up to add another 5 panels. 

 your husband is pretty cute. 

hey hey!!  can you believe he just celebrated his 40th birthday a few weeks back!?!?

Greetings!

Belated happy birthday to Mr. Sighsnootles.

I'm interested in the water barrels - I'll have to check into them the next time I'm in the city.  I also have to get back to composting - I've been away from that for awhile.

Hope, peace, joy, love ...

well, i'm not sure which area you are referring to, but here in the ottawa area, there are actually some farmers who believe that the turbines are just throwing lighting bolts into the ground or something, and that all this 'stray energy' is going to electrocute their livestock.  they had a huge protest and everything.

i've also heard that some people feel that they are a blight on the landscape, or that they are 'too loud'... which is ridiculous.  you can stand right underneath them and carry on a normal conversation, theres barely any sound at all.

I've been visiting my inlaws and checking out their new geothermal system.  Its bringing in water at 114 degrees, and their radiant floors are toasty.   I suggested a solar panel to run the pump, but I think he'll need to see if the energy cost makes sense to him. 

My sweetie brought up that our hotwater tank was aging and we'd look at replacing it.  We did the scouting on a tankless water heater and it seems like we're good candidates!  Now he just needs to be won over on the 'big outlay' -3-5 year payback.  He's not that far, just wants to be logically convinced.  Where's Spock with his good calculations when you need him?

I think we're going to look into an energy audit this summer.

We switched to a tankless water heater last year.  Works fabulous and you never run out of hot water.  It was fairly expensive to do, new gas lines.......

My sister has a system tapping the earth energy at their house.  THey don't ahve a furnace!  they have these pipes that run a hundred feet into the ground or something and then heat rises up and circulates through the house. 

The issues as i have read about the wind turbines are a few:

noise - while one may be quiet, a field of them are not.

migratory birds- there is some concern that they attract birds and they kill alot of birds.  there is talk of changing the speed of them or something as it happens only at certain speeds

unsightly?  i guess that is personal.  when I see a field in calilfornia, where they are placed in what appears to be a flat farmers field they seem fine.  when i see them in Shelburne where they compete with forests and hills and apple trees they seem less appealing

they need to be close to the grid to be useful,that causes issues as to where they can go

and of course the biggie in Ontario would be that the high hot summer, no wind, high airconditioner usage is also the time when they don't move and yet the time3 when they are needed.

The other big issue I have seen writen about is that the companies that erect them take a phenomenal amount of government grants , as they are not profitable.  So the energy cost of them is actually really huge.  Again, one would assume, unless something better comes along, that eventaully the cost would go down but not right now

My understanding is that the wind turbines don't generate enough power to be really viable alternate sources of energy, except on a small scale. That is the major issue with them.

Geothermal and solar now, though: WHERE IT'S AT!!

I met Elizabeth May way back in high school when I was on my school's environment committee and we were protesting something in front of city hall in the pouring rain and wind.

I'm impressed at your eco-sustainability musicsooths!

Sorry, I meant sighsnootles....I looked at the avatar and not the name...and I saw a pink figure....I'm so confused.