A Troubling Aspect of the "Green" Revolution in Agriculture

A clear explanation of the science of the most radical transformation of agriculture in 10,000 years. The "green" revolution in agriculture that began to unfold fifty years ago, has simply postponed the inevitable. A century ago it was estimated that a typical farmer expended 1 calorie of energy to produce one calorie of food. With the advent of the oil age, and the introduction of mechanized farming, pesticides and herbicides, the average 1 calorie of food production now requires 10 calories of energy input. Is agriculture, and humanity, prepared for the withdrawal of oil from the food cycle?

Peak Oil Smoke & Mirrors

This is a great video that clearly explains how the peak in oil production will affect everyone.

Transit drivers limited to 17 hours

Transit drivers limited to 17 hours
Does it make you feel safer to hop on a bus in Ottawa knowing that your driver will have been on the job for less than 17 hours? Not to worry though, for they will have had at least six hours of rest since their last shift.

Watch this video to view a small part of an OCTranspo driver's day. In less than ten minutes approximately 100 buses, (about 10% of the entire fleet), makes its way through one four way stop intersection on the transitway. They are joined by dozens of pedestrians trying to negotiate their way. I feel particularly reassured when I hear, (about the 2:30 point in the video), with the intersection gridlocked, the sound of a bus backing up into traffic as pedestrians try to make their way. Yes, I feel safer already.

Ottawa Stadium Dilemma: Opportunity Missed?

In the summer of 2003 on behalf of the Community Council of Overbrook, I gave a presentation to the transportation committee of the City of Ottawa. In it we detailed how we could greatly increase the value of the city owned baseball stadium located on Coventry Road by connecting it to the Transitway. Almost six years later, the stadium sits empty and forlorn, yet simultaneously the city fiercely debates counter proposals for two other stadiums that will require countless more millions of dollars of taxpayer money. It is yet one more example of a lack of long term vision. We built a $20 million stadium but failed to connect it to the transitway, even though it was less than 250 meters away. Now, we debate two more proposals, neither of which are accessible to the transitway.

What follows is a copy of the PowerPoint presentation we gave almost six years ago.

Good Morning.

Our community is one which, like much of Ottawa, has experienced significant growth in the past few years, particularly since the construction of the Ottawa Lynx Baseball Stadium in 1992. Such growth has put considerable pressure on our transportation infrastructure. Development has accelerated since 1999 and I would like to review these recent developments with you.

At 330 Coventry Road, at the corner of Lola Street, a large Canadian Tire Store.

At 100 Coventry Road, where it intersects with the Vanier Parkway, a Hampton Inn.

Last year, the Department of National Defense completed construction of a large complex at 295 Coventry Road, across the street from the Lynx stadium.

Also in the past year we have seen completion of a new intensive housing development at 1126 Lola Street. This fronts directly on Coventry Road, stretching from almost in front of the Hampton Inn property, to well behind the DND complex, which you can see on the far right of the screen

As we speak, even more development is occurring, with a 10 storey hotel complex and meeting facility being constructed at 200 Coventry Road. It is located behind the Hampton Inn, and in close proximity to the stadium, as can be seen in the photograph on the screen.

In addition, although I don’t have a photograph, considerable expansion has also occurred at the RCMP headquarters building at 1200 Vanier Parkway. Over 2000 employees are located in this one facility.

The question is, what is missing?

As you can see from the past few slides, very intense development has occurred, and continues to occur in a stretch of Coventry Road between Lola Street and the Vanier Parkway, a distance of less than 600 meters.

All this expansion, hundreds of new employees, lots of commercial activity, but no improvement in access to the transportation infrastructure to service this growth. It is the contention of the Community Council of Overbrook that a transportation solution exists less than 250 meters away.

Yes, less than 250 meters from the city-owned stadium is an under-utilized Octranspo transitway station. All it lacks is access. Improved access is one of the key components of our proposed Official Plan. As has been noted in this document, and I quote:

Shifting from an emphasis on mobility to one of accessibility means creating land use patterns that reduce the need to travel great distances across the city and encourage alternatives to car travel. More compact and mixed-use development throughout developing areas of the city and a stronger series of urban centres to anchor the transit system is essential to achieving our transportation goals.

The importance of such a link was recognized in 1991when the stadium was first developed. Once again I quote, this time from a study conducted by the Region:

From a regional perspective, the site is highly accessible being located at the intersection of the Vanier Parkway and the Queensway. However, while the site is easily accessible by automobile, there is relatively poor transit access. A pedestrian bridge linking the site to the transitway at the Train Station may be considered which would improve this situation.

The Community Council of Overbrook agrees with the goals of the proposed Official Plan and urges the city to include construction of a pedestrian overpass linking the Octranspo station at the Via Train station with Coventry Road as a priority in this document. As you can see on the map, an area of intense development is located on Coventry Road, on the north side of the Queensway. Valuable transportation infrastructure is located less than 250 meters from a potential access point, on the south side of the Queensway.

As you can see from this list, there are many businesses within 500 meters of a potential access point. At the top of this list is a city owned facility, the Ottawa Lynx Stadium. It would enjoy greatly improved access to our premier transportation infrastructure. As our city becomes more congested, it is vital that this link be established to maintain and enhance the viability of this excellent facility.

By reviewing this list, however, you can also see that thousands of employees and customers would benefit from improved access to mass transit on a daily basis.

To conclude, the key phrase here is improved accessibility.

This pedestrian overpass would connect the transitway with over two dozen large and medium sized businesses, linking thousands of employees and customers. It would greatly improve access to the Ottawa Lynx Stadium, an excellent city-owned facility. It would reduce automobile congestion and the resulting air pollution. It would increase use of the under-utilized Octranspo infrastructure at the Via Train Station. And, it is compatible with the goals of the proposed Official Plan.

The Community Council of Overbrook understands that development will happen in our community, as it will throughout the City, in the next twenty years and beyond. We feel it is imperative, however, that the necessary accessibility infrastructure be put in place to support and service this growth. This will help us ensure that we attain our ultimate goal of sustainable development. We then will truly find ourselves in a liveable, prosperous city.

The Power of Community - How Cuba Survived Peak Oil

A 53 minute video that includes an excellent explanation of peak oil.

Transitions Towns - How Communities Can Power Down - Peak Oil as an Opportunity, Not a Crisis

So far, only one city in Canada, Peterboro, is embarking on this process. This is a lengthy, in-depth interview with Rob Hopkins, a co-originator of the concept.

Matt Simmons on Peak Oil

Matt Simmons on The Agenda

The Credit Crisis Visualized

The Crisis of Credit, or how we got into this mess.


The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

Thomas Friedman on the Economics of "Stuff"

Questioning the concept of infinite expansion of consumption is receiving mainstream media attention.

In an article intriguingly titled "The Inflection is Near?" three time Pulitzer prize winning writer and New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman suggests we need to

...step out of the normal boundaries of analysis of our economic crisis and ask a radical question: What if the crisis of 2008 represents something much more fundamental than a deep recession? What if it’s telling us that the whole growth model we created over the last 50 years is simply unsustainable economically and ecologically and that 2008 was when we hit the wall — when Mother Nature and the market both said: “No more.”

He then points out that:

We have created a system for growth that depended on our building more and more stores to sell more and more stuff made in more and more factories in China, powered by more and more coal that would cause more and more climate change but earn China more and more dollars to buy more and more U.S. T-bills so America would have more and more money to build more and more stores and sell more and more stuff that would employ more and more Chinese ...

We can’t do this anymore.

He then links this to the issue of climate change and long term sustainability.

“We created a way of raising standards of living that we can’t possibly pass on to our children,” said Joe Romm, a physicist and climate expert who writes the indispensable blog climateprogress.org. We have been getting rich by depleting all our natural stocks — water, hydrocarbons, forests, rivers, fish and arable land — and not by generating renewable flows.

“You can get this burst of wealth that we have created from this rapacious behavior,” added Romm. “But it has to collapse, unless adults stand up and say, ‘This is a Ponzi scheme. We have not generated real wealth, and we are destroying a livable climate ...’ Real wealth is something you can pass on in a way that others can enjoy.”

What I see him describing is the inevitable consequence of unrestrained globalization fed by the ever increasing consumption of energy during the latter half of the twentieth century. Everyone thought (and most continue to believe) that expansion of economic growth is not only inevitable but necessary. Few people, it seems, are satisfied with what they have and constantly search for more. It is what the western way of life seems to be built on.

Interestingly, though, Friedman has been a promoter of globalization in his books The Lexus and the Olive Tree and The World is Flat. Does this recent column represent a shift in his thinking?

The comments on this article are quite telling. More and more of us are starting to understand that we are on a freight train that is recklessly heading out of control in the fog. It is time to slow down.

Redefining "Standard of Living"

This is a comment posted at the New York Times in response to Thomas Friedman's article "The Inflection is Near?"

"We created a way of raising standards of living that we can't possibly pass on to our children."

The problem, Mr. Friedman, is how we define "standard of living." The conventional definition needs an overhaul.

If Person A owns a mansion, several cars and a yacht, he is said to have a high standard of living. If Person B owns very little, but takes his daughter fishing, watches his son play baseball, reads Tennyson, listens to Mozart, and visits the local art museum, no one comments on his living standard. Why?

There is no reason we cannot improve our standard of living. We just need to revise the definition.

— Steve Blevins, Oklahoma City

So true.