Staying warm

Here I sit in the early morning light, with my feet jammed into great big, warm, fluffy slippers, in a state of utter confusion and fear. Oh, do be quiet. I’m probably not anymore confused than many of you when it comes to energy. And I’m as afraid as the next person to crank up the thermostat on this, the coldest day in almost 30 years. The furnace thermostat has been programmed to keep my house temperature slightly higher than the temperature of the Prime Minister’s heart. Even though we’ve all heard the news about peak and off-peak consumption times, I’m still not sure if Sunday, at four minutes past two in the afternoon, was the best time to start the laundry or should I have waited until after the eleven o’clock evening news to toss the snuggies into the suds. Oh, Hydro One did send a cute little sticker replete with peak/off-peak information for folks like me to stick someplace where the sun don’t shine and that’s exactly what I did with it. So, what’s the answer here? Better yet, what’s the question? Come on. Like a lot of you, with energy bills to pay, I’ve read oodles of articles in newspapers and magazines. I’ve scrolled through megawatts of online stories and blogs. I’ve listened to and watched while so-called energy production experts duke it out over the merits of solar, nuclear, wind and fossil fuel-powered energy production. And I’ve have just about had it with the big party politicians who just don’t know what the H E double knit sweaters and woollies is going on. Needless to say, the more I hear, the more confused I become. And, on a day like today, it’s just plain hard to believe in global warming when someone my size can walk on top of the snowdrifts in my side yard. But that’s another story.

Solar energy seems to be the least controversial. It’s not new. Goodness knows radiant light and heat have been harnessed by generations of hungry, cold people. We aren’t too many generations removed from a time when the sun dictated the hours of the working day. Are we coming around to those days once again? The sun seems to be out there most of the time. The sun’s energy isn’t a new idea but, seriously folks, I’m going to have to get my mind around what a solar energy collection field does to a landscape and what solar panels on my 150-year-old house might cost in the short term. There’s a certain something impressive about those massive, shiny panels in fields where a different kind of fuel used to grow and there’s definitely a weighty concern about installing a solar panel or two on “this old house.” Radiant light and heat from the sun is free but—oh me, oh my—the cost of getting those rays into my meter and blowing through my floor vents. If I pony up the big bucks for solar energy in my house, what about the conservation of my savings account? I’m leaning toward a solar energy assist, but at what cost?

And what about nuclear energy? It’s scares me. I can’t drive by the Darlington station without thinking about the partial core meltdown in 1979 at Three Mile Island or that freaky movie, The China Syndrome. Chernobyl sealed the deal for me in the 1980s. But that was then, and now nuclear power is supposed to be clean, reliable and safe. No worries about three-headed budgies and hamsters, these days. And nuclear power accounts for the production of about 50 per-cent of Ontario’s electricity. At least that’s what the OPG website tells us. But nuclear power is expensive, multi-billions of dollars expensive. Far too expensive for me to buy a small reactor for my back yard. But if you want a true picture of what nuclear power would cost the province of Ontario, good luck finding a straight answer.

Wind power sorta seems like a good idea. Heck, just about every farm in days of old had a windmill on site to pump water, why not, eh? Like the sun, the wind is out there waiting to be of assistance. It’s wind. It blows. It shouldn’t be as controversial as nuclear energy but, gee whiz, it is. Although wind energy is supposed to have relatively little impact on the environment it does have a negative side. To start, the noise—the constant drumming/droning of the rotor blades—has been cited as a pain in the neck to some people. I can believe it, especially when I think about how irrational I can get when there’s a tap dripping. I have no doubt about the health concerns with regard to the noise. And there is no doubt the birds don’t fare well if the turbines are located in a migratory route—like the proposed turbine field for Lake Ontario just off the shores of Long Point. What about those hundreds of thousands of birds making their way along that route? Offshore works for you and me, but the birds just don’t know what hit them. Maybe a windmill in my back yard. I suppose it could happen. I’m not sure if I should put it beside the megabuck solar panels or maybe mount the panels on the blades of the turbine. Either way, I’m not likely to realize any financial benefits in my lifetime. And, yes, I know it’s not about the money saved.

What did I miss? Oh, ya, those darn fossil fuels. Dinosaur thermodynamics. We all know the day has come to suck it up and admit there just ain’t nothin’ renewable about fossil fuels, at least not for another hundred thousand generations. And it’s just as plain as the pore-clogged nose on my face, fossil fuels leave dirty, deadly footprints— reeking of carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide, sulphuric acid and acid rain—the choking byproducts released and created in the combustion of fossil fuels. Strip mining and mountain top removal in the quest for coal has forever devastated landscapes around the world and I certainly haven’t forgotten the 2010 Louisiana oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

I’m still confused and I still don’t know whether to burn, blow, shine or zap. Where’s my “Snuggie”?