Mary Soderstrom's Blog, page 89

Most Energy in Canada Comes from Hydroelectricity, So Why Are We Soiling our Nest with the Tar Sands?

Much chit-chat this morning on Radio Can about an interactive map which gives the location of renewable energy producers in  Quebec. Rather interesting, although it's clear that most installations are hydroelectric, which means that  unless there's a major shift to electric cars, buses and trains, isn't going to have much impact on fossil fuel consumption for transportation.

That becomes even clearer if you take a look at an interesting news analysis by Elisabeth Rosenthal in The New York Times. According to a side bar to the story, 63 per cent of Canada's energy consumption is from renewable and 93 per cent of that comes from hydroelectricity .

In comparison, only 13 per cent of the energy consumed in the US is from renewable sources, and the States are where Canada's energy bosses (i.e. the Harperites) want to sell the tar sands oil.  In other words, we're soiling our nest in order to keep America rolling.  Wouldn't it be better for us all if they started  to conserve more and consume less?

Saturday Photo Reprise: Flowers of Winter, Reflected Snow

Took this picture a couple of years ago after a heavy snow fall.  The flowers were blooming in a restaurant window on the Plateau.  The snow-bound cars reflected in glass make a lovely image of this time of year, when we are stuck between two seasons: winter and spring.

Last weeks snowdrop shoots, of course, are now buried under two feet of snow.  But as my mother would say, if winter comes, can spring be far behind?

Second Day of Spring and Bach's Birthday: Music to Lift the Spirit

This playful improvisation on Bach is a suggestion of the Studio de musique ancienne de Montréal. 

The Strange World of Energy Production: Chinese Solar Panel Manufacturer Declares Bankruptcy

There is a difference between the long run and the short run: we all know that and as John Maynard Keynes said, in the long run we are all dead.  And probably in the long run we are going to have to go to sustainable energy production.  But in the short run things don't look good.

The operating unit of a big Chinese producer of solar panels has just declared bankruptcy.  Not only is it unusual for a Chinese company to do that--usually, The New York Times says, the Chinese government steps in with a bail-out in part to keep the reputation of Chinese business glowing.

This time, however, there are appears to be no other way out for Suntech, which is said to be losing $3 for every dollar in sales.  The reasons are many: over expansion, increased production of natural gas in the US, and declining subsidies in the European Union for solar energy. 

So where does that leave us?  Without a Plan B, it seems to me.  Our dependence on fossil fuel continues, and capitalism, even the state capitalism of the Chinese variety, isn't going to change thata very soon. 

Ten Years Ago: Iraq War Begins

One of the good things about being Canadian was the country's principled approach to foreign policy. No better example is there than the way Canada stayed out of Iraq. Here's a video of the February 15, 2003 demonstration in which some 200,000 people marched through the streets of Montreal in temperatures that were around 20 below Celsius.

More Cuts, This Time in Day Care Centre Budgets

What is really depressing about the $37.9 million the PQ government just cut from the 2013 budget of provincially-financed day care centres, is that it's the PQ government doing the slashing. 

This kind of austerity grovelling is what you expect from the Quebec Liberals or the Federal Consevatives, not from a government supposedly led by Social Democrats.

Ha!  None of them have read Krugman, it seems.  Kowtowing to the budget devils is not good economic sense, any more than going to war in Iraq was (see Krugman today.)

Phillpe Couillard New Quebec Liberal Leader

Seems the former health minister and buddy of Arthur Porter won on the first ballot.  Quebec Liberals now can take on the PQ, or so they think. 

Wonder if anything coming out of the Charbonneau Commission on corruption in the construction industry will have any effect on Phil's plans.  There may be dynamite coming...

Saturday Photo; St. Patrick's Day Parade

Don't see any green, but this isn't bad for a snow parade on a day when much snow is melted, but the temperatures are cold!

Montreal's Non-Urban Renewal: Why?

The webzine, The Atlantic Cities , has an interesting series of aerial shots of downtown Montreal between 1947 and the present.  The striking thing is that the city's center hasn't changed all that much.

The reasons for that are complex, and have nothing to do with Jane Jacobs, and a lot to do with inertia on the part of Montreal administrations.  By the time more "progressive" governments replace Jean Drapeau, a lot of the shine had worn off the urban renewal idea.

Good.  But I wonder how this fits into our current orgy of dirty linen washing about corruption in the construction industry,  Would things gone differently if there had been more hanky panky?

Bolaño and Francis: Food for Thought in a Complicated Situationd

The Pope from Argentine?  Time to re-read Robert Bolaño's amazing By Night in Chile .  The country is different but the complicated relationship between the Church and a  dictatorship certainly bears some reflection, given the rôle of Pope Francis during the long period of authoritarian rule there.

We're told he's a humble man, someone who took public transport to work, who cares deeply about the poor.  That's all to the good, as is the fact that he's not from Europe.  But the Mother Church is not going to change much in its teachings, I'll bet.

The former resident of Buenos Aires also may have chosen his papal name for more than connection with St. Francis of Assisi.  Don't forget that one of the founders of the Jesuits was St. Francis Xavier, whose take on relgion was quite different.