So what exactly is The Gaia Project?

Well, the hope is that The Gaia Project will grow into a social enterprise, offering for-profit environmental services, that will in turn fund our educational out-reach programs. We’re looking at the possibility of green event planning, and carbon auditing as possible for-profit services in the future, but right now, we’ll be starting things off with our charitable, educational programs.

We’re going to go to schools and deliver an interactive, project based, and continually engaging program to students to encourage them to take their interest in climate change beyond recycling. As we develop these programs more fully, I’ll be posting some updates here on the website.

And the website is for….?

The website could become many things, and I’m hoping to hear from all of our readers what they think about the current layout, and what they would like to see on here in the future. Current plans are

• Articles posted every Monday, Wednesday and Friday covering climate change news, ideas and solutions
• Information on our educational programs, including additional resources for students and adults alike
• Forums, where you can get together and voice your opinions, ideas, and explain why you have given up showering to save the planet (or at least that’s what you’re telling people!)
• A home page for our future business endeavours

So what makes The Gaia Project different?

Climate change is not a new problem. We’ve suspected something has been going on for decades, yet we haven’t done anything. There are a number of reasons for this, but I believe that one of the big ones is that so far, the voice of the realistic environmentalist hasn’t been heard.

I’m not asking people to abandon their fridges like Green as Thistle. I’m not asking you to cut yourself off from the electricity grid like Greenpa. I’m not saying that we need to make wholesale changes like No Impact Man. These people’s efforts are admirable, and can serve as lessons to us all, but let’s face it, cold showers aren’t most peoples idea of a good time!

I’m hoping that The Gaia Project can fill this niche. We recognize that we’ll keep consuming energy at an ever increasing rate, and that conservation isn’t going to get us to where we need to go. We realize that people are willing to make small sacrifices, but don’t want to see wholesale changes in their quality of life. And we understand that fighting climate change can be done from within a (relatively) free market system. We’re non-partisan realists, not idealists.

So let’s make the small changes where we can, and force our governments to start the type of institutional level change we need to maintain our quality of life at a lower cost to the planet.

All I am asking for us to do a little better.

Heat: How to Stop the Planet from Burning

Monbiot’s solution is centred around the idea of an individual carbon ration. He takes some very aggressive emissions targets and translates it into a personal carbon allowance target in 2030 that every citizen will be held accountable to. He uses the very fair, if politically difficult to sell, approach that everyone in the world recieve 0.8 tonnes of CO2 per year in 2030. While westerner’s would be required to reduce their emissions by over 90%, citizens of some developing countries would be allowed to raise their personal emissions to the threshold level.

He advocates for much stricter home building standards, and enforcement of these standards, to ensure that new builds require the smallest amount of energy possible. He also sees the need for programs to tackle the existing fleet of inefficient homes, such as minimum efficiency standards for rentals, and for energy efficient refurbishment to be mandated alongside any proposed renovations to houses.

On the energy front, Monbiot settles on hydrogen. While looking at the virtues of various means of renewable electricity generation, and the means of getting it from there to here, he is aware enough to recognize that huge amounts of energy are used for heating, and that electricity may not be the most cost effective way to provide this. In the short term, hydrogen, generated from natural gas with carbon capture, could be distributed to communities where it is burned for both electricity generation and heat. No longer would electricity be carried far and wide across the countryside, but generated in our back yards.

For transport, he promotes a highly efficient bus network as the way to achieving his goals. We already have the majority of infrastructure in place in the form of roads to deliver this solution, so all we need is a plan and a level of investment that he says would be very small in comparison to what we currently spend on cars. High speed intercity buses would circle the highways, stopping at bus terminals at major exits, not entering the cities themselves. From here a local bus system would transport people into, out and around the cities. Dedicated bus lanes would free up space, and make more efficient usage of the roads we already have.

“We are the most fortunate generation that has ever lived. And we are the most fortunate generation that ever will…”

The only area where Monbiot does not have a solution is air travel. He sees none of the potential technical solutions being proposed as able to meet the carbon reduction goals he has set, and resigns himself to the fact that the days of air travel for everyone may be over.

The one notable absence I see from the book is the consideration of a greatly enhanced power generation system, powering everything from our cars to our heating. This probably stems from Monbiot’s reluctance to see any growth in nuclear or carbon capture and storage beyond what is absolutely necessary, but I believe that any analysis of our options has to take this into consideration. He fails to address diversity in the power generation industry. Putting our hopes on one technology leaves us susceptible to price escalation and fears over fuel security. By diversifying our energy industry to include renewables, fossil fuel with carbon capture, and nuclear, we can set ourselves up for a clean and flexible future.

There are inconsistencies in his data, and it has left me with many questions, but a book of this magnitude can’t be expected to be perfect. Whether his solution is the right one is open for debate, but it’s definitely a good start. More thoughts like these are welcome and necessary.

Climate change is just one indication of the way in which mankind is throwing our ecosystem out of balance. It is true that changes in the Earth’s climate are not uncommon in our planet’s long history, but not changes of this magnitude and rate. Our actions are provoking a response – a response none of us can accurately predict, but if left unchecked is likely to be devastating.

Defining the problem isn’t difficult. The difficulty lies in finding and enacting solutions. Eleven years ago, Canada committed to a lofty commitment on greenhouse gas reductions. Governments have come and gone, promising to take action to meet our Kyoto commitments, yet each one has left Canada worse off, in terms of emissions, then when it started. In short, while Canadians are more and more aware of the challenges of climate change, they continue to emit more and more greenhouse gases.

Working with Matt Grant and Farron Blanc, and with the advice of many many others, we’ve developed a plan to deliver to students the information required to think critically and make informed decisions about not only their own actions and their impact on our climate, but also the role that businesses and governments can play in the solution. We’ll do this through development of a curriculum, interactive presentations, integrated learning opportunities and student run projects. Our intention is to start this project in Fredericton, New Brunswick, hopefully by this October/November (as we are currently awaiting a decision of charity status from the CRA).

What I am looking for from all of you is your support. If you have ideas, or contacts, or other friends who are interested in climate change, we want to know. A key element to our success will be the interest of a broad network of members, giving us a larger voice in the debate on the future of climate change in Canada. Over time, we want this website to serve as a point of communication between all of us on issues relating to climate change, and as a resource for making more informed decisions about our actions. It’s intended to be a collaborative approach, not us telling you what to think. If you’ve got a thought, or an idea, let us know. We’ll be opening the site up to contributors shortly so that everyone can have their say in the debate.

Take a look around our site, learn a bit about us and what makes us tick, and don’t be afraid to send us a note.

Welcome to The Gaia Project

If you’re a writer/journalist, and are interested in writing an article for the website, we’d love for you to get in touch. If you’re an artist/film maker, we’ve got some ideas on how you could get involved, but we’re sure that you’ve got even better ones.

In the longer term we’ll be looking for people interested in teaching, delivering and monitoring our programs, and web content developers to pretty up this place we like to call home.

Whatever your skill, we want to hear from you. Get in touch with us via the contact button at the top of our website.