Coming up on Christmas two sons have given their mother the gift of life………… in the form of a lung. Their mother, Brenda Kinnear, 51, has pulmonary fibrosis, a disease that destroys the lung’s ability to transfer oxygen into the bloodstream. Her two sons decided to each donate 1/2 a lung to their mother in a risky operation that puts both the donor and the recipiant at risk. The surgury will relieve much of the stress Brenda Kinnear faces on a daily basis since patients with lung diseases are at increased risks during cold season. If the sugury is sucessfull, Brenda and her sons will enjoy many more long years together.
Author: Cam Proctor
Frog Power
The frog from Bullfrog power, which I am quickly assured has no praticular relevance to renewable energy, has quite a lot to boast about nowadays becoming the first 100% green electricity retailer in Ontario. Electricity consumers, including 100 businesses and homeowners that have already switched, pay a higher rate of 8.3 cents per KWH (Ontario rates are 5.0 cents per KWH) on their electricity to ensure their electricity comes from EcoLogo Certified energy sources. Monies collected go towards fostering increased renewable energy development in Ontario such as small hydro, wind, landfill gas, biomass and solar, minimizing green house gas emmissions from coal fired generation.
Other parts of Canada and many other countries already have green power purchase programs in place. To name a short list: Scottland, France, Australia, British Columbia (Canada) and Europe. Programs such as Power to Change contributing to forest creation and stewardship to eliminate all green house gas emmissions resultant from human activites.
Gamers doing something good
Its own about section Childs Play desribes its foundation as a way to remove the stigma surrounding gamers as “bad people” by donating toys, money and of course games to various childrens hospitals around the world. I think this amazing process should be repeated at nausseum to all identifiable groups in an attempt to make them feel bad about themselves, causing massive charitable donations.
All kidding aside, this is a good action and probably has eased the hospital transition for a number of children raising nearly $1 million dollars in three years towards this cause.
Toronto History on Call
A group of artists including Shawn Micallef, James Roussel and Gabe Sawhney have transformed a portion of Spadina avenue into a cell phone based history exhibit called the [murmor] project . These stories, collected from Torontonians, are accessiable via cell phone at prompts on Spadina that dictate a story local to exact area you are calling from. The hope with this project is to reconnect the population of Toronto back to the non descript streets and corners that they probably speed by every day. Its also a great way for local people to contribute artistically to the community.
Standard Offer Contracts for Renewable Energy
The Ontario Government funded the Ontario Sustainable Energy Association (OSEA) to review the impacts and benefits of adopting a Standard Offer Contract (SOC) system similar to many countries in the European Union. Germany, Denmark and Spain have phenomenal sucess with this system, as evident by these countries high percentage of electricity from renewable energy sources and growth in renewable energy investment.
Currently Ontario uses a very complex and very competative tender system that discourages any but the larger corporations, scaring away many potential investors. Furthermore, the government has to fairly weigh and analyze all submission, at significant cost.
The OSEA report demonstrates that SOC’s eliminate these difficulties by granting approval to any project from any investor (go farmers!) while gauranting a higher than market price for the energy from these renewable energy projects. The application process is significantly streamlined and there are not limits on the number of renewable energy projects, giving renewable energy technologies one advantage over their fossil fuel counterparts.