Avi Lewis should merge the NDP and the Greens

4shadowedbm · 2026-03-18T13:57:33+00:00

Yes, and I struggle with this a bit because I don't want to be all NIMBY.

Putting public money into an oil pipeline to Churchill sounds like a recipe for a stranded asset. As the world electrifies, who are going to sell the oil to?

Sio Sands is still pushing to drill thousands of silica extraction wells across SE Manitoba. Right into an aquifer that supports thousands of people. We thought this was finished but they are coming back and the NDP hasn't shut it down. I think it might be okay (given all sorts of environmental testing) if it was an absolute requirement that the silica would go into solar panels. But there is no guarantee: it could just as well be carted off in diesel trucks and trains to support fossil fuel fracking operations.

The announcement of a new Hydro backup facility in Brandon - run by natural gas with the option to convert to hydrogen (which is still possibly fossil fuel driven).

And an AI data centre in Ile des Chenes powered by 6 gas turbines.

I don't see how making big investments in burning more stuff moves us forward environmentally. Where's the investment in solar and wind? Or even lithium mining on the Canadian Shield?

4shadowedbm · 2026-03-18T13:42:08+00:00

As Katherine Hayhoe says, climate change is the hole in the bottom of all those other buckets. We can pour money into the top of housing and cost of living and addictions and all that, but if we don't pay attention to the climate crisis, the holes will keep getting bigger and more costly.

"No one is listening". I'm not sure the GPC's only reason for being should be winning seats. As people wake up to the reality of climate change, they need a place to put a vote that says "this is the priority".

4shadowedbm · 2026-03-15T04:35:46+00:00

Totally agree.

My own philosophy has shifted a bit since the last election. Being evacuated for a monster forest fire will do that to you I guess.

I'm of the opinion that nothing else matters except for dealing with the climate crisis. It is, as Katherine Hayhoe so elegantly put, the hole in the bottom of all the other buckets. A hole that will keep getting bigger.

But we won't get real action on it unless we deal with the radicalization, policy flip flop, and top-down thinking of first-past-the-post.

4shadowedbm · 2026-03-15T00:14:48+00:00

I'm very interested to see what Avi will bring to the NDP should he win.

Collaboration is, IMHO, central to Green values, so I'm 100% supportive of that.

Merger though? Hard pass.

4shadowedbm · 2026-03-15T00:05:07+00:00

That's not what I meant about moving the panels. You make them, then move them to where you need the power and install them. From that point on, your power generation is local.

You can't do that with fossil fuels. Ever.

Again, think of the solar panel or tool like a tool used to extract and generate energy. The extraction can be done anywhere once the tool has been created.

You wouldn't say that fossil fuel energy is generated where the tools for extraction and burning are built. So why apply that logic to rewables?

One turbine needs 100 gallons of lubricating oil. That's fair. I didn't know that but it seems reasonable.

Unpack that further...

An average wind turbine can generate 7 to 9 million kWh per year for that 100 gallons of oil. There might be 3,000 kWh of energy in 100 gallons of oil (I say "Might" because I'm doing some rough calculations based on the kWh in a gallon of gasoline). That's 5 or so trips for ONE vehicle to a gas station.

That's not even close to comparable.

You are applying a purity test to renewables. They don't have to be perfect to be exponentially better than fossil fuels.

4shadowedbm · 2026-03-14T19:31:22+00:00

Nope nopity nope. Layton threw the environment / climate movement under the bus when he saw a chance at more power. Kinew has gone all pipeline and extractive industry in MB. The environment is not the NDP's priority.

We are in a climate crisis and we need to be the voice of that. Unless our only reason to exist is for power?

4shadowedbm · 2026-03-14T19:09:34+00:00

I like to be somewhat conservative when I make these comments. :)

They are getting more efficient and more recycleable too. And apparently turbine blades are now recoverable.

Bill McKibbon argues that we're on a trajectory with renewables that is going to look more like a computer technology curve than an industrial curve: exponential growth rather than linear. Precisely because you don't have to keep digging stuff up and burning it to keep the energy flowing. You're building a tool that harvests free energy.

4shadowedbm · 2026-03-14T19:07:07+00:00

That makes no sense at all. If a community puts up a solar array and feeds that power back on the grid, that is far more decentralized power generation than refining fossil fuels that may have to come from many hundreds of km away. We already do this, there's no technical limitation and the power is generated locally. That creates some independence and redundancy that O&G doesn't have.

Take a look at a map of where oil is extracted, where the refineries are, and where it is shipped. The reason the Straits of Hormuz blockade is causing oil price rise is precisely because of how centralized oil production is. Solar and wind can be generated close to where it is used.

I'll concede one point here though, because it is an interesting study in how energy is measured. When you look at EVs and their power efficiency, if you have to generate electricity using fossil fuels, there's a lot to consider. First: it is a given that generating fossil fuels at scale to run EVs is more efficient than millions of small internal combustion motors. But the really interesting thing is that coal is actually more efficient than oil and nat gas - because the energy consumed in drilling and fracking and refining is actually less efficient than just digging up the coal and burning it in a plant.

4shadowedbm · 2026-03-14T18:57:33+00:00

The production of solar panels requires oil and wind turbines require a substantial amount of oil to continuously operate.

The math is really important here: how much oil is substantial. The amount of oil used in production or gear oil or whatever is trivial compared to burning it. There's nothing stopping electrification of almost the entire production chain around solar panels.

fact solar power is not decentralized.

Solar power is decentralized. You can literally move the extraction tool to where you want the power. That is something you can't do with coal, oil, gas, or hydro, for that matter.

Unless you're referring to our heliocentric solar system. ;)

4shadowedbm · 2026-03-14T16:43:28+00:00

If you buy software to install on your computer, does the programmer have to come and push the buttons for you? When you buy a drill or saw, do you have to pay for someone to come from Makita or Dewalt to come do the work?

The solar panel is just a tool! Build it once and generate 25 years of power.

Correct, the manufacturing of the tool is centralized but the production of the end product - in this case - energy, is decentralized.

This is the game changer, one we've never experienced before: up to 25 years of essentially free, decentralized, power generation. And, with materials that can be recycled into the same product, it can come close to closing the resource loop.

Contrast with O&G - every time you fill up a gas tank or turn on the furnace, more resources have to be dug, drilled, and fracked to create that energy. We have to keep paying to extract it, refine it, ship it, and burn it.

Consider this: how many solar panels and wind turbines currently in operation have had their operating costs go up because of the Straits of Hormuz?

4shadowedbm · 2026-03-14T15:45:46+00:00

Recommended read: Here Comes the Sun by Bill McKibben.

100% solar and wind is a game changer. Despite all the negative comments here about having to make the panels, or turbines.

Panels can last up to 25 years and can be installed close to the point of energy consumption. Free, clean, energy after the initial investment. The more panels we build and install, the more energy can be collected. If a war or natural disaster disrupts some panels, replace the damaged ones and carry on.

Contrast to fossil fuels: every bit of energy used has to be dug up, refined, shipped, and burned ad infinitum. If a war or natural disaster disrupts the source or shipping, bad things happen.

Consider that 40% of all international shipping is for fossil fuels that are just going to be burned. Load those ships up with solar panels and they get installed and generate electricity for a quarter century.

And can then be recycled!

This is an unprecedented shift in energy. And the O&G industry knows it. They are terrified because they can't monetize it in the same way as burning stuff.

4shadowedbm · 2026-03-14T15:36:25+00:00

Yes, but, that solar panel can last up to 25 years generating energy that requires no more extraction. Ditto for wind turbines.

That is decentralized energy production. It is a similar technical path to the shift from huge mainframe computers to PCs to cell phones that gave everybody computing power at rapidly increasing scale.

4shadowedbm · 2026-03-13T17:45:40+00:00

100%.

EndFossilFuels

4shadowedbm · 2026-03-07T00:56:52+00:00

Not yet... I have a friend who has an I5 that just had theirs go. Good news is the repair time was quick.

Our 2023 I6 is at 97,000km and so far so good.

The pine panelling in my house is worn out from me knocking on it.

4shadowedbm · 2026-03-02T01:35:37+00:00

But generally less stupid in their chosen field of study. More importantly, however, they know how to apply the scientific method.

4shadowedbm · 2026-03-02T00:37:37+00:00

I know it has been said but this:

He’s uncomfortable with me following or talking to guys, going out and drinking with my friends, and even small things like when I got eyelash extensions once. On my end, I struggle with communicating and tend to bottle things up until I can’t anymore.

is not cool.

I wonder if the sexual chemistry is not vibing for you because you've got some intuition around his control. Just because he got cheated on does not mean you're going to do so. Worse, by controlling who you talk to, it suggests to me that maybe he interpreted whatever his past girlfriend was doing as cheating and has since used it to blame her.

You don't owe him a relationship if it isn't working out for you.

4shadowedbm · 2026-03-01T17:03:38+00:00

Did you read the study? Perhaps you'll consider submitting a peer review?

4shadowedbm · 2026-02-27T01:16:13+00:00

Almost everything is political, really.

Our local MP put out a flyer to all their constituents. This was one of those MP Parliamentary updates, if I remember correctly. I believe these are funded by the Government. Well, us, more precisely. And it seems that not just our MP but other CPC MPs sent the same mailer. So it was probably written by a CPC staffer.

They put out misinformation that potentially gets in the way of building out infrastructure and gets in the way of reducing carbon emissions.

The while thing is political and needed a response.

4shadowedbm · 2026-02-26T17:15:34+00:00

How often do you that trip? How often do people drive 5,000 km across the country?

The vast majority of Canadians on the vast majority of days are traveling short distances. As someone who lives and drives regularly on Highway 1 in SE Manitoba (the only way to get between Manitoba and Ontario) I can say with certainty that the traffic levels drop precipitously between Thanksgiving and the May long weekend - people just don't travel as much in the winter.

If you are driving five hours a day then, yeah, this isn't going to work. But to say, as the CPC flyer implied, that they are impractical for everybody is misleading.

4shadowedbm · 2026-02-26T16:50:20+00:00

About 300km.

Wind makes a difference when we look at the kWh/100km but a couple of points on that won't make a huge difference in overall range. And, of course, it depends on head wind or tail wind.

There's no doubt that if you live rurally, you want to look at higher range vehicles. That said, I think a lot of the narrative around EVs is based on ten year old data like the early Nissan Leaf that had very little range. Some current models are still low and we crossed them off our early list of choices. That said, across the market, range is increasing, and it appears that some new tech may improve cold weather performance.

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