One of the themes running through the YouTube video Designing and Constructing a TRUE Net Zero City. (https://youtu.be/ap3NCou1rSc ) is that the current Covid-19 crisis may be the pause before the opportunity to make significant changes in how we use and share resources on our planet.
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| Trends to act upon |
The Economist reports that rich countries are trying radical economic policies to counter Covid-19. The Economist article comments that history suggests that the effects will be permanent.
The vast majority of economists support these measures. Nominally they are temporary, designed to hold the economy in an induced coma until the pandemic passes, at which point the world is supposed to revert to the status quo ante. But history suggests that a return to pre-covid days is unlikely. Two lessons stand out. The first is that governmental control over the economy takes a large step up during periods of crisis—and in particular war. The second is that the forces encouraging governments to retain and expand economic control are stronger than the forces encouraging them to relinquish it, meaning that a “temporary” expansion of state power tends to become permanent.1
Joseph Zeballos-Roig writes that Spain is moving to permanently establish universal basic income in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
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Nadia Calviño, the country's minister for economic affairs, told the Spanish broadcaster La Sexta on Sunday evening that the government was planning to introduce the cash handouts as part of a barrage of policies meant to help people get back on their feet.
She said enacting basic income was "mostly aimed at families, but differentiating between their circumstances."
Calviño didn't offer a specific date as to when basic income could be rolled out in the country. But she said the government hoped it would become "a permanent instrument."
"We're going to do it as soon as possible," she said. "So it can be useful, not just for this extraordinary situation, and that it remains forever."2
In the publication Climate Change and Cities urban planners have done an assessment report of the Urban Climate Change Research Network. Urban planning and urban design have a critical role to play in the global response to climate change. Actions that simultaneously reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and build resilience to climate risks should be prioritized at all urban scales – metropolitan region, city, district/neighborhood, block, and building.
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| Looking for LEED design |
This needs to be done in ways that are responsive to and appropriate for local conditions.
Urban planners and urban designers have a portfolio of climate change strategies that guide decisions on urban form and function:
• Urban waste heat and GHG emissions from infrastructure – including buildings, transportation, and industry – can be reduced through improvements in the efficiency of urban systems.
• Modifying the form and layout of buildings and urban districts can provide cooling and ventilation that reduces energy use and allow citizens to cope with higher temperatures and more intense runoff.
• Selecting low heat capacity construction materials and reflective coatings can improve building performance by managing heat exchange at the surface.
• Increasing the vegetative cover in a city can simultaneously lower outdoor temperatures, building cooling demand, runoff, and pollution, while sequestering carbon...3
SWAGR (Solidarity with Alton Gas Resistance) is a Halifax-based group of organizers from Council of Canadians, Ecology Action Centre, Solidarity Halifax and the general community. The focus of this group is to support resistance efforts against the Alton Natural Gas Storage Project, and we take our direction from frontline Mi’kmaq communities and other residents of the surrounding area.
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| Protecting water |
In Nova Scotia, Alton Gas has a hugely destructive plan to create salt caverns in which to store natural gas, by dumping the equivalent of 3,000 tons of hard salt into the Shubenacadie river everyday. This massive 50 year project would seriously harm the river ecosystem and put the health, livelihoods and rights of the Mi’kmaq people at risk. It is also in contravention of the Fisheries Act, which prohibits the deposit of “deleterious substances” into water frequented by fish.
Since September 2016, Mi’kmaq water protectors have been asserting their rights under the Peace and Friendship treaties by building infrastructure (the Treaty Truck House and then the Treaty Camp) on Shubenacadie River. For over 2 years, they have permanently occupied this site, effectively preventing the company from breaking the provincial, federal and treaty laws.
Now, in a surprise move, instead of opposing the Alton Gas project for not complying with federal regulations, the Federal government is looking to make completely new rules, just for Alton Gas, so that the project can go forward. This proves what Water Protectors have been asserting since last November: the current plan is not compliant with the Fisheries Act.
Article 10 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) clearly states “Indigenous peoples shall not be forcibly removed from their land or territories.” Any removal of Mi’kmaq people will directly violate UNDRIP along with the Trudeau government’s promise to fully implement the Declaration.4
Aquaponics Farmers that add fish to their vegetable mix say they're combining the benefits of an ecosystem with the resource-efficiency of an water-based operation.
“Even though [aquaponic farmers] have been operating in the U.S. for more than 30 years, we don’t have a good count,” Cufone says. That applies both to commercial operations such as Hasey’s that sell to regional supermarkets and also to backyard, or “recreational,” farms like the one Aney would like to set up. The latter are especially difficult to track. RFC wants to see aquaculture acknowledged as a positive addition to American agriculture and thereby boost its lobbying power. Haney, an RFC member, calls aquaponics, “the answer” to generating year-round income for farmers constrained by the seasons.5
These trends reported in the media today may suggest several ways to get involved now in projects in Nova Scotia that are closely related to the outcomes of the work of the Venus Project and Resource Based Economy described in the video.
References
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