29 - On demand transit. Why can’t buses be more like Uber?

The Earth is covered in water, yet only a tiny fraction of it is fresh water, and even less is fit for human consumption. In this episode, we discuss ways of ensuring we all have plentiful clean domestic water

Small villages in Europe are a model for sustainable, low carbon living. Crowded urban city living is not always the answer. In this episode, we discuss the low carbon lifestyle of an island village in Croatia along with the Canadian equivalent, the Gulf islands of British Columbia.

The people mandating the electrification of our transportation do not seem to be communicating well with the people who regulate the licensing and operation of vehicles. In this episode, we cover several examples of well meaning rules and regulations that make it more difficult to acquire and operate some types of low carbon transportation that are in common use in Europe and other parts of the world.

This episode, we’re going to discuss the housing crisis in Canada, and how we could do much better by simply getting out of the way and allowing people to build their own homes from used materials. As with most contemporary problems, the solution often is hidden in the past.

Getting from where you are, to where you want to be. Our transit systems do not need to be huge buses that are either full, or nearly empty. Let’s take a lesson from Uber, and rethink the whole concept of public transit.

Will single family homes soon become a rarity? Condos are not necessarily the lowest carbon alternative. In this episode, we compare the carbon footprint of living in houses, townhouses and condos.

In this episode, we talk about about a carbon capture and storage initiative by the oil sands companies, called “The Pathways Alliance”. A group of companies have banded together to develop carbon capture and storage systems, as part of their march towards net-zero emissions from their operations. The key word here is ”operations”. They are not attempting to make their fossil fuel products net-zero when they are burned by customers. Burning would seem to be the entire point of fuel. Some might call this whole project greenwashing, but I take a more balanced point of view. They are certainly putting a lot of money and effort into developing carbon capture and storage systems, and the knowledge and skills acquired will be in big demand in the future, especially if we need to go past net-zero, and be carbon negative Of course, this is all counter-intuitive, because the least carbon intensive use of any oil or coal is to leave it exactly where it is.

In this episode, we discuss how difficult it is to be a pedestrian in many towns and cities, and what we can do about it. Our towns and cities are built around using vehicles. It doesn’t have to remain this way. We discuss many ways to improve pedestrian access without costing a fortune.

This week, we’re going to discuss the subject of declining fertility rates, and the potential impacts that will have on climate change and society.

Have you noticed that over the last few decades, there are far fewer of these creatures around, and much less variety? In this episode, we’ll go over what I’ve noticed, and discuss why this is happening.