The Sunday Read

Community wood banks, better ethical lithium ion batteries, and more

Severe storms from the climate crisis may make you want to leave the grid

You’re not off-grid yet? You may wish you were after hearing the dire news following this week’s storm that swept over much of the U.S.

The New York Times reports that the “week’s continent-spanning winter storms triggered blackouts in Texas, Oklahoma, Mississippi and several other states. One-third of oil production in the nation was halted. Drinking-water systems in Ohio were knocked offline. Road networks nationwide were paralyzed and vaccination efforts in 20 states were disrupted.”

The paper goes on to say, “The crisis carries a profound warning. As climate change brings more frequent and intense storms, floods, heat waves, wildfires and other extreme events, it is placing growing stress on the foundations of the country’s economy: Its network of roads and railways, drinking-water systems, power plants, electrical grids, industrial waste sites and even homes. Failures in just one sector can set off a domino effect of breakdowns in hard-to-predict ways.”

Don’t think the climate crisis is impacting only the U.S. We’re every bit as vulnerable with the same infrastructure problems here. The Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) recently released its statistics for 2020, showing that severe weather caused $2.4 billion in insured damage in 2020.

The IBC added: “Severe weather across Canada continues to highlight the financial costs of a changing climate to insurers and taxpayers.”

A hot idea: community wood banks

I can’t tell you how much I love this story on community wood banks, also from The New York Times.

In Maine, a number of Carmelite nuns created a resource center for low-income and homeless families. According to the Times, they “cleared forest with Norwegian Fjord Horses and set up a crafts-making operation for the local community and a gift shop — and then a child-care center, a shelter program, an auto repair garage, a saw mill, a shingle mill, a garden and a greenhouse, a GED program, a food co-op that has become a food bank, and a home-construction unit.”

Their latest addition? A wood bank. The Times story says wood banks are modelled after food banks, “providing fuel assistance to people in need who may have to choose between ‘heating or eating,’ as many who volunteer at wood banks put it.”

Adds the paper: “Some experts see wood banks as a way to assist people hurt by the impacts of climate change and to help contend with a growing supply of wood — from trees killed by extreme weather and from trees killed by pests, both invasive species and native populations no longer constrained by the long deep freezes of another era.”

It’s a great idea, and a terrific piece of reporting with some wonderful photo-journalism. Please take take the time to check it out.

Urban off-grid living, not so far-fetched

A number of weeks ago I wrote about the idea of urban off-grid living. While I championed the notion I also had some concerns, such as where a resident would pull water from.

Well, an innovative Australian is charging ahead, even though she says “her inner city house renovation/rebuild has been labelled ‘impossible.’ With no fewer than seven architects, 15 water specialists, 10 solar experts, three sustainability experts, two legal experts and one project manager walking away from the project….”

Laura Ryan persisted with her vision for an urban off-grid home in Newton, telling thefifthestate.com.au that “the Black Summer bushfires woke Ryan up to the issue of energy security, and the vulnerability of energy infrastructure to major bushfire events.”

Working with her designers Ryan has even found a way to deal with water off-grid in an urban setting. According to the story, “the final designs include a 12,000 litre storage tank and 1000 litre Rootzone grey water storage system that will be used to water the vertical garden and reused in the washing machine. Potable water will be stored under the house and treated by a three-phase filtration system.”

Urban off-grid living may be here sooner than we think.

Moving toward ethically sourced lithium ion batteries

One of the challenges of living off-grid, and trying to be more sustainable is coping with the components we use, and ensuring they’re ethically and sustainably sourced.

Lithium Ion batteries are a sore point, as my friend Manuela Mueller points out over on her blog Restless-Roots.com (I recommend you surf over there and sign up, btw.)

It’s been well-known since 2016 when Amnesty International published a report decrying the use of child labour in the Congo for mining cobalt used in smart phones and batteries.

But the CBC has a report about a Calgary geophysicist who believes she can use “nanotechnology, which works with materials at the molecular or atomic level to selectively filter lithium out of the wasted saltwater brine used in oil wells.”

Traditionally, the national broadcaster reports: “Lithium is usually mined through hard rock mining — where the rocks are ground up and dissolved — or through brine mining, which is similar to drilling a well.”

Last April, the CBC carried a story noting that “as of March 2020, Alberta has approximately 95,000 inactive wells and 69,000 abandoned wells, according to the Alberta Energy Regulator.”

Those are the sources geophysicist Amanda Hall says she plans to draw on for her brine, although not immediately. "We do plan on extracting lithium from oil field brines in Alberta some day, but not right out of the gate. We need to establish a strong revenue stream internationally first,” she told the CBC.

In the meantime her innovative ideas are attracting some high-profile investors, including Elon Musk.

If you enjoyed this newsletter, please considering sharing it. Thank you.