The Eternal Raven: Sooke's energy future

Published in MapleLine Magazine: May 5, 2010

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by Guy Dauncey

If you were an eternal raven, flying low over southern Vancouver Island, you would have witnessed the gradual melting of the ice 13,000 years ago. You would have watched as the tundra slowly came alive with lichens, birds and plants. You would have seen the return of the fish to the creeks and rivers, and the arrival of the T’Sou-ke people, migrating down the coast after an epic journey of discovery.

For ten thousand years, you would have seen the forests grow taller, and the T’Sou-ke people build a culture rich in knowledge and tradition.

Then, on a midsummer’s day 220 years ago, you would have seen a strange white-sailed sloop sail into T’Sou-ke harbour, followed some years later by the first white settlers. Over the next 150 years, you would witness the growth of houses, roads, and stores. You would see the disappearance of the ancient forest, and the dramatic shrinking of the ancient salmon runs.

You would also witness a new kind of energy being used to power boats, cars, and airplanes - stored energy from ancient forests and sea creatures, that the settlers called “fossil fuels”.

As an eternal raven, you will be able to observe thousands of years to come. Will you see human settlements stretching to Port Renfrew, and over the ridge to the San Juan River? Or will you see people working hard to protect their forests, restore their fish-runs, and create compact Arcadian communities, powered by the energy of the sun and wind?

One thing is sure, that fossil fuels will soon be exhausted. How will people respond? In the history of every community, there are moments when decisions can shape the future for thousands of years. If we by-pass those moments, we miss the chance when wisdom can be applied, and we have to live with the consequences.

For Sooke, this moment is now. The world’s oil supply will soon peak and begin to decline. Even the International Energy Agency says it will happen by 2020. How will we travel when oil is too expensive for all, save the rich? How will Sooke continue to thrive, when so many depend on cars to get to work, and every business depends on oil to import and export their products?

These are not hypothetical questions: they are a reality right now. It is also a reality that the three trillion tonnes of carbon dioxide we’ve released so far by burning fossil fuels are warming up the atmosphere, causing glaciers to melt and threatening a very unpleasant century to come if we don’t stop releasing ancient carbon. Some may deny this, but the evidence is solid, whatever the skeptics say.

How should Sooke respond to this moment of opportunity? We need:
Safe cycling lanes throughout the region. Good electric bikes are already on the market that can make the hills seem flat.
A major expansion of the bus service to Victoria.
Planning for the widespread use of electric vehicles.
More use of solar water heating. Right now you can get $2,000 in incentives, but this won’t last long. See www.solarbc.ca
As its price falls, more use of solar photovoltaics (as has been installed at the T’Sou-ke First Nation).
More protection of forested areas, so that they can slowly return to old growth forest.
A clear vision and set of rules as to where future human settlements can and can’t go, to protect the ecology and viewscape of the region as a whole.
More protection of the farmland, and more backyard food growing, so that we have local food security when global warming and the oil crisis make food imports difficult.
Training and encouragement for local entrepreneurs, to create the jobs that will be needed as the century develops.
Local community engagement, so that people feel proud of the future they are shaping.
MM

Guy Dauncey is President of the BC Sustainable Energy Association, new members welcome: www.bcsea.org . He is also the author of The Climate Challenge: 101 Solutions to Global Warming, and eight other books, and Editor of the monthly newsletter EcoNews, available at www.earthfuture.com/econews .

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This article was published on pages 18-19 in the print edition of MapleLine Magazine (Summer 2010 issue / May-July 2010).