FEB 25, 2006 --
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Julia Roberts up Jacob's ladder retrieving a thermometer to check the difference in temperature
Our guest speaker was Rob Macrae, an instructor from the Integrated Environmental Planning Program at Selkirk College in Castlegar. Rob began a quote from St. John’s Gospel, “The truth shall set you free.” He continued with examples of scientists in Canada who have been ignored or gagged, when they tried to sound the alarm about problems such as unsafe medications or declining cod stocks off Newfoundland. Rob stated that the same sort of denial exists around climate change. He presented results from many scientific studies that show that climate change is a real phenomenon. The only ways we can combat climate change are to reduce our burning of fossil fuels, plant more trees, and harvest fewer trees. Rob concluded by quoting Isaiah Chapter 2, verse 4, “they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks”. He showed a slide indicating that diverting 25% of world military spending to other purposes could solve climate change, AIDs, poverty, water shortages, and all the other social and environmental justice issues on earth.
“The memory and pain of the residential schools has become intergenerational and it has rippled down generations to today’s young people,” said Archdeacon Sidney Black, co-chair of the Anglican Council of Indigenous Peoples (ACIP). “If we don’t tackle the challenges, the ripple effects will go on for generations to come…the Sacred Circle provides us with such an opportunity.”
In the afternoon, Julia Roberts from St. Saviour’s provided an over view of how to conduct a church energy audit. Julia worked as a church energy auditor on Vancouver Island in 2002. An energy audit begins with collecting the heat and light bills for your church buildings for the past two years. The energy usage is added up and the greenhouse gas emissions are calculated. For example, St. Saviour’s buildings produced 69 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (i.e. greenhouse gases) in 2005. The energy audit continues with a thorough look at your church buildings focusing on weather stripping on doors and windows, furnace efficiency, placement of thermostats, water saving, ceiling fans, energy efficient lighting, and much more.
Julia demonstrated how to decide whether or not ceiling fans would be useful in your church or hall. Before the workshop began, she and her helpers had placed one thermometer about 3 feet off the floor and the other on a tall ladder in the corner of the hall. In the afternoon, Julia retrieved the thermometer from the ladder and showed that the temperature difference was nearly 4oC. A difference of 2oC is enough to justify installing one ceiling fan for every 800 square feet of floor area.
Following the energy audit presentation, Julia explained the funding programs available from the federal government to help commercial buildings, hospitals, schools, and churches reduce their energy use and their greenhouse gas emissions. Funding is available for energy audits and retrofit planning and for implementation of energy improvements. In addition, Terasen Gas, FortisBC, and BC Hydro have programs available to help with the costs of energy retrofits. (Churches served by Grand Forks Hydro or Nelson Hydro are eligible for FortisBC programs.) These programs combined with the projected savings on future heat and light bills should make energy improvements feasible for congregations.
Similar programs are also available for homeowners including the federal government’s. EnerGuide for Houses program, a CMHC program to provide low income home owners and tenants with free energy audits and grants up to $3500 for energy upgrades, and various rebates and loans from Terasen Gas, FortisBC, and BC Hydro.
Before our closing worship, participants completed evaluation forms and noted the actions they committed to taking, at church and at home, to combat climate change. Comments included: My most important learning today was “that individuals and small groups have options and can have a positive effect.” I found it difficult that “so few people were receiving this info.” I enjoyed most “Julia climbing Jacob’s ladder to check temperature.”
Here are some energy efficiency links that might help:
www.kairoscanada.org
oee.nrcan.gc.ca
www.terasengas.com
www.fortisbc.com
www.bchydro.com