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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Lucknow Sentinel, 2013-11-27, Page 44 Lucknow Sentinel • Wednesday, November 27, 2013 www.lucknowsentinel.com The Lucknow Sentinel PUBLISHED WEEKLY P.O. Box 400, 619 Campbell Street Lucknow Ontario NOG 2H0 phone: 519-528-2822 fax: 519-528-3529 www.lucknowsentinel.com SUN MEDIA A Quebecor Media Company MARIE DAVID Publisher marie.david@sunm edia. ca JILLIAN UNDERWOOD Sales representative jillian.underwood@sunmedia.ca MARILYN MILTENBURG office administrator Iucknow.sentinel©su nmedia.ca Publications Mail Agreement No. 40064683 RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES TO SENTINEL CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT P.O. Box 400 Lucknow ON NOG 2H0 For any non -deliveries or delivery concerns: phone: 519-528-2822 e-mail: I ucknow.senti nel@sun media.ca Office Hours: Monday, Wednesday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. All advertising and editorial deadlines: Friday 2 p.m. Changes of address, orders for subscriptions, and undeliverable copies (return postage guaranteed) are to be sent to The Lucknow Sentinel at the address indicated here. Advertising is accepted on the condition that in the event of a typographical error, the portion of the advertising space occupied by the erroneous item together with a reasonable allowance for signature, will not be charged for, but the balance of the advertisement will be paid at the applicable rates. The Sentinel is available on microfilm at: GODERICH LIBRARY, (from 1875) 52 Montreal Street Goderich ON N7A 1 M3 Goderich I ibrary@huroncounty.ca KINCARDINE LIBRARY, (from 1875 to 1900 & 1935 to 1959) 727 Queen Street Kincardine ON N2Z 1Z9 We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canadian Periodical Fund (CPF) for our publishing activities. Canada ica Member of the Canadian Community Newspaper Association and the Ontario Community Newspapers Association LED lights take less of a toll on your Christmas budget It's an annual ritual, dragging the box of Christmas lights out of storage, untangling the mess of wires and hoping to get them up before the weather gets so miserable that you find old Jack Frost nipping at your fin- gers and toes while teetering from a ladder as you try to secure unruly strings of bulbs to the eves trough. Holiday lights, whether they be lanterns, candles or the elec- tric variety have been a festive tradition for centuries as we attempt to light up the night during the darkest months of the year. While Christmas lights make the season more cheerful and bright they have also been labelled as one of the more environmentally unfriendly aspects of the holidays. According to the US Department of Energy, holiday lighting accounts for over six terawatt- hours of energy usage everyyear. That's roughly the electricity consumption of 500,000 homes for one month. This is a surprising statistic, but before we go to the Grinchy extreme of taking down all of the Christmas lights there are some things we can do to minimize their impact on the environment. Cutting back on the scope of your light instal- lation is a good start. Believe it or not, it is pos- sible to set up a festive yard display without channelling your inner Clark Griswold. Not only will you save electricity, but chances are it will also help you maintain a harmonious rela- tionship with your neighbours. Next, only tum your lights on during the times that your fam- ily and neighbours are most likely to enjoy them, generally the hours between dinner and bedtime. Even better, put your lights on a timer. This will save you from having to remember, plus it gives the illusion that someone is home if you are away during the holidays. The biggest energy saver, if It's Not Easy Being Green Tracey Hinchberger you haven't already done so, is to change to LED lights. This popular technology uses roughly 90% less electricity than traditional incandes- cent Christmas lights. LED lights can also last up to ten years and are less fragile than styles containing glass components, therefore reduc- ing the frequency of replacement and keeping more waste out of landfills. However, if you switch to LED lights there is the question of what to do with your old incan- descent decorations. Some websites suggest donating them to charities or less fortunate families. While it's a nice idea, the truth is your old lights may stay out of the landfill for a while longer, but their energy consumption is simply being trans- ferred to someone else. Recycling old Christmas lights is a much bet- ter option. The majority collected are sent to recycling factories in Shijiao, China where over 20 million pounds of old lights are received each year. These old lights are chopped up and separated, with the metal components melted down and refined and the plastics remade into goods such as insulation and slipper soles. Unfortunately there does not seem to be appreciable access to a Christmas light recy- cling program locally. Failing recycling, what can you do with your old lights? Obsolete or broken Christmas lights can be dismantled and the components recovered. Stripped wiring can be used around the house for such handy functions as tie -wraps. The bulbs can be used for crafty projects such as festive jewellery and decorations. With a quick search on the internet you can find dozens of fun recycled light ideas from ear- rings, to necklaces to tree ornaments and wreaths. Clusters of old mini -style lights can also be placed in bottles or jars to give some fun holiday ambiance to a Christmas party or other special event If you don't have the desire to undertake such projects, it is sometimes possible to find individuals in classified ads who will take old strings of lights off of your hands, to recover the copper content from the wiring. Following these easy suggestions can help us continue enjoying the tradition of festive lights while having a greener holiday season. Global warming's guru doesn't like to be challenged by the media Lorrie Goldstein QMI Agency Al Gore blew in and out of Toronto last week, praising Premier Kathleen Wynne for banning the use of coal to generate electricity in Ontario starting in 2014, and, as usual, refusing to take questions from the media. Here are 10 questions I'd askAl Gore: (1) In 2009, you visited Toronto to praise former premier Dalton McGuinty for his Green Energy Act, describing it as "widely recognized now as the single best green energy program on the North American continent." What do you have to say in light of the December, 2011 report by the non-partisan Auditor General of Ontario that McGuinty wasted billions of public dollars on renewable energy by rushing into it with no business plan, no auditing of expenditures, and by ignoring the advice of his government's own energy experts on how to reduce costs? (2) What do you have to say about the fact the McGuinty government's multi -billion -dollar deal with South Korea's Samsung corporation for wind and solar power, which it described as the crowning jewel of its green energy initiatives, was never put out to public tender? (3) What do you have to say about the Auditor General's finding that McGuinty's claim his Green Energy Act would create 50,000 jobs over three years was a myth, and that the province would likely suffer a net job loss because of the higher cost of electricity, resulting from the mas- sive public subsidies given to wind and solar power companies? (4) McGuinty's Green Energy Act, the legisla- tion you praised in 2009, took away the planning rights of local municipalities to have any say in the location of industrial wind turbines in their communities. Do you think taking away the rights of citizens to have any say about whether industrial wind turbines will be located in their communities is just? (5) Earlier this year in an interview with the Globe and Mail you described Canada's devel- opment of the oil sands as the equivalent of treating the atmosphere like an "open sewer." What do you have to say about the findings of Canadian climate scientist and lead UN IPCC author Andrew Weaver, and his colleague Neal Swart, published in the journal Nature, that even if Canada developed all the commerciallyviable oil in the oilsands, global temperatures would rise by an insignificant 0.03 degrees? (6) You constantly condemn coal, oil and nat- ural gas companies for not caring about the planet, or about the existential threat you say man-made climate change poses to humanity. And yet earlier this year you sold your Current TV network to Al Jazeera, which is backed by the oil and natural gas rich Arab emirate of Qatar, for $500 million, including a reported personal profit for you of $70 million. How much did you actually make from this deal and weren't you being hypocritical by sell- ing out to fossil fuel interests that you yourself condemn? (7) Why, when you were vice-president of the United States, and campaigning globally for the Kyoto accord, did you and then president Bill Clinton, never make any attempt to have the U.S. ratify Kyoto, thus bringing it into force? (8) Now that you're out of politics, you have repeatedly urged countries in the developed world like the U.S. and Canada to cut their greenhouse gas emissions, regardless of whether developing countries like China and India agree to do so. Why then, when you were vice-president of the United States and actually in a position to show leadership in getting the U.S. to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions independently of the developing world, did you state publicly in 1997 that: "We will not submit (Kyoto) for rati- fication until there's meaningful participation by key developing nations"? (9) While you preach energy austerity for others to save the planet from catastrophic man-made climate change, you personally live a luxurious, jet -setting, carbon dioxide -con- suming lifestyle. You own multi -million -dollar homes and constantly jet around the world, leaving a huge carbon footprint on the planet compared to the average American or Cana- dian. Isn't telling others to "do as I say, not as I do," the classic definition of hypocrisy? (10) Specifically on the issue of flying, Mr. Gore, isn't that according to your view one of worst things you can do to the planet? In that context, how did you get to Toronto today and how will you be leaving it?