Interestingly Michael Schellenberger was on the The Colbert Report (where I get my news) talking about his book "The Breakthrough". It was timely to see an environmentalist in favour of nuclear, fracking and all these things that I question. His point seemed to be he used to be pro-renewable but we need A LOT of energy so they won't be enough. Really? A lot of this energy we need is to support a food system of factory farms, petrochemical fertilizing and trucking, not to mention fueling an addiction to cheap, manufactured imported stuff. What if we starting sticking closer to home (less cars) or invested in infrasctructure of clean mass transit, and were able to grow our food locally and go back to making our own stuff. And maybe using less stuff. But higher quality stuff that doesn't fall apart so easily. It is a very complex issue; though I think most people want the same thing, a healthy economy and a healthy planet.
Here is the link to their site which I will check out. He did seem more level headed than the Irish person who is flying around promoting "Frack Nation".
http://www.thebreakthrough.org/
On to today's idea. Looking at Holland.
I love the internet because suddenly as soon as I have a question I can type it into google and get some sort of answer. So I decided, hey, Nova Scotia has this challenge of needing more jobs as its young people move away for work, let's look at what's going on in other places.
Let's see.... do we want to be more like the Beijing area of China...
wow! No wonder the Chinese government is all "wooot! bring it!" with respect to the Canadian tar sands fuel... This I think illustrates what can happen when countries seek economic growth and profit without considering the importance of sustaining a healthy environment.
Yesterday I wondered if there might be a small European country that might serve as a better model. My friend from Holland (in The Netherlands) came to mind; I've never been to mainland Europe, just England, but have known a couple people who did post-docs in the Netherlands and it sounds like a neat place.
I didn't know much about Holland, I just figured like Nova Scotia it is small. So I wondered what people there did for jobs, food and energy.
Turns out they do a lot. Let's compare some stats:
Holland (comprised of North and South Holland, a portion of the Netherlands) is: 5,488 square km in size, with a population of 6,045,459 (2006 estimate) and a density of 1105 people per square kilometer. I can't even imagine living like that.
In comparison:
Nova Scotia (a portion of Canada) is: 55,283 square km (including land and 2,599 square km of water) with a population of 921,727 square kilometers and a density of 17.28 per square km. Which is actually a high population density for a Canadian province, second only to Prince Edward Island.
I spent a lot of time looking at this website:
http://www.hollandtrade.com/index.asp
and there's too much good stuff going on there to list.
I'll admit right here that I initially posted this post earlier today, and I got so excited about the greenhouse thing that I hadn't yet read up on the fact that the
Netherlands had made a lot of their money from natural gas, with the discovery of the Groningen Natural Gas Field in 1959: http://vorige.nrc.nl/international/article2274261.ece/The_Dutch_curse_how_billions_from_natural_gas_went_up_in_smoke
According to wikipedia, this is the largest natural gas field in Europe and the 10th largest in the world.
http://www.government.nl/issues/energy/gas
ah, and looking at the Holland site more carefully, I found this:
• Almost 30 percent of the European natural gas reserves are in the Netherlands. 15 to 20 percent of the gas consumed in Europe comes from the Netherlands. Total gas exports totalled 25.3 billion cubic meters in 2010.
Well that's ironic given that I thought to look at Holland in looking for alternates to fracking. Although as I mentioned previously, I agree natural gas itself is cheap and relatively clean, and wouldn't a large gas field like this be a nice thing to have - the issue I have is with using massive amounts of fresh water and carcinogens to frack for what may be a small supply.
However, by 2025 it appears that the Netherlands are forecasted to go from being an exporter to an importer of natural gas, so its valuable to check out all the great innovations they've made in agriculture, technology and renewable energy.
according to their import/export page:
As the fifth largest exporter of goods in the world, the Netherlands occupies a prominent position when it comes to world trade. In 2010, the Netherlands exported goods worth a total of more than 574 billion US dollars.
Whaaaa?? The entire country of the Netherlands is still smaller than Nova Scotia, at 41,534 square kilometers (popn 11+ million). To be honest I'm a bit confused whether this website is just about Holland or the entire Netherlands. In any case, how did they become the fifth largest exporter of goods in the world?
From the "experience Holland" page of the above website:
It is not an easy task to combine high population density with an above average level of tolerance and respect throughout society, however, the Dutch have managed, over centuries of growth and development, to find a balance herein. As a result, they constantly strive to create this balance in all aspects of daily life: from transport and housing; to work and leisure activities. The Dutch take pride in their rich cultural heritage but also have one of the most progressive and liberal societies in the world. The typical Dutch mindset can best be summed up as: open, creative/innovative, entrepreneurial, resourceful, and international.
Plus I found this statement on their website; incredible I think. Almost unbelievable. With all the land and water in Canada, maybe we could get a piece of this...
The Netherlands is the world's second largest exporter of agricultural products, after the USA. Together with the USA and France, the Netherlands is one of the world's three leading producers of vegetables and fruit. It supplies a quarter of the vegetables that are exported from Europe. The agri-business is one of the driving forces behind the Dutch economy. At the same time, it poses challenges to the environment. In recent decades, farms became larger in scale and production became more intensive. As a result, fertilizers and manure made more impact on the countryside. Farming had to become more sustainable, the Dutch government said. Today, the Dutch agricultural sector is strongly focused on sustainability: it is a source of healthy, safe food that is produced with respect for the landscape and the environment.
I'll end this blog post with one aspect of agri-business in Holland that I think would make a nice alternative to mink farms and open pen salmon farms. The microgreens described in this video look nutritious and delicious; and super energy efficient LED greenhouse lights they are using look intriguing.
And here is more about greenhouses from this horticulture page on that website. I'm truly intrigued...
Holland is world's leading supplier of flowers, plants and trees
The Dutch horticulture sector is a global trendsetter and the undisputed international market leader in flowers, plants, bulbs and reproductive material and the number three exporter in nutritional horticulture products. It forms the heart of an international network for floriculture, bulbs, and decorative trees as well as fruit and vegetables. The country’s important logistical hubs – such as the Port of Rotterdam and Amsterdam Airport Schiphol – its proximity to Europe’s 500 million consumers, plus the development of high-quality production methods have enabled the Dutch horticulture cluster to become this strong. The Dutch have created efficient supply chains that are able to deliver flowers in New York that have been cut the very same day in the Netherlands. And, true to the Dutch entrepreneurial character, nurseries have been set up in countries such as Kenya, Ethiopia, Costa Rica, France and Portugal.
Dutch horticulture is concentrated in six clusters, called Greenports, where businesses and research institutes work closely together on production, R&D, logistics, infrastructure, and exports. Horticulture makes a significant contribution to the country’s prosperity, through the considerable volumes and sheer quality of production, as well as via technological innovations. The Dutch approach to innovation and R&D is rather unique: companies, research institutes and governments work together on innovation projects and programmes in the so-called Golden triangle. Prime examples of innovations include intelligent greenhouses that can float on water, moving platforms, robots, innovative lighting, water- and waste-recycling, and greenhouses that generate more energy than they consume and thus contribute to a reduction in CO2. The current generation of greenhouses already generates approximately 10 percent of Holland’s power needs by using combined heat and power (CHP).
What?! Greenhouses that net-meter AND grow delicious, nutritious food! LOL I want one! Premier Dexter, why didn't you give $9 million to these people to set up shop?
No comments:
Post a Comment