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Sustainable energy in First Nation communities
by voletrouser on 22 April 2004 @ 02:28 PM

Although applicable to the whole of the Artic Rim, and indeed parts of Scandanavia, as usual the Americans are leading the way (although whether their direction is correct is another matter).

The current proposals are to generate electicity and heatign by the development of small scale power stations based on fuel derrived from animal oil/fat (seals).

This is of course given the size of the communities sustainable without disrupting the viability of the seal communities which have been managed by the First Nation peoples for centuries and does not involve the transportation of fuel across sensitive artic/peri-artic terrain with the associated risk of spillage.

The quesiton of the reasearch is whether the benefit to the community and environmental protection outweighs the animal rights / welfare issues and even if the answer to this is yes, would this technology then proliferate so as to alter the conclusion to this assessment.

as I understand it the meat would also be sold to the Far East and Scandanavia (which rather destroy's the idea of minimising the number of intrusive and polluting forms of transport).

Any comments would be grateful particularly on the sutainability of this and the effects on the ecosystems / ethics of this.


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Re: Sustainable energy in First Nation communities
by Anonymous on 26 April 2004 @ 04:18 PM
I think you raise an interesting point, that the sustainable harvest of animal resources should be allowable.

We are the apex hunters and population control of a species could be used to provide non pollouting energy.

We consume to derive energy so why not appropriate to generate energy.
Re: Sustainable energy in First Nation communities
by Anonymous on 26 April 2004 @ 06:57 PM
>>the animal rights / welfare issues
other then the bambi syndrome, if the hunt is done in a humane manner there shouldn't be any issues of concequence. but it will be an industrial hunt, no two ways around it. if the lessons learned from the collapse of the north atlantic cod fishery are applied then there will be little to worry about. don't fogert it is easier to count seals then fish.

>>would this technology then proliferate
doubtful. the raw economics would prevent it. the diesel fuel used in the existing generators is expensive up there. most of the cost is created in the shipping. if a seal oil fueled generater were to be built in the more populous regions the cost of shipping the oil would be just as much. even if seal oil is expensive locally, it is cheaper then equivalent amounts of disel oil.

it will be interesting to follow the devopment of this.

-----------------
the anti-activist
Re: Sustainable energy in First Nation communities
by Muhammed on 01 May 2004 @ 07:06 PM
The first thing we should be thinking about is the amount of pollution spewed out by oil burning generators. It would be more viable to come up with solar powered generators to run during summer months to take advantage of the sunshine availabe. Also, conservation of energy through minimal use should be encouraged. As far as native populations near Hydroelectric sources it is much more economically viable and environmentally sensible to rely on the Hydroelectric sources of energy.

The Fine Print: Comments and articles posted on this website are owned by the person who posted them and do not necessarily represent the views of Greenpeace.


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