North or South, energy is the currency of life Wha Ti, Northwest Territories Robert G Bromley and Stephen Fancott Whether residential, municipal or industrial, the built environment has significant implications to greenhouse gas emissions, with the potential to either exacerbate or resolve some aspects of the dilemma. In at least one Dene community, aboriginal people are making clear connections between what is happening to their environment, their health, and their local economies.
The Northwest Territories are booming. Diamonds, oil and gas, gold, even bismuth — it is no surprise that recent estimates reveal that greenhouse gas emissions in the NWT have also soared, probably doubling from 1996 to 2001. We need to reduce global emissions by 60% below 1990 levels to simply hold climate change to what is already unavoidable. Climate change is already measurable in the North; its effects appeared here first and with the greatest amplitude. Unfortunately, envi - ronmental and socio-economic impacts will be borne by global inhabitants who are least able to afford it. The promotion of massive emissions-generating development projects in the NWT and elsewhere can be justified only by ignoring these very real production costs. Aboriginal communities are being asked to participate fully in these developments.
Aerial view of Wha Ti, Northwest Territories
Matthew Salkeld of EnergyWise Technologies installs a solar water heating system on the elders residence in Wha Ti.
t he Dogrib community of Wha Ti is located 140 km northwest of Yellowknife, NWT at Latitude 63º N. With 500 people and over 90% speaking their first language of Dogrib,Wha Ti is a fairly traditional Dene community. It is situated on a large lake (60 by 40 km), and is connected to the Mackenzie Highway by a winter road for about nine weeks in late winter each year. During this critical period annual supplies are trucked in. Like many remote northern communities, power is derived from diesel generators. In 2002, Ecology North, an environmental organization, worked with the Charter Community of Wha Ti to recover some of the ecological sustainability of the past using old values, but in new ways. The Pembina Institute signed on to help with community energy planning, and the Arctic Energy Alliance to help with energy efficiency. Now 18 months into the two-year project, residents have learned that just about every aspect of daily life involves energy somehow. They are very concerned about environmental and health impacts from diesel exhaust, noise and spills associated with electricity generation and heating. They have learned that relying on imported products for energy and food means
that associated jobs and economic benefits are captured elsewhere. They have become committed to pursuing the means to have local con- trol over such issues, and finding local answers that are both good for the land and people, and that are effective in real economic terms. The project started with learning about the full costs and benefits of renewable energy such as solar, wind, biomass and run of the river hydroelectricity, and compared these costs to that of fossil fuel energy. Young adults were trained to assess current patterns of energy use. Going from house to house speaking in their own language, everyone learned a tremendous amount about electricity, energy conservation and energy efficiency. In Wha Ti, where a 100 watt incandescent bulb left on in a crawl space for 24/7, at $0.78 / kWh, cost over $680.00 per year in power charges, learning can be rapid! Young people and a com- munity coordinator revisited houses, installing simple, energy-efficient, demonstration equipment such as insulation blankets for water heaters, aerators for water faucets, window film for winter and fluorescent light bulbs. Some elders, often with large extended families in their houses, began to report that their monthly energy bills were coming down.
On Site review 11
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Spring 2004
Architecture of the Circumpolar Region
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