Living Lightly

Two photos from my recent trip to California

The huge solar panel array installed on the site
of the closed nuclear energy plant at Rancho Seco, CA.
.

Two Stanford students with their model “solar concentrator”
to bring electricity to homes with none.
.
Just imagine what a cleaner, safer, healthier world could look like!
.
Photos © David Chernushenko

To keep making inspiring independent films and videos, we need the participation of engaged viewers — people who want to see more documentaries like Be the Change.
We are aiming to raise an additional $40,000 by March 31, 2010, to fund production of our next major film, Powerful: Energy for Everyone.
The Living Lightly Project is a [...]

Radio listeners in the Ottawa area may have caught some of my recent Eco Voyager and Living Lightly radio spots on the local CHUM radio stations. One of them goes like this:
“Many of us have an old bicycle that is, umm… under-used. And a little bit rusty. Here’s a suggestion, several local groups fix up [...]

I am reminded today of a favourite quotation from John Maynard Keynes, the maligned and now rediscovered British economist. I had the opportunity to live in his former house — now the “Keyneside” student residence of Clare Hall at Cambridge University —  while taking my masters degree in international relations. Okay, that is completely irrelevant, [...]

The inauguration of President Barack Obama has shown us two things: First, that the desire for positive change can manifest itself as an unstoppable force of hope and optimism. Second, that millions of ordinary people coming together to pool their energy and resources can ultimately overpower a legion of vested interests who are working to [...]

In 2000, Jo-Anne and Hugh Robertson of Ottawa made a pledge to each other to send as little garbage as possible to the landfill. It took them three years to fill a large garbage bag. But that one bag was awfully heavy, so they decided to switch to much smaller bags and put them at [...]

Download PDF version

by Mark Sunderland
The Dunbarton Dryer is a clothes drying rack that addresses the substantial volume of unusable real estate above a townhouse stairwell.
The Dunbarton Dryer is completely removable and easily stored when it’s not in use. When nothing is hanging on it, it is fairly inconspicuous and, being made of wood, it is [...]

Originally published in the Ottawa Citizen, Thursday July 24, 2008 
  
 
Real Energy Security for the G8 
 
Lessons about power from a small town in Germany 
 
By David Chernushenko 
 
The recent G8 Summit achieved one important result. It showed that too many of our 
leaders still think energy “security” can be achieved by calling for an increase in the rate 
of oil [...]