How green is the Sault? New interactive map provides info
Tuesday, October 30, 2012 by: SooToday.com Staff
NEWS RELEASE
SAULT STE. MARIE INNOVATION CENTRE
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SSMIC and City of SSM launch interactive Environmental Initiatives Map
Educational tool provides access to local green initiatives
(October 30, 2012) - The Sault Ste. Marie Innovation Centre (SSMIC) and the City of Sault Ste. Marie today announced the launch of the Environmental Initiatives Map.
Developed by the Community Geomatics Centre, the map will raise awareness about local green initiatives.
The Environmental Initiatives Map is a highly-detailed and interactive Cloud-based platform supported by ESRI.
The map highlights green projects and companies throughout Sault Ste. Marie, and is designed to serve as both an educational tool for students and sophisticated awareness-building tool for the community.
The project was funded by the Municipal Environmental Initiatives (Green) Committee, whose mandate is to reduce the City’s corporate carbon footprint.
With this goal in mind the City has implemented a variety of green projects and the Environmental Initiatives Map provides a detailed inventory of these projects in the community.
“The Environmental Initiatives Map supports the City of Sault Ste. Marie’s claim as the Alternative Energy Capital of North America,” said Councillor Steve Butland, Green Committee co-chair. “It is a way to showcase the investments made in the community by both public and private sectors in areas like renewable energy, energy efficiency, and waste diversion.”
“Building awareness of the tremendous energy projects in our region, and potential for future growth, is a vital component of the Smart Energy Strategy,” said Tom Vair, executive director, SSMIC. “The Environmental Initiatives Map is an important new tool in our communications effort and we look forward to expanding this resource in the future.”
Information tabs on the map include: alternative energy sites and City environmental initiatives, which are broken down by project type, as well as energy related companies, and base maps.
The map also features an interactive search tool and a “Green News in Sault Ste. Marie” section.
Endless possibilities abound for this exciting new tool, including the potential for mapping residential green energy projects in the future.
Visit the Environmental Initiatives Map here (official Flash version) or here (JavaScript version - for users without Flash).
For more information, please contact Madison Zuppa, environmental initiatives coordinator, City of Sault Ste. Marie, at 705 - 541-7175 or by e-mail.
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bus 10/30/2012 2:41:32 PM Reporthow hard is it to plot energy producing companies on a map? id like to know how much it costed taxpayers, ill do it for half the price. just like when they plotted crime in the city. all they did was plot the addresses of the accused, and the addresses of where the crime took place. how hard is that. its sad that the innovation centre gets away with this stuff.
now environmental leaders? really, really how hard could it really be?
James O'Brien 10/30/2012 3:16:56 PM ReportAs a geography graduate myself....I would note that the base map on which the information is plotted is not up to date, in terms of street information at any rate. It is a minor point perhaps, otherwise an interesting collation of available information.
xyz123 10/30/2012 3:58:40 PM ReportThe base map comes from the cloud so is not completely up to date. The City of SSM is providing more upto date info to the cloud so new more accurate base data should be coming soon.
xyz123 10/30/2012 4:05:25 PM ReportOKay bus, tell us how much you would charge. There is a Java version and a HTML version, the data needed to be collected for all renewable energy projects, city initiatives and green energy projects. You must have a valid license for the arcGIS online software which costs money. Then you must code all the interactive stuff. The innovation centre donated thousands of dollars of free work for this site to help create jobs in our community and promote our city. The site is getting hits from all over north america.
LSARC 10/30/2012 6:20:49 PM ReportConsider the amount of public money which has been poured into the Innovation Centre...nothing which comes out is FREE. This map will be a handy reference for finding other places where your bucks have gone to maintain the myth of green energy.
Green illusions are dispelled by scientific scrutiny, all that is required is an unfiltered assessment of fact to see that allegedly “alternative” energy is merely an expensive and destructive adjunct.
In his book “Green Illusions” ( http://www.greenillusions.org/ ) Ozzie Zehner, reveals that green IS the old black and in his Authors@GOOGLE lecture exposes solar as yesterday’s cute accessory mutt. ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6uVnyjTb58&feature=youtu.be )
Zehner attended Kettering University (BS -Engineering) and The University of Amsterdam (MS/Drs – Science and Technology Studies). His research was awarded with honours at both institutions. Despite his obvious predilection for the mythical creatures of environmentalism the author was true to Science.
Physicist John Droz, has pointed out there is NO scientific validity in the claims made for unreliable, non-dispatchable renewables such as wind and solar. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=gffbO2Yd9XQ
The reasonable course of action is to halt the scam and remedy the shameful lack of proper due diligence the Auditor General revealed in his 2011 Report. ( http://lsarc.wordpress.com/2011/12/07/auditors-look-at-the-provinces-books-part-1-hardly-a-glancing-blow/ )
While the lessons to be learned from the European experiment with renewables is that it doesn't work ( http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-10-25/windmills-overload-east-europe-s-grid-risking-blackout-energy ) SSM institutions still try to keep teaching that it does.
This type of situation has lead some academics to posit the question, " Why are environmentalists taking anti-science positions?" ( http://e360.yale.edu/department/opinion/005/ ) Fred Pearce says, "Many environmentalists are imbued with a sense of their own exceptionalism and original virtue. But we have been dangerously wrong before. ...remember the confusion over biofuels? They were a new green energy source we could all support. I remember, when the biofuels craze began about 2005, I reported on a few voices urging caution. They warned that the huge land take of crops like corn and sugar cane for biofuels might threaten food supplies; that the crops would add to the destruction of rainforests; and that the carbon gains were often small to non-existent. But Friends of the Earth and others trashed them as traitors to the cause of green energy."
CBC recently aired an interview with a UK proponent of wind energy so we could learn how well things have gone there; to arrive at their bizarre assessment the producers had to ignore the European Platform Against Wind with 557 signatory organizations from 24 European countries who think otherwise.
RE:Volt 10/30/2012 6:58:52 PM ReportSeems like smoke and mirrors to me, how much did this cost the taxpayers, what is the ongoing cost to run and maintain this 'map'?
More importantly, where is the analysis performed by an independent auditor which monitors the actual carbon footprint reduction and cost effectiveness of the programs which have been funded by the Municipal Environmental Initiatives (Green) Committee?
By how much will this interactive map reduce the city's carbon footprint and what is the life-cycle cost per ton of carbon reduced?
Who determined that the 'Green' locations mapped are in fact green and where is the data to back up these 'green' claims?
RE:Volt 10/30/2012 7:51:35 PM ReportThe map doesn't specify, but the generating capacities shown are for total nameplate capacity, not the actual capacity which is the actual average generation since the plant was commissioned.
For example, Prince I & II has a nameplate capacity of 189MW, but on average has never generated more than 27% of nameplate capacity or about 51.84MW since it was commissioned.
It would be more transparent to post the actual capacity values as opposed to the nameplate capacity values for each type of generation.
This still overstates the value of wind and solar generation to a modern grid because both of these forms of generation are very variable, unpredictable and non-dispatchable, meaning that they cannot produce on demand and when they do produce the amount they produce fluctuates unpredictably.
Note: Comments that appear on the site are not the opinion of SooToday.com. Keep discussions civil and on topic. Refrain from obscenity and don't post anything that your grandmother would be ashamed to read. Those who do not abide by these guidelines will have their membership revoked without notice. If you see an abusive post, please click the link beside the post to report it.
