Occupy Ottawa and Environment

The Occupy movement is an important phenomena. The Ottawa group near Rideau Center is peaceful and posts:

Stop Corporate Greed and Corruption. People before $profits$. Protect the Environment and Canadian Sovereignty.

I was surprised to find that they were using oil/petroleum/gasoline for electricity. Notice the picture of the two gas generators (and decorative solar panel).

I think the deal here is that it’s convenient and inexpensive. This is the basis for the use of oil as fuel and is why humanity has been using it. Clearly it has been working well despite pollution and potential scarcity in the future.

It’s more work and more money to get the same energy from other sources (except perhaps nuclear) and it’s good to see that the Occupy movement is learning about this first hand.

October 21, 2011 update: As you can see in the post at Canadian Energy Issues, they are using gas because the NCC cut them off. Steve over at Canadian Energy Issues has softened up on them but I still think that an effort needs to be made… Or at least some evidence of the effort. I’m all for their cause and I bet they are nice people, but I think it’s better to set an example during a protest where the environment is in the mix.

You can get a solar panel at Princes Auto for about a thousand bucks. That’s a bit more than one of those generators but it might work with some batteries and an inverter.

Tags: Occupy