Follow me as I navigate away from the wasteful aspects of my life including lessening my reliance on non-renewable energy even though I work in the oil and gas industry. To understand this personal transition, it’s important to understand how I got here in the first place.
The year is 2016…a 32 year-old Toddske is a man on top of his game; the single father of an incredibly smart 8 year-old, a very solid career in the oil industry, a loving family that all lives within a few blocks of each other, a newfound focus on his health and an overall future that is bright…
…then the end of April hits and the plus 30 degree temps, complete lack of moisture after a season’s worth of snow melts within days and the not-a-cloud-in-the-sky enjoyment disappears as reports of near-by wildfires spark-up.
At first, it’s just the typical “forest fires near-by, heads-up” warning…then it’s the “fires are getting close to Gregoire, be prepared” notes…then the evacuations of the southern part of the city begin. I remember telling my boss that I was concern about the community and I distinictly recall the words he used, “it’ll be ok, the cooler temps at night usually calm things down”. Of course they do…
It’s now Monday, May 2 2016 and the “cooler temps at night” didn’t calm anything down. In saying that, while fires were still an overall concern, life was still somewhat normal for those north of the river…at least it was until I was driving home from work Monday evening and the ash raining down on my vehicle like rain prompted me to gas-up before going to bed. This is what a career in Emergency Response has given me; I guess as I don’t necessarily recall being scared at this point, but rather just felt it may be needed “just in case”.
Tuesday, May 3 2016 is a day everyone in Fort McMurray will never forget. While it stated with some concern about certain areas being evacuated, reports of the wildfires “being controlled” seemed somewhat positive. I went to work normally but the family and friends chat threads were filled with concern. I recall my father saying something along the lines of “it’s warmer here then it is in Vegas and there’s not a lick of rain in the forecast for the next two weeks” followed by a series of panicky texts from a number of different people about being prepared to leave…and then I said the magical words and I’ll never forget…
“Calm down guys, it’s not like they’ll ever have to evacuate a major city of 80,000 people…”
Yeah, it was me that said that exact phrase a mere hours before officials did just that…
I say all this as a preface to what started my journey into renewable energy. While I didn’t understand it at that particular point, what followed in the days and months after the May 3 2016 evacuation of Fort McMurray due to massive wildfires triggered a deep-dive into climate anxiety and the fear of what climate change will bring to someone who never even thought about the concept before then. I feel it’s necessary to give this kind of background information so a person can understand the shifts in mindset from someone who relies on “oil and gas” for his livelihood, but also from someone who respects the actual facts and data from scientists who have dedicated their lives to studying this threat…and yes, it very much is a threat to our entire species on this planet. Now is it something that will kill us all in one swoop? No, of course not and common sense reigns supreme as in nothing will completely transition overnight; but it is something we have to manage through preparation, mitigation, and the all-powerful-change of habits we once thought were “harmless”. Transition to more wide-spread use of renewable energy will take DECADES no matter which political party is in charge or what polictical policy shift takes place. The major issue now is that we haven’t even STARTED a transition, let alone be in one that will take a long time to do properly.
Over the next few days I’ll give specifics on my adjustment away from using fossil fuels as a major source of energy. This includes small stuff like lawnmowers, solar lights and using composting techniques to help the backyard; to the bigger items like installing solar panels on my roof and purchasing an electric vehicle. I’ll give the details on what it’s like to make this transition and all the pros / cons that come with it (verus the typical memes and posts on social media that idiots just assume are 100% true). I strive for facts and data, so I’ll give the truths to what I find…including the obvious so far, that using an EV simply makes travel longer, at least for now…but in the end, it may be worth it??
Stay tuned cause if a guy as dumb as me can make this work, then it should be “relatively” easy for anyone to do it…within reason of course.
