The Social Page

Hal Turner is correct about the challenges posed by winter and drought to our energy grid (The right plan for reliable energy, Think Tank, Aug. 11). But the ongoing debate is really about how we manage them.

Manitoba Hydro’s chief operating officer wants that debate to stay focused on facts, and his summary is fair. Demand is going up. The toughest times are still the coldest nights, and dry years put the most strain on the system. Wind power is unpredictable, solar is weakest when our days are shortest, and batteries alone cannot get Manitoba through a drought. The province also already buys wind power, is growing Indigenous-led supply and still has one of the cleanest and most affordable grids in North America. We’re not arguing with these points.

The real issue is not whether Manitoba needs reliable winter power. It is about whether building a $3-billion gas plant in Brandon is the only or best way to bridge the forecasted energy gap.

Almost all of our electricity, about 99.7 per cent, already comes from water, wind and biomass. We emit about 1.3 tonnes of carbon per gigawatt-hour. By comparison, the average Canadian utility emits approximately 121, and the American average is ~350.

Some years ago, I did some pretty in-depth research on ancient Athens and its democratic system of government as part of a documentary film I was pitching. It was actually a lot of fun, because I was looking at ways their democratic beliefs and practices were both similar to and different from ours.

Some of the differences were quite striking, such as the fact that only Athenian-born males 18 years of age and over could participate. Or the fact their executive branch was selected by a totally random lottery system — a system one expert described as akin to picking names out of a phone book.

Then there was the practice of ostracism, a procedure I found particularly attractive. Essentially, every year the citizens of Athens chose a political figure who was becoming too powerful or pushing for a more authoritarian regime and voted to banish him from the city for 10 years.

Needless to say, I can think of quite a few politicians I’d like to see subjected to that procedure.

DEAR MISS LONELYHEARTS: I’m married to a woman who’s older than I am, and it’s the second marriages for both of us. She’s beautiful, even after having what she calls “a few nips and tucks.”

Seriously, it was more than a few.

Her former husband insisted she had to appear a lot younger than him — so ridiculous!

I’ve never seen even one picture of her when she was not wrinkle-free.

‘EL NIÑO is being supersized before our eyes,’ United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said last week.

“The science leaves no room for doubt: the planet is in uncharted waters, and those waters are heating up. The world is in the danger zone of extreme weather.”

He’s right — we are in even deeper trouble than we thought on the climate front.

Zeke Hausfather, a leading American climate scientist, warns that 2027 is almost certain to be the hottest year. It will be, he said, “a climate time-machine, temporarily driving global average temperatures to levels not normally expected until the late 2030s.” (Note the “temporarily.” We’ll get back to that.)