Ready for Change?        
David Godri is a first year Civil Engineering student at University of Toronto. He is also founder of Solar and Wind Initiatives Towards Change (SWITCH).
For more information visit www.itstimetoswitch.org.

It was 12:15 PM on August 14, 2003 when an analyst working for the Midwest Independent Transmission Operator forgot to restart a piece of software before heading off to lunch. Missing this step would spark a chain-reaction that directly influenced the activities of more than 50 million people for the following days. Furthermore, the subsequent event would gain notoriety as the largest blackout in North American history.

It was not the greatest of times for that analyst. ‘Busy day at the office’ probably had a whole new meaning.

Darkness stretched from Ottawa all the way to Long Island, USA. Some areas waited eleven days until power was fully restored. Eleven people died from events directly attributed to the blackout. 

“Nearly 6,000 people die prematurely in Ontario every year because of polluted air.
That’s the equivalent of 15 jumbo jets crashing with no survivors each year!”

It is bittersweet to see the past and paint a picture of what could have been avoided. More attention put to the task at hand, and employee training would have been beneficial. The phrase lacked procedures appears frequently in the Canada-U.S. intern report about what happened on that 14th of August. To put it bluntly: we were not ready. The blackout exposed our vulnerability, highlighting how one forgetful error can bring our bustling, electricity-dependent society to a halt. However, are there other places where our dependence on technology can negatively influence us?

Many people didn’t realize that the blackout and the events that soon unfolded were triggered by human error – not energy over use (it played an important role but was not the main cause). However, thinking that we were over using our energy supply and causing horrible air pollution just to cool our homes in the summer heat really leads us to consider the environmental consequences of our energy expenditures. It is interesting what the effect of perceptions can have. Immediately after the black out, the media drew huge amounts of attention to climate change and the environment, but these issues were nothing new.
 
As shocking as it is, nearly 6,000 people die prematurely in Ontario every year because of polluted air. That’s the equivalent of 15 jumbo jets crashing with no survivors each year! The primary causes of these are coal fired power plants. The plants release gases into the atmosphere that form harmful particulate matter that we eventually breathe in. Adverse health effects resulting from elevated air pollution exposure have been linked to cardio-pulmonary illnesses.
 
The Ontario coal fired plants are run by the Ontario Power Authority, which gets its funding from the Provincial Government of Ontario, which then is ultimately funded by the people of Ontario.  
There is a bizarre irony in this.  

“The connected nature of our society means that
we as individuals need to take action
and be the innovators of this generation.”

Too often people give up their power by a proxy vote, even forgoing simple things like changing to more efficient lighting, or taking public transit and leaving the car at home. Elected representatives are believed to be the ones responsible for changing the things wrong in our world. However, the connected nature of our society means that we as individuals need to take action and be the innovators of this generation. Think, what would you like to see in the future? Clean air?

There are numerous things anyone can do to make a positive environmental impact, but you've most likely heard these ideas already. Making a larger impact means not accepting a passive role and moving away from proxy votes.  

Our earth will continue its orbit for millennia - whether or not our country flips the switch on global warming or is left in the dark is up to us. -R