MIDDLETON, N.S. — Demand for action on the human-created climate crisis built over the past several weeks as climate strikes, rallies, and marches involving millions of people spread around the world, but one group of local students is doing more than taking to the streets.
Kris Humphreys was already walking the walk but on Sept. 27 joined students and people of all ages at a climate crisis event held in Middleton where half a dozen of her students joined the crowd, carried signs, and chanted with the best of them.
Humphreys is the instructor at the Energy Sustainability Engineering Technology program at the NSCC in Middleton and her graduates are literally the change that 16-year-old Swedish climate crisis activist Greta Thunberg was talking about when she said: “We are the change. Change is coming.”
“It’s involved with energy efficiency in buildings and processes in the chemical systems for heating and cooling,” Humphreys said of the ESET program. “We have international students from around the world that come to the program. We teach them how to use engineering tools to build, design, develop energy efficient buildings.”
She said the Middleton climate strike and rally ties in with what the students are doing to reduce greenhouse gases both through efficiencies and by using green energy. She brought a student project with her -- off-grid house feasibility studies.
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“We have the Pilikan House,” she added. “It’s a grid-tied house but it could run completely on solar alone. We practice efficiency within the program. The last couple of weeks it’s been extremely prevalent in the media, so it’s brought attention to the program that normally isn’t there.”
“Pilikan is derived from the Mi'kmaw words for ‘new house,’ the NSCC website explains, and refers to the house as a living lab. “The name represents a new way of thinking about healthy, sustainable residential development.”
Pilikan House is situated just down the street from where the climate crisis strike was taking place and is designed to be an affordable and practical home to show home-owners how sustainable design and energy-efficient options can be within their reach.
MAKING STEPS
Ryan Colburn is a second-year student in the ESET program.
“The whole reason that I got into the program in the first place was because I saw just so many people turning a blind eye to it (climate change),” he said. “Even though it’s not the biggest turnout that I’ve ever seen, it is definitely something, and we’re making steps.”
He said the climate crisis is high up on his list of concerns.
“I would love to work in the renewable industry to help get us off depending on so much coal, especially in this province,” he said. “Our grid is heavily dependent on coal and natural gas and it’s not good.”
His answer was simple when asked what he would say to those who don’t believe there is a human-induced climate emergency.
“I would say that even if you don’t believe in the climate crisis – it’s indisputable science at this point – it is still in all of our best interests to move away from depending on fossil fuels that are a finite resource, whereas we have the sun, we have the wind, we have the rising and lowering tides,” he said. “If they all work together we can easily power this entire country off that.”
SOLAR ARRAY
Jakemen Mercer, a graduate of the ESET program at NSCC, was also at the Middleton climate strike where he held up a tiny cardboard sign that said ‘Use Les Stuff.’ He’s heading up a project that includes building a 10-kilowatt solar array on the roof of The Academy, a former school, in Annapolis Royal.
“Making the shift to more sustainable energy systems is a shared responsibility and I am excited to be able to share my passion while supporting rural Nova Scotians in this journey,” Mercer said in a recent interview.
One of the major events planned through the project is a Renewable Energy Confabulation, a free public event that will allow community members of all ages to learn more about renewable energy technology and energy suitability.
That will be held Nov. 2 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and makes use of the Academy gymnasium and Annapolis Royal Library spaces. The day will include free talks such as Solar Nova Scotia’s ‘Solar 101,’ educational displays, vendor booths, and EV test drives.
