We need to shelter ourselves without fossil fuels

Finding alternative ways to shelter ourselves without fossil fuels is critical in reducing emissions in our province.

Your choices to put on a sweater rather than turning up the heat or sealing off a drafty window in your home are important steps. But unfortunately they’re not enough. We need help from policy makers to help make it possible for all buildings in Manitobans to be heated and cooled without fossil fuels.

What would shelter without fossil fuels look like?

Looking for options to get started today?

(We acknowledge that financial barriers put many of these suggestions out of reach.
We need support from policy makers!)
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Insulate!

Keeping your home sealed is one of the most effective ways to reduce the energy needed for heating and cooling.

Furnace Upgrade

When upgrading/replacing your furnace, look into whether there are any feasible options for you that do not rely on fossil fuels to heat.

Passive House Standards

Research passive house standards before starting any house renovations to determine the most efficient forward.

Manitoba’s Road to Resilience

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Given the current global political reality, there is serious doubt that the world will take the dramatic action required to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and remove carbon from the atmosphere at the scale and timeframe required by the IPCC 1.5°C Report.

Many Manitobans recognize the primary consequences of climate change (severe weather, floods, droughts, fires). Those same Manitobans see that those consequences have costs that are rising. What many people may not realize is that our ability to function and survive as a society is at risk.

Other disturbances (food shortages, climate migration, global conflicts) are exacerbated by climate change. The consequences of these disturbances may first be felt elsewhere, but we will feel them here due to their impacts on the global economy, supply chain, and availability and cost of obtaining financial credit. As long as we are dependent upon imported food and global supply chains for energy and essential goods, we are at risk. We are best off if we can provide for our essential needs ourselves.

Most governments are mainly concerned with being re-elected. Under the pretext of being “practical”, they have chosen not to publicly discuss the urgency and scale of work required to adequately address the climate crisis. It is up to civil society (the community) to think at this level and to show the way (or at least a way). We can “think the unthinkable.”

The objective of this document is to provide a decarbonization in Manitoba – zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

As we build that pathway we will be building our local resilience. Resilience means providing for our essential needs ourselves without fossil fuel.

To achieve true and adequate resilience, these are Manitoba’s essential objectives:

Food

Feed ourselves locally without fossil fuel fertilizers or diesel for machinery

Shelter

Heat all of our buildings (old and new) affordably without natural gas

Transportation

Move all goods and people without gasoline or diesel

Our hydroelectric resource will be a big part of building that resilience:

Electricity

Develop and use our electricity resource effectively, efficiently, equitably and affordably to meet those other three objectives

Road to Resilience Chapters

Intro

energy & electricity

buildings

human impacts

transportation

economy & green jobs

food & ag

natural spaces / wilderness