Today My Sunlight Came On!

And it happened on ‘Zero Emissions Day!’

This morning my new solar panels sent their first surge of energy to the control panels in my house. The sun is now powering my home.

The house uses a ground-source heat pump for warmth and air conditioning, so electricity now does all the work in the house: climate control, appliances, media gadgets, sewing machines…

Next year I will get a PHEV car, so sunlight will not only power the house, but also the transportation. Sunlight is setting me free.

By coincidence, today is World Zero Emissions Day. People are encouraged to favour sustainable solutions like:

• Use sustainable means of transportation and when possible moving by foot or bicycle;
• Use energy-efficient appliances;
• Use eco-friendly products and sorting our waste; and
• Choose energy providers that offer renewable options.

By another bizarre coincidence, World Emissions Day was started by Ken Wallace, an artist and environmental enthusiast from my province of Nova Scotia, Canada.

Ken was strolling with his newborn daughter past a parked idling truck with no driver inside. The gas emission in combination with the surrounding unrest traffic was nasty, and Ken had an idea, that stopping all of this would be excellent for our world. He tried to initiate the event together with his friends, but during the 1980s an early Internet message didn’t draw much attention.

However, he had planted the idea, and with the emergence of Internet social networks it grew and was implemented widely.

Ken had been haunted by the increasing impact of C02 on rising sea levels and warming temperatures. One day without emissions will help relieve the planet of 90 million tons of CO2. In fact, the theme of the event for 2023 is: “Giving our planet a day off a year”.

I guess you should have known about World Zero Emissions Day before getting in your car and driving to work. Unless you use an EV, of course.