PQB organist, science journalist strategy environmentally friendly electricity live performance

Organist Jenny Vincent and Bob McDonald, CBC science journalist, are back with yet another science themed concert in Parksville.

The Potential is Now will mix science and the arts in an optimistic celebration of inexperienced strength at Knox United Church (345 Pym St.) on Oct. 22.

McDonald will converse about promising ways to assist the world these types of as harnessing photo voltaic electric power, utilizing ocean wave-generated vitality and even developments in nuclear fusion. Two significant screens overhead will give visuals similar to his subject areas.

“You’re likely to hear some excellent audio. Jenny’s a amazing classical organist,” he claimed.

Vincent will perform organ choices ranging from Bach to Chopin to ‘Chariots of Fire’, and alternate with McDonald as he explains (a several minutes at a time) 8 diverse subjects from his hottest ebook The Long term is Now: Resolving the Local weather Disaster With Today’s Technologies.

McDonald claimed he is optimistic about the clean electricity transition since folks are far more aware of than at any time of local climate change’s effects — and we presently have the expertise for widespread renewable energy adoption.

“There’s far more electrical power slipping out of the sky on the earth in a person hour than all of civilization makes use of in a calendar year, so there’s no scarcity,” he claimed. “We just have to acquire it up and the know-how to do that exists.”

McDonald will describe how power operates, and then transfer on to photo voltaic, wind, wave electricity, geothermal electric power, nuclear and fusion energy, rethinking oil (devoid of degrading the environment) and concepts for enhanced energy efficiency.

“It’s not just a technological challenge however. It is a social situation and it is a political problem and it is an financial situation,” he mentioned. “It’s still really worth accomplishing it because the expense of undertaking almost nothing — executing small business as typical, is worse.”

This will be the 3rd variation of a science-themed concert by Vincent and McDonald, immediately after Cosmic Odyssey, inspired by space, and Earth, Wind, Fire and Everyday living — which concentrated on the earth Earth.

McDonald explained he hopes men and women will consider inexperienced power options these types of as putting in a warmth pump or photo voltaic panels.

“I fulfilled a man recently who place photo voltaic panels on his roof, and he drives an electric automobile and he rates his auto from his house, so he drives for no cost. That is the potential,” he claimed.

One more promising eco-friendly strength progress is developments in nuclear fusion technological innovation, according to McDonald.

“Fusion has been 10 decades absent for 50 many years, is the joke. But we’re having shut,” he explained. “There’s a plant staying developed in France correct now, ITER (Intercontinental Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor), which is under development, and they’re anticipating to get much more out than they place in, which has constantly been the big issue.”

In purchase for fusion to take place, the plasma made have to be heated to 150 million degrees Celsius — which indicates no container can hold it and hence it is suspended by amazingly effective magnets, McDonald discussed. Powering the magnets necessitates a lot of electricity, and currently it is more than what is created by the fusion — but ITER is a stage to fixing that issue.

Canada bid on making the ITER plant, but dropped out to France. Having said that there is at minimum 1 promising nuclear energy progress in our nation — compact nuclear reactors (not considerably larger sized than an office desk) that can be built underground and energy a tiny city.

McDonald explained with all the doom and gloom out there about local weather change, he required to find some answers — and was glad when he located there are quite a few we can employ with present technological innovation.

“The other factor you can do is persuade youthful men and women to turn into fascinated in this things — due to the fact it is their long run, and give them a sense of hope, and say yeah, we can do this.”

McDonald has been a science journalist and an author for more than 40 yrs, most notably as the host of the CBC radio system Quirks and Quarks.

Tickets to The Long run is Now are $30 and online at Eventbrite. The concert commences at 2 p.m.

Arts and cultureLive musicParksville