At the end of this month, a Vancouver heat pump company will haul the gas furnace out of our 110-year-old house and replace it with an electric heat pump. 

That will conclude a three-year journey to excise gas from the everyday life of our household. We went from easiest to hardest, from an expenditure and logistics point of view. We started with our stove, then our car, and finally the long-awaited heat pump. If it delivers even cooling and air conditioning as promised, the transition will have delivered a quantum improvement to our quality of life without sacrifice — except financially.

So what led us to do this, you might ask? For me, the impetus was primarily philosophical. Working at Canada’s National Observer opened my eyes to the misery wrought by climate change and the possibility that we can reduce our contribution to the problem and still have nice things. Among my colleagues were great role models who encouraged me and had good advice; people like Barry Saxifrage, Seth Klein and Chris Hatch, who went down the zero carbon road long before me.

My husband was less ideologically driven. Of course, he believes climate change is a problem but thinks individuals can’t make much of a dent and the heavy lifting must be done through government legislation. He might be right, but guilt gets the better of me and I figure if we can afford to switch, we should. In any event, he’s happy........

© National Observer