Temperature Inversion

I live in a river valley. It is quite a large river that runs through my valley and there are steep banks on each side of the river. So it is a deep river valley. This valley has an odd phenomena that occurs. Sometimes we wake up and this valley is filled with smoke. It is not smoke from natural sources that fills this valley but smoke from the wood stoves of thousands of houses and dwellings in the valley. Because this valley is so deep sometimes we get a temperature inversion which is to say that the smoke stays close to the ground because there's no up down movement of the air. On days when there is a temperature inversion it is really hard to breath when you step outside your door. On those days smoke is everywhere in the air.

Today is a day with a temp. inversion and it is really hard to breath out there. Basically it is smog... air pollution that causes asthmatics to stay indoors. I am not an asthmatic but I do find breathing on a day like this really hard. More and more I am thinking that geo-thermal technology and solar heating is the way of the future. Hubby and I live with a forced air furnace that runs on propane. We accepted that because that is what our house came with. It was the system that was in place when we bought this house but lately we have been looking at alternative energy sources. Primarily, we are looking at solar power but friends of ours have recently put in a geo-thermal heating system. Both come with a high price tag and while we cannot afford either type of alternative energy our hope is that eventually we will be on a system that uses both. That is not to say that we will stop using hydro power but that we may be able to cut out our propane use altogether and lower our hydro use as well.

We are middle aged and we are still establishing ourselves financially. It will not be easy to make the switch. But our long term goal is to do just that. What bothers me and frustrates me is that the government of Canada and B.C. don't make it more accessible to everyone. There should be huge rebates for those who are willing to put out the money for expensive technology to use cheaper and more world friendly energy. I won't lecture here about the dismal policies Canada has for energy. You can go to any number of green blogs to get that. But keep it in mind that this little family in this remote region of the world takes issue with thoughtless usage of this world's energy. See that picture of the beautiful blue planet in the post from yesterday? Well I for one want to continue to live on a planet that is blue.... and not red or brown like the planets that have nothing growing on them and not grey like the lifeless moon.