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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Bob Bromley, the soft-spoken environmental champion of the territorial government, is not known for grandstanding or making rousing speeches.

Weledeh MLA, biologist and environmental crusader Bob Bromley sits in his cozy Old Town living room beside his wood pellet stove, which he says supplies about two-thirds of the heat for his home. - Galit Rodan/NNSL photo Editors note: Weledeh MLA Bob Bromley caused a stir in the legislative assembly last month after characterizing the GNWT's lack of action on climate change as a "crime against humanity." The subsequent controversy spurred Yellowknifer to investigate what it would take for Northerners to reduce their carbon foot print. This three-part series begins with a visit to Bromley's home.

The Weledeh MLA is passionate, to be sure, but the power of his member's statements derives from the fact that they are thoroughly researched and backed up with solid scientific and even economic evidence. So it came as something of a surprise when, somewhat infamously now, a certain bit of uncharacteristic rhetoric escaped his lips.

"According to our Greenhouse Gas Strategy, the GNWT is prepared to allow our emissions to surge by almost 100 per cent above 1990 levels by 2020. Given what we know, such policy followed through by any jurisdiction would constitute a crime against humanity. I, for one, and hopefully my colleagues, too, want no part in this," he said in the legislative assembly.

It was Dec. 7 and Canada was at the tail end of an embarrassing showing at the Durban Conference on Climate Change, leading to Environment Minister Peter Kent's announcement that Canada was withdrawing from the Kyoto Protocol. That morning, the Canadian youth delegation, clearly more allied with their cause than their government, had been kicked out of the conference after displaying the message "Turn your backs on Canada" on the backs of their shirts.

When Bromley's choice of words was challenged by his legislative assembly colleagues, he did not back down. Instead he supplied the assembly with the dictionary definition of "crimes against humanity" and made his case.

When the news about Bromley's statement broke, an online commentator called him a "greenwashed hypocrite," implying that Bromley does not practice what he preaches. Bromley aims to prove otherwise:

Heat

Several 40-pound bags of La Crete wood pellets lie on their side across the front steps of Bromley's home on Ragged Ass Road. Bromley said he burns about a bag's worth each day and derives about two-thirds of his heat from his wood pellet stove, which, in the winter, stays on constantly. An oil furnace, albeit a new, high-efficiency one, supplies the remaining one-third of his home's heat, he estimated.

Garbage

He saves and reuses the pellet bags for garbage, though "because we recycle and compost so much, we have very little garbage," he said. "We put our garbage can out maybe once every couple weeks."

Beside his home, a blanket of snow covers a large, wooden, two-cycle composting bin and a garden, the beneficiary of all the compost. "We alternate the two bins and by the second year it's really good soil.

Food

Throughout the short growing season, Bromley and his wife Maryanne grow a multitude of fruit and vegetables. There are potatoes, carrots, cabbage, broccoli, zucchinis, spinach, chard, lettuce, bok choy, beans and squash. Kale is easily frozen and eaten throughout the year. And tomatoes, picked in September, are just ripening in a bowl beside the kitchen sink. They also pick wild gooseberries and raspberries and freeze them for later use.

For 25 years, caribou was the Bromleys' main source of meat. The two would take a trip to the barrenlands each fall and bring home one caribou, which they said lasted them the entire year. But Bromley said he stopped hunting the animals seven years ago when he noticed their numbers had depleted. Now he hunts mainly birds - duck, ptarmigan and grouse, to be exact - and supplements his diet with local fish and chemical-free meat from small producers.

"There's just something very different about getting your own food," said Maryanne. "Like seeing the animal and killing it. We always do a ritual with it to honour it and to honour the land and give thanks. And then, you know, cutting it up and carrying it and when you it eat it you know where it's come from ... You don't take it for granted."

Transportation

The Bromleys' car, a blue 1997 Ford Escort subcompact, is not considered efficient by today's standards and NWT regulations don't require e-testing. The wagon, purchased in 1996, has a fuel consumption of 6.3L/100 km, said Bromley, "which was what the word was if we wanted to be sustainable in those days." Bromley has put 102,000 kilometres on the car over a period of 15.5 years, just short of 6,600 kilometres per year. The car is plugged in overnight, of course, but with a timer set to draw electricity for about 90 minutes before Bromley goes to work.

Though the Bromleys have not completely eliminated travel from their carbon footprint, "our vacations, when we do go somewhere else, are much closer than I think they used to be," said Maryanne. "We've been travelling more by train once we get to Edmonton." When they do fly, they buy gold standard carbon credits from Canadian non-profit Planetair to offset their share of the emissions.

"It's not the best thing. It's best not to travel but (the offset program) is second best," said Bromley.

Home

The Bromleys' home on Ragged Ass Road is nondescript but for a set of caribou antlers prominently displayed on the facade of the back part of the house, where the roof slopes steeply upward. The house was built in three parts. The oldest and front section, built in 1946, was recently torn down and rebuilt. The middle section was built in the 1970s and the Bromleys built the rear section after they moved in in 1982.

Most of the house is contained on the main floor, with just the sleeping quarters in an upstairs loft area. The wood pellet stove and wooden beams as well as an orange wall give it a warm, cozy feel, though it is neither notably small nor large at approximately 1,250 square feet.

When they began tearing down the front section four years ago, they found the walls had been filled with wood shavings that had, in some places, settled to about five feet, "so obviously we were heating the atmosphere and not our house," said Bromley.

They have since built double-thick walls where the inside wall is solely made of insulation.

Meanwhile, they have constructed large windows on the south side of the house to absorb the sun. In the winter, plastic lines many of the windows and the Bromleys draw their insulating blinds at night.

In the summer, a plot of birch trees at the back of the house provides shade.

The roof has been replaced, with insulation which meets code, and the shingles replaced with more durable tin.

The floors are made of cork and salvaged old growth fir from British Columbia. Cork, which has an insulative quality, "is a little softer on the feet and is considered a green product because it's so fast-growing," explained Bromley. The couple recycled wood from the oldest section of the house to build shelves and windowsills in the reconstructed section. The freezer is kept in the unheated front foyer; the lightbulbs are all compact fluorescents; the bathtub is two-thirds size; and the showerhead and toilet are low-flow.

Like their car, their stove and refrigerator were considered energy efficient at the time they were bought but that was around 1985, Bromley said, and the appliances will be next to be replaced. "So we just generally are always trying to work on using less energy and so on and find a comfortable way of living with that," said Bromley.

But it is Maryanne who perhaps sums it up best. " I think when you just really love the land and feel passionate about it, it's like if you love your child you're going to look after your child ... and that's how we feel."

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