POLITICS & POLICIES

Fair Trade book review A\J AlternativesJournal.ca

Fair Trade: A Human Journey

With 350 riveting images, Québec-based photojournalist Éric St.-Pierre takes us into the lives of coffee growers drying beans on jute-covered tables in Ethiopia, flower workers wrapping roses in cardboard boxes in Ecuador, and rice farmers sowing seeds in paddy fields in Thailand. St.-Pierre doesn’t hide the harshness of their lives. […]

COP18march

A COP18 Wrap-up: The Doha Gateway to a Warmer World

The UNFCCC COP18 climate change conference has been hailed, by some, as a success. The ‘Doha Gateway’ was celebrated in particular for its success at ensuring a second term of the Kyoto Protocol. After the negotiations went more than twenty-four hours overtime, the president of the conference quickly gaveled through […]

BCLWereInThisTog4blog

Exercises in Urban Imagination

Enthused members of the A\J team went to a panel discussion hosted by the Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery last week. Featured on stage were Justin Langlois, artist and co-founder of Broken City Lab, Scott Sorli, architect and co-founder of Toronto’s convenience window gallery  and Steven Logan, urban researcher and member of the […]

realvsfake

Lifecycle Analysis Answers the Christmas Tree Debate: Real or Fake?

It’s a simple concept that is rarely utilized in Canada today: incorporating lifecycle analysis (LCA) into planning and design. Evaluating the full impacts of a project or product throughout construction, operational use and eventual decommissioning/disposal would go a long way to promoting sustainable development in Canada. Unfortunately, many planning decisions […]

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Community-Owned Energy

  Solar panels, wind turbines and hydroelectric dams are not cheap. Countries can afford them, but national ownership does not tend to foster local pride. Individuals, organizations or corporations can purchase smaller systems, but they need a bunch of money up front. Communities, on the other hand, may be just […]

climatelegacy

Canada Bottoms Out International Climate Negotiations

Canadians are apologetic people. Yet, navigating the halls of the COP18 climate negotiations as a member of the Canadian Youth Delegation (CYD), the “sorry”s I gave weren’t stereotypical Canuck politeness. Instead, they were apologies of shame for the inaction of our government when it comes to tackling the unprecedented issue of climate change.

solarpanels740 © AnglianArt - Fotolia

The Right FIT

November was an up-and-down month for Ontario’s renewable energy industry. The Minister of Energy released a directive on November 23 to resume accepting applications for the province’s Feed-In Tariff (FIT) program. It’s good news for a program that has been on hold for review for several months, leaving solar manufacturers […]