Workplaces

electrical tower yellow sky A\J AlternativesJournal.ca

The Social Price of Energy

YOU’VE PROBABLY NEVER heard of Fred Cottrell, and that’s a shame. The American sociologist wrote an idea-busting book in 1955, Energy and Society, in which he argued that the availability of energy set and erased the limits of what human beings can do. He revised the essay in 1972, seven years […]

Green Collar Revolution

KIDS ARE SMART. They get it. Over the past year, I have spoken to hundreds of university students in Eastern Canada. First, I present scientific evidence that demands we put a price on carbon and move to a low-carbon economy. Next, I pose the question: Which sectors will be the […]

Editorial: The Future We Want

"NEOPHOBIA" is the fear of novelty. While this condition is pervasive in the hallowed halls of Parliament Hill, nowhere is it found amongst the contributors to this issue of Alternatives. From crisis comes new ideas, and our current economic and environmental conditions have shot the creativity metre among our authors […]

The Third Industrial Revolution book review A\J AlternativesJournal.ca

The Third Industrial Revolution: How Lateral Power is Transforming Energy, the Economy, and the World

Society has always had a weakness for seers and prophets, those who claim the ability to travel mentally to that murky destination called the future and bring back lessons for today. But the next frontier is, of course, an unknowable place. Regardless of how attractive or compelling a vision of […]

Industrial Evolution book review A\J AlternativesJournal.ca

Industrial Evolution: Local Solutions for a Low Carbon Future

“At some point, someone in America is going to have to make something.” These obvious yet perhaps revolutionary words come from Industrial Evolution, a wonderful new book by Lyle Estill, an entrepreneur, author, and, dare I say, environmental industrialist. The book’s premise reflects something that we all know but generally […]