Other News

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Go Backstage at AJ

Our staffers are stoked to deliver an insider's view from the A\J production office, and to share their experiences at great environmental events.  Coming up on this blog:

Peatlands contrasted with tailings ponds. A\J AlternativesJournal.ca

An Act of Deception

ON APRIL 17, Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources Joe Oliver stood behind a podium on the warehouse floor of Automatic Coating Limited’s Centre for Pipe Line Coating Innovation, in the industrial heart of Scarborough. Renowned for its technologically advanced and fully automated production lines, ACL has made a name for itself […]

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The Sustainable AJ Blog

Emily Slofstra is the Associate Web Editor at A\J. She is a recent graduate of Environment Studies at WLU, and is now pleased to be splitting her time between Alternatives, her band The Tra La Las, and her urban homestead. Emily tries to live as plastic-free, local, and organic as […]

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The Food and Culture Blog

Through sharing her adventures and reflections in the food movement, Jo Anne will explore complex issues from a youth perspective, including: the need for an innovative, integrated, empowerment-focused approach to food security; the connections between social justice, environmental issues, and food production; and reviews of foodie events in the Greater […]

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Current Events Blog Intro

Andrew is a freelance environmental writer and reporter based in Toronto with a Masters in Geography from the University of Toronto. When he's not writing he's usually cycling around town, thinking about what to write next. 

Blue-Green Province book review A\J AlternativesJournal.ca

Blue-Green Province: The Environment and Political Economy of Ontario

The environment is a complex system in which changes to one component create long-term impacts. Policymaking, on the other hand, happens on a short-term time scale. Policies are typically introduced as a direct reaction to a perceived problem. Confounding the issue further is the fact that public interest in the […]

Embodied Energy

WASTE DISCUSSIONS have traditionally focused on the back-end management of garbage: the significant economic and environmental implications of finding safe disposal sites, for example.  But the obvious often escapes us – that garbage is made up of basic materials (metal, wood, plastic, glass, etc.) that require energy to obtain, process and […]

Unplugged

EXTENDED PRODUCER RESPONSIBILITY requires producers – not taxpayers or the government – to safely manage their products from the cradle to the grave (or from cradle to cradle). Because it allows product waste to be managed separately from the municipal waste stream, extended producer responsibility (EPR) saves municipal and taxpayer […]

What’s the Big Idea? Balance

BALANCE IS HELPFUL for bicyclists, knives and the Flying Zambezi Brothers’ high-wire act. For many other purposes it is overrated. For sustainability, it’s a mistake. The idea often sounds good, in a low-expectations way. Balance is preferable to falling down, spilling the beer, or becoming mentally unhinged. Balance of power […]