Canada's Environmental Voice
SIMPLE SOLUTIONS to difficult problems are exceedingly rare. Their attraction, however, is undeniable. The world is awash in cults, fanaticisms and miracle cures. Millions of media minutes are devoted to how we can stop climate change by dumping iron filings in the ocean, prevent cancer by taking massive doses of […]
“Climate porn.” That’s how the Institute for Public Policy Research in Britain depicts the portrayal of the climate crisis by media and governments. In the organization’s report, “Warm Words,” the authors claim the apocalyptic and external framing of global warming convinces the public that climate change is inevitable and therefore […]
This quietly jarring documentary about National Geographic photographer James Balog’s work explores the challenge of bringing climate change into focus. In search of a seductive, meaningful display of global warming’s impact, Balog realized “the story is in the ice, somehow,” and created the Extreme Ice Survey (extremeicesurvey.org) in 2005.
WHEN THE FIRST ISSUE of Alternatives Journal rolled off the presses in 1971, the world was a very different place – politically and technologically. There was a self-conscious political left and the political right was far less ascendant. Computers filled whole rooms and munched on punch cards to obtain information. […]
Editorial: Our Place in the World This issue of Alternatives explores how the built environment – the physical structures making up our cities, towns and villages – influences our relationships with nature and our fellow human beings. The basic insight expressed in the various theme articles is that if we […]
Editorial: A Line Across the Board – Robert Gibson Diversity Over Solidarity – Robert GibsonWhat we have learned and where we have come in 30 years of eco-activism. Corporate Vulnerability Alternatives Journal interviews Naomi Klein.
AS THE ALTERNATIVES TEAM was finishing up this Green Buildings issue, we were also settling in to a new building ourselves. The former Public Utilities Building in the heart of downtown Kitchener, Ontario, is a three-storey stone beauty from the early 1930s, complete with Art Deco flourishes and an original […]
MODERN CONCERNS about energy started with two oil-price shocks in the 1970s, coming to the fore again in the 1980s with the Chernobyl nuclear disaster and the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Then, more recently, we experienced the Deepwater Horizon and Fukushima disasters. Who knows what the future holds?
Editorial – R. Paehlke Proposed Hat Creek Valley Coal Development – Glen Scobie The Spruce Budworm Controversy in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia – Kari Lie Some Environmental Aspects of a Canadian Constitution – Geoff Mains Energy Autonomy for Qubec from an Ecological Perspective – Hélène Lajambe Canol – A […]
Editorial – Robert C. Paehlke Ecological Crisis and the Autonomy of Science in Capitalist Society: a Canadian Case Study – David W. Livingstone and Richard V. Mason Manitoulin South Shore – James L. Hodgins The Transition to Renewable Resource Societies and the end of “Flat Earth Economics” – Hazel Henderson […]
