Canada's Environmental Voice
The Province of Ontario is currently soliciting advice on a new climate strategy to reach its carbon reduction targets of 15 per cent lower than 1990 levels by 2020, and 80 per cent lower by 2050. These are serious targets for a serious issue, and this new climate strategy is […]
For the 100,000 daily commuters who travel on the Don Valley Parkway in to Toronto’s East end, the landscape is likely viewed as a picturesque transportation corridor, if it is noticed at all. Do Torontonians truly understand the valley for all that it has been in the past – a […]
Habitat. It is what species need to survive; there are no two ways about it. Yet, as forests continue to be felled, wetlands drained, rivers dammed and grasslands ploughed under, wildlife habitat is disappearing.
Climate change is a classic “wicked” problem. The sources of the greenhouse gases that cause the problem are ubiquitous, such that no finger can be pointed directly at the culprit. Few people agree on how to resolve climate change, and efforts to combat it can cause more problems than they […]
WE LIVE in turbulent times, characterized by “wicked” problems. What makes our environment and modern problems so wicked? They are beyond the capacity of any one sector or discipline to research, understand and resolve. Their solutions must emerge from diverse social actors that are convened in forums deliberately designed to […]
Aristotle nailed it when he said, “What is common to the greatest number gets the least amount of care.” He elaborated that people “pay most attention to what is their own; they care less for what is common.”1 One wonders whether the ancient teacher could have foreseen the day when […]
Originally published at House of Friendship. MY FAMILY MOVED onto a small-ish farm in Southern Ontario the year I entered kindergarten. We are now certified Organic, and mainly produce spelt and grass-fed beef. At different points we’ve had pigs, chickens, sheep, and a small army of barn cats.
IN 1906, the New York City Police Department dispatched mounted officers onto Wall Street to break up mobs of investors trying to buy Cobalt, Ontario silver mine stocks. Simultaneously, thousands across North America descended upon the burgeoning camp cut into the remote northern Ontario wilderness to stake additional claims or […]
Imagine a morning when the lights and coffee machine don’t work, your home has no heat and your car doesn’t start. We generally don’t give much thought to where our energy comes from – we just flip the switch. But energy is an integral part of our economy, society and […]
THE STORM THAT HIT Toronto on July 8, 2013 dumped 126 millimetres of rainfall in a two-hour period, which is more rainfall than the city typically gets in the entire month of July. Severe flash floods paralyzed public transit and stranded thousands of commuters. Power outages affected at least 300,000 […]
