Canada's Environmental Voice
Toronto has a seemingly neverending cycle of film festivals, but only Planet in Focus trains its crosshairs exclusively on environmental concerns. The 14th annual version (from November 21 to 24) featured a slate of strong, complex and curious documentaries, and another handful of very well deserved PiF award winners.
Witless Bay Ecological Reserve in Newfoundland is home to North America’s largest breeding colony of Atlantic puffins, hosting over 260,000 pairs each summer. While the reserve’s islands provide a safe haven, fledglings are drawn towards the artificial lights of coastal communities where they encounter nighttime hazards like traffic and cats. […]
Karen Eilerson founded the Discovery Child Care Centre 15 years ago in Barrie, Ontario, because she wanted to help heal the disconnect between kids and nature. She’s since become integral to nurturing her community by sticking to a simple equation: Less screen time and more green time.
The last I saw Hermann Scheer, he was walking north up a side street from Unter den Linden in Berlin. It was mid-evening in August 2009 and we’d been talking for well over an hour, seated at a small table on the sidewalk next to the Café Einstein, an establishment […]
In 2011, the CEOs of oil companies operating in the tar sands were found guilty of ecocide in a mock trial staged by the Eradicating Ecocide Global Initiative. The trial was part of British lawyer Polly Higgins’ campaign to have ecocide recognized as an international crime by the United Nations. […]
In early October 2013 the United Nations body responsible for global aviation committed to curbing pollution from the world’s airlines by the end of the decade. Members of the UN’s International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), including Canada, had strongly criticised European Union efforts to include emissions under their Emissions Trading […]
The Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) has shown a “shocking disregard” for its legal obligation to consult with the public on numerous changes to how species at risk and their habitat are managed in the province, Ontario’s environmental commissioner Gord Miller warned recently.
The protagonists in Elemental are very different people with unique approaches to their campaigns, but are united by vision, passion and the ability to persevere despite personal hardship and opposition. Rajendra Singh is the Commissioner of Rivers in India and is on a self-declared “pilgrimage to purify the Ganges.” He […]
Nocturnal adventurers of K-W (and beyond): This past Saturday night you contributed to building a portal into another dimension of this community. Seeing so many bundled-up faces out on the streets for Night\Shift — exploring, absorbed, smiling wide and soaking up a side of this city that seems to bubble […]
It’s an interesting fact that drinking seawater will only make you thirstier, because of all the salt. This is one of several reasons why being lost at sea would be profoundly unpleasant. Of course, if you could find a way to drink the water safely then dying of thirst would […]
