Canada's Environmental Voice
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 […]
IN THE COLDEST NIGHT of the season, well below freezing, and the tawny grasses are stiff with frost. Since dawn we’ve been trekking through a shadowy forest of pine and fir, eventually reaching a wide, arched meadow with views extending to the south and west. Ts’yl?os [pronounced, Ts-eye´-los], sacred mountain […]
AN IMPORTANT PART of any student’s education is hands-on experience. In 1968, a rare opportunity to put this maxim into practice materialized as the Experimental Lakes Area (ELA) in northwestern Ontario. Some have referred to it as a summer camp for scientists.
WHEN GORDIE WORNOFF finds a broken aluminum ladder on the roadside, he turns it into table or chair legs. He’d use a discarded pine futon to make a window or molding. In a grocer’s garbage, he could probably find something for his next meal.
MIRANDA ANDERSEN BELIEVES that young people should play an active role in influencing the issues they care about. “Kids should get involved in something they love because it’s easier to get your message out when you’re a kid,” says the 13-year-old resident of Port Moody, BC. “When others see that […]
A NIGHT HIKE in the Amazon forest is incredibly deceptive. Your vision is limited to the narrow light of your headlamp, with stark blackness beyond. Cecropia leaves the size of serving trays reflect light back into your eyes, adding to the mystery of what lies around, above and even below you.
THE ALTERNATIVES TEAM travelled from Kitchener, Ontario, to Ottawa on Tuesday, September 25 to join the on-going discussion about the role of science in protecting Canada’s environment – and the well-being of all Canadians. We hosted a panel discussion, “In Defence of Science”, at the University of Ottawa, with the support of […]
Disposable products take on a life of momentous proportion in Trashed. The documentary’s first scenes feature narrator Jeremy Irons wandering through a heaping, open garbage dump in Beirut that produces 80 tonnes of waste per day, making it clear that this story is yet another harsh reality check. The world is […]
The Alternatives team travelled from Kitchener, Ontario, to Ottawa on Tuesday, September 25 to join the on-going discussion about the role of science in protecting Canada’s environment – and the health of all Canadians – and to promote our current issue, which investigates some of 2012’s most controversial environmental debates.
THE GREAT ECOLOGIST Garrett Hardin once noted that in any endeavor, “We can never do merely one thing.” The great wind power boom ably proves his point.
