Back in 1971, a young professor and an enthusiastic student at Trent University used electric typewriters, scissors and a lot of glue to produce the first edition of Alternatives Journal. They wanted to bring environmental protection and sustainability issues to a wider audience. Forty years later, the magazine stands as […]

A Boeing 777 has approximately 150,000 subsystems, although under ideal conditions only a few hundred are needed. If it crashed, its 400 passengers and flight crew might perish. When Canada’s cod fishery collapsed, it put 40,000 people out of work, devastated a $500-million-per-year industry and killed countless fish. The US […]

Initially intended to celebrate our nation’s spectacular biodiversity in 2010, the UN International Year of Biodiversity, Alternatives Journal could not help but highlight Ottawa’s spectacular failure to value these invaluable ecosystems. At the UN’s Convention on Biological Diversity in Nagoya, Japan, Canada may be blocking progress, rather than encouraging it.

Corn-based ethanol has become the latest target of the environmental and social justice movements, but let’s not throw out the jatropha, French-fry grease and pond scum with the maize. There is more to the biofuel debate than food-versus-fuel. Take a look inside this issue of Alternatives and you’ll discover that […]

Now on newsstands Is ecology the “master science” of the 21st century? Thomas Homer-Dixon argues that it could be society’s new dominant science, just as physics was in the 20th century. In this issue of Alternatives, we take a deep look at The New Ecology, with articles from Bill Rees, […]

“Sustainability” is a monstrous concept. Perhaps no other term exposes such a vast gulf between frequency of use and level of understanding. With its newest issue, Your Town: Sustainable by Design, Alternatives jumps in to fill that gap. Deborah Curran uncovers sustainability’s wicked nature, while Ray Tomalty and Mark Redwood […]

Bill Rees says it best, “If you want sustainable cities, folks, they depend on sustainable countryside.” Yet the agricultural and natural lands that surround our urban centres are being systematically paved over and dug up to make way for housing, highways and industrial development.

Number 5 – Education for the Planet (Special pullout!) This year’s environmental education directory is bigger and better than ever — 50 universities, 150 programs and lots more inspiring student-driven initiatives and ideas worth stealing. Check out what universities fit your educational goals and what creative student initiatives are worth […]

This issue of Alternatives takes readers into a realm where the actions of government, corporations, citizens and middle institutions such as schools converge to transform society as we know it. It’s a place where the environment receives its due respect. Where, as peace activist Ursula Franklin suggested in a 1994 […]

Please note, the print copy you receive of this issue may be a black and white reprint. Counting money is easy – but how do we place a value on a healthy body, a vibrant neighbourhood or a flourishing environment? Measuring Progress goes beyond the GDP to explore ways of […]