Canada's Environmental Voice
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 […]
AS I WRITE these words, a battle quietly escalates. Two weeks ago in New Brunswick, on the heels of a tone-deaf throne speech in Ottawa, RCMP officers invaded an illegal1 blockade by the Elsipogtog First Nation in protest of shale gas exploration on their land. The pepper spray, rubber bullets, barking […]
Meet your new heroes. Our Great Canadian Game Changers lineup includes trailblazing communities across the country; David Suzuki, Tzeporah Berman and Elizabeth May‘s own eco-heroes; and a small pile of stand-up scientists, organizers and thinkers who are rewriting the rules.
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 […]
THE ATHABASCA RIVER begins in the Rockies and flows northeast, joining the Peace, Slave and Mackenzie to form Canada’s biggest river system. Just outside Jasper National Park, the river slides past the town of Hinton. In 1955, a pulp mill was built there to convert the local forest into Reader’s Digest.
Ontario’s green energy plans have been modelled on the success of Germany’s national program to switch to renewable, non-carbon energy sources. The Feed-in Tariff Program, Green Energy Act legislation and decommissioning of coal generating stations are all part of the provincial government’s push to emulate similar German initiatives.
Two decades was a long time for cycling advocates in the province to wait for an overhaul of the Ontario Cycling Strategy, and the draft report released August 30 has left many underwhelmed. The report from transportation minister – and avid cyclist – Glen Murray (who represents the urban riding […]
A recent survey in countries around the world found that people who live in Denmark are the happiest, followed closely by Norway. Canada didn’t fare badly, ranking sixth. One reason that Danes and Canadians are happy is obvious: both nations are rich democracies and both offer some protection against illness […]
