Informed participation in open, accountable and effective governance: that’s a pretty good working definition of development. Governments have been using foreign aid for many purposes over the decades, and their first purpose is not always development or alleviation of poverty, as Ian Smillie points out in this issue of Alternatives. […]

Buy this issue in print or digital format to read the rest: Editorial: Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner Launching street festivals. Planting watermelon. Doling out fake traffic tickets. If you’re wondering what these have in common, read on. They’re ingenious ways of handling issues, prying open the box.

Editorial The Nature of Health The Last Word – Stephen BockingNeil Arya interviews legendary epidemiologist John Last. Ecosystem Health – John HowardPrescribing a new vision for the future of medicine. An Ounce of Prevention – Sarah WakefieldSince the Industrial Revolution, public health has fostered healthy environments to prevent disease.

Editorial: Green at Home LEEDing the Way – Guy DaunceyThe “Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design” rating system will inevitably foster greener buildings and more sustainable communities.Canada’s First LEED Gold – G.D. Greenville – Robert PaehlkeApplying green principles to buildings and urban planning is a sound long-term investment of public dollars.

Myths of Diversity – Andil GosineCanadian environmentalists don’t want to talk about racism — but too often that means the uncritical acceptance of popular diversity myths.Inset: Les Verts Reinvent Égalité Ghosts of Africville – Denise Izzard AllenFormer residents of Africville are still fighting municipal planning decisions in Nova Scotia.

Water Privateers – Tony ClarkeInternational trade agreements and loan conditions are pushing the privatization of public water systems around the world.Inset: Water Privatization Glossary – David A. McDonaldInset: GATS Threat – Karl Flecker Public Water – Ron CrawleyThe Canadian Union of Public Employees has been leading the fight against the privatization of […]

Editorial: A Sacred Task Experimenting on Children – Kathleen CooperDespite the lessons from experience with lead in gasoline, Canadian regulators are only slowly adopting more precautionary approaches to environmental health threats involving children. Starting Off – Loren Vanderlindenmilk is still nature’s best infant food, but it is vulnerable to persistent contaminants.

Editorial: No Fish, Two Tories – Robert Gibson From Jigging to Farming – Dean BavingtonThe destructive management principles that led to the collapse of the northern cod stocks are now being applied to the new aquaculture industry.Inset: The Belated Discovery of Cod DiversityInset: Principles of Ecological Aquaculture

Editorial: Restoring What Was, Attacking What Is – Bob Gibson Beyond Repair – Donna HavingaEcological restoration is as much about transforming values and practices as about repairing damaged ecosystems.Inset: The Transformation of Sudbury by Nigel RichardsonInset: Restoration as Healing by Solomon Boyé

Editorial: Brundtland and Beyond – Ray Tomalty The Power Elite – Stephen BockingThe Bakun Dam will flood 69,000 hectares of tropical forest, and displace thousands of people, to generate at great cost, electricity for which there is no immediate market..