Canada's Environmental Voice
A FRIEND OF MINE in Calgary just bought a home. The neighbourhood isn’t fancy – most houses are 50-year-old utilitarian bungalows – but it’s close to the university and not far from downtown. Although my friend’s purchase is one of the more dilapidated specimens on her street, she paid a […]
Richard Gilbert opens Waste is what we have used and have no further use for. Incinerating waste, I believe, is a better environmental solution than landfilling.
IT TOOK A CENTURY, but energy-rich Alberta has finally replaced Ontario as the wealthiest province in Canada. While economic indicators suggest this to be true, social and environmental indicators tell a different story. They prove the old adage may be right: You can’t buy happiness. Alberta’s Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) […]
WITH ALMOST 20 YEARS of negotiations behind us and greenhouse gas emissions rising faster than the federal deficit, perhaps the time has come to look for alternative approaches to tackling climate change. As University of Victoria professor Michael M’Gonigle suggested in The Tyee in December, could it be that Copenhagen’s […]
CANADIANS THINK of forests as “the lungs of the earth” or “natural air purifiers.” They understand that forests provide life-giving oxygen. They may not be familiar with the corollary benefit of sequestering carbon from the atmosphere, but they appreciate that having large areas of healthy forests helps balance the web […]
“Climate porn.” That’s how the Institute for Public Policy Research in Britain depicts the portrayal of the climate crisis by media and governments. In the organization’s report, “Warm Words,” the authors claim the apocalyptic and external framing of global warming convinces the public that climate change is inevitable and therefore […]
THIS YEAR MARKED a new rise in concern about the global impacts of climate change, prompted, no doubt, by the release of former US vice president Al Gore’s documentary An Inconvenient Truth. We’ve compiled a list of mostly Canadian noteworthy climate change reports, legislation and summaries published in 2006. International […]
IN THE MID-1990s, a Melbourne band called TISM roared up Australia’s alternative-music charts.
IT WAS LIKE AN ALTAR CALL. I had just finished a conference presentation on organic agriculture when a tall, hale fellow in his late 30s bounded down to the front of the auditorium. He wanted to tell his story about how organic food had saved his life. He recounted how […]
IN THE FIVE YEARS I’ve spent as editor of Alternatives, nothing has been as controversial as the Suncor Energy advertorials that have been running in the magazine. Many of you have taken advantage of the opportunity to read the opinions of Gord Lambert, this tar-sands company’s vice president of sustainability. […]
