Canada's Environmental Voice
Lifecycles explores the interconnectedness of, well, everything – from how we move food and waste around the world, to the ancient and fragile ecosystem of Canada’s West Coast, plus ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and build local resilience in the face of climate change.
On November 15th the mayors of Canada’s 22 largest municipalities convened in Ottawa to ask the federal government to increase funding for infrastructure. Cities face crumbling infrastructure and a massive backlog of repairs and investment at a time when population in growth in many urban centres is booming.
On October 11 in Lake Louise, Alberta, a game-changing deal was signed by the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment (CCME) to regulate air pollution. Although it received very little media attention, the Air Quality Management System (AQMS) is an impressive agreement that finally addresses the division of […]
MANY GRADUATE STUDENTS have helped conduct research at Ontario’s Experimental Lakes Area. The dozen scientists profiled below are broadly representative of at least 47 PhD recipients who completed their degrees using research they participated in at the ELA. In addition, more than 80 master’s theses have been produced from ELA […]
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.
WHILE 100-MILE DIETERS provide a ray of hope, small-scale farmers the world over continue to face intense pressures, and many are still forced out of farming each year. In response, we need to think carefully about our aspirations for the 21st century food system.
ON APRIL 17, Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources Joe Oliver stood behind a podium on the warehouse floor of Automatic Coating Limited’s Centre for Pipe Line Coating Innovation, in the industrial heart of Scarborough. Renowned for its technologically advanced and fully automated production lines, ACL has made a name for itself […]
WASTE DISCUSSIONS have traditionally focused on the back-end management of garbage: the significant economic and environmental implications of finding safe disposal sites, for example. But the obvious often escapes us – that garbage is made up of basic materials (metal, wood, plastic, glass, etc.) that require energy to obtain, process and […]
FOR MOST CANADIANS, energy efficiency is synonymous with light bulbs. Switching to compact fluorescents might be simple and inexpensive, but it is not the only cost-effective way to reduce energy use in homes, businesses and utilities. Reducing water use, especially the hot stuff that flows from showers and cleans our […]
IN ITS QUEST to dominate the planet’s agricultural biotechnology sector, Monsanto’s business model has produced significant collateral damage. Generations of farming families in South America, India and other robustly developing regions have been devastated by the US-based multinational’s product line, namely its flagship herbicide Roundup and the patented seeds that […]
