Canada's Environmental Voice
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.
You’ve heard it before – small is beautiful. Whether it’s farming, mining or producing energy, the size of the operation is important. Despite the welcome trend toward smaller scale production, however, it isn’t always the best solution. In this edition of Alternatives Journal , we look at the issue of […]
The first thing that I notice as I enter the 519 Community Centre on Church St. – unofficial headquarters of Toronto’s queer community – is the men. Tonight, on a frosty December evening, the recently formed group Ecoqueers is hosting its first major public event, a panel presentation called “Greening […]
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 […]
BALANCE IS HELPFUL for bicyclists, knives and the Flying Zambezi Brothers’ high-wire act. For many other purposes it is overrated. For sustainability, it’s a mistake. The idea often sounds good, in a low-expectations way. Balance is preferable to falling down, spilling the beer, or becoming mentally unhinged. Balance of power […]
Two species, both alike in dignity In warming Arctic, where we lay our scene From dwindling ice to heated landWhere carbon theft makes habitat uncleanA pair of star-crossed lovers test their lifeAnd misadventures come perilous to eachDo make a child … A glooming peace in morning?Uncertain future at noon?Go hence 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 […]
AH, THE NEW YEAR. Time to change the wall calendar. By October, our household had already acquired Greenpeace’s latest offering, a Group of Seven issue, and one of those generic versions that hardware stores and real estate agents give out for free. All of them feature beautiful scenes of pristine […]
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 […]
