Canada's Environmental Voice
LIZ BENNEIAN can’t remember a time when she wasn’t interested in nature and the environment. I’ve asked her to think back because I’m curious to know how this dynamic conservationist, with over 20 years of experience in journalism, came to be the environmental conscience of Oakville, a community situated on […]
AT THE TURN OF THE 20TH CENTURY, cities were at a tipping point. Many people believed that broad social problems, such as poor public health, poverty, widening class divisions and social unrest, were closely linked to the design and (non-)functioning of cities. Visionary urbanists, such as Ebenezer Howard, Frank Lloyd […]
LET’S FACE IT – the really inconvenient truth is that the age of unconstrained exuberance is over. Techno-industrial society has broken faith with Gaia and is now wrestling its twin demons of hubris and greed. It is illusory to think that anything can ever be the same. Nevertheless, not a […]
Stephen Bocking hearkens back to Aldo Leopold for a new ecological vision. How can we keep all of the parts and why should we? Bocking weaves politics and science together to reveal prospects of a resilient future with ecologically creative designs for parks and neighbourhoods.
This index cites only one publication year for those titles that have multiple editions. *Refers to a book that has been reviewed in this issue. An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It, Al Gore, Emmaus, PA: Rodale Books, 2006, 328 pages. […]
AT OUR HOUSE, Alternatives is a keeper; as with great cookbooks, we mark up our favourite articles and save them for future reference. I also keep Orion’s gorgeous photos and impassioned essays, and together, the sumptuous American magazine and its savvy northern cousin keep my family on a balanced diet […]
IT WAS TOO MUCH of a challenge for some of our board members and staff to select the title of only one environmental classic that most influenced them, as well as only one contemporary book they would highly recommend. In fact, Marcia Ruby, Alternatives’ long-time production co-ordinator, chose to do […]
OUR COLLECTIVE IDENTITY as Canadians and our conception of the environment is largely one of endless forests, untamed rivers and free-ranging wildlife. This vision, however, no longer reflects the reality of most of our lives. Four out of five Canadians live in major cities or their suburbs, far from the […]
IN RECENT YEARS, Canada has pumped billions of dollars into its biofuel industry. Most notable have been incentives paid to farmers to grow corn for ethanol production. While Canada now has a nascent biofuel industry with more and more plants opening across the country, little thought has been given to […]
NOT LONG AFTER ARRIVING in North Carolina, I became enamored with that exotic Southern delicacy: deep-fried turkey. Each time I fried a bird, however, I was left with gallons of used cooking oil. The recycler in me found it hard to throw such waste in the woods, so in 2002 […]
