Canada's Environmental Voice
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 […]
The Maine coast is a wicked scene, as abruptly harsh as it is serene. It is foreboding and kind, majestic and dull. It is here that two young eccentrics chose to retreat – almost totally – in hopes that homesteading on their very own island might afford more than society […]
A FEW YEARS AGO, I interviewed a 92-year-old Haida elder about the effects of introduced Sitka black-tailed deer on the ecosystems of Haida Gwaii. Something he said struck me: “I look at deer the same way as white man and what they’ve done to us.” This comment points to a […]
What will we do when the water runs out? More importantly, how do we develop an ethical relationship with water, nature and ourselves? In Ethical Water, a well-written, provocative and slender book with a strong Canadian focus, these questions are explored by Robert Sandford, the Canadian chair of the UN’s […]
The one-two punch of the auto industry’s collapse and the foreclosure crisis has driven thousands of people out of Detroit, Michigan, over the past decade, leaving boarded-up houses and overgrown lots behind. Some residents have stayed, however, and they want the world to know: theirs is no ghost town.
THE ALTERNATIVES TEAM travelled from Kitchener, Ontario, to Ottawa on Tuesday, September 25 to join the on-going discussion about the role of science in protecting Canada’s environment – and the well-being of all Canadians. We hosted a panel discussion, “In Defence of Science”, at the University of Ottawa, with the support of […]
Disposable products take on a life of momentous proportion in Trashed. The documentary’s first scenes feature narrator Jeremy Irons wandering through a heaping, open garbage dump in Beirut that produces 80 tonnes of waste per day, making it clear that this story is yet another harsh reality check. The world is […]
The Alternatives team travelled from Kitchener, Ontario, to Ottawa on Tuesday, September 25 to join the on-going discussion about the role of science in protecting Canada’s environment – and the health of all Canadians – and to promote our current issue, which investigates some of 2012’s most controversial environmental debates.
Andrew is a freelance environmental writer and reporter based in Toronto with a Masters in Geography from the University of Toronto. When he's not writing he's usually cycling around town, thinking about what to write next.
The environment is a complex system in which changes to one component create long-term impacts. Policymaking, on the other hand, happens on a short-term time scale. Policies are typically introduced as a direct reaction to a perceived problem. Confounding the issue further is the fact that public interest in the […]
