Canada's Environmental Voice
The university experience can mean long hours in the lecture hall, but this doesn’t have to come at the expense of getting involved. Even those awkward two-hour breaks between classes provide enough time to explore environmental groups and activities. For those who long to make their mark, a smart place […]
AT A CLIMATE change conference in Vancouver in 1996, I ran into David Suzuki. He wasn’t well versed on the issue back then and wanted to know if there were any companies doing something about climate- change. I named a few and he suggested that it would be a good […]
"BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY means the variability among living organisms from all sources including, inter alia, terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part: this includes diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems.” -United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity
CANADA WAS an active and enthusiastic negotiator in the early days of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). It was the first industrialized country to ratify the CBD, and Montreal is home to the CBD’s secretariat.
ANIMALS HAVE LONG ADORNED our currency. The nickel features a beaver, the quarter has a caribou and a five-dollar bill depicts a kingfisher. We continue to call our one-dollar coin a “loonie,” even though it doesn’t always show a loon. I used to be proud that nature was so central […]
WHEN THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICERS from some of Canada’s most influential corporations encourage government intervention to tackle climate change, you know change is in the air. And in this case, the change involves a tax shift, a green tax shift, that is.
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 […]
THE LANGUOROUS DOG DAYS of summer are upon me as I write this editorial. Tonight, Sirius, the canine star, will light up the sky. But I can’t ignore the slightly burnt aroma of autumn that already tinges the still afternoon air.
This issue of Alternatives focuses on water soft paths. For most people this statement invites the question: What are water soft paths? Though noun and adjective have been reversed, water soft paths share a common heritage with the soft energy paths developed in the 1970s by a group of researchers […]
Move over David Suzuki. Make way Al Gore. Switzerland’s most engaging hero after tennis star Roger Federer is now a proponent of renewable energy. Dr. Bertrand Piccard’s affinity for TV cameras won’t hurt his reputation, but it’s his inspiring talks and efforts to promote solar energy that will put him […]
