Canada's Environmental Voice
Her face is smiling out from the cover of the Books 2010 issue of Alternatives Journal and between the covers Trent University environmental resource studies prof Stephan Bocking examines the power of story telling in Atwood’s latest novel “The Year of the Flood” (along with Douglas Coupland’s “Generation A”) And […]
It’s no secret that Stephen Harper’s Conservatives have designed their environmental policy to fit a full-speed-ahead exploitation of Alberta’s tar sands. It’s important, therefore, to have an understanding of the industry’s environmental impact. Andrew Nikiforuk’s award-winning Tar Sands offers precisely that.
Here’s a fact I had never considered: the word “rival” comes from the Latin word rivalis, meaning “those who draw water from the same source.” Rivalry is closely related to the availability of shared resources, and tensions are easily triggered when food and water are at stake.
Slow Death by Rubber Duck has one non-chemical ingredient that catapulted it to the top of the charts. As the story goes, the duo behind the Chicken Soup for the Soul empire couldn’t find a publisher when they assembled their first book. But despite Chicken Soup’s winning formula – 112 million books sold in 15 years […]
In June 2009, Thomas Berry, the historian, priest, author and self-described “geologian,” passed away at his home in Greensboro, North Carolina. He was 94. Uniting recent scientific discoveries concerning the provenance and progression of the universe with religious insights into the nature of creation, Berry’s writing blended empirical and spiritual elements […]
Wade Davis is a noted anthropologist and was the 2009 Massey Lecturer. From that series of lectures was born his latest book " The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World"
Information is important, but stories are essential. While scientists can tell us about the extinction of species and the loss of Arctic sea ice, we need stories to help us make sense of these events. But we are buried in unfinished stories. After decades of expert analysis, we remain unable […]
Thomas Pawlick's new book "the War in the Country: How the Fight to save Rural Life will shape our Future" is a rip snorting, page turner filled with intrigue, violence, deception, and greed. (And you thought environmental non-fiction was dry and boring. ) In it Pawlick recounts, with evident dismay, […]
Introduction (0m22s – 2m44s dur. 2m22s) Editorial Overview and "Slow Death by Rubber Duck" (2m50s – 13m36s dur. 10m46) "What Should Harper Read" (13m45s – 23m06s dur. 9m20s) Stephen Bocking on Environmental Fiction (23m18s – 39m15s dur. 15m56s) Trends in environmental books and recommended reads (39m21s – 51m07s dur. 11m45s)
In the 2009 New Ecology issue of Alternatives Journal, Thomas Homer Dixon, professor of Environment and Resource Studies at the University of Waterloo, wrote that Ecology would replace Physics as the master science of the 21st Century. In that same issue Stephen Bocking of Trent University argued that Politics, not […]
