Canada's Environmental Voice
Of all the possible definitions of a garden, I like Don Gayton’s best: “A garden is a gift, a celebration and a revelation.” Gayton’s idea applies equally well to his own efforts, as an ecologist landscaping his suburban yard, as to the more political and activist agenda of guerrilla gardener […]
We don’t often compare a city with a beehive. According to Marilyn Hamilton, however, perhaps we should. In her book Integral City, Hamilton presents a radical new framework that can be used to design and regenerate the spaces in which we live. Her approach involves a view of city planning […]
Alternatives Journal issue 35:4 is entitled The New Ecology, and in this five-part podcast, we go deep with two contributors, short with one other, and have fun with the title term "Ecology" in another.
In this podcast we speak with some of the book reviewers from the print edition. As Executive Editor Nicola Ross points out in her Editorial Overview, since the reviewers are often as interesting as the writers of the featured books, these interviews go way beyond a simple review. Intro 0m21 […]
Energy policy analyst and Alternatives Journal editorial board member Susan Holtz explains why, when it comes to Biofuels policy, Food versus Fuel is not as important a question as everyone seems to think. She also explains why we need a balance of biofuel solutions, even if ethanol is relatively inefficient. […]
Imagine you have to buy gas for your car. At one station down the street, the sign offers "1.3 liters per $1".Another though is offering "5 liters per $1" Which would you choose? Well, with Bill C-33 it appears the Government of Canada has opted for the former, the Less […]
Sick of high fuel costs? Sickened by the damage transportation is doing to our environment? In theory biofuels — ethanol, biodiesel, etc. — might provide relief on both these fronts. But theory aside, is it really practical? For four years Blake O'Brien ran his 1985 diesel Mercedes Benz "beater" (his […]
Nauru is a teeny speck of an island in the middle of the Southpacific. Once a bountiful habitat for 1,000 residents, in the past 150 years Nauru has been reduced to a lunar landscape of rubble. Novelist David Kendall tells the whipsaw tale of greed and shortsightedness, how phosphates made […]
Peter Andree's article starts out: "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." In […]
Cimate change, climate forcing, global warming – all these terms frame a collective public debate about the future of the world as we know it. Since that “world” is dynamic and geographically diverse, it is not surprising that political responses range widely from hand-wringing to commitment and resignation, to disbelief […]
