Canada's Environmental Voice
There has rarely been a worse time to build pipelines in Canada than now. One wouldn’t surmise this from listening to the business elites of Toronto and Calgary, gung-ho for the newly approved Trans Mountain expansion, Line 3 replacement, and Keystone XL. Yet, economic conditions have changed greatly since the […]
If economic growth is an unmixed blessing, why would there be a need to talk about inclusive, green, clean, smart, responsible, or sustainable growth? In my research, I’ve asked the question: can we in Canada have full employment, no poverty, greatly reduced greenhouse gas emissions, and fiscal balance without relying on economic […]
The blooms returned in 2002. Many hoped the toxic sludge of algae that blanketed the western and central basins of Lake Erie was gone for good, yet the volume of smothering plant matter was growing steadily. Summers from 2008 to 2010 were bloom-heavy in the shallowest of the Great Lakes. […]
This past November, the Queen’s University Solar Design Team (QSDT) announced their partnership with Bullfrog Power, Canada’s leading clean energy provider. The QSDT has been building a completely off-grid home meant to test and discover new and advanced sustainable housing technologies. The Queen’s Solar Education Center, as it is called, […]
Dilbit could be a good name for a goofy dog. Instead it is short for “diluted bitumen,” the serious mix of light petroleum diluent and the oily tarry sandy goop that the hydrocarbon industry wants to ship from Northern Alberta to foreign markets…
When I first started campaigning there was no Twitter, no Facebook, no Instagram … no Internet. Good organizing happened around your kitchen table, in cafes and by phone. I still remember when we figured out how to broadcast fax to multiple numbers from the Friends of Clayoquot Sound office in […]
Imagine standing on a street corner in a Canadian city in the middle of February, and every wall that surrounds you is covered in a bright, colourful painting. Vibrant images reflect our diverse culture and relationships with nature. Imagine walking past these illustrations every morning as you start your day. […]
“I’m allergic to coalitions.” That’s what a prominent Canadian environmental leader once told me. It was 2012, and the organization I was working with at the time had broached the idea of uniting several groups in an effort to disrupt the entrenched “jobs versus nature” narrative.
Imagination is key to innovation. After 18 years of constructing and racing solar-powered cars the Queen’s Solar Design Team, situated at Queen’s University in Kingston Ontario, plunged head first into building sustainable and energy efficient homes. They ended up placing first at the US Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon in […]
Emi Do was captivated from the get go. By the beginning of the 2011 season, she had accumulated 13 plots of land scattered around Vancouver, to which she tended by way of bicycle and trailer. Her first season, at the beginning of 2010, Do stumbled on the opportunity to farm a plot on the […]
