Canada's Environmental Voice
Have you ever noticed this twittering sound? I didn’t until a friend pointed it out a few years ago. I was amazed to learn it comes from tiny birds that spend their nights clinging to the walls of chimneys and their days aloft on long, sickle-shaped wings. I’ve heard it […]
I was a kid in the seventies when a serious drought in Southern California left swimming pools emptied, which created the ideal environment for skateboarding to evolve from its quaint “sidewalk surfing” days, as Jan and Dean sang, to a legitimate and highly profitable industry.
Christian McEachern recalls his time as a peacekeeper in the former Yugoslavia as working “22 or 23 hours a day on the front line, being shot at – or guys are getting killed or wounded with land mines.” During his 14 years in the Canadian Forces, including tours on United […]
Imagine a society in which the figures, facts and records that governments accumulate are publicly available and free to use by citizens, civil society and business. This – and the potential for greater civic involvement in politics it promises – is what the open data movement wants to see, and […]
This series was originally posted in five separate parts, now published here together for easier reading. This is a blog series about growth, sustainability and our planet. It is a thought experiment on whether or not the idea of a pro-growth environmentalist is an oxymoron.
Last year, we posted 9 Simple Ways to Save the Planet in our Green Living blog. The post suggested eating less meat, stating that “an estimated 18 per cent of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions can be attributed to livestock production.” We’ve since learned that the impacts of meat are much worse […]
Sometime during the next 100 years or so, the world is going to run out of platinum. If we haven’t found a replacement, production of new jewelry, electrodes, anticancer drugs and turbine engines will all grind to a halt. Also coming to a screeching stop will be production of solar […]
Imagine going to your favourite bar year after year and ordering beer on tap. Then, one day, the tap runs dry. All that’s left are the drops that have fallen on the bar floor after decades of beer-thirsty customers. The only way to get more beer is to squeeze droplets […]
By Anil Kanji Winter cycling is no longer the domain of daring bicycle couriers or mountain biking aficionados. With rising gas prices, environmental footprint concerns, and improved infrastructure for city riding, commuting by bicycle year-round is a growing trend. “We’re seeing more and more people out there,” says Yvonne Bambrick, spokesperson […]
Two summers ago, I was on a mission of sorts. I was learning how to authentically cook vegetables I had never heard of from around the world. But instead of travelling to East Asia for gai lan or the Caribbean for callaloo, I neighbourhood-hopped around Toronto to Chinatown and Little […]
