Canada's Environmental Voice
MUFFLED VOICES, backpacks and headlamps. We arrive at a remote forest location in the dark: 4 a.m. A trail leads us to a lake and a sky-theatre of stars. The water scintillates, an ageless dance of light and reflection. Ancient awe. Sitting in silence on the shore, we wait. Listening. […]
FOR MOST OF US, our primary connection to our food system is what we had for dinner last night. It’s what we get at the grocery store, our local farmers markets or in our CSA baskets. It’s what we stock in our kitchen cupboards and put on our plates and […]
MY FAVOURITE HEADLINE on a food or drink story from this year (so far) appeared in The New York Times Sunday Review section in mid-March: “How Beer Gave Us Civilization.” It tops an intriguing piece by American author and psychiatry professor Jeffrey P.
The lights change but nothing moves. The truck blocking the intersection is also blocking the crosswalk, so I thread my way around bumpers and continue up Yonge. It’s the afternoon rush in Toronto. At this time of day, the sound of the city isn’t the rush of air from passing […]
Recently, I sat at the Woolwich Arrow Pub in Guelph. This pub uses solar power for water heating, Bullfrog Power to provide renewable energy, and its staff uniforms are made from organic cotton. The pub also features certified fish and obtains local beef from YU Ranch. YU Ranch raises grass-fed, […]
When I began my last post for The Green Athlete, I had no idea that I would actually participate in the trek I was writing about. In a rapid sequence of events, I found myself in my Prius on the way to the badlands of North Dakota.
Covered in toxic black fumes and sweat racing from head to toe, boys and young men in the Agbogbloshie slum in Ghana’s capital city, Accra, hammer away at discarded cellphones, computers and refrigerators. The land, including nearby Korle Lagoon, is completely concealed beneath shattered parts and the insides of electronics. […]
Knowing the Land is Resistance (KLR) has been running nature exploration workshops in southwestern Ontario for three years, demonstrating to participants how to (re)connect with the natural world around them, in any setting. I attended a very different KLR workshop in Waterloo in March, at which they presented five starting points […]
Be A Careful Consumer Think before you buy. The Better World Shopper evaluates social justice and environmental performance and assigns a letter grade to companies that make everything from ice cream to office supplies.
With the introduction of the green bin in regions across Ontario, most of us have gotten used to composting around our house with little hassle or effort. But what about when we’re out, away from our own green bin, looking for a place to dump our apple cores and other […]
