Canada's Environmental Voice
This sleek, assertive documentary hinges on two crucial but highly controversial premises. The first is that nuclear power has been distorted by the long shadow of the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the justifiable fear and panic that followed disasters at Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima.
With mesmerizing cinematography and close, intimate observations, Canicula captures the essence that pours from within the rich yet modest culture of the Totonac people, who have prevailed since the 16th century in the area around Veracruz, Mexico.
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 […]
PHONOGRAPHS AND GRAMOPHONES brought with them remarkable changes. As fidelity increased, music recorded on discs changed from a single performance that was overheard and “captured,” becoming a document that could be edited, redrafted and refined many times before its release. But, in addition to changes in the production of most music, […]
AS THE PUSH FOR TAR SANDS PIPELINES ESCALATES and the legal channels for fighting them become exhausted, some environmentalists are reconsidering the value of civil disobedience, which Sierra Club Canada (SCC) executive director John Bennett describes as “breaking an unjust law or breaking a law to draw attention to an […]
When the Liberal leadership race drew to a close, few people were surprised when Justin Trudeau emerged with over 80% of the votes. His popularity with Canadians is reminiscent of Barack Obama’s successful ascension to the US Presidency in 2008. One issue that Obama and Trudeau have in common is […]
Urban form is crucial to environmental outcomes including habitat, climate change and air quality. In compact cities with commerce and residential neighborhoods in close proximity, travel is reduced and people are more likely to walk, cycle or use transit when they do travel within the city. In sprawling cities automobiles […]
Anyone reading the news recently has likely heard of the ongoing battle for long-term funding solutions for public transit in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA) and beyond. While the relatively unknown provincial transit agency Metrolinx has drawn up plenty of lines on maps, there is currently no money […]
Canada has some very successful greenbelts. They promote urban density, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and offer a host of recreation possibilities, among other benefits.
AFTER THE PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT CREATED THE ONTARIO GREENBELT IN 2005, an unforeseen land-buying frenzy began just beyond its borders. Developers, land bankers and their offshore investors have since bought up thousands of hectares of farmland in the counties of Brant, Simcoe, Niagara and Wellington.
