As the environmentalist eyes of the world watch the Copenhagen climate conference, waiting for our leaders to fail us again, something truly hopeful emerges from the foot of the Himalayas, in a country with fewer people than Nova Scotia. Bhutan, which is surrounded by India and China, has been a little-known environmental leader for decades. […]
Chris Benjamin
Posted inNews + Opinion
Halifax Climate Events
Please note the changed dates below: If you were too broke or too worried about your own emissions to jump the bandwagon in Copenhagen, there’s still lots you can do right here in Hali to be part of “the most important human gathering ever.” On Saturday, December 12 at 5:00 pm there will be a […]
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Summit talk starts to heat up
Negotiations are heating up in Copenhagen. Tuvalu has demanded that any agreement coming out of negotiations be legally binding. Their reasoning: they’d prefer not to sink. Back in 1992, at the Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit, parties signed a treaty called the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Signatories agreed to create protocols setting […]
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Futuristic Climate Advice
Copenhagen is a beautiful city. It’s the best place I’ve ever ridden a bicycle. The lanes are massive and there is a city-sponsored bike share program. It’s home to the famous Christiania Bike, a three-wheeler for the whole family. And there’s a city policy that every citizen must be able to reach a park or […]
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Inquiry into B.C. salmon first step to accountable fisheries management
In 1992, 95 percent of Atlantic cod disappeared. Our fisheries collapsed, and with a major ocean predator gone, an entire ecosystem was out of whack. Now scientists say the European cod stocks are collapsing. Thank god for pollock. Oh wait, their stocks remain depleted. OK, haddock? Some stocks stable, some uncertain, some shut down for […]
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Critical Mass confusion
“What are you guys doing?” asks a woman from inside her parked car on Spring Garden. More than a hundred cyclists, some dressed as skeletons, sex workers and bears, are blocking her from pulling out of her pit-stop at Timmy’s. “We’re going for a bike ride,” answers one of the Canadian Olympians. It’s Critical Mass, […]
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Bullfrog Power is coming
It’s been a good week for renewable energy in Nova Scotia. Minister of natural resources John MacDonnell announced that uranium mining will be permanently banned, pushing us further away from the nuclear debate. If we want to significantly cut carbon emissions, it’s renewables (wind, solar, hydro, tidal and biomass) or sink. And now Bullfrog Power […]
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Tree hugger power
At the Nova Scotia Environment Network’s annual gathering last week, in a discussion on working with the new government, some expressed hope, but most were disappointed. Longtime NDP MLA and environmentalist Howard Epstein was passed over for a cabinet post, and there has been no progress on key NDP issues, like a permanent uranium mining […]
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City chicks rawk
Any way you look at it, urban chicken bylaws are stupid. Oil is getting scarcer and harder to access, we’re wasting it shipping food from New Zealand that we could grow at home and city councils have gone to the trouble of writing bylaws preventing good citizens from raising egg-laying hens. In 2008 food prices […]
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Losing the enviro war
Here’s a typical environmental campaign: Step one, get annoyed by a problem behaviour. Step two, rally other people and groups who are equally annoyed. Step three, create some posters and stickers and flyers about it. Step four, put out a press release. Step five, hold a public event with a dash of fun, a splash […]
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Wind power breaks down in Nova Scotia
Breaking wind: Just one percent of Nova Scotia’s electricity is generated by wind. Monopolistic energy policies, a dilapidated power grid and broken promises from the new NDP government are making it difficult to get more wind power. We can do better, but it will take rediscovering our cooperative history and forming a new relationship with the wind.
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Local poetry: For letter or for verse
When it comes to poetry, Halifax slams. And poetry is cool. Really. Don’t think so? Got the structured verse of a long dead white guy rattling your cranium? Been rejected by a now out-of-print literary journal? Whatever might have scared you off poetry, you’re in Halifax now. Halifax is one poetic town. Poetry rings through […]