Wading through election ideas and question-dodges gives me a migraine quicker than a glass of harbour-solution sludge. I hope this helps you assess the eco-promises of the mayoral candidates. Grades are based on the candidate’s knowledge, understanding, creativity and commitment to sustainability, as demonstrated in their responses to my questionnaire. Tom Martin: B+ Martin has […]
Chris Benjamin
Posted inNews + Opinion
Mike Savage: The deal maker
Mike Savage arrives at Barrington’s overstuffed Starbucks with muddy shoes and hems. He’s been at a Lake Banook dragon boat race. As we walk to Cabin Coffee on Hollis he says he just judged the cutest costumed kid at the Alzheimer duck derby. He’s also hit the Westphal-Cole Harbour Fire Department’s 50th anniversary and several […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Summerside Wind
Wind is an intriguing power source that hasn’t lived up to its potential. Too unpredictable. Too much fear of noise, flicker and bird corpses. But a study published in Nature on September 9 indicates that, globally, near-surface winds could give us 20 times our current energy demand, with an environmental impact infinitesimally smaller than our […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Switch Halifax
Early August: Ross Soward sits in a room full of bureaucrats from the provincial energy department, regional municipality culture wonks and health authorities. He’s been working with them for months to organize an open street, car-free Sunday based on the weekly cyclovia, held in several Colombian cities since 1976. The Nova Scotian bureaucrats have slowly […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Energy investment
Last month the Chronicle-Herald editorialized that the province and Utility and Review Board should “rethink the policy of levying conservation charges on power bills.” In the face of rapidly escalating energy costs, that’s something a lot of Nova Scotians have been doing at home. The Herald‘s argument is that Efficiency Nova Scotia costs ratepayers tens […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Sea space invaders
Every day millions of massive ships move trillions of tonnes of seawater around the world’s oceans as ballast. Without it, any ship without full cargo could easily topple. The problem with this is, anything that survives in the water is discharged far from home. As a result, “We’ve got comb jellies in the Black Sea, […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Pie in the Skye
<pIn his book A Brief History of Progress, historian Ronald Wright examines “progress traps,” innovations that help some humans, then kick our asses, causing problems we can’t or won’t solve because we’re afraid to lose face and status. It starts with a “seductive trail of successes” and ends in catastrophe. As a rule, civilizations lack […]
Posted inArts + Music
The Long March Home
Roy begins her tale just before the birth of its protagonist, Yezi, during the Cultural Revolution in Mao’s China. From the opening page Roy establishes the omnipresent fear of tyranny, which permeates life’s every decision, be it minor (what to wear) or major (whether to keep a child, and what to name it). Step wrong […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Efficiency rewarded with pollution
Efficiency Nova Scotia, the agency responsible helping Nova Scotians reduce energy consumption and improve efficiency, is running a spring pledge program rewarding commitments to energy-saving behaviours with air miles. “It’s mostly an outreach and education program,” explains Efficiency spokesperson Kevin Harrison. While air travel is the second most climate altering form of long-distance travel (after […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Damning Salmon
In 2007, leader of the opposition Darrell Dexter spoke passionately from a Port Mouton beach: The provincial government is “not listening to [coastal communities]…they could turn this around by demonstrating that, with respect to this project, they are going to say no.” “This project” is an open-pen salmon farm. Dexter was right. Open-pen finfish aquaculture […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Repairing Halifax
In spring 2010 residents at Black Street and Northwood Terrace were jolted by the sound of breaking glass. Not the Nick Lowe tune. Two vehicles colliding, steel crunching, windows shattering and, before they could asses the damage, sirens blaring. “Lots of drama,” recalls Kim Thompson, who lives on Northwood. “This raised discussion of speed bumps […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
NDP’s green screen
As we approach three years with a provincial NDP government, the Sierra Club’s Gretchen Fitzgerald sums up its environmental track record: “I’m glad the province isn’t antagonistic to the environment like the feds are, but they certainly haven’t made it a priority.” Nova Scotia’s first-ever NDP majority started off well, banning uranium mining and cosmetic […]