Chris Benjamin

Comparing environment then and now is difficult. Indicators, methods and technology—our ability to measure accurately—change. Anthropogenic climate change wasn’t on our minds in 1970. Air pollution was, but only rich countries measured it and they didn’t look at the global picture. Two Dalhousie scientists, Aaron van Donkelaar and Randall Martin, are helping NASA and the […]

Earth Day was inspired by the 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill. Senator Gaylord Nelson was outraged—little was being done politically to change the oil industry. Perceiving a lack of knowledge as the problem, he organized Vietnam War protest-inspired teach-ins attended by 20 million Americans. Nelson’s mistake was assuming that education automatically creates change. It can, […]

Despite government initiatives for green home-energy use, most consumers are clueless about how to get their homes off oil. The visionary solar city program, which will equip 1,000 HRM homes with solar-heated water, is just a start. As a recent press release states, “the Community Solar Pilot Project is designed to help residents take advantage […]

Seven years ago the Bloomfield Centre, at Agricola and Almon, seemed doomed. “The city was going to destroy it,” says Susanna Fuller, co-chair of Imagine Bloomfield. The nonprofit devoted to re-purposing the centre into a neighourhood hub held a series of community consultations, facilitated by Dalhousie planning students, between 2004 and 2008. Rather than make […]

Four of the city’s most substantial institutions—Dalhousie and Saint Mary’s universities, the IWK and Capital Health—are co-operating to create a “Bikeways Plan” in the south end, which they have named the “Urban Halifax Institutional District.” “It’s a large area,” says Mark Nener, a community planner with Dalhousie’s Cities and Environment Unit. “The ballpark number for […]

Four of the city’s most substantial institutions—Dalhousie and Saint Mary’s universities, the IWK and Capital Health—are co-operating to create a “Bikeways Plan” in the south end, which they have named the “Urban Halifax Institutional District.” “It’s a large area,” says Mark Nener, a community planner with Dalhousie’s Cities and Environment Unit. “The ballpark number for […]

Halifax might be less sustainable than it was last year, or it may be about the same. We know for sure that Vancouver is kicking our asses, that we are less sustainable than Mississauga, and that we are more sustainable than Hamilton, Quebec City and Winnipeg, by a nose hair. Those are the confusing conclusions […]

A new report by the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute says the nation’s agricultural sector is in serious decline and recommends we ramp up our food exports. We’ve dropped from third biggest food exporter to seventh, globally, with Brazil leapfrogging us and China and Argentina nipping our heals. The facts are there, the analysis is reasonable, […]

Halifax is known for its recycling. In the world of wasters, we’re among the best at cleaning up after ourselves. We don’t bury all our old toys underground anymore. Half our junk is diverted through composting, recycling and shipping it to the Chinese countryside. Our municipality also has one of one of the highest recycling […]

In mid-September, the Pictou Landing First Nation band council filed a lawsuit against the province of Nova Scotia, Neenah Paper, Kimberly-Clark and Kimberly-Clark NS Inc., demanding action on Boat Harbour. The harbour is adjacent to the reserve and has been absorbing pulp processing effluent —currently about 95 million litres per day—for 44 years. The effluent is […]