Environment

I don’t remember reading The Lorax when I was a kid. I read it to my kid now. But I’m not a Lorax purist. So, on a Friday afternoon I hit the Empire and paid my $13, got my 3D glasses in cellophane wrapper and prepared for a sermon. There’s no church of environmentalism, so […]

Transit operators say that one bus replaces 50 cars—making every bus strike a smack to the environment. The actual impact is difficult to quantify. The only place in town counting cars is Halifax Harbour Bridges. Its spokesperson, Alison MacDonald, says they’ve seen spikes in peak-hour traffic since the Metro Transit strike began (excluding spring break […]

The buy local movement is exploding, in spirit. But when we aren’t buying meat and produce direct from farmers, it’s hard to know where it comes from. Most food is distributed globally, travelling from field to distant processing facility to distant table. Food distribution is an industry dominated by giants. In Nova Scotia, there are […]

In the past few weeks the Harper government has become more blatant in its anti-environment stance, and much of the story has become public via whistleblower Lawrence Frank, former communications guru of ForestEthics. Frank says that the existence of anti-environment rhetoric from the feds is common knowledge among environmentalists. But it came to a head […]

Stephen Harper has drawn frequent comparisons to Hitler—including in this publication, in the Chronicle-Herald, by a Liberal candidate and as part of that YouTube blank-as-Hitler meme. Hitler’s the most infamous, but the playbook could be borrowed from any dictator: Stalin, Suharto, Amin. And while Harper isn’t directly massacring humans en masse, when you consider how […]

11) FeHEDTA legalized On May 24, Halifax council rejected a recommendation by staff to add the iron-based pesticide FeHEDTA to its allowable list to put the HRM ban in synch with the new provincial ban. A week later, council re-voted—based on procedural issues no one understood. The staff recommendation was approved; for the first time […]

This week and next, world leaders are meeting in Durban, South Africa for the 17th year in a row to talk climate change at the Conference of the Parties (COP17). The biggest unofficial delegation there is the Canadian Youth Delegation, part of the Youth Climate Coalition, which includes Haligonian Robin Tress, a recent Dalhousie environmental […]

Adaptation boogie Eons ago the Mi’kmaq left a mark. Archeologist Matthew Betts says we can learn from their mistakes and successes. Isn’t it ironic, Alanis, that civilization (that uncivil thing) has brought us to the brink of itself? Our environmental impact has become seemingly untenable and gets worse every Earth Day. Having written that, even […]