Environment

2007 was the year of climate change. Not, mind you, the year anything substantive was done about climate change, but rather the year climate change took centre stage: Al Gore and the IPCC scientists pointed the spotlight on the looming catastrophe, while a Greek chorus of environmental benchmarks—record-thin Arctic sea ice and Antarctic ice fields, […]

It’s holiday season column time, so I’m tempted to go off on an anti-consumption rant, dis excessive light displays and bitch about holiday travel—Ho, Ho, Ho! Thankfully, I’ve got a more upbeat story to share—and if you’re into the consumption thing, have I got some suggestions for you. This story starts with the Ecology Action […]

To call our political leaders “schizophrenic” risks insulting mostly decent people struggling as best they can with tough issues. And I have far too much respect for schizophrenics to do that. But what’s the word to describe city and provincial pols who spew out a bunch of feel-good nonsense about caring for the environment while […]

It was Amy Kilbride’s perfect house. It wasn’t very big, but it was big enough, and the little two-storey needed a little work, but not too much: Her partner, Noel Taussig, was a carpenter anyway. And the price was right. They bought it. Then one afternoon, in March of this year, a contractor showed up […]

I’m a glass-half-empty kind of guy,but two recent bits of environmental news threaten to make me uncharacteristically hopeful. Fear not, though: Every ray of sunshine casts a shadow, so I’ll be sure to call attention to the dark. First is the province’s announcement that 1,350 hectares of crown land in the Blue Mountain—Birch Cove Lakes […]

What’s the definition of “organic?” If you’re like me, you think of “organic” as a series of sustainable agricultural practices—growing food without synthetic chemicals or genetically modified food, and in a way that takes account of the long-term health of the broader environment. But, I’ve discovered, when it comes to fertilizer use in Canada, “organic” […]

“Since we’ve passed the Act,” said Premier Rodney MacDonald, “people ask me “Do we really mean it?’…I’m here to tell you: “We really mean it!’” MacDonald was speaking of the Environmental Goals and Sustainable Prosperity Act, which was passed unanimously by the legislature in April and establishes real environmental targets as law of the land: […]

In his book, COLLAPSE, geographer Jared Diamond takes a historical tour of human societies that collapsed and disappeared under the weight of environmental crises (Greenlandic Norse, Easter Island Polynesians, the Anasazi culture, the Mayans), and those that successfully weathered the storm (Icelandic Norse, Highlanders of New Guinea). Successful societies, says Diamond, have responsible elites, who […]

Last week, Dalhousie University and an animal activist identified as Amy Scott turned Facebook into a bizarre cyber battlefield when they locked horns over the university’s use of animals for medical trials. Dal lashed out at Amy Scott’s Facebook group, “Stop Dogs and Puppies from being murdered at Dalhousie University,” claiming it was “defamatory” and […]