Environment

When writing about the airport, I’m obliged first to point out the larger environmental context of the place. Air travel, notes British Guardian columnist George Monbiot, “is currently responsible for 3.5 percent of the total human contribution to global warming. This could rise to as much as 15 percent by 2050.” Monbiot calls for an […]

Looking back at this past year, it’s clear that Canadians individually have embraced an environmental ethic. But the further removed you get from the people, the less responsive the politicians. Let’s start with the people. A November CBC poll found that 71 percent of Canadians said the federal government wasn’t doing enough to address their […]

Nova Scotia is working on legislation that could reduce the amount of electronic waste—trash created by old or no longer functioning electronic equipment—in the province’s landfills. But not everyone is happy with how the government proposes to do that. Reboot, a non-profit computer refurbishing and recycling organization whose Nova Scotia operation is based in Dartmouth, […]

“Huh?” That was the collective reaction among fishermen, environmentalists and marine biologists last month when John Risley, chair of Bedford-based Clearwater Seafoods, dissed the international movement for a moratorium on deep-sea bottom trawling. “There is zero scientific evidence, not one shred of scientific evidence,” Risley told the St. John’s Board of Trade, “that these fisheries […]

Run the 100-metres in under 10 seconds while breathing sulphur dioxide, and watch out for splotches of oil lying about the track. That’s pretty much what the people who want to bring the 2014 Commonwealth Games to Halifax are asking of the world’s elite athletes. The bid committee proposes to host the games at Shannon […]

It may not look like much—just another slab of concrete among the rest that line the waterfront near Dartmouth Cove—but the small plot of land at 33 Maitland has been quite the hot potato for the past decade, and is now costing thousands of provincial tax dollars to fix. The land was ceded to the […]

Last month, the people hoping to bring the 2014 Commonwealth Games to Halifax announced a major advertising campaign, with ads splashed on billboards and buses, on TV and in newspapers, and with a large web presence. “There’s a strong desire for further information,” spokesperson Deborah Hashey told city council. “The ad campaign is making information […]

When it comes to addressing greenhouse gas production, the city of Halifax is starting to get it right. It’s the province that’s still getting it wrong. In August the city announced it wanted 20 percent of the electricity it uses—21 gigawatt hours annually, enough to power the city’s streetlights—to come from renewable sources, and asked […]

On any given day several hundred people use Point Pleasant Park, and most of them are carrying a plastic bottle of water. That’s because there isn’t a working drinking fountain in the park. An ancient fountain sits near Black Rock Beach, but it’s been capped off so long it’s more rust than metal. Nowadays, it’s […]

Standing on a gravel beach just south of the Chinatown Restaurant on the Bedford Basin on a warm day in October, Camille Coray bends down to look between the rocks. She’s surrounded by snails, but the one species she’s looking for in particular is missing. Coray is studying the whole harbour ecosystem for her Masters […]