It’s just a report, not policy yet, but the Stakeholder Consultation Process for a New Renewable Energy Strategy for Nova Scotia, Final Report, by Dal profs David Wheeler and Michelle Adams, makes some good recommendations. It ambitiously states that 40 percent of our energy can be from renewable sources by 2020. Most notably, the report […]
Ecology Action Centre (EAC)
Posted inNews + Opinion
Environmentalists welcome coastal report
Bruce Wark Walter Regan, Sackville Rivers Association Several prominent environmentalists welcomed the release Wednesday of a provincial report on the state of Nova Scotia’s coastline. “On a scale of one to 10, this is an eight,” said Walter Regan, President of the Sackville Rivers Association. “We’ve got to get control over our coastal zones.” Regan […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Halifax Geared Up
Halifax’s environmental community has its eyes firmly on Copenhagen, where 15,000 representatives from 192 countries have gathered to negotiate the world’s response to climate change. Those who stayed home are finding other ways to make their voices heard, in a two-week series of protests, vigils, and workshops. The Ecology Action Centre and Sierra Club teamed […]
Posted inFood + Drink
Local family’s food miles documented
The McMillins may seem like an ordinary family, but they’re not. They’ve cut their food miles by nearly 70 percent and have done so without depriving themselves of any of life’s pleasures, like the hot chocolates they’re sipping in a downtown cafe. The family reduced their average food miles from 2,569 km/month to 880 km/month, […]
Posted inBest of Halifax
Best Activist Organization
The EAC is a hive of constant activity. Here’s just a sample of what they’ve been up to in the past year, provided by Charlene Boyce Young, in charge of development and outreach: “We are running a second year of the Green Mobility Grants program thanks to Conserve Nova Scotia’s support, helping sustainable transportation projects […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Wind power breaks down in Nova Scotia
Breaking wind: Just one percent of Nova Scotia’s electricity is generated by wind. Monopolistic energy policies, a dilapidated power grid and broken promises from the new NDP government are making it difficult to get more wind power. We can do better, but it will take rediscovering our cooperative history and forming a new relationship with the wind.
Posted inLifestyle
Northern lights
King-in-exile of the local music scene, Sloan was the highest-profile band to come out of the mid-’90s Halifax music explosion. Though they’re longtime Toronto scenesters—it even says as much on their website—Sloan often sang of its hometown experience, as on a few key tracks from the 1999 release Between the Bridges. The bridges in question […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Province fails to meet legislated environmental targets
In 2007, the Nova Scotia legislature unanimously passed the Environmental Goals and Sustainable Prosperity Act, a piece of legislation that was celebrated around the country as a progressive approach to environmental stewardship. And that celebration was warranted—for the first time, it named specific regulatory goals—21 of them, over the next 20 years—that had to be […]
Posted inLifestyle
How to get your garden growing
Craving homegrown tomatoes but just don’t have the space on your balcony? Want to eat potatoes planted with your own hands but just don’t have the soil base in your yard? Looking to meet the people in your community while doing something rewarding? Consider joining a community garden in your neighbourhood this summer. Not only […]
Posted inArts + Music
Benefits package
If you’re a musician in this town, then you’ve either been asked to play a benefit show or you’re about to be. Musicians and bands were contributing their talents to causes long before Bob Geldof globalized the practice in the mid-’80s. But in a city bursting with events and causes, how do musicians decide where […]
Posted inLifestyle
The Coast’s get involved guide
Right here, right at the beginning, this is the part of the guide where I beseech you to reach into your inner self and find that true heart of goodness that sits at your very core, your soul, right next to your spleen, I think, and to connect that true heart of goodness to those […]
Posted inBest of Halifax
Best Activist Organization
In a year when the environment found its way to forefront of concerns for pretty much anyone with a conscience, it makes a lot of sense that the EAC would be at the top of Coast readers’ list. The EAC has become the de facto rep for sustainable living in the province, this past summer […]