[Image-1] A Department of Energy communications director who became a lobbyist for the Alton Gas project just four-and-a-half months after leaving her public employer says the career move isn’t a conflict of interest. Karen White was communications director for Nova Scotia’s Department of Energy until April of 2015. She left that job and took a […]
environment
Posted inNews + Opinion
Minister is “colour-blind” to environmental racism
[Image-1] I was struck last week by Nova Scotia’s new environment minister Margaret Miller’s response to Coast editor Jacob Boon’s question about the legacy of environmental racism in this province and how Nova Scotia can better protect marginalized communities. Her response that the province does not have to “look at any segment or any part […]
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Groundhog cam available for Nova Scotian voyeurs
[Image-1] “Lights, camera, groundhog” cheers a press release from the department of Natural Resources. Shubenacadie Sam, the most famous groundhog in Nova Scotia that isn’t AltaGas, can now be watched by curious perverts 24 hours a day through the “Sam Cam.” The initiative lets the breathless public check in on the rodent prior to Groundhog […]
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Alton Gas approval called a “direct violation” of First Nations rights
[Image-1] After what the the Liberal government calls “extensive consultations,” the province announced regulatory approvals earlier today for the Alton Gas storage project. Not everyone’s pumped about it. Chief Rufus Copage and the Sipekn’katik band decried the announcement, with Copage stating they would be withdrawing from the Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaq Chiefs over today’s […]
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A Q&A with Nova Scotia’s new environment minister
[Image-1] Admittedly, Margaret Miller isn’t quite up to speed on several files in her new political portfolio. The East Hants MLA spoke with The Coast just days after being named Nova Scotia’s new environment minister. She takes over from acting minister Randy Delorey (who replaced Andrew Younger in November). Given the complex environmental issues affecting […]
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City councillor wants new flyer delivery regulations in HRM
[Image-1] “The system now is broken,” says Matt Whitman, about flyer delivery in the municipality. The Hammonds Plains-St. Margarets councillor is looking to regulate the city’s flyer delivery rules; changing the current system from opt-out to opt-in. Whitman will be asking for a staff report on options at HRM’s next Regional Council meeting. “I think […]
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Talking Paris: Whatever happens, we’re already winning
[Image-1] Shit has officially gotten real at the Paris climate talks. Canada’s new Environment and Climate Change minister, Catherine McKenna, left the negotiating table at 7am this morning and returned five hours later for another round of overlapping meetings. Every room in the sprawling airplane-hanger compound that hosts the conference has at least three napping […]
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Talking Paris: Life isn’t fair, and neither are climate negotiations
[Image-1] The agreement that comes out of the Paris climate negotiations will include commitments to cut carbon pollution from both developed and developing countries. In the world of United Nations climate change talks, this is a real big deal. The Kyoto Protocol was the first international agreement that required countries to commit to reducing carbon pollution. […]
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Talking Paris: We’re in serious need of some cultural evolution
[Image-1] Welcome to The Coast’s United Nations Climate Change Conference coverage. Over the next week, several Nova Scotians visiting Paris for the annual summit will be blogging for us on the ground. Our first entry is from the Ecology Action Centre’s Catherine Abreu (a version of this blog ran on the EAC’s website yesterday). Forty-thousand […]
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This Changes Everything says change or be changed
[Image-1] Avi Lewis was filming This Changes Everything in nine different counties as his partner Naomi Klein wrote the book of the same name. The duo’s third film collaboration argues that climate change is fundamentally an existential crisis that can be seized upon to create a more just and sustainable economic system. Lewis spoke with […]
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An open letter to Andy Fillmore
[Image-1] Dear Andy, While the dust settles after the longest election in recent Canadian history, there’s been a palpable collective sigh of relief. We’ve finally kicked Harper to the curb. Under Harper’s “leadership,” we had a government that thwarted climate action, science-based decision-making and reconciliation with the people who are indigenous to this land. The […]
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Bacon is sexy, and that’s a problem
[Image-1] So, the World Health Organization came out earlier this week saying that eating bacon, sausage and a number of other nitrate-heavy deli meats is the equivalent of smoking cigarettes. If you heard the news, you probably just shrugged your shoulders and said “Ah well, what can you do? There are so few pleasures in […]