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 […]
environment
Posted inNews + Opinion
Idle cars, idle dollars
Dear Metro Transit, As I write, there is an HRM vehicle (car, not bus) sitting outside my office window that has been idling for 10 minutes. Inside which there is a uniformed Metro Transit employee eating his lunch. Quoting your own Policies & Guidelines: “As it currently stands, after three minutes, Metro Transit operators are […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Bogs and frogs lose as suburbia expands
In HRM’s vanishing wildlands, excavators rumble relentlessly across scarred landscapes. The destruction of natural habitat in and around HRM’s sprawling suburbs is so routine it’s rarely even newsworthy. Yet once in a blue moon, a determined citizen can make a big difference. On the weekend of June 6, Sackville resident Marilyn Challis spotted one of […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Building the little green schoolhouse
Last century I studied some environmental education at York. My professors walked the walk, and inspired us the way they would have us inspire our students. You need inspiration to make change. A decade later, I sometimes lose hope that we’ll change, and I have to think a long way back to find that inspiration. […]
Posted inLifestyle
My summer: Zoë Caron, environmentalist, author
Currently on the board of directors at the the Sierra Club of Canada, 23-year-old Caron, originally from a small town in rural British Columbia, is the former Atlantic Coordinator for the Sierra Youth Coalition: Sustainable Campuses Project. She studied International Development and Environmental Science at Dalhousie, with a focus on climate change on both the […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Maritime artists address environmental issues
Reasoning with a psychopathic culture hasn’t been much fun for environmentalists. It’s probably futile anyway—if you wanna change minds, you gotta touch hearts first. And touching hearts is the work of artists, not policy wonks. “Art hits us viscerally,” explains spoken word artist Laura Burke. Burke, known for dropping earth-loving rhymes, will compete as part […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Tar struck
Were those really beads of sweat glistening on Pete Mansbridge’s polished pate last Wednesday? The CBC TV anchor had worked himself into a lather on the eve of a presidential stopover in Ottawa. “What’s at stake when Barack Obama knocks on Stephen Harper’s door?” Mansbridge bellowed. “This meeting is unlike any other in recent memory […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Into the wild Blue Mountain
It’s hard to believe this place exists at all, really. But sure enough, I can locate it on a topographic map nailed to my office wall: a chunk of land about the size of the Halifax peninsula, which is on the same map. In this area, however, the topo map shows no roads, no black […]