Robert Gibson

What's the Big Idea?: Markets

9 June, 2010 | Robert Gibson

Every summer, we have a small produce market in our neighbourhood. Volunteers run it oncea week. In the morning, they go to the regional farmers’ produce auction. In the afternoon, they set out the fruits and vegetables on temporary tables in front of the community centre, with handmade signs indicating prices marginally above the day’s cost at auction. Sometimes kids also sell lemonade or cookies to raise funds for a worthy cause.

Published in: Out of the Box 36.4
Tags: Markets, Market System

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What's the Big Idea?: Simplicity

17 February, 2010 | Robert Gibson

Simple solutions to difficult problems are exceedingly rare. Their attraction, however, is undeniable. The world is awash in cults, fanaticisms and miracle cures. Millions of media minutes are devoted to how we can stop climate change by dumping iron filings in the ocean, prevent cancer by taking massive doses of vitamins, or eliminate stress by tidying our closets.

Published in: Building Resilience 36.2

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What's the Big Idea?: Balance

15 December, 2009 | Robert Gibson

Balance is helpful for bicyclists, knives and the Flying Zambezi Brothers’ high-wire act. For many other purposes it is overrated. For sustainability, it’s a mistake.

The idea often sounds good, in a low-expectations way. Balance is preferable to falling down, spilling the beer, or becoming mentally unhinged. Balance of power is better than tyranny. Balance of terror is better than war.

Published in: New Energy 36.1

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Citizen Monitors

28 May, 2009 | Robert Gibson and Debbe Crandall

Lake Wilcox should be safe. It is on the Oak Ridges Moraine, an area specially protected under Ontario planning law. But if Lake Wilcox isn’t ruined by spreading suburbia, it will owe more to Sharon and Jim Bradley than to planning policies.

Published in: Saving the Land that Feeds Us 34.3
Tags: sprawl, preservation, conservation

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Peril and Possibility

27 May, 2009 | Robert Gibson

The show today is brought to you by the numbers 120 and 1.2 billion.

120 is the World Wildlife Fund’s current estimate of the percentage of global carrying capacity for human life that we are currently using. Despite improvements in environmental behaviour and resource efficiency on many fronts, our overall demands on the planet are now excessive. And they are still growing. We are, with increasing speed, wrecking the only home we have.

Published in: Measuring Progress and Building Heritage 33.2-3
Tags: editorial, economics, ecology

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Application Denied

26 May, 2009 | Robert Gibson and Alberto Fonseca

Northgate Mineral Corporation’s proposed Kemess North Project will not be going ahead, at least not soon and not as proposed. The project – an open-pit, copper-gold expansion to an existing mine in a remote, mountainous area of northcentral British Columbia – was rejected by provincial and federal authorities.