The Faces of New Eco-Activism 26.4

27 October, 2000
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Editorial: A Line Across the Board

Every year I get the participants in one of my undergraduate classes to define environmental activism. I ask them to name individuals and bodies actively involved in environmental work, and to say where these worthies fit on a line I draw across the chalkboard. It has reformers at one end, radicals at the other.

The students invariably leap into it, happily shouting out names and assigning places on the spectrum. Although many are habitually inclined to question the premises of such exercises, they usually assume this one is straightforward. ...

Editorial: A Line Across the Board
Robert Gibson

Diversity Over Solidarity
Robert Gibson
What we have learned and where we have come in 30 years of eco-activism.

Corporate Vulnerability
Alternatives Journal interviews Naomi Klein.

Ten Commandments for Changing the World
Angela Bischoff and Tooker Gomberg
Two seasoned activists offer tips on where to start, how to maintain the momentum and have fun, while trying to make a difference.
Inset: Sofa So Good, Time to Bury the Car, Pennies from Heaven

The Velorution
Jeff Ferrell
Bicycle activists and street militants are taking anarchist tactics on the road.

Young, Poor, Active
Matt Silburn
The People's Community Union organizes local social democracy groups to fight for the rights of Kingston's marginalized residents.

The Housewife Who Went to Washington
Gord Perks
The new edition of Lois Gibbs' Love Canal reveals the evolution of an activist and her media image.

Finding Our Way Home
Maeve Lyndon
Community mapping helps residents define their worries and realize their dreams.
Inset: Green Mapping, Montreal Style by Douglas Jack

Testing the Waters
T. Sharpe, B. Savan and N. Amott
After the Ontario government abandoned much of its environmental monitoring, citizens' groups established their own means of keeping watch.
Inset: Water Watchdog Takes City to Court by Lynda Lukasik

e-Activism
Mark Meisner
Environmental activists are using the Internet to organize, spoof and subvert.
Inset: The Web Links, the Web Fragments by Anicka Quin

Shooting the Movement
Helen Spitzer
Grassroots video activists present stories that the mass media neglect or distort.

Persistence vs Persistents
Craig Boljkovak and Paul Muldoon
Nearly 40 years after Silent Spring, environmental advocates are still pushing for elimination of persistent organic pollutants (POPs).
Inset: The 12 Treaty POPs and Their Status in Canada

More Alternatives

Notes

Grass Off Drugs
Helen Baulch
Quebec town goes to court to defend lawn-pesticide ban while the federal government considers a general phase out.

Fighting for Life
Tamara Herman
Indigenous people and farmers battle corporate biopirates.

Money Pit on Wheels
Katie Alvord
Auto romance would fade quickly if we knew how much cash the four-wheeled sweetheart is actually sucking out of our pockets.
Survey: See How Your Car Can Roll Away With Your Cash

Canadian Undergraduate Environmental Studies Programmes
Alternatives presents its second annual annotated undergrad directory.

Reviews
Early Modern Concepts for a Late Modern World: Althusius on Community and Federalism by Thomas O. Hueglin, Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfrid Laurier Press, 1999.
Planet Dialectics: Explorations in Environment and Development by Wolfgang Sachs, London: Zed Books, 1999.

Letters

Harms' Way: A Great Gaseous Cloud
Dave Harms

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