Canada's Environmental Voice
AS I WRITE these words, a battle quietly escalates. Two weeks ago in New Brunswick, on the heels of a tone-deaf throne speech in Ottawa, RCMP officers invaded an illegal1 blockade by the Elsipogtog First Nation in protest of shale gas exploration on their land. The pepper spray, rubber bullets, barking […]
THE NIGHT SKY is the biggest idea we know. It’s reality. You can’t run away from it. Pick any historical culture and you’ll find some kind of lore about the sky. The Greeks may have named Orion and his belt, but it is Kulkunbulla to the aboriginal Australians, or Shen […]
FRESH HERBS are a wonderful addition to salads, soups and dishes of all kinds. Growing your favourites at home is inexpensive and convenient, but does require a little TLC. We asked a trio of Canadian gardening experts for their top indoor growing tips.
THE DEBATE about the Keystone XL pipeline has dragged on for more than five years now, and it is beginning to look like a petroleum-fuelled version of the Napoleonic Wars. On one side, Big Oil and its revenue-hungry government allies want to maintain the Napoleonic status quo by expanding an aging […]
AFTER ABOUT FIVE MINUTES in darkness, our eyes become up to 30 times more sensitive than they are to bright light. After about a half hour, they become 100,000 times as sensitive.
Joshua See’s photos accompanied Burton Lim’s article in the Night issue about bat research in Guyana, They Only Come Out at Night. Here are more of See’s shots, featuring some other rainforest creatures.
Oh, and the night, the night, when the wind full of cosmic spaceGnaws at our faces – R. M. Rilke, Duino Elegies (trans. Leslie P. Gartner) IF WE CONSIDER the phenomenon of solar flares, Rilke’s description of how cosmic winds sometimes blow in our faces is surprisingly true. Atmospheric auroras, the […]
EARLY SPECULATION on what caused the train disaster in Lac-Mégantic, Québec, in July seems to have settled on the role of the train’s engineer and the railway company’s poor safety record – and penchant for cutting corners. Some attention was also paid to the out-dated technology used for dangerous cargo, […]
THERE’S A NOCTURAL SPECTACLE that I can’t recall seeing in the flesh before I moved to Kitchener, Ontario, a couple of winters ago. I’d take post-work walks to gawk at the bruised sky at dusk, and often as darkness fell I’d stumble across an enormous murder of crows. Thousands of them […]
THE KITCHEN is a great place to start greening your home. If you’re already stacked with Energy Star-certified appliances and low-flow fixtures, follow these smart and easy tips for a healthier, more conscientious space.
