Canada's Environmental Voice
LAUNCHING STREET FESTIVALS. Planting watermelon. Doling out fake traffic tickets. If you’re wondering what these have in common, read on. They’re ingenious ways of handling issues, prying open the box. That’s what Alternatives delivers in this Creative Communities issue: fresh approaches to entrenched social problems – poverty, waste, addiction, environmental […]
THIS YEAR’S RECIPIENT of Earth Day Canada’s Outstanding Commitment to the Environment Award, Bruce Cockburn is a singer/songwriter and activist. An Officer of the Order of Canada and the honorary chair of Friends of the Earth, Cockburn has used his music to oppose degradation of the environment – from destructive […]
IN 2005, Andrea Dawber came across a project named Walk Here. She recalls thinking about Davenport, the tree-challenged Toronto community where she lives: It needs to be green here, she realized, if people are going to walk here. And so began GreenHere, the 2010 winner of Earth Day Canada’s Hometown […]
HEATHER MACFADYEN relates her horror upon returning to her weekend home in Canmore, Alberta, after a six-week hiatus. “I was driving along the road that leads to our place when I realized that something was missing. What had been a mature lodgepole pine forest a few short weeks ago was […]
A RADICAL TRANSFORMATION of education would develop an ecologically literate society – one that understands the principles of ecological systems and uses them to design human systems.
I ATTENDED Belfountain Public School from Grade 1 to 8. With four classrooms and a gymnasium, it was a considerable step up from the one-room schoolhouses where my older siblings learned their three Rs. Nonetheless, a product of educational wisdom in 1960s Ontario, the schoolyard was devoid of vegetation and we […]
WHEN JONATHAN GLENCROSS arrived at McGill University, he had no intention of changing the institution. Yet four years later, this is precisely what he has helped do. Enrolled in the McGill School of Environment, Glencross has become one of the driving forces behind the university’s dramatically increased commitment to sustainability.
What sets BARC apart is the diversity of people it has engaged in reclaiming Hamilton Harbour. WHEN THE BAY Area Restoration Council (BARC) in Hamilton, Ontario, celebrated its 20th birthday in June, there was much to celebrate: The organization had just won Earth Day Canada’s 2011 Group Hometown Hero Award.
SINCE ROMAN PLEBEIANS rose up against their masters in the fifth century BCE, social movements have been the most important force for advancing progressive change. They work because ordinary people – like you and me – are the ultimate source of power in any society: People in positions of economic, […]
The Playlist for the Planet is another example of how the music community believes we need to do more to protect the environment. I hope the songs … inspire you to make changes that will bring about a healthier world. -David Suzuki
