Canada's Environmental Voice
Honeybees have been part of both our agriculture and our mythology for millennia. From Mesopotamia to Maya bees have been depicted as symbols of eloquence and prophecy. The Delphic oracle was often called the Bee, and the eloquent Plato, Pindar and Saint Ambrose were all said to have had their […]
On Sunday, I flew back to Kitchener, Ontario, after spending a little more than a week in Calgary. I’m not yet sure of the words I want to use to describe the Great Flood of 2013. I wish I could have stayed longer to assemble a bigger pile, to gather […]
For the first time in three million years our planet has approached 400 parts per million(ppm) of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere. CO2, as many people know, is the most important greenhouse gas (GHG) emission particle contributing to the dangerous environmental crisis we know as climate change. For reference, […]
This year is a critical one for Canadians. Through the course of 2013, major decisions are being made that will determine the scale and magnitude of Canadian oil development for decades to come. The US government will decide whether or not to approve the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline […]
Around the time of the financially disastrous OPEC oil embargo of the 1970s, Shell decided to see how far they could look into the future. What other shocks might be in store and what might they mean for oil? They fleshed out a series of plausible futures, exploring potential consequences […]
AS THE PUSH FOR TAR SANDS PIPELINES ESCALATES and the legal channels for fighting them become exhausted, some environmentalists are reconsidering the value of civil disobedience, which Sierra Club Canada (SCC) executive director John Bennett describes as “breaking an unjust law or breaking a law to draw attention to an […]
Last July, a rogue businessman dumped 100 tonnes of iron sulphate into the Pacific with the intention of creating a massive plankton bloom to absorb carbon dioxide and attract salmon to the area. Although he meant to benefit the planet, oceanographers were quick to declare that “it is difficult, if […]
As the creator of Lost Rivers describes it, we’ve practiced a bad habit in our built environment. “We built our cities on the shores of rivers,” narrates the Montreal-based writer, researcher and director. “Over time, we pushed rivers away – out of sight and out of reach.”
In the face of decades of environmental, pollution and development stresses on the shorelines, wetlands, river basins, flora and fauna of the Great Lakes, the government of Ontario realized making a difference in the health of these critical water bodies would require all hands on deck. Provincial dollars would be […]
NEW YORK CITY’S METROPOLITAN TRANSPORTATION AUTHORITY (MTA) called the devastation and flooding during last fall’s Hurricane Sandy the biggest disaster the subway system had ever endured. At the first post-storm board meeting, MTA chairman Joe Lhota insisted that “the burden of Sandy will not be upon our riders,” and 80 […]
