Alternatives Journal articles from August 2006

Alternatives Journal archives from August 2006

Homage to Milk & Money.
August 1, 2006... DRAGON BOAT racers, soccer teams and choirs have it. The People's Food Commission and its report, The Land of Milk and Money, had it too. Team members often display a go-for-it passion that is rooted in a powerful tradition: to believe in...

Sustainability for dollars.(CANADIAN NEWS)(Alcan Inc.'s former chief executive officer Travis Engen won Sustainability Leadership Award)(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... The former CEO of Canadian aluminum producer Alcan Inc. has won a prestigious international award that recognizes corporate sustainability practices. Supported by a who's who list of global corporations and worth 25,000 Swiss francs, the...

Illuminating.(CANADIAN NEWS)(Group IV Semiconductor Inc.)(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... Forget compact fluorescents. A Canadian company hopes to brighten up the lighting industry with an even more energy-efficient bulb. Group IV Semiconductor Inc. is a Canadian company that wants to use silicon in a solid state bulb to replace gas...

Take a swipe at carbon.
August 1, 2006... HAVING BEEN DUBBED the year's dumbest political idea in TCS Daily, an online journal that includes ExxonMobil and General Motors Corporation among its "small group of sponsors," a carbon debit card seemed like an idea worth investigating. ...

C[O.sub.2] pumps poison ivy.(Science Desk)
August 1, 2006... POISON IVY MAY BE THE BIG climate change winner. A six-year study from Duke University shows that elevated carbon dioxide (C[O.sub.2]) in an intact forest ecosystem speeds growth and increases toxicity of poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans)....

www.delocator.ca.(Hot Green Websites)(Website overview)(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... Having fought to save Dooney's, her local cafe, Jane Jacobs wasn't likely to frequent a large chain coffee shop. Now you don't have to either since www.delocator.ca makes it easy to find independently owned coffee houses. Using a postal code,...

www.greendrinks.org.(Hot Green Websites)(Website overview)(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... Saint Paddy make way. Green Drinks is an "organic, self-organizing network" of environmentally friendly folk who meet once a month at a local pub and talk until they're green in the face. These events, now listed in 15 Canadian cities, are open...

www.newrules.org.(Hot Green Websites)(Website overview)(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... Think a law needs changing? Who doesn't? Well, now you can learn about what other jurisdictions are up to. Check out the Rules Index at www.newrules.org, and find out about laws, regulations and other rules from around the world. (Well, the...

Giant in hiding.(GLOBAL)(Californian redwood)(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... According to Greek mythology, Hyperion was a titan or giant. So it's a fitting name for what is now known as the world's tallest tree. At a height of 115.6 metres, this Californian redwood is almost as tall as a 40-story skyscraper and an...

Car wars.(GLOBAL)
August 1, 2006... Soon after passing far-reaching laws aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the State of California filed a lawsuit against America's six largest car manufacturers. The suit alleges that Ford, General Motors, Honda, Toyota, Nissan and...

Green, not red.(GLOBAL)(air pollution in Hong Kong is driving business enterprises away)(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... In Hong Kong, it's air pollution, not communism that has multinational corporations considering a move. After surveying 140 executives, the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong discovered that four of five business leaders had left or were...

Emission-free oil sands.(CAMPAIGNS)(president of Investeco Capital Corp. Andrew Heintzman's essay on environmentally manageable oil sands exploitation)(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... Canada's Pembina Institute has joined forces with its American cousin, the National Resources Defense Council. This powerful duo suggests that a slow, environmentally manageable approach to oil sands exploitation could result in emission-free...

Greening Ganesh.(CAMPAIGNS)(Kalpavriksh Environment Action Group sells natural clay Ganesh idols)(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... For Hindus, Lord Ganesh is the God of wisdom and good fortune, as well as the remover of obstacles. During India's Ganesh Chaturthi festival, worshippers pay tribute to Lord Ganesh by placing replicas of this potbellied, elephant-headed idol in...

Map on.(CAMPAIGNS)(Association of Canadian Map Libraries and Archives' protest against stopping the printing of maps)(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... Outraged at Ottawa's decision to stop printing topographical maps, the Association of Canadian Map Libraries and Archives mounted a protest... and won. Visit www.mapsforcanadians.ca to learn how Canada's Minister of Natural Resources reversed...

Let them eat laptops.(Nicholas Negroponte's One Laptop per Child )
August 1, 2006... RATANA, A 12-YEAR-OLD GIRL, sits outside her house typing away at lightning speed on a small computer. She's emailing a classmate. Together, they're working out answers for their math homework. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] A scene such as...

What a mum does.(Letter to the editor)
August 1, 2006... WHEN I WAS NINE years old, the sound of two World War II bomber planes flying what felt like inches above our house jolted me from my youthful sleep. My bedroom windows shook and a strong smell filled our house. Leaping out of bed, I ran...

It's still a car.(RESEARCH)(i-unit and Endo, hybrid cars from Toyota Motor Corp.)(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... Toyota's popular hybrid Prius may soon have a pair of new, smaller and greener siblings. The i-unit and Endo are both concept cars introduced by Toyota. They balance consumers' need for freedom with their desire to minimize environmental...

Holy bat repellent, windman.(RESEARCH)(migrating behavior of bats)(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... First it was birds, now it's bats. Scientists believe hoary and silver-haired bats may migrate much like birds. And much like birds, they've been known to get tangled in the blades of a wind turbine. Researchers at the University of Calgary,...

Greenest teachers share.(RESEARCH)(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... Teachers take note. Do you have a tried and true classroom project you'd like to share? One instructor sent Snowy the Polar Bear on a journey that took him around the world. Her students received postcards from far flung places before Snowy...

The cupboard is bare: transnational interference grinds down world grain supplies.
August 1, 2006... For six of the last seven years, humankind has consumed more grain than it has produced. Despite this alarming trend, farmers remain mired in debt brought about by a decades-long trend of bargain basement commodity prices. So far, the market,...

Harvesting Milk and Money: the time is ripe for a sequel to the People's Food Commission.
August 1, 2006... WHAT does food democracy look like? Start with thousands of people across Canada talking about food, giving presentations about the state of the food system and offering their solutions at a people's commission on food. The level of...

Dirty work: there is little protection for migrant workers on Canadian industrial farms.
August 1, 2006... ST-REMI, QUEBEC is a different kind of town on Thursday nights. That's when the downtown is full of Mexicans and Guatemalans. Thursday is when farmers bring their workers into town to buy groceries and wire money back home. It's also the only...

Dumpster dining: freegans consume waste food to protest consumer waste.
August 1, 2006... IT'S COLD AND DARK. A light drizzle adds to the gloom of the asphalt parking lot in downtown Melbourne where I stand beside a dumpster bin. Cars rumble by, windshield wipers slapping, as shoppers swoop out of the grocery store grasping plastic...

And miles to go before I eat ... home-grown hurrah.
August 1, 2006... IF THE VEGGIES on your plate look a little tired, don't be surprised. They likely travelled a long way before landing on your table, farther than you might think. Three recent Canadian studies have documented the distances that typical foods...

And miles to go before I eat ... local limitations.
August 1, 2006... "BUY LOCAL" seems like a good response to the environmental, economic and social problems associated with the global food system. Unfortunately, this slogan may not represent the best route in Canada, at least not as it has been interpreted in...

Callaloo & you: food security is advancing community by community.
August 1, 2006... IN AN INNER-CITY community garden in Toronto, volunteers are harvesting organic callaloo, a traditional Caribbean green, leafy plant related to amaranth. Herman Plunkett, his years of experience evident in his rhythmic voice, sings the plant's...

Local flavour saver: University of Toronto buys into home-grown model.(in contract with Aramark Canada and Local Flavour Plus)
August 1, 2006... FOR MOST students and staff, the University of Toronto's switch from Sodexho Canada, a large food management corporation, to Aramark Canada, another large food management company, seems benign. How hard, they might ask, can it be to fry up...

The Terminator: the next extreme in GMO could undo 10,000 years of traditional agriculture.(genetically modified organisms)
August 1, 2006... THIS PAST MARCH, interest groups from all over the world, along with government leaders and scientists, gathered in Curitiba, Brazil to pass judgment on one of biotechnology's best-kept secrets: Terminator technology. Though you would never...

Pace yourself: cooking up slow food in a fast food nation.
August 1, 2006... FALL IS THE TIME of year for the culinary-minded. Markets overflow with locally produced food, so fresh you'd swear you could taste and smell the soil from whence it came. Nonetheless, the vast majority of Canadians are more apt to chow down on...

Disparity in a prosperous land: getting enough affordable, good quality food is difficult in remote Aboriginal communities.
August 1, 2006... THEY MAY COMPLAIN about the cost of groceries, but few Canadians have to worry about food supply. Fruits and vegetables are plentiful and of high quality. The selection is endless, and there are numerous stores to choose from. Visiting or...

Less bad: raising fish on land is not the eco-panacea some would have us believe.
August 1, 2006... GROWING AT A RATE of almost nine percent per year, aquaculture is the fastest growing animal food production sector in the world. Given that humankind has harvested most global fisheries to capacity, consumers can expect the share of seafood...

The carbon tax tango: economists Jack Mintz and Mark Jaccard dance to a different tune when it comes to the taxing of greenhouse gas emissions.(Point-CounterPoint)(Rotman School of Management)
August 1, 2006... Point Counterpoint makes its debut in this issue of Alternatives Journal. In it, a powerhouse pair of internationally recognized economists apply the syncopated beat of the tango to the thorny issue of how to best tackle greenhouse gas...

What to eat.(The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals)(Book review)
August 1, 2006... The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, Michael Pollan, New York: The Penguin Press, 2006. In The Omnivore's Dilemma, Michael Pollan tackles the conundrum of how humans--omnivores by nature, if not always by...

Progress traps.(Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed)(A Short History of Progress)(Book review)
August 1, 2006... Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, Jared Diamond. New York: Viking, 2005. A Short History of Progress, Ronald Wright. Toronto: Anansi, 2004. For a very long time, environmental Cassandras have been warning of the danger...

Nature-less children.(Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder)(Book review)
August 1, 2006... Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder, Richard Louv, New York: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2005. I've spent over half of my 48 years passionately teaching youth about nature. When I learned of a new...

Kermit wasn't trying.(Brain Mulch)(reducing greenhouse gas emissions)
August 1, 2006... ONE DAY, an off-the-cuff comment by a radio host tempted me to put the "small measures list" to the test. You know what I mean: it's a list of all those little things you're supposed to do (and not do) with your car to help the environment that...