Alternatives Journal articles from January 1998

Alternatives Journal archives from January 1998

European report recognizes hormone disruptions. (effect of synthetic chemicals on normal hormone function)
January 1, 1998... A recent European Environment Agency report has confirmed earlier scientific evidence that many synthetic chemicals now present in the environment may be threatening normal hormone function in both humans and wildlife. Hormones are chemical...

Banff town expansion rejected. (Banff, Alberta)
January 1, 1998... In the latest step in an ongoing struggle to maintain some ecological integrity in the popular core of Banff National Park, federal Heritage Minister Sheila Copps has blocked a proposal for significant expansion of Banff's town site. Banff...

Weak controls burn Hamiltonians: residents press for tighter regulation of the recycling industry. (health hazards from plastic recycling plant in Hamilton, Ontario)
January 1, 1998... A huge plastics blaze at a recycling facility in Hamilton has ignited calls for a full inquiry into regulation of Ontario's burgeoning recycling industry. The Plastimet fire, which burned for four days in July, consumed 400 tonnes of defective...

Up with the creek: unusual partners are restoring an endangered watershed on Vancouver Island.
January 1, 1998... At first glance, Hagan Creek, nestled away in Central Saanich, doesn't seem like the sort of place where new ideas about community partnerships would come together. But this small watershed, located just outside Victoria on the southern up of...

Mining on "nature island": the Dominican government's resource extraction plans anger conservationists.
January 1, 1998... In the tiny Caribbean country of Dominica, conservationists are clashing with the government over how best to fit economic needs with ecological protection. The self proclaimed "nature island" suffers from widespread poverty, worsened by...

Good idea, bad neighbour: Los Angeles recyclers contaminate their surroundings.
January 1, 1998... Recycling is a key aspect of the effort to create a more environmentally sustainable economy, but recycling plants can cause environmental problems themselves, as some neighbourhoods in Los Angeles are discovering. Recycling has an...

The US and us. (danger of Canada following the US in urban congestion)(includes related article comparing transportation and land-use patterns between Canada and the US)
January 1, 1998... Canadian cities are going the way of their US counterparts into car-dependent sprawl Until recently urban planning and government intervention in Canada have prevented the inner city hemorrhaging that is characteristic of urban America....

Back on track: eight steps to rejuvenate public transport in Canada.
January 1, 1998... After two decades of growth in services and ridership, Canadian transit has been experiencing difficult times in the 90s. During the 1970s and 1980s, Canadian transit was widely viewed as a model to be aspired to by transit systems in the...

Driving out subsidies: how better pricing of transportation options would help protect our environment and benefit consumers.
January 1, 1998... There is a vivid vocabulary to describe overpricing. Consumers who are charged too much are said to have been "gouged", "ripped off", or "fleeced". It is easy to demonstrate that overpricing is unfair and economically inefficient, so overpricing...

McLuhan's Children: The Greenpeace Message and the Mass Media.
January 1, 1998... Reviewed by Noel Keough McLuhan's Children is a multidimensional exploration of 25 years of how Greenpeace, a "rag-tag collection of long-haired, bearded men" grew into a multimillion dollar global operation. Dale recounts the campaigns of...

Anarchism and Ecology.
January 1, 1998... Reviewed by Don Alexander This is a curious book, but an interesting one. Comprised of essays written and rewritten over the last decade and more by Graham Purchase, it offers an in-depth look at the intertwined roots of anarchism and ecology....

Requiem for Modern Politics: The Tragedy of the Enlightenment and the Challenge of the New Millennium.
January 1, 1998... Reviewed by John Ferguson Requiem for Modern Politics is the long awaited sequel to William Ophuls' influential Ecology and the Politics of Scarcity, which appeared 20 years ago. Ophuls identifies fundamental contradictions that lie at the...