Alternatives Journal articles from June 2002

Alternatives Journal archives from June 2002

Our place in the world. (Editorial).
June 22, 2002... This issue of Alternatives explores how the built environment -- the physical structures making up our cities, towns and villages -- influences our relationships with nature and our fellow human beings. The basic insight expressed in the...

Error: dumping does not compute. (Notes).(computer recycling dangerous)(Brief Article)
June 22, 2002... Low labour costs and weak environmental regulations have made Asia a high-tech dumping ground for the US. An estimated 20 million computers become obsolete each year in the US, and an estimated 200 tonnes of these computers end up in containers...

Honeymoon contaminates Oz. (Notes).(Australian Honeymoon uranium project)(Brief Article)
June 22, 2002... A Toronto-based company is preparing to open a uranium mine that may end up contaminating groundwater aquifers in the desert of South Australia. In late 2001, Southern Cross Resources obtained environmental and project approvals from state and...

Bangladeshi farmers develop greener agriculture. (Notes).(Brief Article)
June 22, 2002... The region of Tangail in north central Bangladesh is one of the poorest regions in the world, being continuously afflicted with food shortages. Three decades of Western aid has failed to produce a durable solution to the food security problems...

Genetic pollution hits the prairies. (Notes).(impact on organic farming)(Brief Article)
June 22, 2002... As many as 1200 Saskatchewan organic grain producers are taking legal action against Monsanto and Aventis -- two of the world's largest seed and agrochemical corporations -- for polluting their farms with genetically engineered pollen. ...

Windmills at sea: energy entrepreneurs are looking offshore for wind power.(Brief Article)
June 22, 2002... The winds of change are blowing fast over the world's oceans, and energy developers intend to harness them. The offshore wind industry is positioned for a huge boost in coming years, with several new project proposals for Europe and North...

Local control: co-operation between local fishers and government scientists signals shift to greater community involvement in managing the Fundy fishery.(Brief Article)
June 22, 2002... There is a new surge of energy in the Bay of Fundy. It is more than just the incredible tides that we learn about in elementary school. It's the energy of people working together to find new ways of managing fisheries. In the last decade,...

The route of the problem: cloudforest defenders want proposed pipeline moved.
June 22, 2002... A proposed $1.8-billion, 500-kilometre oil pipeline through one of the few remaining areas of undisturbed cloudforest in Ecuador is fuelling an international controversy. The Oleoducto de Crudos Pesados (OCP) will link oil fields in the...

The skeptical con. (Political Science).(The Skeptical Environmentalist )
June 22, 2002... For too long, people have been fooled by the health police and their endless litany: tobacco kills those who smoke and those nearby, while adding billions to health care costs. Here are the facts: millions have smoked to an old age, and...

Citizens can prevail: a personal perspective on how public mobilization defeated the proposal to ship Toronto's waste to an abandoned mine in northern Ontario. (Commentary).
June 22, 2002... Had it not been for the extraordinary efforts of concerned citizens and activists across Ontario, Toronto's garbage would likely be on its way to the Adams Mine Lake in northern Ontario and polluting a precious water source. What follows is one...

The resurgence of place: modernism is out and building places that fit with the environment and local aspirations is in. (Saving Place).
June 22, 2002... Over the past 30 years or so, a rich new movement in scholarship and advocacy has explored how better design of the urban environment can affect human behaviour and improve well-being. Until the Industrial Revolution, most people had a...

Making spaces places: creative activities can make idle public spaces engaging centres of civic life. (Saving Place).(Brief Article)
June 22, 2002... Our sidewalks, our parks and our town squares are public spaces. They belong to the commons; they are shared spaces that are available for all to use. Enjoyable public space gives us a good reason to wander about the city, pulls us out of...

Road rage: more lanes and a bigger bridge wrecked the historic identity of a small Ontario settlement. (Saving Place).(Brampton, Ontario)(Brief Article)
June 22, 2002... "Every day trucks and cars take people and the things they need from place to place on roads. But who built the roads and how did they do it?" So starts a picture book about huge earth-moving machines and giant trucks that is a favourite of my...

Future imperfect: the prospects for Seattle's Belltown neighbourhood depend on how long its diversity and character can persist when there is money to be made on high-rise luxury condos. (Saving Place).(Washington)
June 22, 2002... Seattle, Washington, is one of the most rapidly growing cities on the US west coast. The Belltown neighbourhood lies along Seattle's waterfront, between the central business district and the city's most famous landmark, the Space Needle....

Hear birds, see stars: most urban areas are overwhelmed by the noise and light of human sensory pollution.(Torrance Barrens, Muskoka, Ontario)(Directory)
June 22, 2002... Do you silently curse giant SUVs on your morning cycle to work? Do you cry over the loss of wild places most people don't even notice? If so, you are clearly still in the minority. What prevents environmentalist values from spreading? Most...

On the waterfront: method for exploring people's connection to the 350-kilometre Lake Ontario trail may help improve design and foster stewardship. (Saving Place).(phenomenological research)(Directory)
June 22, 2002... The kinds of places we create and evolve measure who we are and what is important to us.... Our relationship with the places we know... is a close bond, intricate in nature, and not abstract, not remote at all. It's enveloping, almost a...

Community science: bringing together social and scientific goals, Western Australia's Waterwatchers nurture both nature and neighbourhood. (Saving Place).(environmental preservation research)
June 22, 2002... A sense of place is built on intimate knowledge of a specific area over time. Years of exploration and experience are needed for memories to accumulate and understandings to form. We are still learning -- or relearning -- how valuable an...

Learning to ask: an Aboriginal custom for respecting forests brings appreciation and understanding. (Saving Place).(the Cathedral Forest)(Brief Article)(Column)
June 22, 2002... Ten years ago, I began to ask before entering a forest. I first learned of this custom in a conversation with Wilf Peltier, an Odawa (Ottawa) elder, and his Cree friend Cliff Thomas. We were talking in the family den of two friends, Bob and...

Changing the world by saving place. (Saving Place).(Greenwich Village, New York, New York)(Column)
June 22, 2002... When Jane Jacobs and her neighbours defeated the urban renewal project that was threatening Greenwich Village, they helped inspire a movement that preserved some of the most valued urban places in North America I own a coffee mug,...

In the burbs: it's time to recognize that suburbia is a real place too. (Saving Place).(Quebec, Quebec)(Directory)
June 22, 2002... A significant number of Canadians live in rings of postwar suburban growth surrounding older, more compact city centres. These are the settings that are often dismissed as "suburban sprawl", a shorthand way of saying dreary, monotonous, and...

Knowing your place. (Saving Place).(environment health quiz Canada)(Brief Article)
June 22, 2002... Want to get to know your home better? Then this is the quiz for you. If you can answer all these questions, you deserve a prize for awareness of your local environment and community. And if you are not sure, some sources of information are...

Deep music. (Reviews).(Sudden Music)
June 22, 2002... Sudden Music, David Rothenberg, Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2002. It is refreshing to read an author who talks about music in context of the spirituality inherent to playing, composing, listening to, and thinking about music....

Gluttony. (Reviews).(Fatal Consumption: Rethinking Sustainable Development)
June 22, 2002... Fatal Consumption: Rethinking Sustainable Development, Robert F. Woollard and Aleck S. Ostry, eds., Vancouver: UBC Press, 2000. Books on sustainability are a dime a dozen these days, but it is rare to find one that offers original...

www.chooseclimate.org/flying/mapcalc.html. (Hot Green Web Sites).(online travel)(Brief Article)(Evaluation)
June 22, 2002... Choose Climate www.chooseclimate.org/flying/mapcalc.html Whatever your destination this summer, this site can help you map out the costs of air travel, both financial and environmental. Simply click on the world map using the cursor to pinpoint...

www.insects.org. (Hot Green Web Sites).(online information)(Brief Article)
June 22, 2002... BugBios www.insects.org Most people don't pay too much attention to the microscopic world around them, but everything you could possibly want to know about those multiple legged and winged creatures is on this Web site. The site is divided into...

www.earth911.org. (Hot Green Web Sites).(online local environmental services information)(Brief Article)(Evaluation)
June 22, 2002... Earth 911 www.earth911.org For all the information it provides, a more appropriate title for this Web site would have been "earth 411". Information (on water, air quality, organics, energy, shop smart and business) is one of the three main...

www.lowbrowlowdown.com. (Hot Green Web Sites).(online advertising and marketing comment)(Brief Article)
June 22, 2002... The Lowbrow Lowdown www.lowbrowlowdown.com/ This site promises to deliver "ad and marketing commentary with bite," and it sure does. The Web site itself is not too exciting to look at -- with a stark white background and black text -- but the...

www.harmonyfdn.ca. (Hot Green Web Sites).(Harmony Foundation online environmental education)(Brief Article)
June 22, 2002... Harmony Foundation www.harmonyfdn.ca The Harmony Foundation describes itself as "all about environmental education," It's not surprising then that the foundation's Web site focuses on the amazing gamut of educational programs and resources this...

Listening. (Briefly).(Governments Accountable to Society and Citizens = Democracy)(Brief Article)
June 22, 2002... GASCD, Various Artists, RAM Recordings, 2001. It is a rare thing for record companies to waive profits gleaned from their publishing contracts. However, musician and activist Chris Brown managed to get them to do just that when he organized...

Measuring. (Briefly).(This Place on Earth 2002: Measuring What Matters)
June 22, 2002... This Place on Earth 2002: Measuring What Matters, Alan Durning, Clark Williams-Derry, Ellen Chu, and Eric de Place. Vancouver: Northwest Environment Watch, 2002. If we are to move effectively towards sustainability, we must first know and...

Walking. (Briefly).(Wanderlust: A History of Walking by Rebecca Solnit)
June 22, 2002... Wanderlust: A History of Walking; Rebecca Solnit, Toronto: Penguin Books, 2000. Good essayists are notable for their extraordinary breadth of knowledge. Rebecca Solnit writes about art, landscape, public space, urbanism, travel and the...

Letters.
June 22, 2002... Vegetarians on Roberts Re: "Green Eggs and Ham" by Wayne Roberts [28:2, 2002]. I am very sympathetic to Wayne Roberts' recent project of discouraging outrageous environmental claims by vegetarian fundamentalists. But I think we need to...

Gobble-de-goop. (Brain Mulch).(chicken fat into biodiesel research on alternative energy)(Brief Article)
June 22, 2002... The next renewable fuel movement will be heralded with a resounding "cluck". How does this grab your giblets -- millions of gallons of chicken fat and yellow restaurant grease traditionally dumped down drains or into landfills can he used...