Alternatives Journal articles from March 2001

Alternatives Journal archives from March 2001

CULTURE JAMMERS AND BASIC CIVILITY.(individuality, culture and community)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2001... One of the many things that are odd about our times is that it is now possible, indeed common, to assume the general independence of individuals and to neglect the subversive and strengthening roles of culture. Even environmentalists do...

Swedish POPs Star in Ban.(persistent organic pollutants)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2001... In a radical public policy move, Sweden plans to ban all chemicals that are persistent, and bioaccumulate. This includes mercury, lead, PCBs, and a host of chemicals with known adverse effects, as well as chemicals with health or environmental...

German Waterworks Pay for the Switch to Organic.(farming, cutting pesticides found in groundwater)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
March 22, 2001... Organic farming is booming in Germany, thanks in part to subsidies from water utility companies. Back in the 1980s, the utilities discovered that organic farming can prevent groundwater pollution, and they have been paying farmers big bucks to...

Plotting Over City Hall.(roof garden planting and research, Toronto, Ontario)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2001... As they grow, cities usually replace wildlands at the urban fringe with pavement and other hard surfaces. But in Toronto, wildlands are replacing a little bit of "city" in higher places. Atop Toronto's City Hall roof, a rare Black Oak Savannah...

Giving Credits Where Credits Are Due.(green power tax incentives, Canada)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2001... An unusual coalition of environmentalists and big business is pushing Finance Minister Paul Martin to give consumers tax advantages to switch to green power. In a surprising joint move, the Clean Air Renewable Energy (CARE) coalition has...

NOAH'S BIRTH BRINGS A FLOOD OF QUESTIONS.(endangered species cloning research)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2001... The technological wizardry of endangered species cloning may do little for ecology or ethics The birth of Noah, a clone of a rare gaur, marked the first successful cloning of an endangered species by means of a cross-species nuclear...

NORWAY POWERS UP.(plans new natural gas-fuelled electric utilities)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2001... Construction of new electrical plants in Norway will violate the country's Kyoto commitments The year 2000 was one of the warmest years on record. It was also a year of great hope that progress would be made in fulfilling the Kyoto...

A FRICTION TO THE MACHINE.(demonstrations, civil disobedience and the new world order)(Brief Article)(Column)
March 22, 2001... We need to get arrested more often," Daniel blurts to the clutch of ecotypes gathered in a Montreal bar. We had just come from another talk about how badly the earth was being abused. Some of us were feeling a little weary. It sounded like...

Rabble.ca.(rabble rousers on environmentalism, social justice and globalization)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2001... [less than]www.rabble.ca[greater than] Providing an affront to the mundane, the rabble rousers fight the inherently biased views found in conservative, mainstream media. Their online weekly bulletin showcases pieces from progressive but...

Sustainability: A Choice to Consider.(www.cyberus.ca, inspiration to the socially conscious)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2001... [less than]www.cyberus.ca/choose.sustain For those ready to take action! This site is a wild mosaic of what's what in the broad category of sustainability with scattered messages of inspiration and motivation. The informative and innovative...

The Daily Planet.(www.cnie.org/news/splash.htm)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2001... [less than]www.cnie.org/news/splash.htm[greater than] One-stop shopping for the busy environmentalist, the Daily Planet allows you to keep updated on current environmental events with minimal effort. This site is the ultimate resource...

The Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment.(www.cape.ca)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2001... [less than]www.cape.ca[greater than] Although a bit drab in appearance, this site has some great information on environment and health issues. CAPE's major campaigns, such as children's health, climate change and pesticides, appeal to...

Funding Destruction.(www.fundingdestruction.org)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2001... [less than]www.fundingdestruction.org[greater than] Greenpeace gives us another campaign fighting modern-day corporate society. Bringing reality to the ultra-hip culture of mutual fund investing, this site outlines the groups that fund...

Eartheasy.(environmental website: www.eartheasy.com)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2001... [less than]www.eartheasy.com[greater than] Crossing the line from talk to action, Eartheasy gives great tips on how to reduce your ecological footprint. An incredible array of useful, practical, down-to-earth steps you can use as an...

Free Radio.(pirate radio station San Francisco Liberation Radio)(Statistical Data Included)
March 22, 2001... Caught between community service and criminalized activity, pirate microbroadcasters are challenging authority SAN FRANCISCO Liberation Radio occupies the front room of an unremarkable row house in the Richmond district of far western San...

A PIE IN THE FACE.(cultural "jamming")
March 22, 2001... Culture jammers re-code, hijack, subvert, un-cool, de-myth and reclaim the cultural sphere Who would have imagined that Intel engineers would engrave "bill sux" on their Pentium microprocessors, as on-line chat rooms rumoured. In fact,...

Making Change.(corporate culture change)(Statistical Data Included)
March 22, 2001... Some major corporations are making sustainability their business CULTURAL TRANSFORMATION will be impossible without a sea change in the culture of the dominant institution of the age the corporation. Currently, the predominant corporate...

TOYOTA HIGHLANDER.(Toyota Motor Corp.'s newest sport utility vehicle marketing campaign)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2001... "Somewhere out there is a mountain calling you a wuss." Toyota says its "on-going corporate goal" is "finding harmony between automobiles, people and the environment." [*] But when it comes to promoting sales of SUVs, suddenly Toyota...

VOLVO SBO.(company to reduce harmful emissions)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2001... "Its real luxury is leaving the world a little better for having gone through it." Volvo says its new radiator coating converts some ground-level ozone into oxygen. That's a start. Now it just needs a few more adjustments to eliminate...

HONDA INSIGHT.
March 22, 2001... "Not only can technology and the environment coexist, they'll ride in the same car." The Insight is an "ultra-low emission" gas-electric hybrid vehicle. But it's still a car. Is that where you would put your environment?

FORD-LINCOLN NAVIGATOR.(vehicle weighs 2.5 tonnes)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2001... "Tread luxuriously." The ad copy below the picture begins, "Tread lightly and luxuriously in Lincoln Navigator, the world's most powerful full-size luxury SUV." Apparently the Navigator meets an official US "low emission" criterion for its...

TOYOTA PRIUS.(vehicle has lower emissions)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2001... "Drive a Prius and nature will find a way to thank you." This is another gas-electric hybrid vehicle that gets points for lower emissions and fuel consumption even than the lightly treading Lincoln Navigator. But the roadkill potential is...

Girls Just Want to Have Fun - With Politics.(young women in the anti-global corporatization movement)
March 22, 2001... Out of the contradictions of popular culture, eco-grrrls are rising to redefine feminism, environmentalism and political action It is late in the afternoon of the massive mobilization against the WorldBank and IMF in Washington, DC....

MUSIC IN NATURE.
March 22, 2001... For the attentive listener, the final task is to hear each noise as a melody in the vast improvisation that creates the world's soundscape Sounds define us, hold us in, lead us away. They announce themselves to us, they call from all over...

Home Renovations.(North America's sense of place)
March 22, 2001... Planners and citizens face their biggest challenge -- rebuilding a sense of place and commitment in an increasingly mobile, globally oriented world WHAT SETS North American culture off from virtually all other cultures is that we have such...

THE SUBURBANATORS.(negative impact of suburban life)
March 22, 2001... Without special efforts to build civic engagement, suburbs will continue to be social incubators of anti-sustainable behaviour Real estate ads in the 1950s pictured happy, healthy families in suburban landscapes of detached homes and...

SIMPLIFYING LIFE.(purchasing less)
March 22, 2001... Some people are fighting the culture of consumption by choosing a simpler, lower cost and low-impact lifestyle It seems that many Canadians are discovering the truth of what comedian Lily Tomlin observed years ago: "the trouble with the rat...

CULTURAL TRANSFORMERS.(Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People Are Changing the World)(Review)
March 22, 2001... New book describes how American culture and politics are being transformed by a nation within Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People Are Changing the World Paul H. Ray and Sherry Ruth Anderson, New York: Harmony Books, 2000. ...

YOUTH FILMS POSE SIMPLE QUESTIONS.(BigFlush and Things We Carry)(Review)
March 22, 2001... The BigFlush, Ron Vida, director, Toronto: Photo Synthesis Productions, 1999. Order at: (416) 883-9100 ext. 6004, or [less than]www.myto.com/groups-psp[greater than]. The Things We Carry, Leba Haber Rubinoff, director, New York: Flip the...

STRONG CONVICTIONS.(Where on Earth Are We Going?)(Review)
March 22, 2001... Where on Earth Are We Going?, Maurice Strong, Toronto: Alfred A. Knopf, 2000. This is Maurice Strong's autobiography, which he could have easily called "Where on earth have I been?" Almost everywhere, it would seem. Over a lifetime...

A NEW WAY OF SEEING.(Ed Ayres: God's Last Offer - Negotiating for a Sustainable Future)(Review)
March 22, 2001... God's Last Offer - Negotiating for a Sustainable Future, Ed Ayres, New York: Four Walls Eight Windows, 1999. Blindness, Nobel Prize winning novelist Jose Saramago's parable of the world entering the 2lst century, offers a frightening...

KEWL ENVIRONMENTALISTS.(image of environmentalists)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2001... There are no sexy environmentalists. I mean, Tooker Gomberg and Al Gore just don't do it for me. Environmentalists don't grace the covers of magazines, teen rags or even the tabloids apart from reports of their unfortunate failures and...

Correction.(Correction Notice)
March 22, 2001... The University of Manitoba Web site listed in the Third Annual Graduate Directory (Alternatives 27:1,2001) should have been: [less than]www.umanitoba.ca/institutes/natural_resources/[greater than]