Alternatives Journal articles from March 2002

Alternatives Journal archives from March 2002

No Silver Bullet here. (Editorial).(Editorial)
March 22, 2002... Fifty years ago, development replaced colonialism as the global mission of the wealthy nations. Today, that mission looks like a failure. The rich and powerful still exploit the poor and weak, and the gap between advantaged and disadvantaged...

Only the US is less green. (Notes).(Canada's environmental record)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... Canada's environmental performance is among the worst of any industrialized country in the world, according to a recent report by the Eco-Research Chair of Environmental Law and Policy at the University of Victoria. "Canada vs The OECD: An...

Get around town on your super scooter. (Notes).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... Not since Sir Clive Sinclair's C5 electric trike made its debut almost two decades ago has so much media attention been focused on a personal electric mobility device. Dean Kamen's Segway, shrouded in secrecy and speculation for over a year,...

Thai fish industry in hot water. (Notes).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... Global warming poses a major threat to the future of the planet's tropical fisheries. Expected changes may wreak havoc in tropical marine ecosystems, including ocean habitats, feeding grounds and shore nurseries. Thailand's fishery is a...

Wave goodbye to salty water. (Notes).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... You're just as likely to find Alan Vowles in a wetsuit as a business suit these days, testing the latest prototype of his patented device that harnesses the energy contained in the rise and fall of ocean waves. In September 2001 off the...

Flin Flon green-up: Citizens are restoring a mine-blasted landscape. (Reports).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... It doesn't get much more low-tech than the Green Project, a community-supported land reclamation initiative greening up the landscape in Flin Flon, Manitoba and neighbouring Creighton, Saskatchewan. The basic ingredients are several tonnes...

Wiley urabanites: Vancouverites learn to coexist with coyotes. (Reports).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... This past year, several coyote attacks on small children were reported in the Vancouver region. A one-year-old received cuts to her head when a coyote tried to drag her out of her backyard. A six-year-old was scraped when a coyote almost pulled...

Pain in the Ear: US Navy sonar system threatens whales. (Reports).
March 22, 2002... The deployment of the US Navy's new sonar system to detect foreign submarines could do irreparable harm to the world's whale populations. Testing of the Surveillance Towed Array Sonar System -- Low Frequency Active (SURTASS-LFA) acoustic...

Angling for control: New Ontario legislation will give the hunting and fishing industry special privileges. (Reports).
March 22, 2002... The Ontario government's Bill 135, the Heritage Hunting and Fishing Act, looks benign. The bill, which recognizes that "a person has a right to hunt and fish in accordance with the law," seems merely to be "feel good" legislation, designed to...

Ecofunders target new areas. (Reality Cheque).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... Canadian environmental groups have spent the last decade trying to fill the gaps left by reduced government support. Diversifying one's funding base is advantageous, but it brings new challenges. Understanding the changing landscape of...

The Moraine is about politics, not science. (Political Science).
March 22, 2002... In controversies over the Oak Ridges Moraine near Toronto, scientists have played on every team, supporting environmentalists, developers and governments alike. But as a result, the real issues have often been obscured. While science has helped...

Green eggs and ham: The often embraced environmental arguments against meat has more holes than Swiss cheese. (Commentary).
March 22, 2002... Vegetarians are biting off more than they can chew when they blame so many environmental ills on meat production. In 1971, Frances Moore Lappe's classic Diet For A Small Planet cooked up a storm with vegetarian recipes for a new food system...

No Money, No Service: South Africa's attempts to recover service costs for water and power are harming its poorest citizens. (Sustaining Livelihoods).(Statistical Data Included)
March 22, 2002... In early 2000, the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry in the province of KwaZulu Natal, South Africa, introduced cost recovery on water. Rural households that were accustomed to free potable water at communal standpipes were charged a...

Looking beyond Johannesburg: Real solutions to global problems will have to move from talk to action. (Sustaining Livelihoods).(World Summit on Sustainable Development)
March 22, 2002... When world leaders meet at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg, South Africa, in September 2002, they will face tough questions about the progress made since the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and...

The good mothers: Romania's HIV/AIDS activists are mostly poor mothers of thousands of children who contracted the disease due to poor medical practices under the Ceaucescu regime. (Sustaining Livelihoods).
March 22, 2002... Giurgiu, Romania: in a three-roomed house heated by a woodstove, Viktoria Ivanus intently studies a picture of her deceased son, Razvan. In the next room, a radio murmurs into the afternoon. Having no television, Ivanus' retired father is...

Piles of poisons: Despite NAFTA's green promises, hazardous waste problems are deepening in mexico. (Sustaining Livelihoods).
March 22, 2002... Mexico is facing a growing mountain of hazardous waste, despite an environmental accord with the US and a continental trade deal that were supposed to discourage further environmental degradation. The North American Free Trade Agreement...

Chalillo chill: Critics slam the dam that a Canadian company wants to build in Belize's valley of the scarlet macaw. (Sustaining Livelihoods).
March 22, 2002... Canadian-based Fortis Inc. and the government of Belize are continuing to press ahead with a $44-million dam project that has been widely condemned as an economic and ecological nightmare. Critics say the proposed Chalillo dam in the Macal...

See no evil: Despite a new law and new policies, Export Development Canada retains plenty of room to avoid careful environmental assessments and public scrutiny. (Sustaining Livelihoods).
March 22, 2002... New legislation now governs the controversial Export Development Corporation (EDC), now to be Export Development Canada (still EDC). The Crown corporation, funded by Canadian taxpayers, provides trade financing, risk insurance and other...

Starting with stomachs: In Lima's most impoverished neighbourhoods, communal kitchens are survival organizations. (Sustaining Livelihoods).
March 22, 2002... Victor Raul Street, a dirt road in a shantytown on the edge of Lima, Peru, is home to one of the city's many communal kitchens. The kitchen, on the second floor of a humble brick building, is made up of two small rooms equipped with a table,...

In Gandhi's footsteps: Two unusual development organizations foster sustainable livelihoods in the villages of India.
March 22, 2002... In village India, the challenges for development are great. India may be the largest secular democracy in the world, with constitutional guarantees against discrimination on the basis of religion, caste or gender. Nevertheless, feudal and...

Street Partiers Unite!(Street Reclaiming: Creating Livable Streets and Vibrant Communities)
March 22, 2002... Street Reclaiming: Creating Livable Streets and Vibrant Communities, David Engwicht, Gabriola Island: New Society Press, 1999. One of the great annoyances, and dangers, of city living is all that traffic. For most of my life I have been an...

Hunters vs Farmers. (Reviews).(The Other Side of Eden)
March 22, 2002... The Other Side of Eden: Hunters, Farmers and the Shaping of the World, Hugh Brody, Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 2000. Canadian tourist boutiques are filled with dream catchers, soapstone carvings, moccasins and igloos. However, the Native...

Victoria Transport Policy Institute. (Hot Green Web Sites).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... Victoria Transport Policy Institute www.vtpi.org If you are looking to switch gears and get to a Web site that offers a different take on transportation issues, make VTPI your next destination. If you overlook the cut and paste graphics and...

Earth Easy. (Hot Green Web Sites).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... Earth Easy www.eartheasy.com The soft green backdrop and easy navigability of this site will draw any Web wanderer in for a peek. Live, Grow, Eat, Play, Wear and Give pages offer wisdom on how to simplify your life in a variety of ways. Find...

TomPaine. (Hot Green Web Sites).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... TomPaine www.TomPaine.com Digging around for some less than mainstream news coverage? You'll want to hit this online public interest journal for straightforward current and archival news stories. With a patriotic red, white and blue background...

The International Institute for Sustainable Development. (Hot Green Web Sites).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... The International Institute for Sustainable Development iisdI.iisd.ca/ The IISD have taken the buzz term sustainability and applied the concept to everything from business and natural resources to climate change. This superbly organized Web...

OS Earth Inc. (Hot Green Web Sites).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... OS Earth Inc. www.osearth.com/resources/worldometers/ For all those students seeking to rule the world, look no further than this site. OSE provides "simulation-based learning" by putting students in charge of the world and teachers in charge...

Letters.(Letter to the Editor)
March 22, 2002... Get More Strategic As the recent Alternatives issue on Children's Health [28:1] highlights, there is plenty of scientific evidence that children are more vulnerable to toxic chemicals and other environmental hazards than the general...

Transfer please. (Brain Mulch).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... When I was 21, I went with a friend to a tattoo parlour in the west-end of Ottawa. We took OC Transpo Route 85 past the Bayshore mall and walked for a while to a place that had been recommended to us. While my friend picked out the sword to...