Alternatives Journal articles from September 2004

Alternatives Journal archives from September 2004

Hell on earth.(Editorial)
September 1, 2004... "WAR IS HELL." That terse summary is one common human response to military conflict. We use the word hell to describe a state of agony and anguish, a condition where the ordinary rhythms of human life are horribly suspended. But hell is also...

Money for green roofs.(Canadian News)(Canada Office of Energy Efficiency)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2004... New funding encourages building owners to increase the energy-efficiency of their properties by investing in green roofing. The funding, offered through Natural Resources Canada's Office of Energy Efficiency, is for new institutional,...

NB to build wind farm.(Canadian News)(NB Power)(Eastern Wind Power Inc.)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2004... NB Power and Eastern Wind Power Inc. will soon finalize plans for a wind farm at Dark Harbour on the western coast of Grand Manan, New Brunswick. The wind farm's 11 turbines will generate 20 megawatts (MW) of electricity, enough to power 6000...

Smarter growth for Ontario.(Canadian News)(Greater Golden Horseshoe)(Discussion paper)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2004... The Ontario government's recently released discussion paper, Places to Grow, outlines the first long-term comprehensive regional smart growth strategy of its kind and is the first step towards managing growth in Ontario's Greater Golden...

Spin out of control.(Off the Beat)
September 1, 2004... IN AN INCREASINGLY MEDIA-SAVVY WORLD, public relations schemes need to be more and more elaborate to pull the wool over the public's skeptical eye. When the status quo is backed against the wall or threatened with change, institutionalized...

Hot green websites.(Off the Beat)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2004... To see a running total of the amount of money spent by the US Government to finance the war in Iraq, and to find out how else the money could have been spent visit: www.costofwar.com The Guide to Less Toxic Products provides information on the...

Arsenic and old lakes.(Science Desk)
September 1, 2004... ARSENIC-LACED WATER may have met its nemesis. Recent studies have revealed that Pteris vittata, or ladder brake, can pull the poisonous metal out of contaminated water--at a ratio of 22 grams of arsenic per kilogram of plant matter. Researchers...

Sperm update.(Science Desk)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2004... IN THE SPRING 2004 issue of Alternatives, Science Desk reported on studies that found a relationship between environmental contamination and decreased sperm viability, suggesting that pollution can negatively affect male fertility. New studies...

Corpses for compost.(Global News)(Promessa)(Ecological burial)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2004... Promessa, a company offering an ecofriendly alternative to traditional burials and cremations, is soon to see its first customers in the city of Joenkoeping, Sweden. This ecological burial method turns human remains into compost by first...

Pollution linked to deaths.(Global News)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2004... According to a study in the Lancet medical journal, European children are dying from illnesses related to water and air quality. This World Health Organization study attempts to quantify the number of childhood and adolescent deaths caused by...

No green medals for Olympics.(Global News)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2004... During the seven years since Athens won the bid to host the 2004 Olympics, organizers have disregarded most of their environmental promises, as evaluated in a WWF report. On a scale of 0-4, the Athens Olympics environmental component scored a...

Coca-Cola allows child labour.(Campaigns)(Salvadoran Sugar Association)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2004... Human Rights Watch is urging people to write letters to the Coca-Cola Company and the Salvadoran Sugar Association protesting the exploitation of children on El Salvador's sugar plantations. The Coca-Cola Company does not allow child labour in...

Roadless rule overturned.(Campaigns)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2004... The Bush Administration has recently overturned a rule that protected US national parks from the construction of new roads and logging. The reversal of the Roadless Area Conservation Rule will make 23 parks in 16 states vulnerable to timber...

Lake diversion protested.(Campaigns)(Construction project)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2004... The US state of North Dakota has begun a $28 million construction project that will channel water out of Devils Lake and into Lake Winnipeg. While this will potentially stop flooding around the Devils Lake area, pollution is expected to...

Warming may increase asthma.(Research Findings)(Center for Health and the Global Environment)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2004... A study conducted by the Harvard Medical School's Center for Health and the Global Environment may have found a link between global warming and rising rates of asthma. According to the study, higher levels of carbon dioxide promote pollen...

Air emissions underreported.(Research Findings)(Environmental Integrity Project)(Galveston-Houston Association for Smog Prevention)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2004... A joint study by the Environmental Integrity Project and the Galveston-Houston Association for Smog Prevention reveals that emissions of toxic chemicals in the United States are four to five times higher than those reflected in the EPA's annual...

Shell overstates sustainability.(Research Findings)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2004... Shell has been overstating its environmental and social performance, says a new report released this spring by Friends of the Earth. Despite making a public promise eight years ago to adopt more sustainable practices, Shell continues to engage...

Taking Stock of pollution.(Research Findings)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2004... In Canada, the pulp and paper sector releases more chemicals into the air than any other industry, although electric power plants hold a close second place. Overall, electric power plants have the greatest emissions in North America, says a new...

Asbestos--it still makes us sick.(Whatever Happened To ...)
September 1, 2004... CANADA HAS A DARK PAST when it comes to asbestos. Although the dangers of asbestos were documented as early as 1900, half a century passed before this information was made public. Asbestos is a fibrous mineral with a composition that makes it...

Operate within budget? No CANDU.(Indicators)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2004... Total taxpayer subsidy to Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) from 1953 to 2002: $17.5 billion Canadian government cap on AECL subsidies in the 1996 budget: $100 million per year Average yearly subsidy to AECL since 1999: $158.9...

A diamond in the rough.(Letter from Hamilton)
September 1, 2004... THE CITY OF HAMILTON is known by a variety of names, none of them flattering. Steel Town, Steel City, Canada's Pittsburg, the Hammer--all are labels that conjure up images of a local environment compromised by a long history of heavy industrial...

Double speak: despite the talk of disarmament, the US is developing new nuclear weapons.
September 1, 2004... IN THE PAST YEAR, reports of undisclosed uranium enrichment efforts by Iran and the discovery of a network trafficking in nuclear technologies, headed by Pakistan's chief nuclear scientist, showed a growing threat of nuclear proliferation. The...

Canada's military landscape: alternatives interviews ginger stones, the Department of National Defence's director general environment.(Interview)
September 1, 2004... AJ When did the Department of National Defence (DND) create the Environment Division? GS It was set up as a directorate back in 1983 and then it changed to a division about ten years ago. AJ What was the motivation for starting to...

Corporate invasion: neither the spirit nor the letter of their contract holds water in Bechtel's lucrative reconstruction deal in Iraq.
September 1, 2004... TWO DEVASTATING WARS, a decade of debilitating sanctions and a recent lawless spate of looting have left the Iraqi water infrastructure struggling and, for the most part, failing to provide Iraqis with potable water. According to the United...

World insecurity.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2004... War & Peace in 2003 [??] 1000 to 10,000 deaths* [??] 10,000 to 100,000 deaths* [??] Over 100,000 deaths* [??] Countries where armed conflict ended (and did not recur) from 1988 to 2003 * since the beginning of conflict...

Pillage and plunder: the vast natural resources of the Congo are once again fuelling war, exploitation and poverty--and Western consumers are profiting.
September 1, 2004... FOR THE BETTER PART of the past two years, Western media attention has trained an intense spotlight on Iraq. While the media fascination with Iraq is understandable, given the high drama of regime change and an occupation unraveling in the face...

War's environmental impact: environmental abuse leads to conflict and conflict leads to environmental abuse.
September 1, 2004... WHEN WE THINK OF WAR, we typically (and appropriately) think of the tragic loss of human life. War also has many other economic, political and social costs, some of them tied to the environment. These environmental factors may be less obvious...

Parks for peace: around the globe, protected areas have been used successfully as venues for international co-operation.
September 1, 2004... PARKS ARE RECOGNIZED as having great symbolic value for international co-operation. In 1932 the United States and Canada designated Waterton and Glacier National Parks (in Alberta and Montana respectively) as an International Peace Park. This...

One cheer for DDT? Forty years after Silent Spring, resurgent malaria gives new life to an old killer.(Political Science)
September 1, 2004... THE END is clearly near for the weed man. Since 2001, when the Supreme Court decided that municipalities could regulate pesticide use, more than 60 have done so (as has the government of Quebec), even though arguments about the health effects...

Saving the Skeena: twenty years ago, a community rallied to stop the experimental spraying of herbicides--and won.
September 1, 2004... NEXT SLIDE. Shattered trees, spruce and cedar stumps bristling with splinters where they'd broken, severed limbs and branches, machines prowling through the debris like bears in a dump--it was vivid. I could almost smell the sawdust and hear...

From the grassroots: Lillooet food co-op still thrives 30 years after its creation.
September 1, 2004... IN MY COMMUNITY we've been thinking together about food three or four times a year since the late 1970s. And we won't stop anytime soon if we have a choice about it. Acting together as a food co-op has shaped more than our eating habits. ...

Rise up and win.(Reviews)(Book Review)
September 1, 2004... Insurrection: Citizen Challenges to Corporate Power, Kevin Danaher and Jason Mark, New York: Routledge, 2004. Insurrection is a welcome addition to the growing library of books chronicling the rise of corporate globalization and the abuses...

Abe Lincoln's bathwater.(Reviews)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
September 1, 2004... The Water You Drink: Safe or Suspect? Julie Stauffer, Gabriola Island, BC: New Society Publishers, 2004. Early in her book on drinking water in Canada and the United States, and as a way of illustrating the hydrological cycle, Julie...

Eco ingenuity.
September 1, 2004... Inventing for the Environment, Arthur Molella and Joyce Bedi, editors. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2003. How have human relationships to nature changed through history? Can people learn to live harmoniously with nature? What...

Suzuki reflects.(David Suzuki)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2004... The David Suzuki Reader, David Suzuki, Vancouver: Greystone Books and the David Suzuki Foundation, 2003. Leading environmental activist David Suzuki presents his lifetime of published and unpublished ideas in this thought-provoking book,...

Ecohealth.
September 1, 2004... Health: An Ecosystem Approach, Jean Lebel, Ottawa: International Development Research Centre, 2003. Our obsession with fixing and sustaining health care systems rests on the biomedical belief that illness can be cured and that a state of...

Persistently seeking.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2004... I recently read Trevor Wickham's article, "Desperately Seeking Certified," in Alternatives latest issue on forestry (30:3). Wickham has an easy style that comes across as friendly and matter of fact. In his article, Wickham referred to...

A key mix up.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2004... The boreal map of Canada in the July/Aug issue of Alternatives (30:3) appeared with the wrong colours in the key legend. The scale bar is also inaccurate. We sincerely apologize for this error and technical glitch. A corrected version of the...

Correction.(Correction Notice)
September 1, 2004... In a review of his book, Ecology for Survival, Joan Martinez-Alier was referred to as "she." Alternatives Journal apologizes to Mr. Martinez-Alier for the error.

Value this.(Brain Mulch)(environmental economics)
September 1, 2004... "WHY hasn't the market fixed the environment?" The leader for the environmental economics workshop leader looked across the room full of planners and engineers without expecting anyone to answer his rhetorical question. [ILLUSTRATION...

Dams, guns and refugees: irresponsible development and environmental conflicts displace rural people, especially when the tensions lead to violence.
September 1, 2004... FIFTY YEARS AGO, Bengalis on the banks and the waters of the Karnaphuli River in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) saw something out of the ordinary. A strange small watercraft was being paddled up the river. It contained three Europeans wearing...