Alternatives Journal articles from September 2007

Alternatives Journal archives from September 2007

Finding a new altitude.(Editorial)(renewable energy use)
September 1, 2007... MOVE OVER David Suzuki. Make way Al Gore. Switzerland's most engaging hero after tennis star Roger Federer is now a proponent of renewable energy. Dr. Bertrand Piccard's affinity for TV cameras won't hurt his reputation, but it's his...

Eco cabs.(CANADIAN NEWS)(ecology-friendly taxi on British Columbia roads)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... Eco-friendly cabs may become a lot more common on the West Coast. British Columbia's Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon has requested that the Passenger Transportation Board approve applications for licences only for hybrid or high-efficiency...

Quebecois carbon tax.(CANADIAN NEWS)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... While the Prime Minster debated climate change at the G8 Summit in Germany, Quebec introduced Canada's first carbon tax. About 50 energy companies will be taxed on their greenhouse emissions starting this fall. The expected earnings from the...

Terminator Ban.(CANADIAN NEWS)(ban on variety-genetic use restriction technologies )(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... Will Canada terminate Terminator technology? So far, only India and Brazil have laws banning the sterile crops whose use forces farmers to rely on seeds purchased from big agribusiness instead of saving and replanting their own supply. But now,...

Teaching guides.(Letters to the Editor)(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2007... I began reading Alternatives on the Skytrain and was impressed. Someday you should consider having teacher guides to go with the different issues--I could help. --Elizabeth Morton Vancouver, BC Editor: We have a project underway...

Escarpment partial victory.(Letters to the Editor)(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2007... In your last issue [33:2/3] under campaigns, you say that Sarah Harmer and her gang have stopped the development of a quarry. I don't think that's quite accurate although I wish it were true. It was my understanding that they won an important...

Practice what we preach.(Letters to the Editor)(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2007... I read with interest the letters section of the "Creative Communities" issue of Alternatives [32:4/5] and was prompted to dispel the myth of Canadian emissions insignificance, promulgated by Finn Poschmann of the C.D. Howe Institute. The...

The climate scoop is in penguin poop.(Science Desk)
September 1, 2007... THEY WADDLE ON LAND, torpedo in water and wear adorable tuxedos. And if that isn't enough, now these flightless birds are helping researchers understand climate change. A study published last January in Geology describes how University of North...

www.ecorazzi.com.(Hot Green Websites)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... Did you hear that Posh Spice may be going vegan? Ecorazzi joins the leagues of star-obsessed blogs by offering gossip with a twist. They report on how celebrities use their fame to fuel environmental or humanitarian work. One year old this...

www.terrain.org.(Hot Green Websites)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... Have an environmental story to tell? Who doesn't? You can try your hand by submitting your poem, essay, photo essay, article, video or the like to www.terrain.org. This twice-yearly, online literary journal says it searches for "that...

Food deductions.(GLOBAL)(companies aim to reduce food additive in their products)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... Asda, a Walmart-owned supermarket chain in the UK, announced it will cut food additives in all of its 9000 products by the end of the year. In response, Marks and Spencer says it will do the same for 99 per cent of its products. The move away...

Great Green Wall.(GLOBAL)(in Mongolia)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... This spring, officials in Inner Mongolia reported that their Great Green Wall is working, but sceptics aren't so sure. In 2001, Chinese officials began planting a wall of shrubs, grasses and trees to curb expansion of the Gobi Desert and quell...

Human rice.(GLOBAL)(human genes in rice)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... Despite receiving only 29 responses favouring the move amid a total of 20,000 comments, the United States Department of Agriculture has licensed the first large-scale planting of a crop that contains human genes. A 1200-hectare field in Kansas...

Corporate Hall of Shame.(CAMPAIGNS)(ExxonMobil)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... And the loser is: ExxonMobil. Corporate Accountability International (CAI), formerly known as Infact, announced that the world's most profitable corporation received the most online votes for the 2007 Corporate Hall of Shame. ExxonMobil beat...

Bike further, eat closer.(CAMPAIGNS)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... Seems you can have your bike and eat locally too. Chelsea Trousdell, a student at the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, and Maria Temoin, a University of Victoria graduate will leave this fall on a 30,000 km intercontinental bike trip,...

Ocean Net Day.(CAMPAIGNS)
September 1, 2007... Robert O'Brien is Earth Day Canada's 2007 Hometown Hero. Since 1997, O'Brien's organization, Ocean Net, has been leading a campaign to clean up beaches, shorelines and underwater areas in Newfoundland and Labrador. Some 15,000 volunteers in...

Danes do it right.(using energy efficiently)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... THAT DENMARK IS a leader in energy efficiency and renewable energy, especially wind, is not news. But the extent of the country's success is remarkable. Despite almost a doubling of the economy and about a 10 per cent population increase since...

Eco-sex at the Green Living Show.(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... "SAFER SEX IS ECO-SEX," says Carlyle Jansen the lithe owner of Toronto's Good for Her sex shop. And if that doesn't catch your attention, what about lambskin condoms, organic lubricants and thalate-free dildos? She recommends eco-dating because...

A hoe for a keyboard.(Letter from Tanzania)(computer technology in lieu of farming techniques)
September 1, 2007... With Mount Kilimanjaro as a backdrop, I was quietly chatting with my neighbour on our front lawn. The morning peace shattered, however, when a nearby transformer exploded in a shower of sparks. The pyrotechnics that would deny my household...

Lakes better, and worse.(RESEARCH)(Great Lakes)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... Researchers reported mixed findings at the most recent State of the Lakes Ecosystem Conference. Concern about PCB, mercury and dioxin concentrations in the Great Lakes contributes to ongoing sport fish consumption warnings even though...

Wimpy plants push northward.(RESEARCH)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... Many things change over time, but plant hardiness zones aren't typically one of them. But when the National Arbor Day Foundation in the US updated its 1990 hardiness zones map, the organization discovered that some areas have moved up by one or...

Lab pork on your fork.(RESEARCH)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... In a project that challenges the definition of meat, Dutch researches are trying to grow pork in the lab. If successful, they will produce edible meat for human consumption that bypasses farmed animals completely. It will be a few years before...

Reversing the flow.(Water Soft Path Editorial)(Editorial)
September 1, 2007... THIS ISSUE OF Alternatives focuses on water soft paths. For most people this statement invites the question: What are water soft paths? Though noun and adjective have been reversed, water soft paths share a common heritage with the soft energy...

A final toast to Dixon A.R. Thompson (1942 to 2006).(Biography)
September 1, 2007... DIXON THOMPSON was a consummate scientist-teacher-provocateur. He had an insatiable curiosity about the world and about how to make it a better place. But what we remember best is that Dixon's combination of characteristics would have been...

Ingenuity trumps hard tech: the water soft path is the best bet for Canada's public and ecological needs.(Technical report)
September 1, 2007... THROUGHOUT HISTORY, water management has meant constructing dams, digging and drilling wells, and extending canals and pipelines into cities and farmers' fields. Industrialized nations have been spectacularly successful at delivering vast...

Community paths: investigating BC's urban water use.(Study Results)
September 1, 2007... Purpose 1. To determine if water soft path planning could enable an urban centre to avoid obtaining new water supplies until 2050. 2.To study whether a water soft path could be effectively applied on an urban centre basis. Method...

Watershed paths: application in the Annapolis Valley, NS.(Study Results)(Technical report)
September 1, 2007... Purpose 1. To determine if water soft path planning could enable the Annapolis Valley to avoid obtaining new water supplies or even better, achieve a 50 per cent reduction from current use, by 2030. 2. To study whether a water soft...

Provincial paths: planning for Ontario's future.(Study Results)(Technical report)
September 1, 2007... Purpose 1. To determine if water soft path planning could enable the province of Ontario to avoid tapping into new sources of water by 2031. 2. To study whether a water soft path could be effectively applied on a province-wide basis....

Crisis? What crisis? Water soft path proponents swim against a current of sparse data, skeptical citizens and policy barriers.(Report)
September 1, 2007... THE SINGLE most important characteristic of a water soft path is that it is about sustainability as a new, additional and explicit goal for water management. Unlike traditional water planning, the soft path takes into account the water...

Soft planning: how to create a water soft path.(Technical report)
September 1, 2007... THESE STEPS serve as a basic guideline for creating a water soft path plan. This process can be undertaken at the community, regional, watershed and even provincial level. 1 Identify water services List all services provided by water...

Water Resources.(websites)(Bibliography)
September 1, 2007... TO READ THE FULL REPORTS from the Water Soft Path project, please visit Friends of the Earth Canada's website www.foecanada.org and click on Campaigns >Universal Water Security. Water soft paths Brandes, Oliver M., K. Ferguson, M....

Water philosophy: indigenous laws treat water with awe and reverence rather than as a resource to be managed.(Reprint)
September 1, 2007... THE EXAMPLE of the Siska watershed highlights important differences between the philosophies and worldviews that guide decision making in indigenous and Canadian societies. When discussing the BC government's decision to allow the logging of...

Pricing water to death: Alberta's water permits prolong the problem.(Report)
September 1, 2007... IN ALBERTA, Canada's freewheeling, economic success story, a market-based economy rules. So it's not surprising that in 2002, the Alberta government chose to counter growing water problems in Southern Alberta with the province's first water...

Hands off our crap: Whistler, BC, maintains control of its public sewage plant.
September 1, 2007... WHISTLER is a resort town better known for its world-class skiing and expensive real estate than for its social activism. But after a lively battle, it has become one of the only Canadian towns where citizens successfully halted the...

MyMarket: only certified local producers need apply.
September 1, 2007... "SCAMS, hucksters, produce jockeys, box stores under a tent... " Bob Chorney doesn't mince words when lamenting what he sees as a plague on traditional farmers' markets these days. The public, says Chorney, are often duped into thinking they...

The symbiotic vision: Lynn Margulis and James Lovelock offer a modern take on Leopold's classic, A Sand County Almanac.(Living Classics)(Book review)
September 1, 2007... A Sand County Almanac, Aldo Leopold, NY: Oxford University Press, 2001. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Symbiotic Planet: A New Look at Evolution, Lynn Margulis, NY: Basic Books, 1998. The Revenge of Gaia: Why the Earth is Fighting...

Culture of more.(Deep Economy)(Book review)
September 1, 2007... Deep Economy, Bill McKibbe, New York: Times Books, 2007. Bill McKibben's writing is like brain candy for the environmentally aware. Always concise and candid, he manages to say all the right things at just the right time. In Deep Economy,...