Recently added articles from Alternatives Journal:
Biofuelling the future.(Editorial)(Editorial)
Mar 01, 2009; ... WE'RE very pleased to announce that Alternatives has become the media sponsor for Earth Day Canada's Hometown Heroes. The annual award goes to an individual or group who has made an outstanding contribution to the environment by working within their community. It's work that often goes ...
What would nature do?(AskNature.org)(Brief article)
Mar 01, 2009 ... Nature is the place to start when problem solving, according to the Biomimicry Institute. Inspired by this tenet, the institute launched AskNature.org. It is the world's first biomimicry database, a free, online public-domain library, featuring design strategies that mirror natural ...
Colossal Fossil.(In Brief)(Brief article)
Mar 01, 2009 ... Canadians can enter 2009 confident that little has changed with regard to their nation's approach to climate change. At the December 2008 UN Climate Change Conference in Poznan, Poland, Canada matched last year's performance and received the Colossal Fossil award for being the country most ...
Ban the bottle.(In Brief)(Brief article)
Mar 01, 2009 ... Toronto has joined almost 20 other Canadian municipalities by banning the sale of plastic water bottles in civic buildings. The recently approved bylaw also includes a mandatory charge for plastic bags in stores and a ban on plastic bags that cannot be recycled, including biodegradable ...
Lafarge loses.(Lafarge Canada Inc.'s appeal)(Brief article)
Mar 01, 2009 ... The Ontario Court of Appeal recently refused to hear an appeal from Lafarge Canada Inc. that, if granted, would have stopped an independent review of its proposal to burn alternative fuels in its cement kiln near Bath, Ontario. A group of NGOs and citizens called for the review after the ...
Carbon credit transit.(In Brief)(Brief article)
Mar 01, 2009 ... The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol allows industrialized countries to buy pollution credits generated by developing nations. Often criticized for being a means for countries to buy their way out of having to reduce their own emissions, the CDM can spur win-win ...
One less car.(Brief article)
Mar 01, 2009 ... A promise to leave their cars at home gets first-year students at Ripon College, Wisconsin, and the University of New England, Maine, a free bicycle, along with a helmet and lock. Ripon's president, who is an avid mountain biker, explains that the college initiated the project" ... as ...
Tar waters.(water contamination by oil sands)(Brief article)
Mar 01, 2009 ... As long as oil companies have been operating in Fort McMurray, Alberta, tailings ponds have been a problem. Now, a new report released by Environmental Defence indicates that each day 11 million litres of contaminated water are leaking from tar sands operations into surrounding areas ....
GM-uh-o!(Brief article)
Mar 01, 2009 ... Supporting the claims of those opposed to the genetic modification of food, two recently released studies from the European Union show that genetically modified foods pose adverse health effects. The Italian National Institute of Research on Food and Nutrition found that mice fed ...
Hot sewage.(sewage system )(Brief article)
Mar 01, 2009 ... In the first phase of its redevelopment, the Southeast False Creek neighbourhood and Olympic Village in Vancouver, British Columbia, will recover heat from its municipal sewer system to provide space heating and domestic hot water for residents. The process ...
Defining development.(Letter to the editor)
Mar 01, 2009; ... I am both impressed and saddened by your recent issue Saving the Land that Feeds Us [34:3, 2008]. We happened to take a trip to Vaughan [in the Greater Toronto Area] where we read the magazine. We found the homestead of my great-great-grandfather at Elder's Mills. The land is still ...
Directory feedback.(Letter to the editor)
Mar 01, 2009; ... While reading through the AJ Environmental Education Directory 2008-09 [34:5, 2008], we came across the "Spotlight on PhD Programs" as well as the note al the bottom of the page specifying that the article featured only "pure" environmental degrees. We are wondering why our PhD program in ...
Conflict of interest.(Letter to the editor)
Mar 01, 2009 ... I read with interest the article "Raising the Bar" [34:4, 2008] and ask, is there a conflict of interest with Alternatives receiving some of its funding from Suncor? --Noel Thomas Montreal, Quebec Editor's response: At Alternatives, we struggle with the ...
A second opinion.(Letter to the editor)
Mar 01, 2009; ... In response to your article "Eggplant to the Rescue" [34:6, 2008], I hate to be a party pooper as nothing thrills me more than to learn of a new, helpful, medical invention, but the American Cancer Society does not endorse Dr. Cham's eggplant cream, ...
Carbon continentalism.(Brief article)
Mar 01, 2009; ... THE OBAMA EFFECT is reverberating right into the heart of Environment Canada. On January 15, 2009, Prime Minister Stephen Harper took the unprecedented move of appointing Bob Hamilton to the newly created position of associate deputy minister of environment. In this role, Hamilton, an ...
Safe harbour for endangered species.(Brief article)
Mar 01, 2009; ... NO LONGER WILL PROPERTY OWNERS in Ontario be breaking the law if they restore their land by planting seeds of endangered species such as small white lady's slipper, American ginseng or the delightfully named Engelmann's quillwort. Changes to provincial legislation now provide a "safe ...
Cape hopeful.(Letter from Cape Farewell expedition)
Mar 01, 2009; ... <Pre> Give us this day our daily seal And forgive us our footprints As we forgive those who tread against us And lead us not into pollution But deliver us from petrol For ours is the past, the present and the future For ever and ever Amen. </Pre> THESE ARE ...
Beyond food-vs-fuel: the biofuel debate must consider both energy and agriculture.
Mar 01, 2009; ... THE DEBATE about biofuels has become, in large part, one of food-versus-fuel. Framing the discussion in this way distorts the issue, in that only a modest portion of biofuel is produced from crops that are raised for direct human consumption. Moreover, the environmental implications ...
Home brew: how a small-scale accident put a Canadian ex-pat in the front row of the international biofuel discussion.(Essay)
Mar 01, 2009; ... NOT LONG AFTER arriving in North Carolina, I became enamored with that exotic Southern delicacy: deep-fried turkey. Each time I fried a bird, however, I was left with gallons of used cooking oil. The recycler in me found it hard to throw such waste in the woods, so in 2002 I began brewing ...
Biofuel basics: we will do better in selecting among the biofuel feedstock options if we grasp the essentials of how ecosystems work.
Mar 01, 2009; ... IN RECENT YEARS, Canada has pumped billions of dollars into its biofuel industry. Most notable have been incentives paid to farmers to grow corn for ethanol production. While Canada now has a nascent biofuel industry with more and more plants opening across the country, little thought has ...