Al Jazeera comes to America
Somewhere in the United States on August 20, 2013, a technician flicked a switch and Al Jazeera America joined the other networks that bring television news to Americans. At that…
Ray Grigg
Al Jazeera comes to America
Somewhere in the United States on August 20, 2013, a technician flicked a switch and Al Jazeera America joined the other networks that bring television news to Americans. At that…
The Ecology of Wealth
What is a man to do with a “main palace” of 420 rooms, a customized Boeing 747 jumbo jet for his exclusive use, a private zoo and amusement park, and…
The ecology of wealth
Saudi Prince Alwaleed with his wife, Princess Amira al-Taweel (AFP/Getty) What is a man to do with a “main palace” of 420 rooms, a customized Boeing 747 jumbo jet for…
The Thorium reactor energy option
For half a century, the electrical power industry has been trying to make success of failure, safety of danger, and efficiency of wastefulness because it chose the wrong nuclear fuel…
The Carbon Dilemma
The carbon dilemma first received public attention in 2012 when Bill McKibben, an American environmentalist and founder of 350.org, publicized the growing conflict between the known carbon that is stored…
The Rite of Summer, Fall, Winter and Spring
This year marks the hundredth anniversary of the first performance of Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. The event in Paris on May 29, 1913, was a watershed moment for…
Global Warning
By superimposing a big red “N” over the black “m” in “Global Warming”, the editors of a feature article on greenhouse gas emissions in NewScientist magazine (Nov. 17/12) altered the…
The Evolution of Denial
The shortcoming of denial is that it tends to be indiscriminate — so we deny things we should confront. Denial is also a much better coping strategy for an individual…
The Ministry of Natural Gas: British Columbians will pay high price for LNG
By electing a party whose principal economic platform is the development of British Columbia’s natural gas resources, BC voters have decided to tempt disaster. The province’s premier, apparently oblivious to…
Calgary Flood one in growing list of recent Extreme Weather Events
Calgary’s flood, it seems, is just the latest in a growing frequency of extreme weather events that have been causing havoc nearly everywhere on the planet. While Canadian news was…
Why Story of Climate Change Fails to Capture Public’s Interest
According to the Guardian’s Oliver Burkeman, “the most important issues of our era aren’t particularly interesting. Worse than that, there’s good reason to believe in an inverse relationship between interestingness…
The Importance of Forgetting in the Digital Age
We live in an Information Age so we should be able to adequately inform ourselves, make thoughtful decisions and act on matters of importance. We certainly have enough environmental problems…
Gwynne Dyer’s Future Tense Predicts Conflict from Climate Change
Future Tense is the title of one of Gwynne Dyer’s many best-selling books. His expertise has been war, with detailed analyses of the politics, psychology and circumstances that bring humanity…
Piscine Reovirus Pt. 2: Evolution of a New Salmon Virus
Strange things can happen when salmon eat chickens. Such a diet is unprecedented and bizarre, a violation of the biological order that has occurred over millions of years of evolutionary…
Knowing Whales
The huge body of the dead humpback whale lay silently on the beach at White Rock, BC, as if it had chosen this spacious stretch of sand as a conspicuous…
Anthropology’s Capitalism
The anthropologist’s view of capitalism has more perspective than the economist’s. The economist examines such details as the rhythms of booms and busts, the dynamics of prosperity and poverty, and…
Experimental Lakes: Latest Victim of Harper Govt’s Anti-Science Ideology
The decision by Canada’s federal government to close the Experimental Lakes Area (ELA), a unique and world-class research region in Northern Ontario, fits a sobering pattern. Canadian scientists, employed with…
Logging BC’s Coastal Treasures
Exasperation is the tone of the full page ad placed in a March edition of Victoria’s Times-Colonist newspaper by the Discovery Islands Marine Tourism Group, a coalition of businesses associated…
Salmon Confidential
Anyone who has been following the sorry saga of inexplicable diseases and unusual mortality in BC’s wild salmon will not be surprised that the information in Twyla Roscovich’s documentary, Salmon…