Electron democracy
A long-belated companion to Steven Chu’s “Time to fix the wiring” essay I posted earlier, this is the white paper I co-authored for the same McKinsey & Company series. Given…
environment
Is It Really That Hard to Imagine Cities Without Cars?
A blissful infographic of imaginative paradigm mechanics! Probably. That’s why really creative paradigm mechanics are thinking outside the box-y sedans to figure out how we could reorient cities and movement…
Alberta Government Failing to Enforce Environmental Legislation: Study
A new study has found that environmental violations in Alberta’s tar sands operations are frequent, enforcement is rare, and there is a chronic failure to disclose important environmental incident information…
Saudi Arabia Starts $109 Billion Push for Renewable Energy
The end of cheap oil is inevitable and it’s clear that at least one oil-producing nation gets that. Unlike Canada, which seemingly wants to destroy half a province, Saudi Arabia…
Strandbeests by Theo Jansen
Theo Jansen (born 1948) is a Dutch artist. In 1990, he began what he is known for today: building large mechanisms out of PVC that are able to move on…
Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Duncan Cameron discusses how the G20 is dancing around the problem of corporate tax evasion. The Economist issues a call to action…
The Crisis In Our Bodies Is The Crisis In Our World
Poet, writer, and activist Eve Ensler’s passionate TED talk entitled “Suddenly, my body”. Breathtaking. *
Using Behavioural Science to Lower Energy Consumption
Alex Laskey wants to lower people’s energy consumption by using tricks and practices from the world of behavioural science. It sounds great and would be great to see implemented, check…
The Great Arctic Flush
The Great Arctic Flush By Paul Beckwith A massive cyclone is forecast to develop in the Arctic, as shown on the image below, from the Naval Research Laboratory. Within 2…
Storm pics
April Reign So yesterday July 19 marks year 27 of married life. also huge storm. There was either a mini tornado or a downburst and there is so much damage.…
On Chomsky
I think everyone should read Chomsky. He’s brilliant, yet far less dense and inaccessible as some people think. He’s a different person than you or me – well, than me…
Ode to Sustainable Development of the Environment…
Remember sustainable development? Me, too. Under the Harper government™, sustainable development of the environment has all but gone the way of the dodo… And now, the Harper government™ has removed…
Stephen Harper Visits Lac Megantic
Mourning the senseless tragedy. Today I was very impressed when Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada, broke with his almost long-held position of not visiting Lac Megantic. While he and…
Suburban Community Considers Higher Taxes for Paved Properties
Toronto and area received massive rain fall last week and one suburban community has decided that the need to encourage better water management through taxes. Basically, if you pave over…
On Smoking
I took the kids to the beach on Sunday, and there’s new signage everywhere about the problems with using the sand as an ashtray. In hopes for a “butt-free beach,”…
Can Animals Provoke Action?
Whenever I talk about atrocities around the world in class – slavery, oil spills, and the like, and I get the class to talk about what bothers them most or…
Time To Wake Up: What If Climate Change Is Real?
Sheldon Whitehouse, Democratic Senator for Rhodes Island, is a climate hero. He tirelessly pushes back against the heavily-polluter-funded deniers in the Senate and elsewhere, presenting the scientific facts and the…
Faith that the End is Near
In today’s G&M, Jared Bland writes from a perspective I’ve been taking lately as well. “Despite seeming reasonable in other areas of my life, I believe that we are quite…
Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Martin Lukacs offers up the definitive response to the Lac-Mégantic rail tragedy: The deeper evidence about this event won’t be found in the…
OMB caves in to idiots at Hamilton City Hall with "Aerotropolis"
Earlier this week the Ontario Municipal Board gave final clearance to Hamilton destroying 555 hectares of virgin farmland for “development” lands around the Hamilton airport, when at least half that…