Quick weekend thoughts (2010-10-02)
Quick whip of two items so let's go:Good on the Supreme Court of Canada for ruling the Insite clinic in Vancouver does not run afoul of drug control policies; more…
environment
Mercer and Holmes install solar panels
They hit a rooftop in Oshawa where it appears a bunch of the neighbourhood homes have solar panels as well. A solar installer is on hand to explain this particular…
Dirty Oil Has More Freedom To Move Than People
Free ride for dirty oil, border checks for people. But which is more dangerous? It's one of those typical injustices of capitalism that money, capital and dirty, earth-destroying, toxic oil…
Heaven and Earth, VIFF’s Environmental Film Series – Tend to your green thumb at the Vancouver International Film Festival
Vancouver’s largest film festival, the Vancouver International Film Festival, is set to begin today. With 300+ films showing over 16 days, and hundreds of volunteers coming together to make it…
Design Regina – Adapt Early
Our competitive advantage is that we’ve not yet adapted to large urban growth, but we have that opportunity now. Or we can be “a mid-size city with big city problems.”…
Earth Overshoot Day – cause for a pause to reflect
Yesterday, September 27, the Global Footprint Network declared as Earth Overshoot Day: the day that humans have used up all renewable resources available for the year. Not good. This obviously…
Canada Can be Powered only by Geothermal Energy
Geothermal power is yet another proven sustainable source of energy, indeed Iceland’s geothermal production accounts for 99% of their energy production. Researchers in Canada have concluded that there is enough…
Taking on Goliath
Salt Spring Forum and Salt Spring Island Conservancy hosted noted western Canadian journalist Andrew Nikiforuk Wednesday to hear details of his new book, Empire of the Beetle. It is an…
My deflating optimism about the NDP leadership race
For a while, I was feeling very energized about the NDP leadership race. We on the left were going to get six months or so to have a real and…
Environment Canada cuts expand beyond ozone monitoring
Good reporting at iPolitics this afternoon, following the trail of the government's Environment Canada cuts: "Oilsands monitoring plan threatened by cuts: experts." The looming job cuts at Environment Canada spell…
Liberal scorn for sustainability
Before joining the Vancouver Sun, Fazil Mihlar was Senior Policy Analyst at The Fraser Institute. In his years with the newspaper's editorial board, Mihlar has continued to serve philosophical goals…
Environment: low on the totem pole for this Conservative government
Just as a brief followup to Impolitical’s posts/observations on the controversy brwewing surrounding cuts to ozone monitoring, I remember a time when opposition leader Stephen Harper was in his “climate…
Ozone monitoring cuts backlash
Let's check in on how it's going since government cuts to Canada's long time ozone monitoring program made news and the international scientific community took note. Karen Dodds, the assistant…
Horwath downplays coalition talk; asks Toronto Council to halt TTC cuts
Anyone hoping that a recent plea from provincial NDP leader Andrea Horwath to Toronto City Council to hold off on transit cuts will make a difference is kidding themselves. Or…
Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.- Munir Sheikh writes (PDF) about good data and intelligent government. I'll add the subtitle, "and other perceived threats to the Harper Conservatives".- Aside from…
Unfunded mandate galore, courtesy the Fed Cons
No surprise that the Cons reintroduced, yet again, their "omnibus" crime bill. And no surprise, again, that the Cons refused to say how much it will cost to implement --…
The Ontario NDP Platform
Pollsters tell us that Ontario’s New Democrats may double their seat total in next month’s provincial election. It’s also entirely conceivable that they could be part of a coalition government…
Letter to Councilor Regarding Regina Recycling
Regina has no curb-side recycling program in place. Residents can pay $93/yr for a private recycler to pick up by-weekly. Hi Louis , I hope you had a good Summer.…
Ontario Green vote projected to drop – but it doesn’t have to
Just about the only thing that all parties and observers can agree upon about the upcoming Ontario election is that the high vote percentage gained by the Green Party of…
Next year country, Year 5
Yes, we should be due for the Cons' annual declaration that they'll get around to regulating greenhouse gas emissions from the tar sands, just not this year....right about now.