I don’t know about you, but sometimes it seems that our environment is a hopeless case and we’re on some irremediable collision course with disaster of apocalyptic proportions. Those little things that we do — like using energy-efficient bulbs or appliances — do they really make a difference? Why bother? The news today told a [...]
Book Review: Carbon Shift
May 25, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Thomas Homer-Dixon, author of The Ingenuity Gap, edited this collection of essays from some of Canada’s experts in economics, geology, climate change, and policy analysis. The theme of Carbon Shift is, as its subtitle tells us, “How the twin crises of oil depletion and climate change will define the future.” The authors were by no [...]
Celebrating Earth Day
April 22, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Well, I am very happy for this Earth Day. It’s a special one, in that today lawn pesticides become banned in Ontario. (Mostly, anyway – golf courses can still keep spraying their turf.) Apart from the joy that I derive from thinking of soil that is that much healthier, waterways that are that much cleaner, [...]
Book Review: Green Home Improvement
February 25, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Book Review: The Weather Makers
February 4, 2009 By Leave a Comment
The Weather Makers is a fairly recent (2005) discussion of the topic of climate change by Tim Flannery, scientist and conservationist. It’s certainly not a light or cheerful read. Flannery comes at climate change from a very different tack than Friedman, giving us lots and lots of scientific context. The first part of the book [...]
Baby, it's cold inside
January 6, 2009 By 5 Comments
Book Review: Hot, Flat, and Crowded
December 18, 2008 By 1 Comment
Canada's Greenest (and Smartest) Restaurant
December 12, 2008 By Leave a Comment
Yesterday I heard a story on CBC that encouraged me: the owners of the Fall River Pub & Grill, lauded as Canada’s “greenest restaurant”, explained that going green made business sense. Apart from noting that they, like everyone else, are “air breathers” and thus interested in having breathable air around for some time, they shared [...]
