Takedown
How Environment Canada ordered a Dutch web hosting company and German server group to take down a Danish web site running an American political parody
By Bill Kovarik
A Danish web administrator says he only acted under duress when he complied with a Dec. 21 Environment Canada order to take down a Yes Men political comedy web site criticizing Canada’s climate stance at Copenhagen.
“I felt really bad promising to take the sites offline without a warrant, as I am a firm believer of the UN Human Rights,” said Ole Tange, a Danish web developer. However, had he not taken the sites down, 4,500 other sites he manages would have been kept [...]
Ontario reindeer threatened
By Maria Ionova
Rudolph — in all his plastic glory – could soon become the only reindeer seen in the province of Ontario. Environmental scientists worry that non-fictional reindeer – or woodland caribou – may become extinct if their plummeting population cant recover quickly enough.
Since the introduction of the Endangered Species Act in 2007, the woodland caribou population has been a hot topic among the environmental community.
Reindeer are threatened because they have virtually vanished in the northern region and are, at this stage, considered to be in great danger of disappearing altogether. Only dispersed herds remain in Northern Ontario.
The exact count of the current population is unknown aside from the [...]
Chasing Copenhagen – Part I
In search of climate solutions before the December 2009 summit
By Bill Kovarik
So this is the speed of light.
We laugh as the solar-powered boat glides silently down the Spree River through the heart of Berlin, Germany. As monumental buildings drift past, our captain, Arno Paulus, points out a series of 64-year-old bullet holes in the stone walls alongside the river.
It’s a sobering moment in the new Berlin, a city where ghosts still flit through the Tiergarten and where hollowed-out churches still draw crowds on the Ku-Damm boulevard.
And it’s because of this past, Paulus says, that Germany has a moral obligation to help change the world. “We can do it,” he says, [...]
Chasing Copenhagen – Part II
In search of climate solutions before the December 2009 summit
By Bill Kovarik
A sobering dinner with one of the worlds leading climate scientists — Stefan Ramstorf of Pottsdam University in Berlin — sets a tone of urgency. As we watch the swans paddle out on a pristine German lake, I think about Ranstorf’s prediction that at least six feet of sea level rise by 2100 is close to inevitable.
He tells us that if the goal is to limit CO2 from fossil fuels to 750 billion tons over the next 40 years, then the “only fair and just principle here is to assign them on a per capita basis.” He asks [...]
Activist galvanized by festival waste
By Jim Saunders
(Full pdf)
It was summer 2007 and bags of garbage were piling up alongside the bins of Victoria Park as the year’s festivals progressed.
For Maryanne MacDonald this was too much. The sight galvanized her and her London based environmental group, Waste Free World, into action.
“Something needs to be done,” she remembers saying.
MacDonald would spearhead the Victoria Park EcoStation initiative, which saw the placement of volunteer-manned composting bins at strategic locations around the park to absorb waste, including food scraps, plastic plates, knives and forks from the festivals.
London hospitals say progress being made
By Joel Tiller
(full PDF)
Despite what was written a couple of weeks ago in the London Free Press, London-area hospitals are making progress in reducing their ecological footprint.
In an Oct., 20th article titled Hospitals deemed high polluters, the Free Press took a critical approach to the recent revelation that London’s hospitals are the biggest polluters in the city.
“Healthcare, outside of the tar sands, is the most polluting industry in Canada,” said Dr. John Howard, a pediatrician with London Health Sciences.
“Although the London Health Sciences Centre is a big polluter they are very worried about that … and the reality is that we have to balance the good things we do in [...]
Port Hope poised for cleanup
After More than 70 Years of Nuclear Contamination, Port Hope is Poised for a Cleanup
By: James Jackson
“Those people should be moved, (all) sixteen-thousand of them,
from Port Hope and another town built for them.”
– Helen Caldicott, Speaking at The University of Western Ontario
October 16th, 2009
The nuclear accidents of the past are well documented, and are headlined by the 1986 nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl and the 1979 near-meltdown of the reactor at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania. The coverage of nuclear accidents in Canada is sparse, but that does not mean they haven’t happened.
Port Hope’s nuclear legacy goes back almost eighty years. Radium was extracted from uranium ore in Port Hope starting [...]
Climate Action Day in London ON
By Laura Schober
The Sisters of St. Joseph’s are passionate about living sustainably. That’s why they organized this year’s International Day of Climate Action, inviting Londoners to take part in a panel discussion with Jay Stanford, chief of environmental and engineering services for the City of London, Maryanne MacDonald, organizer for the non-governmental organization, Waste Free World, and Sara Sek, a professor from the University of Western Ontario’s faculty of law.
The discussion took place at Central Library on October 24, as a part of 350.org, a day where people in 181 countries come together to raise awareness about climate change. An international grassroots movement, 350.org is named after the [...]
Waste reduction and guilt
By Joel Tiller
Waste Reduction Week is less than two weeks away and I am left wondering how I can get involved. You see, I am already a conscious recycler – thanks to my overbearing mother – and I have even jumped on the re-usable-bag bandwagon for those weekly trips to the supermarket. Yet, I still don’t feel like I am doing enough. Admittedly, I have brought on this added pressure myself, but when you take into consideration that we, as Ontarians, left close to one million tonnes of refuse along our curbsides in 2008 alone, I feel this newfound obligation for wanting to make a difference is nothing short of [...]