After the logging days and before outsourcing and current fuel costs, several cities in the state of Michigan enjoyed a prosperous hay-day of industrial ingenuity. In Detroit, a fleet of shiny cars shimmied off the assembly lines at Henry Ford's first factory, opened in 1903. Nearly a decade earlier ... keep reading
Written by Lauren Carter in July, about Biofuels, Clean Technologies, Coal & Oil, Economics, Industry, Transport
In North America, the idea of eating insects has generally only been broached during Fear Factor or a light-hearted end-of-the-nightly-news story involving grossed-out American kids and half-naked natives munching maggots. But these days, with our environmental and food crises deepening, the idea of eating the highly nutritious and easy-to-raise crop ... keep reading
Written by Lauren Carter in July, about Agriculture & Food, Consumerism, Environment & Wildlife, Health
On a cold day in December 2002, the people of Canada's Grassy Narrows First Nation, 80 kilometres north of Kenora, Ontario, had had enough. After years of suffering from mercury contamination of their water and fish, the flooding of their sacred sites and sky-high unemployment, the drawn-out battle of ... keep reading
Written by Lauren Carter in June, about Deforestation, Environment & Wildlife, Industry, Logging, Politics, Protest
Ripping up the earth in a rainforest while driving a Hummer and riding an ATV through the sensitive Sonoran desert. What do these two trips have in common? They are both dubbed ‘eco-tourism’ by the outfitters that offer them. A term heavily affiliated with green-washing, “eco-tour” is freely bandied around ... keep reading
Written by Lauren Carter in June, about Environment & Wildlife
On bicycles, by foot, by boat and a mix of various methods. It seems that lots of people are embarking on slow travel, low carbon trips and blogging about them. While these alternative methods for movement are inspiring for those of us in the grip of the contradiction between wanderlust ... keep reading
Written by Lauren Carter in June, about Transport
A few days after Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper pitched his government's environmental plan to leaders in Europe, an underground campaign emerged back at home. It wasn't Greenpeace. There were no environmental activists staging a sit-in at the parliament buildings. Instead, the leaders of the country's largest ... keep reading
Written by Lauren Carter in June, about Carbon Trading, Politics, Weather
One of the most difficult things to give up in a low-carbon lifestyle is the long-standing tradition of pulling out of the driveway and hitting the open road. Although we've only been road-tripping for 60 years or so, the North American habit of aimless driving along paved arteries is ... keep reading
Written by Lauren Carter in May, about Biofuels, Transport
Greenwash is growing... Download The Greenwash Guide (PDF) For a year, Ed Gillepsie made his way round the world without setting foot on a plane. Along the way, he blogged about his low-carbon adventures and wrote a regular column for the Observer. But these days, he's back in the ... keep reading
Written by Lauren Carter in May, about Consumerism, Industry, Media
In a vote held on May 5, Canadian parliament defeated Bill C-517, the private member's bill tabled by MP Gilles-A. Perron in April, calling on implementation of mandatory labelling of GMO food. During Monday's second debate (full text here, several Members of Parliament talked about food safety, precautionary ... keep reading
Written by Lauren Carter in May, about Agriculture & Food, Genetic Modification, Health, Industry, Politics, Weather
Canadians are an apologetic bunch. It’s part of our national character. Bump into us on the subway and we’re bound to apologize to you simply for the fact that we were standing in the way. So the newly released results of a national survey on environmental attitudes shouldn ... keep reading
Written by Lauren Carter in May, about Coal & Oil, Consumerism, Industry, Media
Construction began this week on North America’s largest solar farm. Located a short distance from Kingston, Ontario, Canada, the 300-acre plot of land will eventually gleam with the dark gold of some 200,000 panels soaking up 19-megawatts, or enough energy to annually power … wait for it… 2,000 ... keep reading
Written by Lauren Carter in April, about Clean Technologies
Editor's Note: Today we take pleasure in welcoming Lauren Carter to the writing team. Lauren lives in Ontario, Canada, has a wealth of writing experience and will be covering such issues as food, energy efficiency, sustainable travel and more. If Canadian consumers have their way, Monsanto might have the ... keep reading
Written by Lauren Carter in April, about Genetic Modification, Politics, Weather
