If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
On occasion I like to believe that people can change their behaviour. I suppose I am an optimist in that regard, at least until I am proven wrong. This past week I was deeply troubled by the report about some recent statistics as they do not bode well for our ability to change our behaviour. Those statistics? The traffic infraction numbers for February to March 27 2013 on Highways 63, 881, and 69.
As part of this year's nation-wide, week-long celebration of water, Canada Water Week, here are some questions for getting the most out of your documentary viewing experience. David Lavallee's film, White Water, Black Gold, has received myriad distinctions. It will air on TVO Wednesday March 20 at 10 p.m.
With consideration of the Keystone XL pipeline proposal heading into the home stretch, a parade of Canadian politicians have been making the trek to the U.S. to try to convince the Obama Administration of the pipeline's merits.The good news is that the recent visitors -- from Premiers Redford and Wall to federal Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver -- now acknowledge that Canada's environmental record is crucial to the upcoming U.S. decision.The bad news is that there are some gaping holes in that record.
When I talk about energy density, I tend to use cups as a comparison: how much energy is in a cup of wood chips, compared to a cup of ground up coal, compared to a cup of gasoline, or napalm. How much energy is there in a cup of wind, or a cup of sunlight?
Canada has the third largest proven oil reserves in the world, but the province of Alberta is planning to cut education and health care spending this year, and Canada's national debt stands at a whopping CDN$600 billion. How can that be? With so many people calling our massive tar sands reserves the "Saudi Arabia of the North," how can we be so cash-strapped?
U.S. President Barack Obama and B.C. NDP Leader Adrian Dix can choose to plot a course. A course towards more dependence on dirty tar sands oil -- a business-as-usual approach -- or, towards a shift in focus with a reduced dependence.
What we already know from existing analysis is that the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline is not in our national interest. The pipeline means worsening climate change. Piping it through the U.S. heartland would put our ranchers and farmers at risk from difficult to clean up oil spills.
In my life as a community blogger I occasionally get emails and messages from those curious about where I live. Sometimes they come from those who have been to northern Alberta, and sometimes they come from people from countries far away, wondering if this is the place they have been looking for to change their fortunes.
The four founders of Idle No More didn't start out famous. Until flash-mob round dances, prayer circles, and blockades spread across Canada, few people knew Jessica Gordon, Sylvia McAdam, Sheelah McLean, and Nina Wilson. But today, Idle No More is emerging as a powerful movement for the rights of native peoples to protect the lands and waters.
I told an audience of oil tycoons eight years ago that their country's best bet would have been to invest $250 billion to develop the oil sands and back out all foreign oil imports. "For $250 billion, you'd have acquired all the oil you need, you wouldn't have had to invade Iraq and nobody would have died."
We the people have the power to demand action from our political leaders, to tell the lobbyists and oil industry fat cats that we're tired of their business-as-usual dirty energy campaigns.
I feel strongly that as non-indigenous people living here in what we now call North America that we all have a lot to learn from those that were here long before we were. Working together, we need to find ways to heal from the history of colonialism and find new ways to work together to make healthy alternatives to dangerous tar sands oil, a reality. There are very real energy, housing and transportation solutions already readily available.
Much debate has centered on the potential climate impacts of the Keystone XL pipeline project, with competing studies delivering sometimes contradictory results. Today comes another analysis, and I asked TransCanada, the company behind the pipeline, to respond.
The Harper government is blatantly adhering to the interests of one industry over the broader interests of all Canadians, and over the fundamental protection of our land and waters. What are we to make of how easy a time these industry lobbyists had at furthering their own interests?
I present to you the YMM Twitter Top Twelve of 2012 - and yes, there are twelve categories but more than twelve accounts, so deal with it. I never was good at making decisions, people. These are in random order as I have chosen to not select one as the "top" account overall - there is just no way for me to do that because I happen to think these ones would all deserve top spot. And if you don't like it? Make your own damn list ;)
It's not Ottawa or Ontario that stands in the way of Alberta's success, nor will the rants of Thomas Mulcair or Justin Trudeau have any noticeable impact on the well-being of Albertans. An independent Alberta would face the same problems as now, and even worse, because British Columbia next door would be even less inclined to open its territory to a pipeline from the "Republic of Alberta".
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