June 2006

By Dave Oswald Mitchell
Briarpatch Magazine
June/July 2006

IF YOU MOVE BEYOND the ADD-afflicted 24-hour news cycle, you will find there is no shortage of information about the environmental problems we face. Global warming. Peak oil. Declining global foodstocks. Ongoing destruction of the rain forest. Falling water tables. Depleted fisheries. Mass extinction of species. The blossoming potential of these events to halt human progress in its tracks serves as an urgent call-to-action for us to build something more sustainable for our children. This issue of Briarpatch highlights some of the ideas and initiatives that are leading the way in this search for sustainability.

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By William E. Rees
Briarpatch Magazine
June/July 2006

For the first time in history, more than half of humanity now lives in cities. But just how sustainable are the world’s cities—both rich and poor?

LONDON. ROME. Sydney. Tokyo. Even for people who have never visited them, the mere mention of the world’s great cities leaves many of us itching to pull up roots and go there to experience what they have to offer. Even my hometown of Vancouver draws people from all over the world, and can justifiably bask in the glow of its on-going recognition as “the world’s most livable city.”

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By Jennifer Skelton
Briarpatch Magazine
June/July 2006

A unique partnership with a few hundred thousand honeybees is creating numerous educational and micro-enterprise opportunities in Toronto.

FOR MOST PEOPLE IN THE CITY, THE word insect has a negative connotation. Insects are generally associated with all things unpleasant: the annoying mosquitoes that steal blood and occasionally transmit West Nile Virus, the disgusting flies that feast on dog poo minutes before walking over someone’s lunch, the ill-tempered yellow-jackets of late summer intent on disturbing the peace of a neighbourhood barbeque. But for members of the Toronto Beekeepers Cooperative and their partner organization, FoodShare, an insect is considered a friend: the hard-working honeybee has become the partner in an unusual urban agriculture project that provides a diverse range of benefits to the community.

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By Tyler McCreary and Richard Milligan
Briarpatch Magazine
June/July 2006

“PROSPERITY DOTH BEST DISCOVER vice, but adversity doth best discover virtue.” So said Francis Bacon. If his maxim holds true, then residents of Saskatoon’s west-side core communities should be deemed virtuous indeed, organizing to meet community needs in the face of tremendous adversity. While poverty rates in Saskatoon have remained relatively constant over the past twenty years, residents living in poverty have become increasingly concentrated in the core neighbourhoods on the west side. Annual income in these neighbourhoods is roughly half the city average of $62,451. More than forty percent of families living on the west side survive on less than $20,000 a year.

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By Marieka Sax
Briarpatch Magazine
June/July 2006

Instead of eating the animals that eat the plants, why not just eat the plants?

OUR FOOD CHOICES have a big impact�not just on our bodies, but also on the environment and our local economies. Choosing to eat lower on the food chain by eating less meat is a significant way to lower your impact on the environment. Strict vegetarianism may not be for everyone, but questioning how much meat you eat, considering other protein sources, and eating at least one vegetarian supper a week will have a positive impact on the environment.

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Compiled by Malin Hansen, Denise MacDonald,
Dave Mitchell, Marieka Sax and Catherine Verral
Briarpatch Magazine
June/July 2006

NORTH AMERICA IS HOME TO only five percent of the world�s population, but is responsible for consuming one third of all the Earth’s resources—and seventy-five percent of those resources end up wasted.

In a perfect world, our economy and society would be structured in such a way that the most efficient and sustainable options were also the most convenient and socially acceptable. But since that isn’t always the case, we must struggle to question the path of least resistance, make visible the impact of our everyday actions, and make choices that reflect the principles we hold dear.

We hope that the following tips demonstrate that anyone can take small steps to make a big difference. (And almost all of these tips have the added bonus of saving you money in the long run!)

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Doug Struck
May 31, 2006
The Washington Post

FORT MCMURRAY, Alberta - Huge mines here turning tarry sand into cash for Canada and oil for the United States are taking an unexpectedly high environmental toll, sucking water from rivers and natural gas from wells and producing large amounts of gases linked to global warming.

The digging — into an area the size of Maryland and Virginia combined — has proliferated at gold-rush speed, spurred by high oil prices, new technology and an unquenched U.S. thirst for the fuel. The expansion has presented ecological problems that experts thought they would have decades to resolve.

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Resistance is Fertile: Sustainable Solutions for a Change

Letter from the Editor

Letters to the Editor

Reviving Environmentalism
by Matt Price
Canadian environmentalists need to try something new

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