One thing that initially seems refreshing about visiting Cuba is the lack of commercial advertising. Not that there are no billboards; in fact, huge placards are omnipresent. They’re populated instead with political propaganda. I’m sure many Canadian leftists might savour the idea of progressive viewpoints brandished everywhere instead of airbrushed models toting Gucci bags. After […] More »
It’s an old idea but one that’s worth re-exploring: buying land to save it. American multimillionaire and North Face founder Douglas Tompkins bought up huge chunks of Argentina earlier this month. Tompkins says he wants to prevent these ecologically sensitive areas from being developed and exploited by corporations. He even intends to eventually turn them […] More »
Seattle-based artist Chris Jordan has created a series of works we like very much. He represents abstract statistics in gorgeous visuals. We’re not talking charts and graphs here. Below is a detail of a piece that envisions 11,000 jet planes (about the number in America every eight hours). Wow. When people think green most people […] More »
(Billy Ballot image courtesy of the Citizens’ Assembly site) I think I work in the most interesting building in the country. 215 Spadina in Toronto is home to the Centre for Social Innovation, a crazy collection of tiny groups and operatives all on the sharp edge of social change. The Lunch ‘n Learn schedule alone […] More »
We love our books but let’s face it. With all that paper and printing they’re probably not all that green. Well, with the help of the Green Guide Girls maybe publishing can change their ways. Some publishers already have. Maybe those biofuels aren’t such a good idea after all. AP is reporting that robust German […] More »
Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer is on the receiving end of criminal charges in Nigeria’s largest state of Kano in the aftermath of what the Nigerian government says was an unethical drug trial. According to a Washington Post report: The government alleges that Pfizer researchers selected 200 children and infants from crowds at a makeshift epidemic camp […] More »
The United Nations Environment Programme is announcing a program that would see a billion trees planted in 2007. We’re not sure how feasible that is, really. As of this blog post UNEP had planted just over 14 million trees. It’s almost June! New York City union activists have enlisted an ally in their fight for […] More »
Toronto’s Mayor David Miller was at the C40 Large Cities conference and unveiled a zero footprint calculator with Ron Dembo, CEO of zerofootprint. It will be live soon but you can try it out. TV networks have been whining about decreasing ad revenues for a long time now. As more of us Tivo, download and […] More »
(photo courtesy Rebekka) This one’s got everything I love — a copyright fight, great photography, Iceland, some folks behaving badly and genuine contrition. Maybe there is something to this internet thing after all. Most everyone has by now heard of the talented Rebekka Gudleifsdottir, a Flickr photography star of the highest order. Rebekka’s stunning Icelandic […] More »
On Thursday afternoon, I attended a rally outside the CBC building in Toronto in support of the BBC’s Gaza correspondent, Alan Johnston, who has been held by a militant group in the region since they abducted him some 62 days ago. A few CBC personalities and other journalists said a few words each to the […] More »
One half of the duo of delusion stepped down from his position of power today. But man, do we wish this CNN screen grab was true. Sadly it’s just a typo. Opinions on graffiti might vary, but man do we dislike corporate graffiti. Here’s hoping this idea takes off. We’re partially frightened but also very […] More »