Environment

Who Is A Founder? A Look at the Origins of the Canadian Environmental Movement

May 10, 2012

By Ryan O’Connor One of the challenges I confronted while researching my dissertation was figuring out who the founders were of Toronto’s pioneering environmentalist organizations. This might sound like a simple task, but records of this sort are often difficult to find. Sometimes the records that exist present a one-sided story. In Front Row Centre: [...]

Share
Read the full article →

Sludge, Bugs, and Sturgeon Fry: Corporate Growth, Environmental Health and Sturgeon Populations on the Winnipeg River

April 26, 2012
Thumbnail image for Sludge, Bugs, and Sturgeon Fry: Corporate Growth, Environmental Health and Sturgeon Populations on the Winnipeg River

By Brittany Luby, PhD Candidate, York University While I was growing up near the Winnipeg River, sturgeon was not part of our local diet. Given the high levels of mercury – the result of industrial dumping practices and the release of organic mercury from rotting flooded vegetation – Dad limited the size of our locally [...]

Share
Read the full article →

Real Time Climate Change: Farm Diaries and Phenology in Prince Edward Island

April 24, 2012
Thumbnail image for Real Time Climate Change: Farm Diaries and Phenology in Prince Edward Island

By Joshua MacFadyen It is 24 April, and although some Canadians have been mowing grass for weeks the spring plants on Prince Edward Island are only beginning to overcome the cold nights and occasional flurries that visit this island in April. Still, this is an early spring by historical accounts. On this day in 1879, [...]

Share
Read the full article →

Cheering for Global Warming: What Europe’s Climatic Past can tell us About our Attitudes Today

April 18, 2012
Thumbnail image for Cheering for Global Warming: What Europe’s Climatic Past can tell us About our Attitudes Today

By Dagomar Degroot Last March, 15,000 heat records were shattered across all American states. While monthly temperatures soared over 15 degrees Celsius above twentieth century American averages, unseasonal warmth also affected much of Canada. In Toronto, hushed, apologetic admissions that there might be something to climate change after all quickly yielded to unabashed celebration of [...]

Share
Read the full article →

Gaming the Future, Parsing the Past: the EXtreme climaTe events prepaRedness and Adaption (EXTRA) Invitational Drought Tournament

April 5, 2012
Thumbnail image for Gaming the Future, Parsing the Past: the EXtreme climaTe events prepaRedness and Adaption (EXTRA) Invitational Drought Tournament

By Merle Massie A major drought of unknown intensity and duration is about to hit the Oxbow Basin in Canada. With a population of about three million people over a landbase of 175,000 square kilometers devoted primarily to agriculture, water management will consume all levels of governance, from the farmstead to the largest city. What [...]

Share
Read the full article →

History vs. Geography and Sourcemap.com

March 12, 2012

The interactive map above, produced by Leo Bonanni, the CEO of Sourcemap.com, demonstrates the impressive power of geographical analysis in the early 21st century. The map shows the supply chains for a typical laptop computer and provides a fascinating insight into the complicated mix of natural resources and manufacturing labour needed. It raises questions about [...]

Share
Read the full article →

Changing the Wheat Board, Part I: The First Time the Conservative Party Eliminated the Canadian Wheat Board

March 9, 2012

By Sean Kheraj Reposted from the Otter. Last November, ahead of the House of Commons vote on the elimination of the Canadian Wheat Board purchasing monopsony, the federal Minister of Agriculture, Gerry Ritz, and his provincial cohorts from Alberta and Saskatchewan held a press conference to celebrate the achievement of the federal Conservative Party’s long-held [...]

Share
Read the full article →

Changing the Wheat Board, Part II: Understanding the Impending Transformation of the Canadian Wheat Board

March 9, 2012

By Shannon Stunden Bower. Reposted from the Otter. The current iteration of the Canadian Wheat Board was established in 1935, during a period of regional emergency. Prairie farmers struggled amidst the difficult circumstances created by the twin crises of widespread agricultural drought and the Great Depression. The authority of the Wheat Board was expanded during [...]

Share
Read the full article →

Changing the Canadian Wheat Board, Part III: The End of the Wheat Board: What next?

March 9, 2012

By Merle Massie Reposted from the Otter. Wheat. The Golden Crop of the west, what was once the backbone of prairie farms, is facing a new/old future. Perhaps the low-carb diets and labeling of wheat as a potential allergen in food products (bread: may contain wheat!) is tearing into wheat’s popularity and profitability? Not really. [...]

Share
Read the full article →

Active History on the Grand: Historic Gardens

February 27, 2012

This article provides examples of historic gardens and landscapes in Ontario.

Share
Read the full article →

← Previous Entries