Tag Archives: fossil fuels

When did the Great Acceleration start? Saskatchewan might hold the answer

A black-and-white photograph showing a line of steam traction engines plowing a prairie field near Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, circa early 1900s. Several operators tend the large wheeled machines as they cut furrows across flat, open farmland. Photographed by B.P. Skewis of Saskatoon; copyrighted in Canada and USA

Jim Clifford When did the Great Acceleration start? Saskatchewan might hold the answer. Between the 1890s and the 1930s, the settler population exploded, and these newcomers broke 20 million acres of prairie grassland into wheat farms. The transformation released vast quantities of CO2 held in the soil and was inseparable from the genocidal dislocation of Indigenous people from their land.1… Read more »

“Tomorrow: Sunny”: The Rise and Fall of Solar Heating in 1970s Canada

By Henry (Hank) Trim Solar energy seems poised to become a major player in the world of energy. Years of investment have brought down the price of photovoltaics and innovative financing methods have generated unprecedented growth in the industry. According to the Canadian Solar Industries Association solar electric is the fastest growing source of energy in the world.[1]The future of… Read more »

New ActiveHistory.ca Paper – Cancun Summit: The True Reasons for the ‘Failure’ of the Green Movement by Jean-François Mouhot

As the 2010 UN Climate summit in Cancun seems unlikely to make any significant advances, the green movement has been blamed for failing to convince the public that action on climate change is both urgent and necessary, in particular because of its refusal of technologies such as nuclear energy and geo-engineering. However, looking at a previous period of “boom and… Read more »