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Experiencing Algonquin Park 5

All Photos by James D. Schwartz / The Urban Country Each year my friends and I set forth on a 6-day epic journey in the interior of the beautiful 7,653 sq km Algonquin Provincial Park. Using only human power to reach the interior, we are much obliged to enjoy the serenity of the nature in ...

I Am Responsible for the Gulf Oil Spill… 5

Photo courtesy of IBRRC on Flickr I am responsible for the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill. I claim responsibility for the 11 deaths, 17 injuries from the explosion, and the millions of marine and wildlife that have been killed or displaced as a result. Yes, I am responsible for releasing an estimated 1.9 million to ...

Use Your Brain, Wash Your Spoon 9

An e-mail forward on plastic cutlery has been floating around for a while – so I thought I would revise it slightly and post it here: It’s pretty amazing that our society has reached a point where the effort necessary to extract oil from the ground, ship it to a refinery, turn it into plastic, ...

Leaders Should Learn from Copenhagen 7

Photo courtesy of Rob Inh00d  The 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Copenhagen has ended – and not surprisingly it lacks a binding agreement between the parties. This conference was particularly significant because it was identified by the 2007 Bali Road Map as the point ...

Copenhagen 2009 – We Have Ourselves to Blame 2

Photos courtesy of Corriere Della Sera.it Only one week remains at the Copenhagen Climate Summit (COP15). Delegates from around the world are hoping to hammer out an international agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Environment ministers started arriving in Copenhagen yesterday and world leaders will be arriving this coming week. With the Kyoto protocol expiring ...

Skymeter to End All-You-Can-Eat Buffet? 6

  Photo courtesy of Atwater Village Newbie Skymeter has developed technology that can change the world as we know it. Does this small Toronto-based start-up have what it takes to penetrate a potentially mass market for congestion tolling? Here in North America our transportation system is broken. People who seldom use our roads are subsidizing ...

Cowboys Stadium: Everything is Bigger in Texas 5

Yesterday I attended a Dallas Cowboys football game at the new Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas. I am by no means a football fan, nor would I have attended this game under any other circumstance than the fact that my father is turning 60 years old and he has never seen the Cowboys play in ...

Traveling Water Bottles

Packing for travel is an art: you don’t want to forget anything, but at the same time you don’t want to take hours to do it. Over the past 3.5 years of working for a consulting firm, I have periodically traveled to client sites, attending conferences and for training. As a result, I have become ...

Grocery Shopping Like a Champ

Today, Saturday October 24th is the first annual “International Day of Climate Action”, organized by 350.org, an activist organization with the goal of cutting atmospheric carbon dioxide emissions to below 350 ppm (the current level is 389 ppm of CO2). There are more than 3000 events happening around the world in 160 countries. In recognition ...

Diesel Trains Are NOT the Answer 6

The downtown Toronto City Centre Airport has been a political hot potato for many years. Airport expansion advocates were pushing for a bridge to the Toronto City Centre airport that current Mayor David Miller quashed when he was first elected in 2003. Environmentalists and local residents often refer to noise and air pollution as the ...