Results tagged “climatechange”

Putting together a concise biography for Severn Cullis-Suzuki is something of a daunting task. Not due to a lack of achievements, but rather because the Vancouver-born environmental and social-justice activist has an incredibly long resumé for someone not yet three decades old. There's so much there, it's hard to whittle down to size.

A federal government report says that the majority of firearms seized at US border crossings are legally held down there, and are being smuggled in simply so that their owners don't feel emasculated in a foreign country.

Photo of Chris Turner at the Greater World Earthship community in New Mexico by Ashley Bristowe.

TTC does end-run around Toronto Preservation Board. The TTC wants the right to redesign 63 of its 69 stations. Heh. We have 69 TTC stations. Never noticed that before. Heh.

Gas prices in Toronto are at $1.09 or more a litre today, reflecting all-time record oil prices of over US$108 per barrel. For all our driving readers, it might cheer you up to consider that it's still cheaper to fill up your car with gas than say, orange juice or Diet Pepsi. By the way, if you do decide to go with orange juice, remember that the pulp-free kind is less likely to gum up your engine.

City councillor, unintentional humourist, and Torontoist favourite Councillor Rob Ford has grabbed himself some headlines again. He refuses to apologize for his comments on Wednesday, "the Oriental people, they're slowly taking over...they're hard, hard workers," because his sweeping generalization was intended as "a compliment." However, a spokesperson for the Canadian Council of Lazy Asians has said that the remarks were "deeply offensive."

Here's a riddle: What walks throughout Canada, weighs more than a Brit, but less than an American, and can help stop global warming? No, it's not Sasquatch. It's not Kyoto.

City service fees to increase? Toronto's recreation department wants to increase user fees by 21 percent this year and a total of 81 percent over seven years. Because you know who doesn't pay their fair share? Poor people!

Torontoist is ending the year by naming our Heroes and Villains of 2007––the people, places, and things that we've either fallen head over heels in love with or developed uncontrollable rage towards over the past twelve months. Get your dose, starting Boxing Day and running into the new year, three times a day––sunrise, noon, and sunset.

Torontoist is ending the year by naming our Heroes and Villains of 2007––the people, places, and things that we've either fallen head over heels in love with or developed uncontrollable rage towards over the past twelve months. Get your dose, starting Boxing Day and running into the new year, three times a day––sunrise, noon, and sunset.

Torontoist is ending the year by naming our Heroes and Villains of 2007––the people, places, and things that we've either fallen head over heels in love with or developed uncontrollable rage towards over the past twelve months. Get your dose, starting Boxing Day and running into the new year, three times a day––sunrise, noon, and sunset.

A new poll shows that the majority of Canadians will call the cops on you if your party is too loud. Thus proving once and for all that we are a nation of killjoys.

Every weekday morning, bright and early, we feature a photo (or two) from a photographer in the Torontoist Flickr Pool. It's our way of giving the many excellent photographers in our pool the attention that they deserve.

The Harper government will introduce legislation to protect consumers more effectively from dangerous products, in part by holding importers more accountable for the goods they bring in. Christmas isn't going to be the same without the traditional lead-laden toys and minor brain damage.

After refusing to allow environmentalists into the official Canadian delegation at the Bali Climate Change Conference, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has raised some hackles by bringing businesspeople, including oil company executives, into the group. Wow, he's not even pretending to care anymore. In other Bali news, a proposal to eliminate tariffs on "green" technologies was shot down at the conference on the weekend, the victim of bickering between developed and developing nations. The human...

Provincial Education Minister Kathleen Wynne has tabled a bill that would ban trans fatty foods from Ontario schools. Trans fats and young people have been a hot public safety issue since 2005's infamous "Summer of the Muffin." Conservative MP James Moore yesterday angrily rejected allegations from NDP MP Irene Mathyssen that he had been viewing a picture of a "scantily clad woman" on his laptop while in the House. Although Mathyssen later apologized after...

A Milton woman went on a rampage with a samurai sword on Sunday, injuring her boyfriend and an off-duty firefighter, smashing windows at a gas station and hacking at a parked car. While Torontoist doesn't condone senseless irrational violence, you've got to give her points for style.

Today is the first day of the Bali United Nations Climate Change Conference, which will continue until December 14. The purpose of the conference, which is being attended by over 20,000 delegates and observers from 180 countries, is to set out the framework of negotiations for the next phase of the Kyoto Protocol when it ends in 2012. There are several events taking place this week in Toronto to mark the occasion. The first...

Honest Ed's turkey giveaway successful like always. Which, Torontoist supposes, is not technically "news," but considering the rest of today's actual news, we felt it appropriate to lead off with a softball.

, but the writer's strike got in the way.

Some Canadian cattle will now be allowed into the United States following a 4-year ban in the wake of several cases of "mad cow" disease. American Homeland Security regulations will still require that any bovines wishing to cross the border carry a valid passport.

We love the television advertising campaigns the WWF comes up with, and their latest is no exception. The ad does provoke some important questions, however, about the ability (or lack thereof) of individual action to create adequate change without government intervention. The first panel at yesterday's GreenTOpia launch dealt with this extensively. Keith Stewart (coincidentally, a campaigner with WWF) explained that even though he's taken extensive personal action (he has solar panels on his house,...

Photo by afiler.

A 13-year-old boy at St. Mary's Catholic Secondary School in Toronto was arrested after he was found to be carrying an illegal 200,000 volt stun gun in his backpack.The Star quotes school board chair Oliver Carroll as saying that "everyone was shocked." Presumably Carroll was not speaking literally.

mention is that the trees are actually sentient and will come to your home to politely discuss with you the merits of public transit, and help you compost and reduce your energy use! And people say government can't do anything.

Flush with the success of their campaign to publicly insult women and minorities, the Ontario government has taken the bold step of verbally abusing the entire City of Toronto. Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty yesterday indicated he wasn't inclined to share any of the billions of dollars that the province sucks out of Toronto each year, blaming the looming fiscal crisis on the City's failure to use its shiny new tax powers, and by implication on Torontonians for not paying enough taxes. He then leapt into his solid gold Ferrari and raced off to his palace at Queen's Park.

All of the controversy last week over city council's non-decision regarding new taxes overshadowed another story with equal (if not more) importance. Just as a one-vote margin of defeat for a mayor is rare, so too is a unanimous vote for anything other than ceremonial or housekeeping motions. And yet, that's exactly how Toronto's climate change plan came to be adopted last Monday night, without a single dissenting voice. Given the importance of dealing with the climate crisis, the relative media-silence surrounding the City's plan, and the fact that the wrong climate solutions can actually lead to even bigger problems, Toronto's approach deserves a closer look.

Now that you're informed about the unhappy and scary state of the earth, it's time to do something about it. The next ArtJam will not only showcase the usual fusion of art and music, but will be a fundraiser for WTF, or the Weather Task Force. Come out to Rancho Relaxo on Friday, June 29 at 8 p.m. and pay $7 cover to help out this environmental alliance—after all, WTF organizes a bunch of those Earth Day events and activities you participate in. Listen to tunes by Teknostep, The Flying Museum Band, Tripped on Water, and Dangerous Brains and check out art by Bradford Wilson, Barrie Biederman, Stephanie Latulippe, and Lex Buchanan in the name of fighting climate change. If you can’t make it tonight, you'll still have many more opportunities to contribute—a portion of proceeds from all future ArtJams will go towards the development of renewable resources.

Would road tolls on the Gardiner and DVP discourage car use and help prevent climate change? How about banning leaf blowers and gas mowers? Toronto City Council discusses the city's long term environmental plan.