Biodiversity

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Mesmerizing Mushrooms

It was London, Ontario’s first winter storm of the roaring twenties, and I braved the elements to catch a documentary film about mushrooms at Hyland Cinema. Climate change is making severe weather events more frequent. Just the weekend before, London received 70 mm of rain leading to flooding of the […]

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The Disappearing Myth

The tranquil and barren island of Rapa Nui, commonly known as Easter Island, illustrates the rich cultural and ecological history of the self-sustaining Rapa Nui civilization that existed in complete isolation from the 13th – 17th century A.D. The island’s several hundred abandoned megalithic statues (moai) stand tall amongst the […]

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Minjimendan, Garden of Remembering

Educational Video Companion: Indigenous Food Security and Farming   Dr. Andrew Judge is an Anishinaabe-Irish Scholar and founded the ongoing Indigenous knowledge project, Minjimendan, at rare Charitable Research Reserve. Minjimendan is an Ojibway word meaning “in a state of remembering.” It is a reference to the state of mind in […]

Still image from Metamorphosis

Motivating Our Metamorphosis: A Film Review of Metamorphosis (2018)

In Metamorphosis, filmmakers Nova Ami and Velcrow Ripper skillfully explore the materialization of our planet’s metamorphosis amidst a worsening climate crisis. By sharing an intricate collage of stories, this film avoids perpetuating the daunting notions of guilt and defeat to focus on swelling the hearts of audience members with a […]

Accidental Gravity. Bernard Quetchenbach. Oregon State University Press, 249 pp.

‘Accidental Gravity: Residents, Travelers, and the Landscape of Memory’

There’s an ethereal quality to much nature writing that can feel oppressively twee, miscalibrated to life in the Anthropocene. Annie Dillard may have had a year to wander the Blue Ridge Mountains playing King of the Meadow with grasshoppers, but that was 1974. Haven’t you heard? A Delaware-sized iceberg is […]

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Powering ethical agriculture with the sun

Twelve kilometres east of Parliament Hill, the Just Food Farm grows a dazzling mix of organic fruits and vegetables including carrots, brussel sprouts and watermelon. Executive director Moe Garahan tells me the 150-acre agricultural operation forms part of the National Capital Commission’s Greenbelt yet it’s squarely within Ottawa city limits. […]

Proposed Greenbelt Expansion Study Area - Streams and Water Map

The Greenbelt is Growing

Alternatives Journal and the Friends of the Greenbelt Foundation are hosting a celebration of the possible expansion of the Greenbelt into Waterloo Region and Wellington County. There’s just one problem: earlier this month, Waterloo Regional council voted for revisions to the greenbelt expansion before agreeing to join. In fact, if […]