International Development

Carbon Rush film review A\J AlternativesJournal.ca

Carbon Rush

There are more than 5,000 carbon-offset projects registered by the United Nations and funded by multinational companies that try to compensate for their environmental impacts. Director Amy Miller details how eucalyptus plantations, hydroelectric dams and other projects in developing countries can violate basic human rights, cause further ecological damage and […]

students at international development conference A\J Alternatives Journal

The Future of International Aid

The Student Association of International Development (SAID) at the University of Waterloo recently partnered with the Waterloo chapter of Engineers Without Borders (EWB) to host a two-day conference centered on the emerging role of the private sector in international development. Students from many faculties and programs attended the event, as […]

photo (cc) Dru Oja Jay, Dominion

Can Canada Atone for its Climate Sins?

Canada is a world-class climate dinosaur. We aren’t the leading per capita GHG emitter (that is Qatar), but we may get there yet. We signed and ratified Kyoto, but ignored it for years, radically exceeded our promised emissions target and then just abandoned the agreement. We are the only nation […]

COP18march

A COP18 Wrap-up: The Doha Gateway to a Warmer World

The UNFCCC COP18 climate change conference has been hailed, by some, as a success. The ‘Doha Gateway’ was celebrated in particular for its success at ensuring a second term of the Kyoto Protocol. After the negotiations went more than twenty-four hours overtime, the president of the conference quickly gaveled through […]

Development Without Destruction book review A\J AlternativesJournal.ca

Development Without Desctruction

In his engaging and practical book Development Without Destruction: The UN and Global Resource Management, Nico Schrijver shows how the UN developed into a hub for natural resource management by default, not by design. As this comprehensive contribution to the UN Intellectual History Project series recounts, the Charter of the United […]