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Current Issues

A Reality Check on Green Energy from David MacKay, a Renewable Activist Physicist

David MacKay was one of the UKs top physicists and took a lead role in the introduction of green energy initiatives and energy conservation.

“Sustainable Energy Without the Hot Air”

Sadly David passed away in the spring of this year but part of his immense

legacy is a book on energy production and use in the UK titled “Sustainable Energy without the hot air”.   This book, free to download, is simply the best energy reference produced to date and provides both great detail and a

broad overview of how a modern society consumes energy.  Anyone interested in the subject at whatever level will find it extremely interesting and useful.
http://withouthotair.com/

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Aging is a Transition, Not a Crisis

Aging is a natural trend towards an increase in the proportion of older people in our population and will continue until the Canadian population stabilizes.

The aging trend is merely part of the much larger demographic transition which has accompanied the development of our modern societies.  In this transition, life expectancy has increased from under 40 years in the 1700s to nearly 80 and the number of children per woman has decreased from 6 to near 2.

This demographic transition features:

  • lower fertility rates
  • longer life spans and
  • higher proportions of seniors

 

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High Food Prices, Child Poverty and Discrimination Over Sustainability

"What kind of country thinks it's ok not only that children don't have access to clean drinking water, but children don't have access to food on their tables?” exclaims Timmins-James Bay MP Charlie Angus.

According to a new study by Food Secure Canada, people across the Territories living in remote communities such as the James Bay Coast have to spend over half of their income on food in order to meet basic nutritional requirements. For example, Mushkegowuk territory is serviced by only one grocery store. Individuals are in debt to these stores for their basic food necessities and the only things items deemed affordable are processed foods and pop.

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Plenty Canada: Supporting Sustainable Development and Environmental Protection Goals

Plenty Canada: Supporting Sustainable Development and Environmental Protection Goals

From recent global footage as Rio 2016, we can see the lack of respect for the land and water that sustains us. Canada is back on the international environmental stage to uphold its responsibilities, after attending the UN Conference Board under the ratified Paris Agreement, earlier this year. Although, the Board reported we have a lot of catching up to do, rating Canada’s environmental performance a ‘D’ - 14th among 16 countries. That rating is just above the United States, partly due to former PM Harper removing Canada from the Kyoto Accord goals. Today, stocks of the staple cod species are over 95% lower than they were several hundred years ago. Similar trends hold true for forests, soils, water and the vast majority of our wildlife  (http://sustainablesociety.com/environment/environmental-history#.V8WxhWf2aUk).

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Corporate Accountability on Sustainability

The corporate business model for International trade, as it is now, is not sustainable nor respectful of human dignity and environmental sustainability.  

As John Erik Meyer of “The Social Contract” and “The Perfect Currency”, states “Free Trade and Globalization are centred on the concept of maximizing consumption. They strive to narrow the base of national economies to the few sectors in which they are most competitive internationally. Although consumption and international trade are both maximized under the current approach, globalization increases social and economic instability along with international interdependence.”

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True Cost & Hidden Source of Urban Sprawl

Did you know?

  1. Less than ½ of 1% of Canada’s land is Class 1 farmland and more than half of this is in Ontario.
  2. Between 1996 and 2006 Ontario lost 600,000 acres of farmland (165 acres a day), which included 18% of Ontario’s class 1 farmland.
  3. Farming and food processing employs 700,000 people in Ontario.

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