Features

Canada’s illusory oil riches

Apr 072013

The bigger Canada's energy sector grows, the poorer most people become.

by Stephen Leahy

Few people are aware Canada's GDP shot up from an average of $600 billion per year in the 1990s to more than $1.7 trillion in 2012. This near tripling of the GDP is largely due to fossil fuel investments and exports. However not many Canadians are three times wealthier. For one thing GDP is only a measure of economic activity, not necessarily of wealth. The other reason is that little of this new wealth stayed in Canada. And what did stay went to a small percentage of the population, worsening the gap between rich and poor.

Disappearing federal websites

Apr 042013

Features

Harperites' secret plan to 'streamline' websites likely to cut public access to vital information.

by Peter O’Malley

Were it not for a conscientious bureaucrat who leaked a presentation on Harper’s “web presence renewal” strategy to the BC Freedom of Information and Privacy Association (BCFIPA), we would, as usual, not know anything about the Prime Minister’s plan A) to slash the number of federal departmental web sites, B) to remove “unpopular” information from the sites that remain, and C) to set up formal, centralized supervision over information subsequently posted on the handful of surviving web sites.

Chutzpah: Harper chastises Chavez on democracy

Apr 042013

Features

In four successful elections, the lowest majority Chavez ever got was 54 percent.

by Jim Foulds

In early March Stephen Harper used Hugo Chavez’s death as an opportunity to preach about democracy to Venezuelans. Talk about faceplanting your big mouth in a cow pasture! Harper should have checked with Latinobarometro. Latin America’s largest polling firm found that 84 percent of Venezuelans viewed their democracy positively. Venezuela’s last voter turnout at 81 percent puts Canada and the US to shame.

US weaning itself off gasoline

Apr 012013

Features

Decreasing gas use means US can just say no to new pipelines and food-to-fuel.

by Janet Larsen

Freeing America from its dependence on oil from unstable parts of the world is an admirable goal, but many of the proposed solutions — including the push for more home-grown biofuels and for the construction of the new Keystone XL pipeline to transport Canadian tar sands oil to refineries on the US Gulf Coast — are harmful and simply unnecessary.

Gasoline use in the United States is falling, and the trends already driving it down are likely to continue into the future, making both the mirage of beneficial biofuels and the construction of a new pipeline to import incredibly dirty oil seem ever more out of touch with reality.

Canada becoming a petro-state

Apr 012013

Features

Canada's poverty rates have skyrocketed in step with the growth of the energy sector.

by Stephen Leahy

Few are aware Canada's GDP shot up from an average of $600 billion per year in the 1990s to more than $1.7 trillion in 2012. This near tripling of the GDP is largely due to fossil fuel investments and exports. However not many Canadians are three times wealthier. For one thing GDP is only a measure of economic activity. The other reason is that little of this new wealth stayed in Canada. And what did stay went to a small percentage of the population, worsening the gap between rich and poor.

Six ways to fuel the co-operative takeover

Apr 012013

Features

As capitalism flounders, the new motto will be, "There's a co-op for that."

by Sven Eberlein

In the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, businesses, products, and services that benefit people, communities, and the planet — instead of a few megabanks and billionaires — have been in higher demand. The International Cooperative Alliance's recently published Blueprint for a Cooperative Decade lays out a long-term vision to make cooperatives not only the fastest-growing form of business but the acknowledged leader in environmental, social, and economic sustainability.

Idle No More in Seattle

Mar 282013

Features

Environmental concerns, like native people, know no borders.

by Kristin Hugo

On a rare sunny March day in the Pacific Northwest, a group of indigenous people and non-indigenous supporters gathered at Seattle's Golden Gardens Park to continue the work of the Idle No More movement. The event featured speeches about the dangers that environmental destruction poses to the native way of life, an enormous salmon puppet, and a water-blessing ceremony.

Cyberattacks threaten Internet

Mar 282013

Features

Cyberbunker's attack on Spamhaus slowed Web speeds across Europe.

by Charles Recknagel

March 28, 2013 — The online world is famously anarchic and opposing forces occasionally decide to settle their scores by force. And that is exactly what happened this week as the spam-fighting group Spamhaus came under a revenge attack by spammers. By all accounts, it was the biggest attack yet seen on the Internet.

Nuclear power is dead

Mar 282013

Features

Nuclear power plants too costly, use too much water, and generate too much waste.

by Jeremy Rifkin

Jeremy Rifkin explains why nuclear energy is a very poor business model.

Watch for the big political flip on climate

Mar 272013

Features

Victory may be at hand for the climate movement — faster than you could believe.

by Paul Gilding

There are signs the climate movement could be on the verge of a remarkable and surprising victory. If we read the current context correctly, and if the movement can adjust its strategy to capture the opportunity presented, it could usher in the fastest and most dramatic economic transformation in history. This would include the removal of the oil, coal and gas industries from the economy in just a few decades and their replacement with new industries and, for the most part, entirely new companies. It would be the greatest transfer of wealth and power between industries and countries the world has ever seen.

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