My team has been exploring how to make data more accessible and how can we make research more central to how people make their day to day decisions. This article in the Guardian on obesity is brilliant showing the power of visuals to reveal how we are physically changing over time and the rising obesity epidemic.
The Ontario government is planning a total revamp of the province’s garbage-handling programs, aiming to reduce the amount of waste we make by 80 per cent over the next 35 years. Ironically when the blue box program was started in 1967, its main objective was not to create a recycling industry but to get people to think about their consumption patterns.
This TEDTalk discusses a solution to the violence of religious extremism that is devoid of life, vision and soul, by reclaiming the heart of the traditions of multi-faith communities. There are four common principles among many who are working in this burgeoning community:
This article by the Worldwatch Institute argues pervasively that although private sector investments in renewables are soaring, without fundamental electricity grid transformation we will not be able to deliver on Paris climate commitments. The underlying architecture of electricity grids run nearly exclusively as natural monopolies, and where power flows in one direction is a dinosaur ill-suited to meet modern energy needs and climate imperatives.
The idea that suburban sprawl is a major contributing factor to the size of our carbon footprints (and climate change overall) is new: these images are a fascinating look into just how much municipal planning visions and implementations differ between North American and European cities.
Basic income has been getting a lot of media attention lately, largely due to the Ontario liberal government’s plan to include a pilot project in their latest budget. Basic income action groups are happening on local and regional levels, and more and more, people are beginning to demand a better solution for social assistance for those in transition than existing programs provide.
One in seven Canadians live in poverty and there are an estimated 150,000 to 300,000 people homeless. Last year close to 900,000 Canadians used food banks every month, with over one third of those children. Basic income is getting a lot of media attention lately, largely due to the Ontario government’s plan to include a pilot project in their recent budget.
I am sharing with you today an exciting new network in British Columbia, the LEO Network, that enables indigenous and other communities to share their observations of unusual environmental change or health concerns in their communities. It enables a connection with broader networks of subject matter experts and other people who can help to understand the changes happening. It builds upon the well tested beta model in Alaska which has been endorsed by both President Obama and the Arctic Council.
In The shareable future of cities, Alex Steffen is challenging us to keep asking questions, and take a look at solving climate change in a novel ways. He argues that it’s possible that concentrating all our efforts solely on the transition from fossil fuel generation to clean energy alternatives may in fact be setting us up for failure. He explains: “We live in a planet that is rapidly urbanizing…by mid-century there could be 8 billion or more people living in cities or within a day’s travel of one”.
NASA and NOAA scientists have just warned lawmakers to act now, after record smashing year of global warming.