Selected Recent Articles
on Environmental Issues

1. Gates of Delusion: Media Distortions and REAL Climate Scandals (February 22, 2010)
   Climate-related storms in a teacup have been appearing in the corporate media almost on a daily basis. This nonsense is distracting attention from a mountain of evidence that human-induced climate change is accelerating and poses a deadly threat to civilisation.
2. Asia Inhales While the West Bans the Deadly Carcinogen (February 16, 2010)
   Asbestos, a known carcinogen banned in much of the world, is a common and dangerous building block in much of Asia’s development and construction boom. This white powder causes 100,000 occupational deaths per year, according to Medical News Today.
3. Hard Core Green (January 14, 2010)
   Two uncompromised green activists and writers completely focused on winning, and utterly void of bullshit.
4. Doom and Gloom (December 21, 2009)
   Jermey Brecher says that the social roots of doom are part of a common pattern that we can observe repeatedly in history. People live their lives and pursue their goals by means of strategies that have been developed over time. But sometimes they discover their established strategies aren't working. No matter how hard they try, their problems remain intractable. The natural result is despair. But the awareness that other people are experiencing the same despair changes the context in which it is experienced. It opens up new possibilities. Perhaps the problems that we despair of solving as individuals can be addressed through some kind of collective action. When people begin to explore that possibility, the result may be a social movement.
5. Academics Urge Government Climate Action (December 17, 2009)
   More than 500 university faculty members from universities across Canada signed a letter to the Canadian Government calling for immediate drastic reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. The letter points out the time frame of reductions is critical.
6. Environmental journalists censored and assaulted (December 16, 2009)
   Journalists worldwide risk their lives to report on environmental degradation. In the fight against climate change, the media is a watchdog for corrupt governments that obstruct efforts to protect the environment. The media also plays a critical role in engaging the public through stories and research. But journalists who cover illegal logging and the polluting of rivers are increasingly censored, imprisoned, assaulted and at times killed.
7. This Is About Us (December 15, 2009)
   The talks at Copenhagen are not just about climate change. They represent a battle to redefine humanity.
8. Indian Waste-pickers Demand “Climate Justice” at Global Warming Summit (December 14, 2009)
   As governments struggle to develop an international plan for combating climate change, a new report from a leading Indian environment group has found that informal recycling makes a huge but unappreciated contribution towards the reduction of greenhouse gases.
9. Targeting Earth First! (December 11, 2009)
   The war on environmentalism.
10. Climate change: the eco-socialist solution (December 9, 2009)
    Climate change reminds us, in a phrase attributed to Lao Tzu, that “if you don’t change direction you may end up where you are heading”. The road of capitalism is now lined with horrors and we must find a new direction home. After a long absence, sustainability must be restored to the relationship between society and nature.
11. The Climate Denial Industry Is Out To Dupe The Public. And It's Working (December 8, 2009)
    The climate denial industry consists of people who are paid to say that man-made global warming isn't happening.
12. The Manufactured Doubt Industry And The Hacked Email Controversy (December 8, 2009)
    The fossil fuel industry has been working for years to create a smokescreen of doubt to obscure the facts of global warming.
13. What’s at stake in Copenhagen (December 7, 2009)
    Tere is no chance of achieving binding greenhouse gas reductions within the current framework for an agreement. Instead the problem is being redefined to fit the business-as-usual assumptions of neoliberal economics.
14. Why We Left Our Farms to Come to Copenhagen (December 7, 2009)
    Climate change is already seriously impacting us. It brings floods, droughts and the outbreak of pests that are all causing harvest failures. I must point out that these harvest failures are something that the farmers did not create. Instead, it is the polluters who caused the emissions who destroy the natural cycles. So, we small scale farmers came here to say that we will not pay for their mistakes. And we are asking the emitters to face up to their responsibilities.
15. An Open Letter To Congress From US Scientists On Climate Change And Recently Stolen Emails (December 6, 2009)
    As U.S. scientists with substantial expertise on climate change and its impacts on natural ecosystems, our built environment and human well-being, we want to assure policy makers and the public of the integrity of the underlying scientific research.
16. A Direct Tax On Fossil Fuel Is What The World Needs Urgently (December 6, 2009)
    A direct tax on fossil fuels is the only realistic way to achieve the necessary cuts.
17. Canada Is Now To Climate What Japan Is To Whaling (December 3, 2009)
    Here I am, watching the astonishing spectacle of a beautiful, cultured nation turning itself into a corrupt petro-state. Canada is slipping down the development ladder, retreating from a complex, diverse economy towards dependence on a single primary resource, which happens to be the dirtiest commodity known to man. The price of this transition is the brutalisation of the country, and a government campaign against multilateralism as savage as any waged by George Bush. Until now I believed that the nation that has done most to sabotage a new climate change agreement was the United States. I was wrong. The real villain is Canada.
18. Bloody Oil (November 1, 2009)
    The extraction of oil from tar sands is perhaps the most ecologically insane idea on the planet. Four First Nations representatives from Canada travelled to Britain to participate in the London climate camp – the country’s biggest annual gathering of climate activists. Organized by the Indigenous Environmental Network and supported by the New Internationalist, the group’s aim was to internationalize the campaign for a complete tar sands moratorium.
19. Impossibleism (October 29, 2009)
    Impossibleists want unrestrained sustainable growth in the face of its inevitable impossibility. It is a mystery how they think this way, knowing as they surely do that eventually the bill will come due, and the engine will run out of gas - literally. Think about it - growth that never stops, ever. Even with limitless resources, it is simple intuition that eventually, somewhere, sometime....
20. Sources Calendar (October 29, 2009)
    Listings of events of interest to journalists, editors, researchers, publishers and others working in the media and in publishing, covering Canadian and international events, press conferences, meetings, festivals and holidays, as well as award deadlines.
21. Sources News Releases (October 29, 2009)
    News releases from organizations and companies on a wide range of topics. Includes an extensive topic index, an archive of releases going back to the 1970s, and links to experts and organizations knowledgeable about the issues covered in the releases. Available via RSS feed as well as on the Sources.com website.
22. The Humble Tuna (October 19, 2009)
    The humble tuna, "the chicken of the sea", is an unfortunate metaphor for all that is dysfunctional about our contemporary, western, capitalist world. The story of the Tuna is the story of our triumphant world, and provides a unified theory of its runaway excess
23. Earth's Life Support Systems Failing (October 13, 2009)
    The world has failed to slow the accelerating extinction crisis despite 17 years of national and international efforts since the great hopes raised at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.
24. Last Frontier (October 1, 2009)
    Afro-descendant communities in Colombia are fighting to retain control of their ancestral goldmines in the face of pressure from private interests.
25. Carbon trading — privatising the world’s forests (September 20, 2009)
    The World Bank sponsored carbon offset program has faced widespread criticism for, in effect, privatising forests and allowing rich nations to evade responsibility for cutting emissions themselves.
26. The great ‘success’ of a carbon trading failure (September 18, 2009)
    The “right to pollute” has never been more affordable. Energy companies and market speculators can buy a tonne of carbon for less than the cost of a cup of coffee. The low cost gives an incentive for companies to pollute more in the short-term and prices renewable energy alternatives out of the market.
27. Farmers in Palestine create amazing produce in adverse conditions – and are fighting to export them (September 13, 2009)
    Palestine produces some of the finest olive oils in the world, not to mention dates, nuts, tomatoes – even wine. Now, despite the conflict, farmers are finding ways to export their produce – and show the world that their country is still the land of milk and honey.
28. Women Recycle for Income and Environment (September 12, 2009)
    The women of this town in northern Venezuela no longer say "garbage" but rather "secondary raw material," and instead of referring to recycling, they talk about "separation at point of origin."
29. Desert Winds Stir New Hope (September 9, 2009)
    With oil and gas reserves running dry, Egypt is eyeing wind power as a solution to its looming energy crunch.
30. Double Jeopardy: Carbon Offsets and Human Rights Abuses (September 9, 2009)
    Whether you’re a climate change denier or doomsayer, an avid recycler or rabid consumer of plastic bottles, there is one very good but little-known reason to oppose carbon offsets: their immediate and dire human costs.
31. Inuit Are Living on the Front Lines of Climate Change (September 8, 2009)
    Climate change is being felt in northwest Canada, and in a wide circle at the top of the world, stretching from Alaska through the Siberian tundra, into northern Scandinavia and Greenland, and on to Canada's eastern Arctic islands, a circle of more than 300,000 indigenous people.
32. Coral Reefs (August 30, 2009)
    All around the world, much of the world’s marine biodiversity face threats from human and activities as well as natural. It is feared that very soon, many reefs could die off.
33. Health and environmental victories for South African activists (August 20, 2009)
    In South Africa, major advances in health and the environment during the 2000s were only won by social activists by removing the profit motive.
34. Nature and Animal Conservation (July 26, 2009)
    Conservation of ecosystems and the species within them would help to maintain the natural balances disrupted by recent human activity. Unfortunately, despite the effort put into conservation by organizations and activists, their work can easily be undermined by those who have other interests. This occurs, for example, from habitat destruction, illegal poaching, to influencing or manipulating laws designed to protect species.
35. Two foreign reporters arrested in Namibia for filming seal slaughter (July 17, 2009)
    
36. Mountain Biking: Frequently Asked Questions (May 17, 2009)
    Why do people mountain bike, and what harms does it do?
37. Helping you reach the media (May 14, 2009)
    Media coverage is the most valuable kind of publicity there is because it is based on the news value or information value of what you do or say, and is therefore far more credible than paid publicity like advertising. SOURCES makes it possible for organizations, institutions, companies, and individuals to reach the media effectively, consistently, and inexpensively. SOURCES has been helping organizations, companies, institutions, and individuals get media attention for over 30 years.
38. A Request For More Effective Regulation of jet skis (April 28, 2009)
    Jet skis produce noise pollution, water pollution, adversely impact wildlife and aquatic plants, and pose serious safety risks.
39. Ottawa wanted U.S. to accept more lenient meat inspection regime (March 31, 2009)
    The Canadian government strongly opposed tougher U.S. rules to prevent listeria and lobbied the United States to accept Canada's more lenient standards.
40. A Carbon-Free Future (March 1, 2009)
    A carbon-free future is possible and necessary.
41. Noise Busters (March 1, 2009)
    Good neighbors keep their noise to themselves.
42. Achieving Success as a professional speaker (2009)
    Attaining success as a professional speaker is no easy matter! Talent and hard work are absolute musts. And, another absolute is EXPOSURE – success as a professional speaker depends on promoting yourself and becoming known to the people who are the gatekeepers to your audience.
43. Beyond Radical (2009)
    What conservatives could bring to the climate conversation.
44. Connexions Library: Nature Focus (2009)
    Selected articles, books, websites and other resources on nature.
45. Connexions Library: Oceans, Lakes, Rivers, Water Focus (2009)
    Selected articles, books, websites and other resources on water, rivers, streams, wetlands, lakes, rivers, oceans, marine life.
46. Connexions Library: Rural Issues Focus (2009)
    Selected articles, books, websites and other resources on rural issues.
47. Forget Shorter Showers (2009)
    Why personal change does not equal political change.
48. Internships and Volunteer Opportunities with Connexions (2009)
    Connexions Information Sharing Services is an independent non-profit research organization and information clearinghouse (founded 1975) which produces electronic and print resources supporting social, economic and environmental alternatives, human rights, civil liberties, and grassroots activism. We are a volunteer-based organization. We have opportunities for writers, reviewers, editors, translators, photographers, people to help maintain the Connexions directory of associations, people to help develop our online archive of social change materials, and people with marketing skills.
49. Sources media training (2009)
    Media training to ensure that you are ready to handle media interviews. Topics include Message making, Staying newsworthy, Safe spokesperson techniques, Preparation and relaxation techniques, Media ethics and expectations. Simulations of all media venues including talk shows, double enders, stand-up interviews and scrums, print columnists, videographers, and editorial boards.
50. Sources News Release Archive 2009 (2009)
    News releases from 2009.
51. Sources Select Authors (2009)
    Authors available to take media calls about their area of expertise.
    
52. Sources Select Speakers (2009)
    Speakers available to take media calls about their area of expertise, and available for speaking engagements.
53. Sources Select Universities, Colleges, and Institutes (2009)
    Academic experts available to take media calls about their area of expertise.
54. The Transition Initiative (2009)
    People never need communities more than when there are threats to security, food, and lives. The Transition Initiative recognizes how much we need this scale now, because of peak oil and climate change. But beyond this concrete need, the lack of a sense of community has negative psychological impacts on individuals across the “developed” world, as people report persistent and widespread feelings of loneliness, isolation, dispossession, alienation, and depression.
55. Urban Honey (2009)
    In the winter of 2003, three Chicago beekeepers joined forces to create a bee farm on the former Sears-Roebuck property right in the heart of our city. We abut an old railroad embankment wall with both prairie remnant and concrete in equal amounts.
56. Villa Fairwind: Property for Sale (2009)
    Secluded estate located at the east end of Pasadena, Newfoundland and Labrador, on a 13-acre park, nicely treed (evergreen and deciduous) and landscaped, partly fenced. This large executive home has 20 rooms, including 5 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms (one with Jacuzzi), an office, a library, dining room, and a modern kitchen. This property is located 30 minutes west of Deer Lake airport, with direct connecting flights to England and to other parts of Canada. It is 20 minutes east of the Marble Mountain ski resort, close to a cross-country ski club and hiking trails, and 45 minutes from Gros Morne National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
57. Wikipedia's article about Sources - local version (2009)
    
58. Wildlife Need Habitat Off-Limits To Humans! (2009)
    Environmentalism can most simply be defined as the extension of the Golden Rule to include other species. Wildlife must be given top priority, because they can't protect themselves from us.
59. World at Gunpoint (2009)
    Global warming (or global climate catastrophe, as some rightly call it), as terrifying as it is, isn’t first and foremost a threat. It’s a consequence. we’ll have a better chance of succeeding if we recognize it as a predictable (at this point) result of burning oil and gas, of deforestation, of dam construction, of industrial agriculture, and so on. The real threat is all of these.
60. Sources Archived News Releases 1977 - 2008 (December 31, 2008)
    News releases from 2008 and before.
61. 20 Ways to Save Mother Earth and Prevent Climate Change (December 15, 2008)
    Capitalism's glorification of competition and thirst for limitless profit are destroying the planet.
62. The Global Battle Against Noise Pollution (August 26, 2008)
    Studies done in several European countries have demonstrated that noise can be a major killer. Awake or even asleep your brain and body react to sounds that increase the levels of stress hormones.
63. The Moronic Sport: ORVs on Public Lands (January 24, 2008)
    I do not accept the premise that abuse of our lands is something that we must tolerate as inevitable. It is our land. It is our children's land, and their children's land. We have a responsibility to pass these lands on to the next generation in better condition than we found them.
    Talking about promoting 'responsible' ORV use is like suggesting we ought to promote "responsible wife abuse" or "responsible child abuse."
    
64. Sources News Release Archive 2008 (2008)
    News releases from 2008.
65. Sources News Release Archive early 2008 (2008)
    
66. Sources Archived News Releases 2007 (December 31, 2007)
    
67. Pure Propaganda - The Great Global Warming Swindle (March 13, 2007)
    The Scientists Are The Bad Guys.
68. Noise Pollution: A Modern Plague (2007)
    Environmental noise pollution, a form of air pollution, is a threat to health and well-being. It is more severe and widespread than ever before, and it will continue to increase in magnitude and severity because of population growth, urbanization, and the associated growth in the use of increasingly powerful, varied, and highly mobile sources of noise. It will also continue to grow because of sustained growth in highway, rail, and air traffic, which remain major sources of environmental noise. The potential health effects of noise pollution are numerous, pervasive, persistent, and medically and socially significant.
69. Sources Archived News Releases 2006 (December 31, 2006)
    
70. Sources Archived News Releases 2005 (December 31, 2005)
    
71. Nature lovers should look fondly on all-terrain vehicles (November 22, 2005)
    
72. Sources Archived News Releases 2004 (December 31, 2004)
    
73. The Impacts of Mountain Biking on Wildlife and People (July 3, 2004)
    It is clear that mountain biking is harmful to some wildlife and people. No one, even mountain bikers, tries to deny that. Bikes create V-shaped ruts in trails, throw dirt to the outside on turns, crush small plants and animals on and under the trail, facilitate increased levels of human access into wildlife habitat, and drive other trail users (many of whom are seeking the tranquility and primitiveness of natural surroundings) out of the parks.
74. Sources Archived News Releases 2003 (December 31, 2003)
    
75. Sources Archived News Releases 1979 - 2002 (December 31, 2002)
    
76. Keep It Down (and Rediscover Silence) (2002)
    
77. Appeasing the Mountain Bikers (January 23, 2001)
    Just because someone is able to purchase a machine that lets them ride off-road, that is no reason that the public should be required to provide them a place to use it.
78. Abandoning the Public Interest (October 7, 2000)
    The neo-liberal drive to cut red tape is costing lives. Exposing the hidden costs of deregulation and privatization.
79. Contamination: The Poisonous Legacy of Ontario's Environmental Cutbacks (June 4, 2000)
    The story of Ontario's right-way Harris government, which gutted health and environmental protection polices, leading to the Walkerton water disaster.
80. Drowning in Noise: Noise Costs of jet skis in America (April 1, 2000)
    An analysis of the value of the lost enjoyment that jet ski noise introduces into beach environments.
81. The Psychology of Mountain Biking (January 24, 2000)
    The first thing one notices about mountain bikers is that they lie continually.
82. Environmental Noise (2000)
    This booklet deals with environmental noise -- for example, noise from industrial sites, road and rail traffic, airports and fairgrounds.
83. Equal Access to Our Parks for Bulldozer Racing (November 24, 1999)
    Tthere have been some problems, such as some people riding recklessly, going off the designated trails, and even secretly constructing illegal trails. But those are a small minority of bulldozer riders. You shouldn't allow a small minority to give the majority of us bulldozer racers, who ride responsibly, a bad name. Why should we be punished, just because of them, and be forced to walk, just like everybody else?
84. MUZAK: Music to Whose Ears? (December 14, 1998)
    For many people background music, or ‘muzak" as it is commonly known, is both irritating and frustrating. For the UK’s 8.7 million deaf and hard of hearing people background muzak often causes pain, discomfort and unnecessary distress.
85. Jetskis Should Be Banned (April 6, 1998)
    To launch a jet ski into the shallow waters that are so important to marine wildlife takes little money, little training, and little energy. Jet skis put our most vulnerable marine and avian wildlife directly into the hands of some of our most biologically ignorant and least responsible citizens.
86. Why Off-Road Bicycling Should be Prohibited (May 31, 1997)
    To most environmentalists, bicycles have always been the epitome of good. We are so used to comparing bikes to cars, that it never occurred to us that the bicycle would be ever used for anything bad. Indeed, replacing motor vehicles with bicycles deserves our adoration. But anything can be used for good or evil, and using bikes to expand human domination of wildlife habitat is clearly harmful.
87. Tourism and regional development in Mexico and Chiapas after NAFTA (1997)
    
88. Adverse Health Effects of Noise (1995)
    The effects of noise are widespread and impose long-term consequences on health.
89. Community Noise (1995)
    Critically reviews the adverse effects of community noise, including interference with communication, noise-induced hearing loss, annoyance responses, and effects on sleep, the cardiovascular and psychophysiological systems, performance, productivity, and social behaviour.
90. Pedalling Upwind (1992)
    Roads are at the crux of almost every current environmental problem, and hence, halting the expansion of the highway system (and other parts of our auto-dependent culture) is one of the most effective spigots by which we can choke off environmental destruction.
91. Snake Oil in a Computer: The Pseudo-science of Transportation Modeling (August 16, 1991)
    Planners, politicians, and other decision-makers want to know what effect their projects will have on the environment. In many cases they don't really want to know, but want to convince their constituents that the results will be beneficial, or at least neutral. In both cases, computer modeling is being used to "answer" the questions.
92. Effects of Aircraft Noise and Sonic Booms on Domestic Animals and Wildlife: A Literature Synthesis (1988)
    This report was produced as the result of a cooperative research project between the National Ecology Research Center, Ft. Collins, Colorado and the Air Force Engineering and Services Center, Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida, on the effects of aircraft noise and sonic booms on animals.
93. Effects of Aircraft Noise and Sonic Booms on Domestic Animals and Wildlife: Bibliographic Abstracts (1988)
    Abstracts of bibliographic resources.
94. Sources Archived News Releases - Pre 1979 (December 31, 1979)