Posted: June 29th, 2010 | Author: admin | Filed under: Green Building, Housing, Published Work | Tags: Green Building, heritage | No Comments »
Last October, Canadian Geographic magazine published an investigative feature of mine on the emerging alliance between the green-building movement and the heritage-conservation community. During the reporting and research I uncovered a really interesting story of two different, but often complementary, groups with a shared passion for the built environment.
Unfortunately, the magazine does not release its content online. After several friends asked after the piece, I’ve created a .PDF of the article and published it here. If you missed it the first time, I hope you get a chance to check it out. Photography in the story is by Marina Dodis. As always, let me know what you think in the comments below. Thanks.
Under One Roof [.PDF, 1.8MB], Canadian Geographic, October 2009.
Posted: March 3rd, 2010 | Author: admin | Filed under: Behavior, Global Warming, Published Work, Regulation | Tags: carbon pricing, climate change, mark jaccard | No Comments »
You characterize yourself as “a very mediocre economist.” How does a mediocre economist win the Nobel Peace Prize?
I was just one of hundreds who shared the prize for our collective work on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. I understand people and policy, and people and delusion, but I’m not a topnotch academic.
You understand delusion—what do you mean?
North America-wide polls reveal that most people think they are green consumers. There are so many books telling you how you can change your life and be green, but really the only way we can get there is by having laws and rules that prevent us from producing or emitting carbon.
Will carbon offsets help?
Quality research consistently shows that subsidies, like offsets, go significantly to “free-riders,” people and firms who get money for doing what they were going to do anyway. We must make things happen that were otherwise not going to happen and that require changes to prices (like a stronger carbon tax) and regulations (like building codes and vehicle standards) so that, for example, all homes get insulated. So when you think about buying an offset, I recommend instead sending your guilt money to organizations that are trying to change laws, like the Suzuki Foundation, the Pembina Institute, and PowerUp Canada.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: October 14th, 2009 | Author: James Glave | Filed under: Published Work | Tags: carbon, IPP, Renewable Energy, run-of-river, Tzeporah | 4 Comments »
The original tree-hugger.
The November issue of
Vancouver magazine features my profile on Tzeporah Berman, cofounder of
ForestEthics and executive director of
PowerUP Canada. Links to both Web and PDF versions below.
Berman is a Canadian climate activist of considerable influence who has inserted herself at the center of a significant green-energy backlash here in her home province of British Columbia. A fierce public debate rages here over “run of river” hydro power projects, which temporarily divert river water to spin turbines. The resulting electricity is carbon-free, but opponents of the projects claim the schemes aren’t as green as they claim to be. The fight is getting very nasty. As the story documents, at one point Berman’s support for renewable-energy development led to a threat of professional blackmail.
Check out “Green Light,” published in the November 2009 issue of Vancouver magazine.
Green Light, [Web version at Vanmag.com]
Green Light, [2.3 MB .PDF FILE]
