Archive for 'Bruinsma'
Should Edmonton Demand the Vote – Again?
A few weeks ago I was approached by a canvasser employed by Envision Edmonton and asked if I would like to sign the “Demand the Vote” petition. I did not know much about the issue and the canvasser did not provide much explanation other than that the petition would require “a vote over whether to [...]
Posted: August 29th, 2010 under Bruinsma, King's Alumni.
Tags: demand the vote, edmonton, urban planning
Comments: none
This just in: bears lose in non-bear-friendly environments
There are some very bothersome things about this video news clip about grizzly conservation in Alberta (notwithstanding that I’m pretty sure the second bear shown in the sequence of bear footage in the first few seconds, in the background behind the news anchor, is a black bear, not a grizzly)… http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/News/ID=1459342171 “If [grizzlies] had been [...]
Posted: April 6th, 2010 under Bruinsma, King's Alumni.
Tags: alberta, conservation, grizzly, natural resources
Comments: 4
Why I Only Eat Tuna-safe Dolphin
Last night when my roommate offered to make tuna-melts for supper my response was to quip “No! Eating tuna is cruel! Let’s have dolphin-melts instead.” And I was only half joking. Why is there “dolphin-safe tuna” available in the super-market but not “tuna-safe dolphin”? Two conservation-related reasons are obvious: first, dolphins reproduce relatively slowly and [...]
Posted: August 27th, 2009 under Bruinsma, King's Alumni.
Tags: animal rights, dolphins, environmental ethics, Food, pigs, tuna
Comments: 8
Homo Sapiens: the techno-economic dependent species
While all species on earth are inextricably tied to and dependent upon their biophysical environment, the majority of us humans – particularly in the modern and affluent western world – can survive just fine without having to directly acquire most of the biophysical resources that we consume. Our technologies and economic systems allow a very [...]
Posted: June 15th, 2009 under Bruinsma, King's Alumni.
Tags: economy, natural resources, nature, technology
Comments: 1
What I Saw (and Didn’t See) Over The Weekend
Well, spring has finally sprung in all its avian glory. Rather than the long-winded diatribe that I usually submit to the Green Pad, I thought I’d just share the list of bird species that I observed in southern Alberta (Frank Lake and Blackie area) over the course of this past weekend. So, in taxonomic order: [...]
Posted: May 9th, 2009 under Bruinsma, King's Alumni.
Tags: birds, conservation, Frank Lake, management, natural history, waterfowl
Comments: 4
Is There Any Good (Or Bad) In Change? Part 2
Part II: Ethics in the Context of Environmental Change This is a continuation of yesterday’s post, in which I described a few of the major changes in Alberta’s biophysical and cultural environment. Sea levels have risen and fallen, climates and landscapes have changed radically, species have come and gone, overall species diversity has fluctuated, and [...]
Posted: April 9th, 2009 under Bruinsma, King's Alumni.
Tags: climate change, environmental ethics, environmental history, envrionmental philosophy, extinction, natural history
Comments: 2
Is There Any Good (Or Bad) In Change?
The following thoughts regarding environmental change and natural history are meant to get at one fundamental question: is there any basis for an ethical position from the perspective of science? I believe that, as Christians, if we are to take seriously the call to be stewards of God’s creation and to be morally culpable beings [...]
Posted: April 8th, 2009 under Bruinsma, King's Alumni.
Tags: anthropology, climate change, environmental ethics, environmental history, envrionmental philosophy, extinction, natural history, Palaeontology
Comments: 2
The Natural Course of History
Dr. Van Arragon’s last post (“Changes in the Land”, Feb 28), regarding the environmental history of the colonization of New England, and Jeff Veenstra’s last post (“Easter Island”, Feb 27), regarding Jared Diamond’s book Collapse, both contained warnings about the dangers of excess and unsustainable living. Diamond is also the author of the bestselling and [...]
Posted: March 6th, 2009 under Bruinsma, King's Alumni.
Tags: biogeography, environmental history, Jared Diamond, natural history
Comments: none
Choices at the Pump
Reading Dr. Bestman’s most recent Greenpad post rekindled my frustration with biofuels. It pains me that they are so often touted as an environmentally friendly fuel alternative at our local gas stations, like Mohawk and Husky (to pick on two at which I have recently filled up). There are, admittedly, fewer carbon emissions and other [...]
Posted: February 9th, 2009 under Bruinsma, King's Alumni.
Tags: biodiesel, Biofuels, ehtanol, energetics, environmental ethic, gasoline, transportation
Comments: 2
Environmentalism as Loving Action
Conventional wisdom suggests that people can only really care for and love things that they are familiar with – things that they know. And it is love that motivates people to act. To begin with, how can you care or be concerned about something if you don’t even know that it exists? For example, if [...]
Posted: January 5th, 2009 under Bruinsma, King's Alumni.
Tags: creation care, Kenya, love, Tana River Delta
Comments: 1