Hot Treasure
My favourite garage sale find is a small folk-art sculpture. Bars of beaten copper clasp to form a shimmering triangular tower topped by a pumpjack arm—a tabletop oil derrick. Turn the key on the [...]
By Penney Kome
Renewables
Renewables
Spin, Baby, Spin
Power outages are not rare here at the foot of the Livingstone Range north of the Crowsnest Pass, thanks to summer electrical storms, ice buildup in winter and west winds that can gust (where I [...]
By Sid Marty
Transition or Bust
“I’d say the long-term prognosis for Calgary, unless there’s a paradigm shift, is not good,” says geologist David Hughes. We’re standing on Scotsman’s Hill, overlooking the Stampede grounds, the [...]
The Big Decision
The first time I heard tell of the notion of a nuclear power plant in northern Alberta, it was the punchline to an anecdote, intended as a wry slice of gallows humour. It was in the spring of [...]
By Chris Turner
MOST READ
MOST READ
How Ethical is Alberta’s Governing Party?
We should have seen it coming. The first inkling that controversy would dog Jason Kenney’s victory in the 2017 United Conservative Party leadership race came not during that contest but a year earlier, when Kenney ran for the leadership of the Progressive Conservatives.
On the evening of November 16, 2016, at ...
Fates Intertwined
Line 9B. It’s not a fancy name. It doesn’t have the poetic ring of “Trans Mountain” or “Northern Gateway” or even “Energy East.” Yet the Enbridge 9B pipeline, for me, symbolizes the interconnectedness and interdependence of our country—and the urgent way we must come together to tackle the challenges we ...
The Plans to Strip-Mine Coal in the Mountains
It looks like spectacular wild country, but some see it more as a big money sandwich.
The top layer of that sandwich is comprised of alpine grasses, forget-me-nots and stonecrop, glacier lilies and ancient, brave pines whose branches have been gnarled and weathered by centuries of wind. In summer, solitaires and ...