Blowing Away the Magic
Why is it that we choose so often to replace the sublime with the ridiculous? Take, for example, the miracle of photosynthesis. It arose, scientists believe, almost 3.5 billion years ago. Life [...]
Environment
Environment
Holes in the River
Digging a mine in a river would be stupid, right? Well, in Alberta we do it regularly. Ric Hauer tells the story of a new municipal water well drilled a kilometre away from Montana’s Flathead [...]
The Coal Phase-Out
“Jason digs coal.” That’s Jason as in Kenney, the long-serving Conservative MP for Calgary Midnapore, former federal minister and current leader of Alberta’s Progressive Conservatives. Also, [...]
By Chris Turner
The Mystery of Ursus arctos
At the edge of a swampy opening in a remote region of the Peace Country, Lyle Fullerton is pleased to find what we’ve traversed the muskeg for: some golden hairs of Ursus arctos caught in a [...]
By Trina Moyles
Grading Notley and Co.
Two years ago Alberta elected an NDP government. Right-wing pundits forecast disaster. Environmentalists were optimistic. The optimists may have been right. The NDP inherited many environmental [...]
Storm Over The Castle
It should have been easy but it wasn’t. It should have been easy because the headwaters of the Castle, Carbondale and Waterton rivers were always meant to be a park. Until 1928 the windy mountain [...]
This Land: Betrayed
Friday, January 13, 2017, was not Jessica Ernst’s lucky day. That’s the day the Supreme Court of Canada handed down a non-decision in her legal battle against the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER)—a [...]
In Decline
We didn’t hike on trails to our fishing streams back in the 1960s. We followed cutlines. There were more of them every year. Oil companies would set off explosives along the bulldozed lines and [...]
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
Green Roofs
When you think of a city skyline, do you think summery expanses of prairie grasses, dotted with wildflowers and humming with birds and insects? Or maybe rooftop gardens lush with herbs and leafy [...]
By Rhona McAdam
MOST READ
MOST READ
Facts Don’t Matter
Like many Canadians, I’ve been surprised by the recent turmoil south of the border, where some politicians regard undocumented “alternative facts” as equivalent to the findings of science. The US is undertaking a science-trashing exercise without precedent. President Donald Trump has declared climate change a hoax devised by China and ...
The Gap
Dentists are trusted professionals. They’re also widely disliked. Having had a good dentist for decades, I was more trusting than disliking. But when my dentist reduced his hours, and new dentists joined his practice, the hygienists started to push frequent fluoride treatments and x-rays. I’m almost 40 and haven’t had ...
The Disappearing Critic
“Came here Saturday night to see the play A Christmas Carol. The theatre is a little small, lots of walking up stairs if you are seated in the higher rows. They need more bartenders and servers during the intermission though as there were huge lines. They do one thing that ...