Climate Change

Fast & Curious: Short Takes on Random Issues

Fast & Curious: Short Takes on Random Issues

October 18, 2019 at 11:11 am

First of all, thank you to the candidates who took the time to respond to our questions — Michelle Dockrill, Lois Foster, Jodi McDavid and Kenzie MacNeil. As promised, we extended the deadline to Thursday at 5:00 PM for those candidates who had not yet replied, and here are theRead More

Top row: Jaime Battiste, Michelle Dockrill, Clive Doucet, Lois Foster. 
2nd row: Randy Joy, Billy Joyce, Mike Kelloway, Darlene LeBlanc, 
3rd row: Archie MacKinnon, Alfie MacLeod, Kenzie MacNeil, Jodi McDavid
4rth row Eddie Orrell, Laurie Suitor

The Election Issue: Introduction

October 16, 2019 at 12:06 pm

For the last regular edition of the Cape Breton Spectator before Monday’s federal election, I decided to ask each of my regular contributors to submit a question I could pose — along with one of my own — to all the candidates in the Sydney-Victoria and Cape Breton-Canso ridings. SomeRead More

Climate strikers at Civic Centre, Sydney, NS. 27 September 2019. (Spectator photo)

Michelle Smith Asks About Climate Change

October 16, 2019 at 12:02 pm

Michelle Smith, the Spectator‘s resident gardener and expert on all things agricultural, asked this question of federal candidates in Cape Breton Canso and Sydney-Victoria: Increasingly extreme weather events due to climate change are challenging agricultural producers. Clearly, decisive action needs to be taken to slow or stop the process ofRead...

Artwork by Christine Gwynne.

The Chimney and the Cloud

October 9, 2019 at 1:49 pm

A more telling or ironic snapshot of endangered Mother Earth in the 21st century could scarcely be imagined: a naval war game by a nuclear-armed alliance delayed by a storm that drew its force from the human-caused warming of the oceans. The hurricane, of course, was Dorian, and the warRead More

Climate strikers at Civic Centre, Sydney, NS. 27 September 2019. (Spectator photo)

Clarke on Climate Change

October 2, 2019 at 1:08 pm

CBRM Mayor Cecil Clarke was “not in the building” on September 27 when students (and others) from his community gathered in front of the Civic Centre to demand action on climate change. (His spokesperson tells me he “had meetings scheduled” in the morning and “a funeral” in the afternoon.) ButRead More

Rail Subsidy Rides On Port Development

Rail Subsidy Rides On Port Development

September 25, 2019 at 12:06 pm

“December will likely be the decision month about the future of a subsidy preserving Cape Breton’s rail line,” Cape Breton Post, 19 September 2019   Do you get the feeling we’re being allowed to listen in on a private conversation between Nova Scotia Business Minister (and Glace Bay MLA) Geoff MacLellan,Read More

Fast & Curious: Short Takes on Random Things

Fast & Curious: Short Takes on Random Things

September 20, 2019 at 9:30 am

Picnic for the Planet News that 250+ media organizations have pledged to do a week of climate change coverage in the lead-in to the United Nations Climate Action Summit in New York on September 23 has made me vow to pull up my socks and make a point of includingRead More

Toronto's Eaton Centre, facing south. (Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)

Acedia and Consumerism

September 4, 2019 at 10:04 am

I am sitting in a board game café as I write this month’s column. I have my phone on the table in front of me, and I am surrounded by young people, most of whom are using computers and/or are holding phones in their hands. Our phones and our computersRead More

Fast & Curious: Short Takes on Random Things

Fast & Curious: Short Takes on Random Things

August 21, 2019 at 1:27 pm

Sea change A spectator (you know who you are) pointed me to this item from the tender for architectural and engineering services for the new Marconi Campus on the Sydney waterfront (before, I might add, it was also picked up on by the Cape Breton Post): Climate risks include increasedRead More

Airport sign, free stock photo.

Considering the Case for an Inverness Airport

June 26, 2019 at 12:23 pm

You would have to be completely foolhardy to question the brain trust that has formed to support spending public money to build an airport in Inverness but foolhardy’s my middle name so — hold my beer. The group — consisting of former premiers, businesspeople, consultants and Mary Tulle — hasRead More