The next time there is a post here will be June 18th!
Don’t worry just because I’m taking a break from posting doesn’t mean that the good news stops. If you find some good news feel free to leave a link in the comments of this post.
Month: June 2008
U.S. War Deserters Welcome in Canada
American troops who don’t want to fight in an illegal war can now live in Canada without fear of being deported!
U.S. soldiers who fled to Canada to escape the war in Iraq won a symbolic victory in the House of Commons Tuesday when a majority of MPs voted that the deserters should be allowed to stay permanently in the country.
But the motion, put forward by the NDP, is non-binding on the minority Conservative government. Tory MPs voted against the motion but were outnumbered by the three opposition parties in a 137-110 vote.
“The Harper Conservatives must respect this and immediately implement this motion,” said Olivia Chow, the Toronto New Democrat who moved the motion. “Ordinary people want the Iraq war resisters to stay.”
The Toronto-based War Resisters Support Campaign estimates as many as 200 American soldiers escaped to Canada to avoid serving in Iraq.
Artist Asks How’s My Advertising?
Posterchild is a Toronto-based artist who is sick of all the illegal billboards in the city and decided to do something about it by using art. One can hope that other cities follow in São Paulo lead by banning billboards in the city. Until then, we have artists.
Last Monday—using data gleaned from Rami Tabello’s IllegalSigns.ca—Posterchild stenciled solicitations for feedback below three illegally-run fascia signs downtown (“persistent violators,” as he put it). A play on the now-ubiquitous “How’s My Driving?” slogan typically seen on the back of big rigs, the stencils feature the number of the City’s Building Division, which is, among other tasks, responsible for sign permits. Posterchild, an equal opportunity stenciler, hit one sign each of Astral Media, Titan Outdoor, and Strategic Media. (Titan and Strategic, by the way, are the two companies currently suing the City. And Astral Media is a whole other story.)
Ontario and Quebec Don’t Like Carbon
I’m not a big fan of carbon trading but there is good news insofar that two Canadian provinces, Ontario and Quebec have decided to tackle environmental concerns. The Canadian federal government has followed the lead of Bush’s administration and have tried to stop any environmental progress, indeed they even say Ontario and Quebec are wrong because they are doing something. I sure this is the first of many headlines that show the provinces leading the environmental way in Canada.
It’s great to see two large provinces in Canada teaming up to show the federal government that they are open to legislating improved environmental protection.
Charest called tackling the issue of climate change a “tremendous challenge for humanity.”
He said whoever becomes the next U.S. president will be doing a “180-degree turn†on climate change policy, and the two provinces shouldn’t wait for that to happen before making changes of their own.
“Why wait for the Americans? We want to subscribe to everything that is being done on the European level and the North American level,” Charest told reporter
Algae Goo FTW
*FTW = For The Win
Algae, the best goo on the planet, continues to capture the minds of people who want to transition away from oil. Entering the fray recently is a company from San Diego that promises to make algae a replacement for diesel.
A San Diego company said Wednesday that it could turn algae into oil, producing a green-colored crude yielding ultra-clean versions of gasoline and diesel without the downsides of biofuel production.
The year-old company, called Sapphire Energy, uses algae, sunlight, carbon dioxide and non-potable water to make “green crude” that it contends is chemically equivalent to the light, sweet crude oil that has been fetching more than $130 a barrel in New York futures trading.
Chief Executive Jason Pyle said that the company’s green crude could be processed in existing oil refineries and that the resulting fuels could power existing cars and trucks just as today’s more polluting versions of gasoline and diesel do.
“What we’re talking about is something that is radically different,” Pyle said. “We really look at this as a paradigm change.”