The danger of equating pop culture with the periodic table This neighbourhood is known for great people and I’m lucky enough to call many of them neighbours. I had the pleasure of joining some friends for dinner recently. After dinner, the gracious host pulled out a game and continued their after-dinner tradition of playing the […]

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Invest in transit and public works, not roads and parking If all goes according to plan — and with the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) it never does — Torontonians should enjoy time-based transfers starting in August. It’s great news for transit users but critics — who claim it’s an unfair subsidy — are livid. “How […]

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Toronto shouldn’t have to pay for roads used by non-Torontonians I love a good history lesson. The Green Party of Ontario is floating a wonderful petition to implement road tolls on the Don Valley Parkway (DVP) and Gardiner Expressway. I haven’t been shy about being a fan for congestion control purposes. It likely won’t be […]

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Time to end the car era By Terri Chu While I grant you that visiting a place for a mere two days can’t possibly do it justice, I was more than happy to leave Madrid after what felt like a very long 48 hours. Despite great cuisine and historic vistas, the city felt destroyed by […]

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Governments need to change behaviour through policy By Terri Chu This past Earth day, the planet surpassed 400 parts per million (ppm) of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. I remember being taught in primary school that 350 ppm was the magic number we weren’t supposed to reach. We sang songs about loving the earth and […]

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It’s hard to borrow a cup of sugar…but the problem isn’t Toronto Kellie Leitch is reportedly getting packets upon packets of sugar in the mail as a response to her comments that in Toronto, you can’t walk next door and borrow a cup of sugar. She’s right, to an extent…just not in Toronto. In my, […]

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Embrace the green and lower your footprint Christmas came a little late for me this year. I woke up on New Year’s Day and looked out of the window at the gas station sign. The ever slightly higher gas price was a pleasant reminder of the new carbon tax that Ontarians are now paying and […]

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Five alternatives to store-bought gifts By Terri Chu When I was a child, Christmas was a magical time. But as I grew older and became more environmentally aware, the holiday quickly became one of my least favourite times of year. Now I can’t even step into a mall during the holidays: just the mere sight […]

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Draw attention to what really matters By Terri Chu Sometimes I wonder why, knowing what we know about climate change, there are people who continue to buy things they don’t really need for the sake of it. We have our share of green businesses in the Annex, but that doesn’t make us immune from replacing […]

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By Terri Chu Having a kid is expensive, anybody can tell you that. What nobody told me though was how expensive raising a child can be when you try to stay low on environmental impact. Cloth diapers are a huge capital outlay and I’m not convinced they are used long enough to break even against […]

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What the industry doesn’t tell you is that plastic doesn’t get recycled very well. By Terri Chu An attempt by Toronto city council to dispense with the 5-cent fee on plastic bags has instead resulted in the outright ban of the bags. Whether or not this will result in environmental gain is unclear, because sudden […]

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Both have their environmental benefits, but how do you know which too choose? By Terri Chu Organic greens have expanded from a niche, farmers’ market item into the mainstream. I consider anything found at Loblaws–where about one in three grocery dollars in Canada are spent–mainstream. Organic growers will tout their eco-friendly street cred by citing […]

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