The Parkland Institute

Environment

Alberta in a hungry world: a look at food security

With escalating oil prices, population growth, and mounting concern for the environment, people are questioning how effectively this system offers food security - the ability to access safe, nutritious food through a sustainable system. Read more...

Environment

Reclamation illusions in oil sands country

Lack of legislation, financial preparedness, undermine reclamation efforts

After more than 40 years of scraping away swathes of trees, muskeg, and soil in northeastern Alberta to get at the tarry black gold underneath, Alberta's first oil sands reclamation certificate was finally issued in March to great applause. Roughly 1 km² of land (104 ha), Syncrude's Gateway Hill, was declared "reclaimed" by the Government of Alberta. Read more...

Editorial

A little green goes a long way

While environmental issues feel daunting, there's lots you can do (like reading this issue before recycling it)

There are more than 3 million people in Alberta, and I would guess that most back alleys in the province look something like mine—a mix of black and blue bags. It's evidence of some degree of effort, but not a full commitment to the cause. It illustrates that most of us put in some effort when it's easy (what's easier than throwing random recyclables into a bag?). Read more...

Inside Hobbema

An insider's reflections on the problems plaguing the central Alberta reserve

Right now, approximately 70 per cent of the population is unemployed. But having grown up in the central Alberta reserve, I know that the problem isn't that people don't want to work -- it's because there aren't enough jobs on the reserve for everyone. Read more...

Profile of an Albertan

Suzan Desserud

The first in a series of profiling exceptional Albertans

Suzan Desserud's life reads like a novel. At seven years old, testing revealed her to be unusually bright -- brilliant, actually -- with an IQ of 171. . By the time she was 10, symptoms of schizophrenia forced Desserud to abandon early entry to college, although she wasn't formally diagnosed with the illness until the age of 34. These days, she is an employee with the Schizophrenia Society of Alberta's (SSACC) Calgary Chapter, a successful artist, and known for her outgoing personality and positivity. This spring, Desserud shared her story with the Post at her downtown condominium in Calgary. Read more...

Environment

The limits to growth: a re-examination

A look at the classic book that can still change the world

The planet is finite in its resources, in its ability to produce food, and in its capacity to absorb our wastes. Yet, population and industrial output continue to grow exponentially. The conflict arising from these realities is now becoming apparent. Food and petroleum products are becoming rapidly more expensive and the concentration of greenhouse gases continue to rise. The possibility that these very problems would appear was predicted more than 30 years ago in a best-selling book called The Limits to Growth, a report for The Club of Rome's Project on the Predicament of Mankind. This predicament was, and still is, that while mankind has knowledge of all of the socioeconomic problems challenging the world, it's unable to solve them. Read more...