EKOS Leads Project to Update School Curriculum in the Caribbean

The EKOS team are exceptionally pleased to have been awarded a contract with the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) to update secondary learning modules to include biodiversity conservation themes.

The EKOS team will be complimented by several leading Caribbean authorities in curriculum design, including Dr. Joyce Glasgow, professor emeritus within the Faculty of Education at the University of West Indies. The project team also includes Sue Staniforth, an acclaimed environmental educator who lives near Victoria, BC, but as worked internationally.

The specifics of the project are to upgrade the 8 modules of the OECS Environmental Building Blocks to include biodiversity conservation themes and to create a web-based version of the 8 modules.

The project is to run from now (May 2008) to the end of January 2009 and has a budget of EU $102, 600.

City of Regina goes green

While the City of Regina is focused on greening up its operations, the
corporation is not only looking internally. The city has a designated
staff member who works full time at raising awareness in…

TTC hybrid bus batteries losing their power

The box-like batteries on top of the Toronto Transit Commission’s brand new and premium-priced hybrid electric-diesel buses are lasting only half as long as their manufacturer promised.

Sid Marty Does It Again with “The Black Grizzly of Whiskey Creek.”

While in Calgary for the Canadian Parks For Tomorrow conference, I and some of the other attendees had the great pleasure of catching Sid Marty reading from his most recent book “The Black Grizzly of Whiskey Creek.”

For those of you who aren’t familiar with Marty’s writings, He is the author of such Canadian conservation classics as “Men for the Mountains,” “A Grand and Fabulous Notion,” “Leaning on the Win,” and “Switchbacks.” He is also an acclaimed cowboy poet and folk singer.

“The Black Grizzly of Whiskey Creek” has been described by some reviewers as an “eco-detective” story. It centers on a series of maulings by a grizzly bear in the Whiskey Creek area adjacent to Banff townsite, in the national park by the same name.

I found the narrative as gripping as it was tragic. So powerful was the story arc that I simply couldn’t put the book down except to sleep. No doubt Marty’s ability to portray the unfolding events from both the wardens perspective as well as from that of the bears.

While the book does not spare the reader from the gory details, what really stuck for me was Marty’s critical analysis of the underlying causes for the maulings – bears becoming habituated to garbage. He makes it abundantly clear that Parks Canada administration was as much to blame for this situation as the restaurants and other businesses in the townsite.

And in case you might be thinking that the book could be on the heavy and dark side, be assured that Marty allows his sardonic wit to shine through here and there, bringing just the right amount of humour to the narrative.

The story is definitely tragic on several levels: for the victims and for the bears. But also for the wilderness ideal that national parks represent.

All in all, it is a must read. Do yourself a favour and pick up a copy today.

Dion touts ‘green shift’ in taxation

Stéphane Dion on Thursday confirmed what he has hinted for weeks: The Liberals will make a tax on green house-gas emissions a central plank of their next election platform

Dion touts ‘green shift’ in taxation

Stéphane Dion on Thursday confirmed what he has hinted for weeks: The Liberals will make a tax on green house-gas emissions a central plank of their next election platform

Study Warned of China Quake Risk a Year Ago

The Sichuan quake’s epicenter was practically pinpointed in a decade-long fault study, which warned last July that the region was ripe for a shock.

Holy Grail?

Every once in awhile on the internet you get these too good to be true stories. But sometimes you gotta post it in the off chance there is something too this, then you can be the person that let everyone else know.
This time it is a story about an Israeli Scientist who has invented a process [...]

News from the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair [Features]

By the Scientific American staff

This week, "Where Are They Now?" columnist Laura Vanderkam and managing editor, online, Ivan Oransky, are in Atlanta for the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. ISEF is an annual event that seeks to show off the best of high school science. Sponsored by Intel–which also sponsors the Science Talent Search whose past finalists we started profiling this week–it draws 1,500 students from 51 countries to a host city to show off their work. The kids compete for $4 million in scholarships and awards.

[More]

Fat is an environmental issue

Even when resting, obese people are using more of the world’s food resources than slim people, say researchers