three wise monkeys

17-year-old finds bacteria combination that breaks down plastic bags in months
Jul 01, 2008 01:17 PM
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Kristine Owram
THE CANADIAN PRESS

As jurisdictions across Canada take action to ban the use of landfill-clogging plastic bags, which can take up to 1,000 years to decompose, an Ontario high school student has discovered a way to break down the pesky plastic in a matter of months.
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Electricity, public transit and household goods and services to cost more by year’s end
May 29, 2008 04:30 AM
Romina Maurino
THE CANADIAN PRESS

Consumers feeling the impact of high oil prices at the pumps may be in for new headaches this year as soaring energy prices drive up the cost of everything from airline tickets to dry cleaning, couriers and diapers.

High oil prices, which have already boosted the price of gasoline, fertilizers and food, may hit Canadians in new areas, according to economists.

An initial wave of increases could expand to the price of public transportation as well as household goods and services as diverse as home-cleaning services and diapers, said Adrienne Warren, an economist at Scotiabank.

“Through the summer and into the fall, we’ll probably see increasing pressures on a wider range of goods outside of transportation such as air fares and train fares, to consumers goods in your grocery stores and your department stores.”

These “rely on distribution and manufacturing that are energy-intensive and that will put more pressure on the retailers to pass the costs that they’re facing on to the consumers,” Warren said.

While the price of a big-screen TV is unlikely to change because such electronics are often manufactured outside of Canada and benefit from the strong loonie, services such as dry cleaning, carpet cleaning, car rentals and couriers could all increase.

“A large part of their costs comes from transportation, going from home to home, or energy use,” she said.

Yesterday, Dow Chemical Co. became the latest company to announce price increases because of the high cost of energy. The Michigan company, which makes chemical, plastic and agricultural products, said it had seen a fourfold increase in the price of raw materials over the last six years.

Dow’s announcement came a day after Nova Scotia Power said it applied for a rate increase of just under 12 per cent. The province’s electric utility said it needed the extra money to cover soaring fuel prices.

Earlier this month, Air Canada and WestJet imposed domestic fuel surcharges that would add $90 a round-trip for flights of more than 1,601.6 kilometres each way.

Also, Kimberly-Clark Corp. said it would raise prices for its Huggies diapers, Pull-Ups training pants, Cottonelle and Scott bathroom tissue, Viva towels and Kleenex facial tissue by as much as 8 per cent.

But it’s still too early to be stockpiling any goods just yet, TD economist Craig Alexander maintained.

“Up to this point, we really haven’t seen the traditional pass-through that has been characteristic during previous oil price shocks,” he said. “Markets have been very competitive, and so as a result, businesses have not been willing to pass along the end result to the consumer.”

Doug Porter, a senior economist at the Bank of Montreal, said inflation on consumer goods has thus far been “relatively limited.”

“For some of the price increases to stick, you’d need solid underlying economic momentum, which I don’t think is a given in Canada, and certainly not in the U.S. over the next year,” Porter said.

“But we’re at risk, if oil prices continue moving higher, of it becoming a little bit more of a serious inflation risk.”

Source: The Toronto Star

Canadians can expect to pay more at grocery stores as higher feed costs advance through the food chain

Apr 25, 2008 04:30 AM
Dana Flavelle
business reporter

Canadian consumers can expect to see more price hikes in food amid global shortages of basic grains and soaring fuel costs, more food industry executives are warning.

“These are stunningly challenging and unique times,” Michael McCain, president and chief executive officer of Maple Leaf Foods Inc., said at the company’s annual meeting in Toronto yesterday.
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Health Canada expected to label chemical they contain – bisphenol A – a dangerous substance

Apr 15, 2008 08:15 PM
Brenda Bouw
THE CANADIAN PRESS

VANCOUVER–Three of Canada’s major retailers said today they are pulling plastic water and baby bottles that contain the controversial chemical bisphenol A, in anticipation of Health Canada labelling it a dangerous substance.
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Riots over rising grain prices are ripping through the developing world and the United Nations warns there’s worse to come. Was Malthus right? Are we getting too numerous to feed ourselves?

Apr 12, 2008 04:30 AM
Lynda Hurst
Feature Writer

The warning bells are ringing, furiously.

This week, food riots paralyzed Haiti, with angry marchers outside the president’s palace shouting “We are hungry!” Five people were killed in the chaos.

In Egypt, a 15-year-old boy was shot and killed this week in two days of violence over food shortages. Last month, a two-week protest at government-subsidized bakeries ended with the deaths of 10 Egyptians in clashes with police.
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Eat food, not too much, mainly plants, says Michael Pollan
Feb 29, 2008 04:30 AM
Kim Honey
food editor

Michael Pollan wants a cappuccino made with cow’s milk. But Live Organic Food Bar on Dupont St. near Spadina is vegan, so real milk, even organic, is out.

“What’s their thing about milk?” the best-selling author of In Defense of Food and The Omnivore’s Dilemma wonders aloud. When reminded it’s a vegan restaurant, he grins. “Oh right. They’re vegan. Silly me.”
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They’re ripping the tops off mountains in West Virginia coal country to feed our insatiable appetite for power. It’s cheaper that way. And the trees and the animals and the flooding? It may not be pretty, but we’ve got all those dishwashers to run

Feb 23, 2008 04:30 AM
Catherine Porter
Environment Reporter

CHARLESTON, WEST VIRGINIA–When you flick on the lights this evening, think of Kayford Mountain. Or what was Kayford Mountain, but now is a sprawling, muddy, trembling construction site 100 metres below Larry Gibson’s home.

Three years ago, Gibson hunted wild boar here, picked gooseberries and peaches, and sat under the shade of white oaks and hickories so thick he couldn’t see the sky.

“Now, you can see the sky below your feet,” Gibson says.
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Jan 21, 2008 04:30 AM
Jennifer Wells

The noble intention of ‘08 echoes the noble intentions of ‘07 and years prior: go green.

Sustainability? Still in.

Yet Kermit’s lament – “It’s not that easy being green” – rings perhaps more true today than in the frog’s heyday.
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By Kim Ghattas
BBC News, New York

It is mid-afternoon in an airy, lower-Manhattan flat, on the ninth floor of a posh-looking building with a doorman.

It is a bit dark and there are no lights on. There is a strange quiet feel to the flat, perhaps due to the lack of any appliances - no fridge humming, no TV interference, even no air conditioning, though it is hot and humid outside.
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Friday, Mar. 02, 2007
Eating Better Than Organic
By John Cloud

Not long ago I had an apple problem. Wavering in the produce section of a Manhattan grocery store, I was unable to decide between an organic apple and a nonorganic apple (which was labeled conventional, since that sounds better than “sprayed with pesticides that might kill you”). It shouldn’t have been a tough choice–who wants to eat pesticide residue?–but the organic apples had been grown in California. The conventional ones were from right here in New York State. I know I’ve been listening to too much npr because I started wondering: How much Middle Eastern oil did it take to get that California apple to me? Which farmer should I support–the one who rejected pesticides in California or the one who was, in some romantic sense, a neighbor? Most important, didn’t the apple’s taste suffer after the fruit was crated and refrigerated and jostled for thousands of miles?
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