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Macleans.ca

Canada’s magazine

Uneven progress on renewable energy

The biggest story you probably didn’t pay much attention to this week was Ontario’s plan to let homeowners, farmers, companies—anybody really—sell renewable energy onto the provincial power grid. This development makes me wonder why the federal government isn’t getting behind the international push to carve out a much bigger place for renewables in the energy marketplace.

Is the recession good for the environment? (and why Margaret Wente is wrong)

Could an economic recession actually be good for climate change? Such a thought strikes fear into every moderate green’s heart, because if environmentalism is actually antithetical to the capitalist project, if it is incompatible with economic growth and our post-industrial, urbanized society, we might as well fry now and pay later. Reversing centuries of development, infrastructure, jobs, careers, education, the NHL and all the other twenty-first century essentials and luxuries is not going to happen any time soon.