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Climate Scholars, Homer-Dixon and Lomborg, Let you know what’s up with the Planet
the newspaper
November 22 2007 Vol. XXX No. XI
November 29 2007 Vol. XXX No. XIII
www.thenewspaper.ca
toronto’s student community paper
Students Lead Environmental Movement
Greenwashed Pogs Are OUT. Green is IN.
The Issue of Sustainability Marlena Rogowska, Ashley Taylor, Vig Krishnamurthy high atop the Earth Sciences Building. By Sean Liliani Many university students will join the chorus of complaints against Stephen Harper’s ineffectiveness as an environmental leader. But few actually realize the immense potential that individual students have to turn UofT into an environmental beacon. While the history of energy consumption at our school has been marked by impressive feats of ingenuity and innovation, these accomplishments have likely excited only the engineering types who religiously read HVAC journals. With the issue of climate change emerging as the worldly cause of our time, it seems likely that this innovation will now turn more heads than ever
before. When circumstances have called for action in the past, UofT has dedicated huge amounts of resources to reducing energy costs. In the wake of the 1973 OPEC embargo, the school responded to oil and gas shortages by becoming the first university to employ a dedicated energy staff. Within a few years electricity consumption was reduced by 17%. Frugal spending in times of scarcity may not be as noble a cause as environmental altruism, but UofT does boast a record of superior ingenuity nonetheless. “A lot of these low hanging fruit that a lot of schools are doing now and getting
student profile: Leah Stokes
a lot of recognition for we did a long time ago,” says Ashley Taylor of the Sustainability Office. For example, cogeneration is a technology that transforms wasted heat from energy processes into usable heat for buildings. While schools such as Queen’s have only taken on this technology in recent years, UofT’s Central Steam Plant on Russell St. has been using it to supply 25% of the school’s energy needs since 1993. The potential for UofT’s ingenuity to contribute to a serious environmental initiative really began to bud in 2004 with the creation of the Sustainability Office. In the years since its inception, the office has facilitated a strong rela-
See Sustainability cont. pg. 3
by Sean Liliani
Student Leaves Newspaper Business To Save The World A year and a half ago Leah Stokes was in the running for news editor at the newspaper but mysteriously dropped out of the race just days before the vote. Naturally, the first thing I did upon Leah’s arrival at our office was confront her with the crazy coincidence that she somehow neglected to mention when we set up the interview. With a half sarcastic voice she tells me, “yeah… I decided to save the world instead”. It is common for editors of UofT’s independent weekly to develop the ‘I’m the hottest shit on earth’ complex, but on that day my hugely inflated ego was pricked with the sharp sting of reality. Here I was emitting seventeen thousand weekly copies of undergraduate banter and half witty headlines while she was working to cut hundreds of tonnes of CO2 emissions by encouraging students to lead efficient lifestyles. Profile: - Leah became involved in the environ-
mental movement at UofT by joining the Trinity Environmental Club in her second year. This small group of students began monitoring electricity consumption and worked to reduce costs through incentive programs. - In her third year she began to do some research herself and helped to bring the program to UC. Within just a few months of working with students, the program achieved a 10% reduction in energy use at Whitney Hall Residence. - Funded by the Sustainability Office, the program –which took on the name Rewire– expanded into a movement that saw seven of the university’s residences adopt more sustainable lifestyles. - Being an integral member of UofT’s environmental community landed Leah a stint as president of the University of Toronto Environmental Resource Network (UTERN) in her final undergraduate year. With $30,000 to submit towards
environmental initiatives, UTERN helps to bankroll student groups who want to incorporate environmental action into their platform. - While Leah has recently taken to working with the NGO ‘Plan Canada’ –as well as starting her own environmental consulting company– she still works closely with the Sustainability Office and UofT’s environmental community.
the newspaper: Does green washing dilute the environmental movement or help to make it more accessible? Leah Stokes: I see things as a spectrum where groups like Greenpeace or the Sierra Club or Right-wing conservative environmentalism are all different ways of trying to advance a system that is unsustainable. Just because there are more
See Leah Stokes cont. pg. 4
By Nina Manasan Let me start off by saying that I love the environment and I’m perfectly willing to save it. One might think then, that the recent explosion of environmentally friendly campaigns and movements would have me jumping for joy. Instead, I find myself rolling my eyes and scoffing derisively. Why? Because it’s in my nature to be suspicious of anything resembling a trend and/ or fad. While I commend those who have always been genuinely concerned about our planet, I question those who seem to have so suddenly changed their ways. Let’s face it; green is in, and no one wants to be out. In recent months, everyone from politicians to celebrities have hopped onto the electricpowered bandwagon. It is called greenwashing; a phenomenon which involves an unfounded advocacy of positive environmental attitudes. It is often used to create an environmentally conscious public image or to sell products, rather than to actually encourage environmentalism. In other words, they’re all a bunch of posers. Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth had everyone this year swept up in a “save the earth” frenzy. According to one producer, February’s Oscars endeavored to “select supplies and services with sensitivity toward reducing the threats of global warming, species extinction, deforestation and toxic waste” - a mighty task which some celebrities fulfilled by opting to arrive in hybrid vehicles, rather than the usual gas-guzzling limousines. In July, thousands of musicians staged concerts worldwide as part of the massive music event, Live Earth - a plea to governments, corporations and global communities to combat the climate crisis. Yes, we get
it. Hollywood cares about the environment. You need not look farther than on campus to see this trend in effect. Almost every single backpack I’ve seen this year has had one or more of those “I heart Earth” buttons that you buy from that hippy store in Kensington Market. Okay, students care too. Like I said, I’m all for saving our planet, but when something you care about is transformed into a mindless trend, it somehow loses its appeal. Kind of like hearing your dad singing Akon’s “Smack That”.
Sears Sues Ryerson After Deciding Not to Uphold Their End of the Bargain, Ryerson May Have to Pay Up By Nina Manasan Situated in Toronto’s urban core, Ryerson University is surrounded by bright lights, towering billboards and just happens to share a block with the city’s most famous shopping mall, the Eaton Center. It makes perfect sense then, that some of the most generous contributors to the university are stores within the Eaton Center. In exchange for their generosity, companies ask for some small form of recognition. Naming a building after them usually does the trick. But
what happens when a big company like Sears gives a $10 million donation to Ryerson, only to be acknowledged by a small plaque on a pillar inside one of its buildings? A big fat lawsuit. Sears Canada Inc. is suing Ryerson for breeching a contract it signed with the university in 1991. The agreement was simple: Sears gave Ryerson $10 million under the impression that Ryerson would associate its name with an academic facility on campus.
See Ryerson cont. pg. 3
2 the newspaper
22 November 2007
Streetlight Light An Aged Arousal The Next Big Thing? Who Knows. Photo by Zach Slootsky
By Joe Zabukovec Oliver Paulk sings and plays saxophone and David Laino plays the drums. However, before you check out their MySpace and listen to the tracks, you should be warned that the voice that you’re listening to is not Oliver’s. As a fairly new band of three years they are already learning what it’s like to have to reshuffle the lineup. However, Oliver makes it sound pretty easy. “Together, with him [the unnamed previous singer], we just decided that it wasn’t working out. We had played a dozen or so shows, and we had decided that it just wasn’t working out as well as it could have. He’s still one of our best friends.� David agreed and pointed out that it doesn’t have to be big deal if everyone can agree on the decision being made. “We approached music differently and the way he approached it didn’t really fit with the way the rest of the band did.� Streetlight Light has performed at a variety of venues including The Drake Hotel, the Silver Dollar, Tranzac, The Boat and the El Mocambo, and David and Oliver both agreed that Toronto is “pretty receptive to new bands and there’s so many different venues and bookers. And just like the venues, some bookers are nicer than others.� As Oliver mentioned their upcoming show, it’s clear that they have made a decent im-
pression on the booker for the Boat, where they will play this Friday night. “Yeah, Keith [the booker for the Boat] is a great guy. He let us play once and it went really well, so he said he’d put us on another bill, so now we’re playing this weekend.â€? Currently their looking to play outside of the city, which is why they agreed to play a fundraiser in Montreal a couple weeks ago. David explained the importance of “fresh facesâ€? to me. “Playing to your friends all the time isn’t exactly the best thing for a band. Not just for the sake of exposure, but also just to get that straight uncensored criticism. So, right now our MO is to play as many different shows for as many different people as we can. We just want to get as much as exposure as possible to show what we’ve been making and creating.â€? So if you’d like to check out their new creations, then you should come to the Boat in Kensington Market tomorrow night to check them out. And as for a new recording with the current singer of their band‌ “The day after our show on the 30th we’re actually going into the studio to record the new songs, so we’ll have the new stuff going up on MySpace soon.â€?
Managing Editor Joe Zabukovec Arts Editor Niya Bajaj
News Editor Steven Borowiec
Associate Editor Timothy Ryan Art Director Brendan Keen Photo Editor Evan Jordan
acters speak out their thoughts, giving insight into real motives. This seems unecessary because in comedies the audience is aware of genuine intentions as these make scenes funny. All in all, the play made me remember the ever-present generation gap. I must have been the only under 30 in the room and didn’t think it was funny at all. Predictable wit and my preference of Dave Chapelle-style humour are probably the reason for this. I did appreciate the scene decorations and costumes which were loyal to and consistent with the historical setting. Something rare nowadays as most hipster-directors try too hard to do their own thing which results in weird and incomprehensible plays. Props to director Maja Ardal.
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Contributors Stephen Notley, Alan Osadetz, Mike Kuo, Drew, Victor Rohm, Nina Manasan, Shannon Thorndyke 1 Spadina Crescent, Suite 245 Toronto, Ontario, M5S 1A1
By Victor Rohm
Age of Arousal, a comedy by Linda Griffiths, premiered at Factory Theatre last Friday. The play recounts the lives of three spinster sisters Alice, Virginia and Monica, an emancipated elderly woman Mary, her life partner/friend/business associate Rhoda, and a victorian-style player Everard. The setting is Toronto and the date 1885. Mary with Rhoda, trains women to become secretaries and therefore independant from men. Everard, as his name suggests, is ever hard and seduces one woman after another. The spinsters are all senile in their own way and, while Alice and Virginia are either alcoholics or just psychologically unstable, Monica lives a Disney tale. Linda Griffiths makes good use of
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the newspaper 3
22 November 2007
the science
by Timothy Ryan
Ten years ago, a number of very important people wearing suits met in Kyoto, Japan and devised a brilliant little plan to curb climate change. They called it the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Like Jehovah’s Witnesses, the United Nations went door-to-door convincing every country that would listen to sign and agree to lower their greenhouse gas emissions by an average of 6-8 %. What a waste of fucking time. The Kyoto Proto-
col is as effective at lowering greenhouse gases as Oprah is at controlling her weight. To start, climate change is an emerging science and the Kyoto Protocol, which was devised during the mid 1990’s, is based on scientific data and research from the 80’s. That is an eternity in the scientific world, making Kyoto last relevant during NKOTB. In fact, approximately a year ago more than 60 leading scientists in the international climate change field wrote an open letter to Stephen Harper urging him to review the mandates put forth
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in the Kyoto Protocol insisting that, “If, back in the 1990’s, we knew what we know today about climate change, Kyoto would almost certainly not exist.” But lowering greenhouse gas emissions is a good thing, right? So Kyoto is doing some good, right? No argument here, but Kyoto’s lowering of emissions is as beneficial as pissing on a forest fire. The main goal of this charade is to lower the number on your thermometer. In 1998, Tom Wigley, a senior scientist at the U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research, calculated the “saved” warming that would accrue if every nation met its obligations under the Kyoto Protocol. The result (one which various different scientists have confirmed), is that in 2050 the Earth would be 0.07oC lower. Wow. That is a number that can’t even be reliably measured on ground-based thermometers. Finally, countries don’t have to join if it isn’t their cup of tea. George Dubya doesn’t like it; lowering emissions will cost his friends money. John Howard, Australia’s then Prime Minister is also not a fan. So the largest single emitter of greenhouse gases, -the U.S.- and a country with one of the highest emission per capita rates -Australia- have agreed to Kyoto, but they refuse to ratify it and implement the changes. Lowering green house gas emissions is necessary and urgent. Having countries agree to lower their emission rates a few percentage points more than a decade after the protocol was presented is utterly useless. With that said, if most nations were to significantly lower emission rates enough to begin a reversal of the problem, the world economy would implode as we know it. I believe we are at a point where the only escape is an idea or invention so novel that it transforms the way we produce and use energy.
Sears vs. Ryerson... Ryerson cont. from pg. 1 For the university’s general counsel, this meant placing a plaque in the lobby of its engineering building. This isn’t the first time Ryerson has agreed to associate a company’s name with one of its facilities. Just recently, it unveiled a new lecture theatre in honor of a $1 million donation given by clothier Harry Rosen. Last spring, it named its school of management building after Ted Rogers for his $15 million contribution. So, why the reluctance to honour Sears with the same kind of recognition? Perhaps it was the university’s conscious effort to avoid an image of selling out. Maybe they figured that the names Harry Rosen and Ted Rogers could be mistaken for important figures, whereas Sears could not. Whatever the reason, Ryerson better deliver on its end of the bargain. Otherwise, it’ll be naming buildings after Hollister and Old Navy to pay its legal fees.
Illustration by Yoojin Guak
Timothy Ryan Calculates the Uselessness of The Kyoto Protocol
the jock talk
by Alan Osadetz
The Importance of Sustainability If you’ve been reading my column regularly, and following my advice, you should have realized the importance of working out six days a week and be nearing a decent physical condition. This is not the end of the line, as it is equally as important to work out to sustain your growth in muscularity. Have you recently landed a hot new significant other? They’re only going to stay around if you keep on packing on the power pounds. Besides, if you hadn’t increased your weight on the bench press this week, what the hell are you going to use as a topic to start conversations with? I have devised a model for sustainability at the individual level which can easily be adapted to anyone’s lifestyle. The key to sustaining your physique (and consequently, your success in life) is regular monitoring. Flex in the mirror with no shirt on at least five times a day, and keep records of your observations. I recommend using Microsoft Project as an all in one management tool. Download a trial version at http://www.microsoft.com/products/info/default.aspx. You can set and track goals for how much you want to be lifting for each exercise, and how many people
you want to be exchanging fluids with in both the short and long term. I use the cost management feature to keep track of all my expenditures on protein, creatine, and glucosamine, egg whites, gym memberships, and getting chicks drunk. This tracks virtually my entire weekly expenses, so I’ll have enough money saved up for the Chuck Norris Total Gym in no time. It’s also important to stay mentally focused on the benefits of large biceps and pectorals. Be sure to converse with all your friends about how much weight they’ve been lifting and how many people they have been sleeping with. Keep tabs on all of them to make sure you’re not falling behind the pack (I also use Microsoft Project for this, and when I get in an argument with one of my friends I will print off a statistical analysis before punching him in the stomach). Sustainability is a growing concern globally and I believe this is the most immediate way to address it. If everyone uses my life management system as a model and adopts it for their particular needs the future is certainly looking bright for all of us.
These Students Volunteer to Make Post-Secondary Education Sustainable Sustainability cont. from pg. 1 tionship between the creativity of students and the resources of the university. “I’ve seen a really big shift in the staff’s attitudes,” says Taylor. “When our office first started they didn’t like students approaching them…and now they’re so happy to work with our work-study students”. Much of the excitement that surrounds the Sustainability Office comes as a direct result of the student-led projects that it works to fund. Rewire was conceived by a small group of undergraduates who sought to educate their fellow students on how to cut back energy use on campus. Today this project has spread to seven St. George residences, in some cases saving up to $26,000 dollars in utility costs and sparing 58 tonnes of Co2 from our atmosphere. Projects such as Rewire have put the Sustainability Office on the UofT map (you can find them at 5 Bancroft Ave in a quaint little room across from the lecture hall) and have caught
the attention of groups all across campus. “We have been talking to the Sustainability Office,” says Lousie Cowin, newly inaugurated Warden of Hart House. “There is a cohesive momentum to focus on sustainability”. Earlier this year Hart House revealed its intentions to implement a sustainability model over the next five years. While this project is just getting underway it indicates that the gusto behind student environmentalism is beginning to seep into all corners of campus. Another energy-oriented initiative to come from the upper echelons of the university’s administration is the new budget model to emerge from the Budget Office. With faculties soon to bear more responsibility for their utility bills, it is likely that they will follow the lead of student initiatives, such as Rewire. With factions all across campus jumping aboard the sustainability wagon, UofT’s Sustainability Office has the potential to become the hub of Canada’s most resourceful environmental movement.
4 the newspaper
22 November 2007
OFF THE CHAIN
Want a greener and cheaper way to get to school? Check out this free survice located at 33 St. George in the basementof the International Student Center.
Leah Stokes Discusses Ways To Improve Energy Consumption on Campus Leah Stokes cont. from pg. 1 people doing it doesn’t mean it’s diluted. The environmental movement should and does recognize that it isn’t an exclusive thing. This isn’t a hipster movement where if you know which band I like then the band isn’t cool anymore. tn: Have you noticed student culture becoming more receptive to the environmental movement? LS: When we were run-
ning the Rewire program a lot of students started doing their own things. One of the student groups at UC made an ad about how to be more environmental that would play before movie nights. Another group at Woodsworth did a ‘Take a Bag, Leave a Bag’. I’ve seen a lot of creativity from people who get inspired and the Rewire program was neat because it’s a base from which people can build and a program that runs throughout the year in residences that tries to teach people basic things to do about the environment and energy. tn: What are your thoughts on Hummers and crunk music? How these types of people ca be engaged to think more consciously?
Leah Stokes at newspaper headquarters, 1 Spadina Crescent.
LS: I used to flip the bird at Hummers whenever I saw them and that strikes at the heart of the irony. It’s easy to say that this person doesn’t care rather than seeing them lying on the spectrum and that you’re also on that spectrum of us all living unsustainable lives. What kind of structures in our society even allow for Hummers to exist? Why don’t we have tighter fuel regulations so that people can’t even choose to buy the Hummer? We’re taught a lot that there’s the good guy and the evil guy, but we need to start thinking about how we’re all good and all evil and how you can engage people to do more of the good things.
the newspaper 5
22 November 2007
Is Climate Change a Catastrophe? the newspaper Asks Two of the Field’s Leading Academics by Sean Liliani
Bjørn LomborgAdjunct professor at the Copenhagen Business School, Director for the Copenhagen Consensus Center and author of Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist’s Guide to Climate Change talks to the newspaper about humankind’s ability to adapt to new climates What do you say to the academics who disagree with the your stance on the severity of climate change? Well I’m not sure that there are a lot of opponents. First of all climate change is real, it’s man-made and all that stuff, sea levels are going to rise. It’s going to be a problem but we need to take a look at how much. The U.N climate panel says somewhere between 18 and 59 centimeters; the most likely scenario is about 30 cm by 2100. That doesn’t mean that there is not a small vocal minority that’s telling us that there’s going to be a lot more and that’s certainly something that we should also be listening to. It’s not predominantly about the physical facts of sea level rising, it’s about how that’s going to affect society and nature. We have to realize that we are much more adaptable than we sometimes think. Sea levels rose a 30cm over the last hundred and fifty years and certainly it was not one of the defining issue of the 20th century. So we deal with these issues, it doesn’t mean that it’s not a problem but they’re certainly not a catastrophe. How much should the average global citizen be doing to fix this problem? I think there’s something wrong in the idea of having us, considering each and every one of us trying to solve big problems in the world. The reason why our societies work so well is because we specialize. Certainly most people don’t know how their TVs work, we don’t know how sewers work, we don’t actually know where our food comes from except for on a general level. But all of these things work because we are good at doing one little part of that and obviously that’s how we regulate most political problems. So it’s about making carbon taxes that encourage you to think more clearly about how you emit carbon and it’s about making sure we invest in research and development so that better and cheaper
technologies will be available. But there is a growing ‘green’ movement of knowledgeable consumerism where people are knowing where their food is coming from.
“...we deal with these issues, it doesn’t mean that it’s not a problem but they’re certainly not a catastrophe.” What do you think about the people who are making this a priority in their life? Well it’s fine. But it’s not a good way to organize a society because clearly climate change is not your only concern. Most people have jobs, have interests, have friends, have kids that need to be picked up from school… do you really have time to sit down and be sensible and realize all the smart moves that your supposed to be doing in your individual life. Take the instance that we should eat more locally; that sounds nice until you start realizing that sometimes locally means more polluting in the sense that if you’re growing tomatoes in Denmark, it’s much better to grow tomatoes in Spain and export them back to Denmark. Moreover, you also gotta ask
yourself maybe it would be better if it were grown in Africa and actually helped African farmers to get richer and have their kids get better educated, have less intestinal worms and all those other issues. What then should governments do to address climate change? There are two separate points. We should find smarter ways to deal with climate change. Right now everybody seems to be saying Kyoto, or more than Kyoto, which is basically cut emission now in first world countries. The problem with that is that it costs very much and does little good. The Kyoto protocol would cost $180 billion a year. If everyone had lived up to it, it would have only postponed global warming by 7 days by the end of the century. That’s why I’m saying we should put a carbon tax on Co2 but we should also tax it sensibly. You should tax it but that’s not going to solve climate change, what will solve it is a dramatic increase in investment in research and development of non carbon emitting energy technologies. Imagine if we could make solar panels cheaper than fossil fuels by 2060. The discussion would be over. For ten times less than the Kyoto protocol we could buy ten times more investment in research and development. Al Gore talks about climate change as our generational mission and the funny thing is that he and many other believe that the best way for us to be remembered is by spending $180 billion through Kyoto style policies to do virtually no good a hundred years from now. What do you personally think will happen to us in the future? Well if we look at mankind’s history, very often we’re being told that things are getting worse and worse and it’s a myth that we’ve had with us almost since Plato was worrying about how the Attica was getting deforested. Basically in all objective parameters things are getting better and better for humans. And once people get sufficiently rich they also care more about the environment. Cleary it seems to me that we’re a civilization that creates new problems but we’re one that historically and likely have solved more problems. It seems to me that we’re doing better and better and it’s very unlikely that the world will not be a much better place in a hundred years.
Thomas Homer-Dixon (or Tad to his friends)Associate Professor at the University of Toronto, George Ignatieff Chair at the Trudeau Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies and author of The Upside of Down tells the newspaper how to mitigate carbon emissions What are your thoughts on the academics who oppose your stance on the severity of climate change? I think that there are legitimate issues for debate. Both on the causes and consequences of climate change. I think much of the debate has moved to consequences; much of the debate surrounds the issue of mitigation vs. adaptation. How much should we focus on cutting carbon emissions vs. how much we should focus on adapting to some degree of inevitable climate change. People who think that climate change is a serious problem, believe that we have to be really aggressive about the issue, we have to cut carbon emissions, we have to fundamentally rework the way our economies and technologies work to reduce carbon emissions; big changes, big costs, probably considerable disruption for lots of segments of the society. The adaptationists generally would say ‘well you know, the problem’s not going to be that bad, it’s essentially a pollution problem, we’ve dealt with pollution problems in the past’. I feel that climate change being supported by a lot of evidence now– is turning out to be worse in many respects than anticipated. Just two weeks ago we got an estimate on global carbon emissions from 2006 and they’re almost half a billion tonnes above the worst case scenario of emissions put forth by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. I do get frustrated when a number of commentators seem to be impervious to any kind of evidence. What should the average global citizen be doing? First of all we need to recognized that little things we do individually can make a huge difference. I often say to people that this is a ground war and if it’s going to be won, it’s going to be one conversation, one letter to the editor, one workshop, one meeting, one conference at a time. In this situation I think that the public is quite far ahead of opinion leaders and a lot of the political and economic elite in our society. The thing about many of the political elites in our society is that they have benefited enormously from certain economic structures and patterns of energy use so they have strong vested interests in the status quo. I think that we need to see this in terms of a broader political and social mobilization. This is an issue that’s way bigger
than the Vietnam war, it’s as big as any challenge we’ve ever faced. People really should be out on the streets. They should be demanding from their politicians action on a whole variety of policies.
“We will become committed to a degree of climate change that will become increasingly disruptive and eventually catastrophic. ” What should governments and international corporations be doing? Well this might be an issue where Bjorn and I agree because the most important thing that I would do is create an institutional and financial and technological architecture for a global carbon market; we need a price on carbon and we need it desperately. We need something in the neighborhood of thirty dollars a tonne, or more, and people need to be able to trade carbon. When I talk about mobilization it might sound crazy but what people should be mobilizing for and demanding of their governments is a carbon market. The problem is the lag in the system and the non-linearity of the system. By the time
climate change starts to exact really large costs on human kind –far in excess of malaria, tuberculosis or any other of the problems Bjorn is concerned about– by the time those costs start to hit us, we’re not going to be able to turn this around. We will become committed to a degree of climate change that will become increasingly disruptive and eventually catastrophic. For example once Greenland starts to really melt, which it looks like it’s starting to do, it’s actually not going to be possible to stop the process. There is momentum in the system and there are long time lags between when you need to intervene and when you see the results of the intervention. The second point is that he neglects that the planet is probably a non-linear system and it’s likely that at some point as we perturb it progressively it’s going to change configuration. We’ll get a reorganization of the movement of energy on the surface of the planet. If our system flips like that, you don’t flip it back; that’s not the way complex systems work. When they find a new equilibrium they tend to stay. How can we best keep ourselves informed on these global issues? I don’t have a specific answer like ‘go to this website’ although worldchanging.com is a great one. The issue here is that over the past few decades, power has moved down the social hierarchy away from large organizations to individuals. It’s been driven a lot by technological changes like this phone I’m carrying right now to the laptop computer that has unimaginable power. But what has not moved down that hierarchy is a feeling of responsibility for self governance. For the most part we’re still looking for other people to take care of us. Each person has to exercise his or her own democratic potential to learn, to evaluate the issues and to come to some judgment.
review page
6 the newspaper
JUNO
22 November 2007
Average
Directed by: Jason Reitman Starring: Ellan Page, Michale Cera, Jason Bateman, Jennifer Garner, Allison Janney “It’s cute, almost to the point of being saccherine - but manages to remain Splenda sweet. While this is due primarily due to Juno’s quirkly point of view, the well written and reasonably diverse score also contributes a great deal. While it raises reasonably important social issues Juno maintains it’s cutesy feel-good status and everything works out the way you want it to.” Niya Bajaj “I liked the movie. It had funny parts and serious parts and good music parts. Also I liked the pork sandwich I snuck into the theater. It was delicious.” Mike Anderson “Micheal Cera’s flailing wang was disturbing, as was the overload of hipster music. Overall a good movie.” Tijana Dragichavic “Life’s not as easy a it looks in Juno, but if only it were. Ellen Page is splendid as a pregnant, knowit-all teenager; Michale Cera, as always, plays painfully awkward to a T; and Allison Janney, as Juno’s understanding step-mother, steals every scene she is in. Sure to be this year’s critical darling.” Elizabeth Hilborn “The main character, the young knocked-up female displays an uncannily quick wit. Somehow t h e film-makers managed to tell a powerful story amidst all the hipster-esque irony. Quite a feat.” Steven Borowiec
After Fidel By Steven Borowiec After Fidel is a documentary that follows a reporter who covered the revolution in 1959 on his first visit back to Cuba in almost fifty years. With the health of leader Fidel Castro fading and many expecting his time in power to end soon, people are questioning what the economic and political systems of the country will look like after he’s gone. A strong theme in the film is the skewed manner in which Cuba is often represented in the Western media. The exiled Miami elite whose property was expropriated after the revolution are given ample opportunity to voice their disgust with the left-leaning regime, while those still living on the island
Michale Cera and his Baby’s Mama Ellan Page in JUNO. “Juno is Hollywood appropriating youth culture. Jason Reitman is a fucking turd for dropping off this log after Thank You For Smoking.You will like it if you are the Burger-King crown wearing Seth Rogen look-a-like who sat beside me laughing crumbs onto my lap as he demolished a plethora of deep-fried cardboard. F is for thank-god-it-was-Fucking-Free!” Evan Jordan “The only way not to be smitten with this film is to be so deeply peeved by smug hipster sarcasm that one could spurn, in true hipster fashion and therefore hypocritically, what is so wonderfully funny and moving.” Stuart H Paisley
Written, Directed and Narrated By Michael Maclear who proudly support Fidel are rarely mentioned. The film shows that there are plenty of good things about the way Cuba is administered. The country’s statefinanced education system is excellent, resulting in a highly literate population and a huge number of health care professionals. Maybe the best thing about this film is that it corrects the misperception that Cuba is an island of miserably oppressed people desperately waiting for their leader to pass so the island can adopt a capitalistic approach. It’s not like that. Many Cubans are proud and passionate about the unique approach their country has taken and its ability to survive in spite of socialism’s worldwide decline.
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backpage
8 the newspaper
the sticky stuff
22 November 2007
Where the Fuck is This? by Shannon Thorndyke
Sex, Love, and the Stuff that comes between… Dear Shannon, I’m 24 years old and have just recently become impotent. On the morning of my 24th birthday I was about to receive birthday sex from my amazing girlfriend and I could not get it up. That was three weeks ago and since then the problem has continued. I’m able to perform when I’m solo, but whenever I want to have sex with my girlfriend I’m about as hard as jello. I don’t understand. I haven’t been with my girlfriend for very long and our sex is amazing. I find her unbelievably attractive, I don’t smoke, and I’m a young guy. It’s putting a lot of stress on my relationship and it would be horrible if my girlfriend and I broke up because I was impotent. It’s really starting to make me depressed.What do you suggest? -Antonio Oh Antonio, this may be every guys worst nightmare. BUT…losing the magic “sometimes” does not mean that
you are impotent. Especially if it has only been three weeks. This is my theory: Maybe the birthday celebration failure was a performance anxiety issue. You were really excited about the big celebratory lay; it was built up in your head as something special (after all you only turn 24 once!) Maybe you had a bit too much to drink the night before…the next thing you know you are dealing with a “marshmallow in a keyhole.” Then from there you kept replaying the awful event in your head, which has only further complicated
the sexual problems with your lady. This would also explain why you are still able to fly solo. So...relax. It does happen. Try to get your mind off the bday event and move on in the bedroom. If things continue you should go and see your doctor. I think you are a bit young for a “dysfunction” but you never know. Couldn’t hurt to get your little buddy checked out. Until next time Send your send and relationship questions to sex@thenewspaper.ca
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