Author: Fraser

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Wind Over Water

Wind Over Water is a documentary chronicling the debate over the Cape Wind Project, an offshore wind farm proposed for off the southern coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. With similar facilities spreading throughout Europe, many people were excited at the prospect of the first offshore wind project ever to be proposed for American shores.
However, since its plans were revealed in November 2001, many residents of the Cape have banded together to stop the project and prevent its developers from turning Nantucket Sound into what they categorize as an industrial energy complex. With a colorful cast of characters that includes Sen. Edward Kennedy and Walter Cronkite, this story has developed into an intriguing representation of people’s attitudes toward land, energy, politics and NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard).
Supporters of the project maintain that the promise of wind energy is that it can produce clean, renewable power while helping to stem some of the 2.5 billion tons of pollution released into the atmosphere by traditional fossil fuel plants in the US. While this facet of wind energy appears appealing, its greatest liability is that exposed hilltops and shallow offshore waters, areas once immune to development, are now being sited as ideal locations for wind energy facilities.
Wind Over Water will attempt to address the question: Is the American public willing to grant the wind industry access to these lands in exchange for clean, renewable energy?

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Bearing down on grizzlies

Here’s your weekly Science Matters column by David Suzuki with Faisal Moola.

Bearing down on grizzlies

Years ago, I was surprised to learn that a grizzly bear is protected in
the United States, but if it walks across the border into British
Columbia, it can be killed for sport. So we did a program on them for
The Nature of Things. I was amazed to see pictures from the 1800s of
immense piles of skulls from grizzlies that were slaughtered to make
room for early settlers on the prairies. Grizzlies were not just
mountain animals; they flourished on bison all the way across Canada to
Manitoba and south to Texas and California (where the only place you’ll
find one now is on the state flag)! Grizzlies need space – tagged
animals have been known to travel over hundreds of kilometres in a
season. But the cumulative impacts of habitat loss and fragmentation
from logging, mining, road building, urbanization, and other land-use
pressures have forced them into isolated patches of territory.

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The Battle of the Bag

[From the CBC]

Plastic bags. Billions of the handy throwaway items are used around
the world every year. They take hundreds of years to biodegrade and
have sparked heated debates in cities from San Francisco to Mumbai.

This documentary gets a handle on the bag battle. From the big oil
employees who brought the bag to America – to the Nobel laureate
fighting for a bag ban – to the retired German schoolteacher who holds
the world’s record for the most plastic bags, the film takes stock of
this icon of convenience culture.

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