"If you want to avoid being killed on the highway, it's helpful to stay off the highways. This seems like a simple idea, but thus far it has eluded Nova Scotia's traffic authorities and urban planners. That thought emerged from the release last week by GPI Atlantic of the GPI Transportation Accounts: Sustainable Transportation for Nova Scotia."
December 2, 2006, The Chronicle-Herald ~ Ralph Surette
"If we're going to get serious about the environment, which we seem to have at least started doing recently, one of the first things we've got to talk about is transportation, the largest source of pollution, direct and indirect, locally and globally. Talking about transportation, however, is not easy. The car, the truck, highways – these are virtually the icons of a secular North American religion. To argue that we need less highway-building, not more, and incentives to discourage driving and encourage more benign forms of transportation and social organization is more or less to blaspheme against the accepted order."
"Transportation is the single highest cost for Nova Scotians -- more than housing, food, living expenses, or health costs, says a new report on sustainable transportation by GPI Atlantic."
"The high, and growing, cost of transportation in Nova Scotia was usefully identified by a new GPI Atlantic study released Wednesday. According to the 565-page report, Nova Scotians spend more on transportation than on any other single item, including housing, food or health care. The study found the average Nova Scotian spent $3,036 a year on direct costs, such as vehicle operation, and another $4,562 indirectly, through things like related taxes and the health care costs from accidents. And, GPI says, those costs are rising."
"This is the challenge public transit faces: how to induce drivers to leave their cars at home when commuting to and from work. It's an important challenge — according to a report from Genuine Progress Index (GPI) Atlantic, Nova Scotians' collective cost of driving is $6.4 billion per year."
November 30, 2006, The Daily News ~ Andrea MacDonald
"Everyone knows how much it costs to run a car. There's the sticker price, the gas, the insurance, repairs, parking, maybe even a speeding ticket here and there. But does that really give a true measure of the cost of driving? One group argues the real cost of transportation to Nova Scotians reaches more than $6.4 billion annually, or about $7,600 per person. That's based on “invisible” measures such as the cost of land devoted to parking lots, or the long-term costs of greenhouse-gas emissions."
"Transportation is going the wrong way in Nova Scotia, according to a new report released Wednesday by GPI Atlantic. "The current way that we measure progress can be very, very misleading to policy makers and send very, very inaccurate signals to policy makers and to the general public," Ronald Colman, executive director of the non-profit research organization, said at a news conference in Dartmouth."
"Nova Scotians may be driving themselves to the brink of bankruptcy, a new report suggests. The study, released Wednesday by GPI Atlantic, said transportation is one of the biggest expenses for individuals who live in the province when indirect costs are included."
November 25, 2006, The Chronicle-Herald ~ Roger Taylor
"ONE SUSPECTS that a 565-page report on the sustainability of Nova Scotia's transportation system, to be released next week, will be filled with insights and questions that the average Nova Scotian rarely considers and political leaders will be struggling to deal with. It is exactly the type of study Nova Scotia-based independent research group GPI Atlantic specializes in. GPI stands for Genuine Progress Index, which has been designed to go beyond traditional economic measures to point toward a more inclusive accounting system."
November 23, 2006, The Chronicle-Herald ~ Judy Myrden
"More green energy could have Nova Scotia Power customers seeing red. The province's largest electrical utility is forecasting higher power bills for consumers if it is forced to comply with new government targets requiring NSP to produce at least 20 per cent of its power from wind, solar and tidal power and other sources by 2013."
Media Clipping – October 15, 2006, The Chronicle-Herald
"NO DOUBT it's just a coincidence that Overshoot Day 2006 happened to fall on Thanksgiving Day. Overshoot Day marks the date at which human beings have consumed the entire production of the Earth for the whole year. It's the date on which we move into ecological overdraft."
Media Clipping – October 12, 2006, The Chronicle-Herald, Opinions
"The health bureaucrats will tell you that Canadian boomers, who make up about 30 per cent of the population, are fat too young and old too soon. We don't want to either die young or grow old, of course. But the experts say we're likely to “ shuffle off this mortal coil" quicker than our parents did – because we're so darned sedentary. "
“Your dirty little secrets might not be safe anymore. Halifax homeowners might have to start using clear plastic garbage bags to encourage more recycling and composting. Forcing people to reveal their junk would likely increase the rate of diversion at city dumps, says a staff report written for a city hall committee meeting Thursday afternoon.”
“Behind the Stora Enso saga – in which we agonize about subsidizing the pulp and paper industry even more than before – is a deeper and even more irritated question: What about our forest policy which has, for 40 years now, been yoked to pulp mills and the use of the Nova Scotia forest for the lowest possible value products, degrading it drastically in the process?”
“There is a remarkable consensus, that crosses all political divisions, on the fundamental principles of a decent society and on the benchmarks that would signify genuine progress. We all want to live in a peaceful and safe society without crime. We all value a clean environment with healthy forests, soils, lakes and oceans. We need good health and education, strong and caring communities, and free time to relax and develop our potential. We want economic security and less poverty.”
April 11, 2006, The Chronicle-Herald
Après nous le deluge: global warming’s watery threat
March 9, 2006, The Chronicle-Herald, Opinion, Halifax, Nova Scotia ~ Jim Meek
“In short, GDP measures growth grossly, and doesn't give a hoot if economic activity is produced by (non-Iraqi) terrorists developing weapons of mass destruction - or Girl Guides selling cookies. Thus the new attempt to measure well-being. Well, it's actually not new. Atlantic Canada has long had its own Genuine Progress Index, produced by the good people at GPI Atlantic.”
March. 02, 2006, The Halifax Herald ~ Jurgen Teuwen
“The GPI Atlantic report concludes: "Sustainable forest management is not the whole answer. Even with the most careful harvesting techniques, there will be some level of impact on forest ecosystems. While there is a great difference between clearcutting and selection harvesting systems, they both involve the construction of roads and the removal of biomass. ¶ "And even the highest standards applied on a particular woodlot cannot guarantee needed protection of critical forest values at the landscape level. ¶ "Therefore, no matter how excellent forest operations may be, they are not a substitute for an adequate network of representative protected areas in Nova Scotia." ”
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