Evidence surrounding the link between climate change and anthropogenic greenhouse gas (ghg) emissions has been mounting and is widely accepted within the scientific community. While the environmental impacts of climate change are starting to be felt within Canada and across the world (i.e. environmental problems such as ocean temperature and level rise, desertification and more severe weather events, to name a few) curbing our ghg emissions has been met with much resistance. Since the People’s Climate March in New York, there has been a lot of talk of divestment, but what exactly is fossil fuel divestment and what does that mean for an institution such as a university? Think of divestment as the opposite of investment, or the removal of funds (such as the money invested in fossil fuel and mining companies) from one’s financial portfolio.    One of the founding arguments in favour of divestment is the concept of carbon bubble. It has been widely accepted within the scien...

In case you missed it, this past Sunday (August 10th) was International Biodiesel day, in honour of this momentous occasion I thought I would dive into the pros and cons of this alternative fuel source. Fossil fuels (such as natural gas, coal and petroleum) are pouches of organic matter which have been pressurized and decomposed over long periods of time. In contrast, biofuels are made from live organic matter (ranging from canola, maize, sunflowers, animal fats and soy). Thus they provide a more sustainable alternative to the material depletion associated with traditional fossil fuels while performing in many of the same ways. As the cost for fossil fuels continue to rise, part of the appeal of alternative fuels sources is their potentially low production cost. We should also consider the environmental impact of growing crops for fuels, CO2 (of of the greenhouse gases released through the combustion of fuel) is taken up by the crops. In other words, biofuels can provide a carbo...