By Wyn Jones
There’s something to dislike in every election, but this year highlighted one of the hidden weaknesses of our electoral process, the rather arcane and confusing process that selects prospective candidates, and in particular, the practice of “parachuting” a candidate into an unsuspecting riding.
Read more
By Richard Bell
October 10th, 2019 was an epic day for food lovers on the Eastern Shore, with the opening of the Noor’s Mediterranean Kitchen in Musquodoboit Harbour, nestled between Dobbitt Bakehouse and the Library on Highway 7. We sat down with owner Noor Althyab a few days after the launch to talk about her journey from Syria to starting her own business in Nova Scotia.
Read more
By Richard Bell
The struggle over finding a site for the long-ago-promised replacement for Eastern Shore District High hit the floor of the Legislature on Friday, October 25, at the same time that the long-delayed “technical evaluation” of the current ESDH site is finally underway.
Read more
By Richard Bell
People around Greenough Drive in Porters Lake recently filed petitions with HRM City Council and the Legislature opposing plans to build on a narrow causeway that links Greenough Drive to the Porters Lake Provincial Park.
But in a surprising twist, the Cooperator has discovered that the two owners of the contested property were not only unaware of the petition drive, but had never talked to any of the opponents, and did not plan to interfere with walking access to the park or with use of the boat ramp.
Read more
One of the lesser known secrets of redeveloped Musquodoboit Harbour Library are the extraordinary community meals coming out of the Library’s weekly Friday morning “Cooking for the Community” class. Library Supervisor Juanita Marshall is the head chef. Participants get a free lunch at the end, but you need to register for these classes in advance.)
Read more
By Karen Schlick
It was a dark and stormy night. She came in to my house soaking wet and howling. When my neighbours released her, she immediately climbed to the top of the curtain rods in the guest bedroom
Read more
There’ll be a bit of excavation coming up in the parking lot of the Harbour Lites Seniors Club on the Meaghers Grant Road. Seems that what Club member Edyth Shuman jokingly calls a “stinkhole” has opened up in the middle of the parking lot.
Read more
By Richard Bell
[Note: This article is a summary of a lecture by sustainable builder and author Chris Magwood on September 29, 2019, delivered at the Natural Building EAST conference held at the Deanery Project in Ship Harbour, Nova Scotia. Magwood spoke for about an hour, and videos of the entire presentation are available here.]
Chris Magwood built his first straw bale house in 1997, launching a career that has placed him among the most respected sustainable builders and thinkers internationally. He is author of several books on natural building systems including, Making Better Buildings.
Read more
[This page features a lecture by sustainable builder and author Chris Magwood on September 29, 2019, delivered at the Natural Building EAST conference held at the Deanery Project in Ship Harbour, Nova Scotia. Magwood spoke for about an hour, and videos of the entire presentation are available at the links below. Magwood’s master’s thesis, “Opportunities for carbon dioxide removal and storage in building materials” is available as a PDF on his website. This document contains many of the graphs he refers to during his lecture.]
For anyone concerned about the climate crisis, sustainable builder and author Chris Magwood delivered a stunning and hope-filled lecture on September 29, 2019, at the Natural Building EAST conference held at the Deanery Project in Ship Harbour, Nova Scotia. The building sector is responsible for an estimated 40% of global carbon emissions.
Read more
[Note: To watch segment 2 of Chris Magwood's lecture, please click here.]
Magwood found that the choice of building materials made a whopping difference in whether a given building was a net carbon emitter or a net carbon drawdown, from over 200 tons of embodied carbon in the worst case to a net drawdown, or storage, of over 130 tons using the best materials. He was still skeptical about his results, but when he began to share his results, everyone agreed, “Yep, those are the numbers.”
Read more
