Alternatives Journal

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PHOTO: MOTHER EARTH NEWS STAFF
Alternatives Journal began as a volunteer operation handled by students and faculty at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario.

One frustration of pushing for social change or the preservation of our environment is that all the computers sometimes seem to belong to the other side. The concerned citizen may have a very strong suspicion that the facts and figures in that latest government report or glossy corporation brochure simply don’t tell the whole tale…but, more often than not, he hasn’t the time, energy or money to run down the “other side of the story” (even if he knows where to look).

Which is where a magazine like AlternativesJournal comes in. This quarterly journal (subtitled “Perspectives on Society and Environment”) is published by a group of faculty members and students at Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario…and if you’re cultivating a backwoods distrust of academia these days, a look at any issue should convince you that scholarship is a sharp tool in the hands of committed people.

A good example is Spring 1973 issue, which is devoted entirely to a study of the International Nickel Company’s enormous mine and refining complex at Sudbury, Ontario and the effect of that operation on its employees, neighbors, and surroundings. (As any driver of the Trans-Canada Highway knows, the landscape for miles around Sudbury resembles Tolkien’s Mordor or the lunar surface.)

Alternatives examines INCO, and the place of nickel in Canada’s economy, with a thoroughness that far surpasses the studies in the average ecology publication. The issue also includes two detailed, closely documented articles on “Atmospheric Composition and Precipitation of the Sudbury Region” and “The Effects of SO2 on Vegetation in the Sudbury Area”. What the environmental damage in question means in human terms is brought home in an interview with Elie W. Martel, who represents Sudbury in the Ontario Provincial Legislature and has fought many years for a cleanup at the refinery.

  • Published on Nov 1, 1973
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