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  Trevor 17:03 on 28 July 2013 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Terra Informa   

  Ben Caplan’s Naked Bike Ride Guide 

  Ben Caplan is a growly-voiced, bushy-bearded musician from Halifax, Nova Scotia but he actually grew up in Hamilton and attended the same high school as me. I didn’t know him too well back then, but everyone knew his father, Marvin Caplan, the lordly clothier and city councillor. Nowadays, Ben might be the better known Caplan. His distinctive beard has been immortalized by CBC Music, and he has toured Europe and Australia.

  The last time he swung through Edmonton, I learned over drinks that Ben had once organized the Halifax Naked Bike Ride. I knew that he would be the perfect voice to animate this guide to throwing your own naked bike ride in your own town.

  This originally aired on Terra Informa in July, 2013.

   

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  Trevor 21:19 on 26 June 2013 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Terra Informa   

  Calgary’s flood of the century* and climate change 

  On June 21, 2013 I was supposed to be in Calgary enjoying Explosions In The Sky and the rest of the Sled Island Music Festival. Instead, I stayed home while 80,000 Calgarians were evacuated from their homes. The mighty Bow and Elbow rivers had overflowed their banks, sending the city into a two week state of emergency.

  People said it was the flood of the century. Problem is, they had already experienced a flood of the century back in 2005. And another time just nine years before that. Three floods of the century in less than twenty years?

  Watching the news and analysis unfold, this flood of the century motif repeated over and over. Not once did I hear that the occurence of extreme weather events was accelerating. In fact, senior Federal politicians explicitly shutdown any discussion that would tie the 2013 to climate change.

  Chris Chang-Yen Phillips and I wanted to challenge this denial, and discuss the flood in the context of climate change. Working on a short timeline, we spoke to University of Calgary climatologist Shawn Marshall as well as expat Calgarian and sustainability professional Mike Soron. Listen in for the analysis of the 2013 Calgary flood that you need to hear.

  This story originally aired on Terra Informa in July, 2013.

   
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  Trevor 17:30 on 12 November 2012 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Terra Informa   

  Dreams of star travel 

  The year I moved to Edmonton, I was heavily into Battlestar: Galactica. It has a reputation for being the kind of show that induces uncontrollable bingeing. But that’s not my style. In Guelph, I paced myself by getting together with a friend once a week, to watch as if it were still an on-air television show. I like this because it gives me lots of time to reflect on what happened in the show and try to figure out what’s going to happen next.

  Once in Edmonton, I was broke, unemployed and mostly stayed at home for the first little while. This gave me a little too much time to reflect on the show. I started to think a lot more about space travel in general, which led me to the website of Paul Gilster, Centauri Dreams. He posts surprisingly frequent updates (almost daily) on the science and progress of space travel.

  When Terra Informa started planning a special edition on “Night,” I jumped at the opportunity to interview Paul about the Fermi Paradox—a suprisingly simple observation that suggest we may never actually manage to travel the stars. Learn all about it, and more on the practicality of space travel in this story.

  This story originally aired as part of Terra Informa At Night in November, 2012.