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Since Confederation in 1867, official Canadian settler government policy on the environment has sought to simultaneously preserve “wilderness” and exploit natural resources for market gain. In the 1960s, the nascent North American modern environmental movement pushed for stronger regulation on pollution and toxics - and a more institutionalised state-led response to environmental problems emerged. Throughout the last five decades, three principal “eras” of federal government reaction have emerged in response to mounting scientific evidence and public pressure to act on environmental issues. The first, from the late-1960s to mid-1980s, saw the development and implementation of early environmental policy and programmes. The second era, from the mid-1980s to mid-2000s co-occurred alongside the rise of the sustainable development paradigm, and is marked by the Canadian government’s attempt at leadership on the global stage. The third era, from the mid-2000s to 2015, demonstrates a shift from environmental regime-building and multilateral collaboration toward rollbacks and obstructionism. Under the leadership of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the government of Canada reversed decades of progress and cooperation on the environment and sustainable development through its muzzling of government scientists, superficial co-optation of climate policy, rollbacks of environmental legislation and disparagement of environmental activists. In total, by shifting the federal government from a position of ineffective benevolence on environmental issues to one of contention and antagonism, the Harper government’s approach represents a departure from Canadian environmental governance norms and sought to remake the identity of Canada as an energy superpower inextricably tied to its oil and gas industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents abstracts on city planning-related topics, including visions of waterfront development in postindustrial Philadelphia, the construction of a town planning perception of Colombo, and city planning and the U.S. census.

The article presents abstracts on planning-related topics which include an examination of the popularity of dancing in New Zealand during the 1920s and 1930s, an examination of how religious diversity in community affects church membership in a period of high growth and social change and an examination of child labor in urban industries in the Dutch Republic.

This section presents abstracts of papers on city planning published from 2007 to 2008, including "Streets, Sounds and Identity in Inter-war Harlem," by Clare Corbould, "(Re)making the Other, Heterosexualising Everyday Space," by Kath Browne, and "Rankings and Reactivity: How Public Measures Recreate Social Worlds," by Wendy Nelson Espeland and Michael Sauder.

The challenge of creating a global low-carbon society is examined from the perspectives of a slow-growing but highly developed economy (Canada) and a fast-growing developing economy (China). Both countries' responses are compared to a similar carbon price schedule (US$10/tCO2e in 2013 rising exponentially to $100 by 2050) using a hybrid technologically explicit and behaviourally realistic model with macroeconomic feedbacks (CIMS). Then additional measures are imposed based on the national circumstances of each country; for Canada we simulate a 50% reduction by 2050, and stabilization for China. The scale of the challenge in all cases requires that every available option be vigorously pursued, including energy efficiency, fuel switching, carbon capture and storage, and accelerated development of renewables; to compensate, there are significant co-reductions of local air pollutants such as SOx and NOx. Finally, the abatement cost schedules of China and Canada are compared, and implications considered for carbon permit flows if the cost schedule of the rest of the developed world is assumed to be similar to that of Canada. We found that the developed world and China could collectively reduce emissions by 50% in 2050 at a price of $175/ tCO2e, with permits flowing from the developed countries to China; while abatement costs are lower in China up to $75/t, at higher prices reductions are less costly in the developed world. Our results indicate that a global low-carbon society is feasible, on condition that policy makers are willing and able to impose long-term, credible policy packages with carbon pricing policy as the core element, coupled with supplementary regulations to address market failures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents abstracts of planning. They include "The Fall and Rise of the Local Community: A Comparative and Historical Perspective," by Hellmut Wollman, "The Compact Versus the Dispersed City: History of Planning Ideas on Sofia's Urban Form," by Sonia Hirt, and "A Paradigm for Practice," by Ronald D. Brunner.

The article presents abstracts related to planning. They include "Crowds and Leisure: Thinking Comparatively Across the 20th Century," "Time-Series Analysis of Clusters in City Size Distributions" and "The Transnational Contexts of Early Twentieth-Century American Urban Segregation."

Presents several abstracts featured in various journals as of August 2006. "Creating the Public Domain: Nineteenth-Century Local State Formation in Britain and the U.S.," by Alan Digaetano; "The Significance of Color Declines: A Re-Analysis of Skin Tone Differentials in Post-Civil Rights America," by Aaron Gullickson; "Deconstructing the City of Culture: The Long-Term Cultural Legacies of Glasgow 1990," by Beatriz García.

Presents abstracts of environmental planning research. They include "Integrating a performance-based approach into practice: A case study," "Local commitment to state-mandated planning in coastal North Carolina" and "Fiscal consequences of concentrated poverty in a metropolitan region."

Presents several abstracts of studies concerning land use planning. "North American Urban History: The Everyday Politics and Spatial Logics of Metropolitan Life," by Mary Corbin Sies; "The Myth of Liberty Place: Race and Public Memory in New Orleans," by Jacob A. Wagner; "Planned Industrial Districts in Chicago: Firms, Networks, and Boundaries," by Robert Lewis.

India and Canada share a common heritage in natural resources management. Both have a colonial background, settlers and indigenous peoples; there is a history of management agencies with utilitarian attitudes, and a history of treating public lands as commodities for commerce rather than as resources for local livelihoods. This historical context guided the overall goal of this study, which was policy development for the sustainable use of mountain environments. Interviews, workshops and seminars were held with local people and resource management professionals in a comparative case study in two regions; the Kullu area in Himachal Pradesh, India and the Arrow Lakes area in BritishColumbia, Canada. The paper is organized around two main objectives of the work relating to the successes and failures of mountain environment resource management policies and the development of criteria for assessing and monitoring sustainability in mountain environments, in particular, criteria for examining relevant cross-cultural dimensions of sustainable development in these environments. By way of conclusion the paper considers further ways in which traditional resource policy development and implementation is being challenged by changing values and priorities; ecosystems management with people; and co-management and public participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]