By Sharon J. Riley, for The Narwhal The fate of a massive new oilsands project is being seen as the litmus test for the future of the oilsands themselves.   There’s a huge oilsands project that’s getting a lot of attention these days — and it’s not the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion. A massive new oilsands mine project...

Many years ago, I helped the parents of a seriously disturbed young person by obtaining a court order for his involuntary committal. He had been delusional, and doing things that could easily have resulted in his own death.  The parents had made one attempt on their own, but had failed to convince a court of the need to protect...

By Raynold Wonder Alorse, for The Conversation Modern society has given significant attention to the promises of the digital economy over the past decade. But it has given little attention to its negative environmental footprint. Our smartphones rely on rare earth metals, and cloud computing, data centres, artificial intelligence...

A Kootenay man, environmental consultant Michael Keefer who lives in Rossland and Cranbrook, was invited to go to Uzbekistan for a conference on solutions to the Aralkum Desert problem.  While there, he toured the area and took many hundreds of pictures.  When I sat down with Keefer, who told me fascinating tales ...

By Sarah Cox, for The Narwhal Behind the sheen of its CleanBC program, the province holds back hydro power to instead import cheap electricity from 12 states including Wyoming, Utah, Nebraska and Montana which generate 55 to 90 per cent of their power from coal British Columbians naturally assume they’re using clean power...

Scott Fraser, Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation; Regional Chief Terry Teegee, BC Assembly of First Nations; Cheryl Casimer, First Nations Summit; Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, Union of BC Indian Chiefs; and Adam Olsen, MLA for Saanich North and the Islands and member of Tsartlip First Nation, have issued the...

On November 12, Veneto, Italy’s regional council was debating climate policy in its Venice offices. Minutes after a majority voted against budget amendments to address climate disruption, the chambers were inundated with water. Venice is known for flooding, but it’s getting worse, and the timing in this instance felt like a...

LOCALSTUDENTS WILL SKIP LESSONS TO TEACH GOVERNMENT ONE -- ON CLIMATE CHANGE Rosslanders and Trailites of all ages are encouraged to join a group of environmentally conscious youngsters who are joining fellow students around the world to demand government action on climate change.  The ‘Fridays for Future’ Trail team have...

Oceans hold a lot of mystery, even for people who study them. But it’s no mystery why they’re in trouble. We’ve been using them to hide our waste — dumping oil, plastic, toxic chemicals, radioactive sludge, sewage and fishing gear into them for decades. Oceans also absorb much of the atmospheric heat from our indiscriminate...

Mayor Kathy Moore has an invitation for Rosslanders who are interested in our region’s goal of 100% renewable energy.  She invites everyone to attend a public workshop in the Lily May Room at the Miners Hall, and contribute thoughts and ideas and responses to other ideas . . .  and have some pizza.  Read on, and then mark...