Column: From the Hill -- Oil, Pipelines, Jobs and the Climate Crisis
The conversation around pipelines and oil sands in Canada has been so heated and polarized it’s difficult to sort hype from fact. It’s often hard to have an informed conversation about the issue, let alone an informed debate. On the one side we have people who are deeply concerned about the climate emergency facing us. It...
Opinion: Death by Plastic
Canadians care about the environment. We recycle, compost, take pride in our spectacular natural areas and understand the threat of climate disruption. But we also use more energy and water and produce more garbage per capita than any other nation. In 2017, Canadians produced 1.33 billion tonnes of waste — 36.1 tonnes per...
Column: Time to dream big
Climate protection is not a partisan issue Media and politicians often regard environmentalists as a special interest group with political priorities served by “green” parties. If a Green politician isn’t present or allowed to participate in a public debate, journalists tend to eschew environmental questions, considering them...
Breaching a “carbon threshold” could lead to mass extinction
Carbon dioxide emissions may trigger a reflex in the carbon cycle, with devastating consequences, study finds. By Jennifer Chu | MIT News Office In the brain, when neurons fire off electrical signals to their neighbors, this happens through an “all-or-none” response. The signal only happens once conditions in the cell breach...
Column: Fracking is neither climate solution nor economic blessing
The rush to exploit and sell fossil fuels as quickly as possible before the reality of climate disruption becomes too great to deny or ignore has generated some Orwellian rationalizations. Somehow a bitumen pipeline has become part of Canada’s plan to tackle the climate crisis. Another fossil fuel, fracked gas, is being touted...
Editorial: What CSIS ought to investigate instead
Our federal government, and CSIS, are focusing on the wrong threats Recently, there has been publicity about a perception that Canada’s Intelligence Service – CSIS – has dedicated resources to investigating law-abiding, peaceful advocacy groups – and their members -- working to preserve Canada’s natural environment and its ...
Column: Yes, we can resolve the climate crisis.
There’s no shortage of solutions to the climate crisis. Rapidly developing clean-energy technology, reducing energy consumption and waste, increasing efficiency, reforming agricultural practices and protecting and restoring forests and wetlands all put us on a path to cleaner air, water and soil, healthier biodiversity and ...
BC Government quietly releases response to expert fracking report
Province avoids investigation of human health impacts of fracking, despite independent scientific review warning of unknown risks to air and water By Sarah Cox, for The Narwhal The B.C. government has quietly released its response to an independent scientific panel’s report on hydraulic fracturing as it ushers in a...
Column: Can caribou and industry co-exist?
The economy-versus-environment debate is wrong-headed in elevating a changeable human construct to the same level or above the natural systems on which our health and well-being depend. And in many cases, it would be more accurate to characterize it as “environment versus corporate interests.” Although those interests often...
Column: Getting to Zero
We’re caught in a bad cycle. Global greenhouse gas emissions are still rising, causing more extreme weather events and temperature swings. Hotter than normal weather in some places and colder in others means more people are using heat and air conditioning, which creates more emissions…According to a statistical review by oil...
