Column: Land use, agriculture crucial
Land and agriculture are critical components in the climate crisis. According to a new Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, land use — including agriculture and forestry — accounts for 23 per cent of human greenhouse gas emissions, while “natural land processes absorb carbon dioxide equivalent to almost a third...
Column -- From the Hill: Wealth inequality and tax loopholes
This morning I read that the CEO of Air Canada had just cashed in his stock options for $52.7 million—and this is on top of his regular salary of $10.5 million and a guaranteed company pension of $750,000 per year. Now, that pay rate is ridiculous enough, but do you know that he will only pay half the regular income tax on...
Opinion: Green party Candidate Tara Howse on Climate Change and Energy
With the recent evacuation alert issued for those near the Eagle Bluff wildfire, Green Party candidate Tara Howse expresses her concerns and well-wishes to those families affected and considers the role of the federal government to address the roots of these events: climate change and energy production. “By 2030, it is estimated...
Column: 'We no longer have time to piss around.'
No amount of evidence is ever enough to convince climate science deniers — including the politicians among them. But new studies and observations should at least persuade those who profess to understand global heating but appear not to grasp its severity that it’s time to start deploying the many available solutions. We’ve ...
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 ...