Column: Government support for electric vehicles drives down emissions
Electric vehicles won’t save us from runaway climate change, but they’re part of the solution, along with support for public transit and active transport like waking and cycling. The transportation sector accounts for almost one-quarter of the world’s carbon emissions, so it’s an area where change is necessary and possible....
Opinion: How Carl Jung inspired Alcoholics Anonymous
By Charles Fox, in Aeon Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is an international mutual-aid fellowship with more than 2 million members worldwide. It strives to help members ‘stay sober and other alcoholics achieve sobriety’. Despite the fact that studies of its efficacy have been inconsistent, AA has had a significant and long-term...
Editorial: Burning Issues
“Everything will burn, baby, burn . . .”– if we don’t take a bit of time and effort to make it as fire-resistant as possible. These words from the 2001 song by Ash can remind us about the increasing risk of wildfire consuming forests, and overwhelming communities full of homes and businesses. Local wildfire expert Don Mortimer...
Column: Will Someone Please Tell me . . .
Will someone please tell me what the hell is going on? Last October, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a special report indicating that global emissions are still rising despite more than three decades of warnings. Now we’re on a path to a 3 to 5 C temperature rise above pre-industrial levels by 2100. The...
Opinion: Bears and us
I’ve been amused, in past years, by signs posted here and there in Rossland that announce “WARNING: BEAR IN AREA.” I’ve suggested that the City should just post warning signs at the entrances to Rossland, announcing, “Rossland is bear country. Please do not freak out if you see a bear. Do not approach the bear. Remain ...
Editorial: Is Survival a Worthy Goal? Is Life Worth Saving?
Environmentalists have come under fire lately from certain quarters. Questioning the motivation of environmentalists raises the question: What are they fighting for? And the short answer is: survival. Not just personal, short-term survival, but the long-term survival of life on earth -- stopping the acceleration of...
Opinion: How do we pry apart the true and compelling from the false and toxic?
By David V. Johnson, from Aeon When false and malicious speech roils the body politic, when racism and violence surge, the right and role of freedom of speech in society comes into crisis. People rightly begin to wonder what are the limits, what should be the rules. It is a complicated issue, and resolving it requires care...
Study: Why mothers of tweens are more depressed than mothers of babies
By Lucia Ciciolla and Suniya Luthar, from Aeon The joys of motherhood quite literally wax and wane over time. If you had to guess, you might think that one of the most trying times for mothers is bringing home a new baby, given the sleep deprivation and the adjustment that comes with taking care of an infant. But some might...
Column: From the Hill -- Invasive Species Action Inadequate
Lost in the recent media frenzy over the SNC Lavalin scandal were the 2019 Spring Reports of the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development. These last reports from Julie Gelfand before her retirement focused on protection of fish and their habitat from mining effluent, subsidies to the fossil fuels industry...
Column: When does plant and animal species loss become a societal crisis?
It’s heartening, in the midst of the human-caused sixth mass extinction, to find good wildlife recovery news. As plant and animal species disappear faster than they have for millions of years, Russia’s Siberian, or Amur, tigers are making a comeback. After falling to a low of just a few dozen in the mid-20th century, the...
