While rivers grow and flow over their banks and spread through communities in southern BC, flooding streets and homes and businesses, people in those communities may have trouble imagining a risk of wildfire, even if they had time and energy to do more than deal as best they can with damage from the floodwaters and the trauma...

“Peace will rule the planets, and Love will steer the Sun”                                              -- “Age of Aquarius,” from Hair, the musical “I came upon a child of God, he was walking along the road. And I asked him, where are you going? This he told me: … I’m going to camp out on the land -- and try and set my soul...

The flood situation in the south Okanagan and Boundary regions has dominated the news for the past month and the news seems to get more serious by the day. Thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes and many have lost everything—houses, vehicles, land. Last Friday and Saturday I drove from Penticton to Trail and...

By Daniel DeNicola; from Aeon Do we have the right to believe whatever we want to believe? This supposed right is often claimed as the last resort of the wilfully ignorant, the person who is cornered by evidence and mounting opinion: ‘I believe climate change is a hoax whatever anyone else says, and I have a right to believe...

Canada has taken a major step in cleaning up its oil and gas sector. We’re the first country to commit to methane emission regulations for the industry, marking an important shift toward climate protection. The new regulations help uphold a major plank in the Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change, under ...

Julie Gelfand, the federal Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development, released a report entitled Perspectives on Climate Change Action in Canada at the end of March. Canada has a pretty dismal track record when it comes to meeting its climate action commitments.  We’ve already missed two targets—Rio in 2000...

How much time do citizens need to be informed enough to vote on an issue? Discussions about electoral reform and different forms of proportional representation compared with our long-standing system called “first-past-the-post” have been going on in BC for years. During that time, we've heard many opinions, but few as...

Transportation accounts for about a quarter of Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions, making it the second-highest source, slightly behind the oil and gas industry. In the U.S., it’s the largest source of emissions and pollution. Despite continued improvements in personal vehicle fuel standards since 1975, Canada’s transportation...

The Trans Mountain Expansion pipeline has dominated news in the past few weeks.  The public is divided over whether we should build this pipeline and allow Alberta oil sands output to increase, or whether it presents too much risk to BC’s rivers and coastal environments. Many experts described the original project approval ...

The big money party is over and what a party it was. Given its well-deserved reputation in B.C. it's fitting that it went out with a bang in 2017. First, though, a walk down memory lane for an appreciation of its shock and awe legacy on B.C. politics. Between 2005 and 2017, B.C.'s political parties reported $206.9 million in...