The world needs renewed B.C. climate leadership
VANCOUVER—Twelve years—that’s how little time we have to take serious action to protect our climate. If we fail to act now, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicts catastrophic consequences, such as increasingly extreme weather, lower crop yields, declining fisheries, and higher rates of poverty. The findings of last month’s IPCC special report are […]
‘Climate change ultimate existential threat,’ PM Trudeau should appoint a war cabinet to tackle issue, says Green Party Leader May
Climate change is “an ultimate existential threat,” and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau should set up a “war cabinet” by choosing MPs from all parties so that Canada could do its part to address the most important public policy issue in the country, says Green Party Leader Elizabeth May. Ms. May (Saanich-Gulf Islands, B.C.) told The […]
The incredible shrinking country
OTTAWA—Think back through the years and see if you can remember a more petty, vengeful act by a political leader than Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s decision to raise the number of seats needed for a party to reach official status at Queen’s Park. The Progressive Conservatives are hiking the required seat total in the Ontario legislature required […]
With the world facing repeated hurricanes, droughts, floods, global warming already happened
With the U.S. disaster-relief agencies on high alert after being battered by repeated hurricanes, floods, droughts, and forest fires, it is clear that global warming has irreversibly occurred. This year, I experienced this in two far-flung continents. In May, I was visiting Perth, Australia. It was supposed to be autumn, and yet, an unrelenting heat […]
Feds have a long way to go to make progress on plastics pollution
The federal government has promised to release a draft of its long-awaited national plan for cutting plastic pollution at this Friday’s Council of Canadian Ministers of the Environment (CCME) meeting. Unfortunately, the CCME has a history of voluntary agreements with little bark and no bite. But on plastics, we need something more. In Canada, just […]
Winning the battle against climate change
Last Sunday, on Remembrance Day, we took the time to honour the memory of those who died so that we may be free. In our hearts, we thanked all Canadians who sacrificed so much, in countless ways, during the two world wars and other conflicts. With the publication of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change […]
Carbon pricing must be credible, says Sudbury reader
Re: “Grits should ‘stick to their guns’ on climate plan or risk losing message to Tories: politicos, experts,” (The Hill Times, Oct. 31, p. 1). With regard to the Liberal carbon pricing plan, credibility is what’s on the line. If Canadians are going to support a fee, tax, or price on carbon, and vote for […]
We need a new kind of weather forecast
The tornadoes that recently hit the Ottawa area cannot be blamed specifically on global climate change. But they are consistent with the long-predicted pattern of increasingly frequent and severe extreme weather events, highlighted in the most recent report of the International Panel on Climate Change. Unfortunately, too many Canadians still do not believe that human […]
Why feds should consider a carbon tariff
Ottawa recently unveiled climate rebates for residents of provinces subject to the federal carbon tax. The government should fund larger rebates and better protect industrial jobs by extending the federal levy to the carbon content of imports from countries that don’t price emissions. As long as emissions are free in the U.S. and many other […]
Canada’s soils are in crisis
Healthy soil is the heart of our food system and, by every conceivable measure, we are making our soil sick. In Ontario, soil organic matter—a key determinant of soil health—is now decreasing on 82 per cent of farmland. Since 1948, the soil organic matter in Essex County, in the province’s far south, has declined by […]
