Vaillant’s Fire Weather looks at devastating synergy between our dependence on fossil fuels and its impact on the climate

Below is an excerpt from Fire Weather: The Making of a Beast, by John Vaillant, published by Knopf Canada, one of the five finalists for this year’s Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing.
Canada’s investment in AI should inform a global ‘rights-based’ approach

Canada has a role to play in pushing its influence on the world stage. Right now, we are currently fifth in terms of AI capacity on the Tortoise Global Index, yet is 23rd in actual AI infrastructure.
We need to bring back extensive urban, inter-urban rail and buses: letter writer

Re: “EV battery fires are a global problem that we need to address in Canada,” (The Hill Times, April 15, opinion piece). I agree with the opinion expressed by Josipa Petrunic that some planning for eventual fires needs to be done. The author points out stricter controls on battery design and sourcing. However, I think the […]
Buried in the budget: a potential breakthrough in meeting Canada’s net-zero goals

Budget 2024’s support of carbon removal procurement as a climate solution is a welcome breath of fresh air.
Sustainable development, here and now

Universities across Canada are generating solutions to support green technology development and deployment.
Rallying against the blaze: uniting Canadians to fight climate change

There is an urgent need to address climate change, the root cause of the wildfire crisis, across all jurisdictions.
First they came for the carbon tax, are electric vehicles next?

Canadian politicians at all levels have a choice: continue supporting a still-lucrative but damaging fossil fuel industry, or summon the courage and foresight to boost funding for the clean, proven technologies they claim to favour.
To stop plastic pollution, stop producing it

At the 2023 Global Plastics Treaty negotiation session in Nairobi, the fossil fuel and chemical industry’s lobbyists outnumbering the combined delegates from 70 of the smallest nations. The UN must disclose the number and nature of the industry lobbyists in Ottawa, and establish a conflict-of-interest policy.
The federal carbon-pricing plan’s broken promise to small business

Almost none of the billions of dollars collected in carbon tax revenues have found their way back to SMEs since 2019, leaving them disillusioned and struggling to keep up with the rising cost of doing business.
Environmental groups urge an end to fossil fuel subsidies in two reports outlining Canada’s oil and gas financing

The government gave at least $18.553-billion in financial support in 2023 to fossil fuel and petrochemical firms, including $8-billion worth of loan guarantees for the TransMountain pipeline, $7.339-billion in public financing through Export Development Canada, and over $1.3-billion for carbon capture and storage projects, according to the reports.