Feds ‘slow’ to act on green procurement, says environment watchdog

Departments ‘did not use their public infrastructure procurement and financing capacity effectively to prioritize the use of construction materials with a lower carbon footprint,’ reads the audit report.
Ocean temperature: the mother of all climate feedbacks?

There are about a dozen potential environmental tipping points that we do know about, but there may be a few still to be discovered.
Oil and gas emissions on the rise again: a federal emissions cap is our best chance to rein them in

Canadians are doing their part to reduce their own greenhouse gas emissions; it’s time for the oil and gas sector to do the same.
Meanwhile, climate change is accelerating

Maybe we should quickly rethink our mitigation plans, and shift to how to actually rapidly reduce emissions—not just pretend.
A unified front for climate equity

Federal elected officials and staff can inspire action at all levels of governance through a commitment to equity and justice in every aspect of climate policy.
It is never too late to make brave and bold decisions that preserve a survivable climate

Without making the 2030 goal deeper and urgent, net-zero emissions by 2050 is dangerous.
An enthralling exploration of the Petrocene Age

In Fire Weather, John Vaillant combines history, science, and Promethean fable to place the 2016 Fort McMurray wildfires as a harbinger of a new fire century.
Nuclear energy never will be ‘clean,’ write Jones and Edwards

The 2024 federal budget contains many references to nuclear energy as a “clean” source of electricity. In our view, referring to nuclear electricity as “clean” is the height of absurdity. The nuclear fuel chain begins with the mining of uranium from rock underground where, without human intervention, it would remain safely locked away from the biosphere. Uranium […]
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.