Vitally important to respect Indigenous rights and leadership in all aspects of climate action, says Edmonton letter writer
In 2021, extreme weather fuelled by the climate crisis made headlines around the world—heat domes, forest fires, floods, droughts. Climatologists expect more records to be broken and more destructive impacts from climate disruption in 2022. Over the holidays, millions of people watched Don’t Look Up, a feature film that communicates the dangers of ignoring dire scientific warnings. People are ready and calling for ambitious climate action. […]
Now is the time to focus our energies sharply on solutions to climate change: John Welsman
I’m a film and TV composer, writing as a concerned Canadian to remind us all, especially our federal and provincial legislative representatives in government, along with the corporate and private sectors, that now is the time to focus our energies sharply on solutions to climate change. It’s a new year, with fresh energy, and every […]
Don’t look up and how Canada needs to get to effective climate mitigation
GIBSONS, B.C.—Futurist and complexity expert Thomas Homer-Dixon has an intriguing new PowerPoint presentation ‘Getting to Enough: How We’ll Solve the Dilemma that’s Destroying Our World’ at the Cascadia Institute website. In his introduction Homer-Dixon advises that anyone concerned with building humanity threatening problems is confronted by the ‘enough versus feasibility dilemma’: “On one hand, changes that […]
Seeing hope and opportunity in 2022, naturally
Across Canada, people have been ramping up their efforts to protect our planet. In 2021, Indigenous communities, donors, land owners and all levels of government came together with the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) to protect more than 200 square kilometres of wetlands, beaches, forests and prairie. These big, bold projects are vital to tackling […]
Toward a cleaner, greener future
OTTAWA—Since COP1—the first United Nations Climate Change Conference in Berlin back in 1995—the dialogue around our impact on the planet has gradually moved in the right direction, but action hasn’t followed suit. Carbon dioxide emissions released by global fossil fuel combustion and industrial processes have jumped from about 25 billion metric tonnes annually in 1995 […]
‘There’s no more time’: green light needed for swift movement on blue economy, says Sen. Galvez
While some experts say the government is doing a good job harnessing the economic potential of the so-called blue economy, there’s also room to grow in an important file that impacts diverse and marginalized communities. The “blue economy” is an “economy driven by sustainable, ocean resources, and accounts,” according to the federal government, and refers the […]
Animal agriculture impacts absent from Canada’s COP26 commitments
Extreme weather events like the floods currently devastating B.C. demonstrate that climate change is no longer a future foreboding; it is here and now. This is why, last month in Glasgow for COP26, all eyes were on world leaders to make strong commitments to tackle the climate crisis. Many agree that Canada partly delivered. Our […]
The ocean is missing
Declaring the ocean missing may sound strangely vainglorious, but its truth highlights one of the most critical blind spots facing the world today: missing ocean information undermines global climate projections, which could result in failure to meet the 1.5 degrees Celsius global-warming target limit. I attended COP26 in Glasgow to highlight the critical gap in ocean observing that puts us […]
Canada stuck in denial until MPs understand climate emergency requires deep systemic change
GIBSONS, B.C.—There is an important new climate science paper—Three Decades of Climate Mitigation: Why haven’t we bent the emissions curve?—that is very informative and especially pertinent to Hill Times readers. Why have we failed to properly mitigate climate change? In the paper, different teams of authors seeking the answer find consilience in how powerful actors […]
Environmental groups welcome mandate letters’ ‘whole-of-government’ approach to climate change, ‘huge list of priorities’ for Guilbeault
Environmental advocacy groups are pleased to see a “whole-of-government” approach to addressing climate change laid out in newly-released ministerial mandate letters that set the agenda for cabinet members and their departments. Multiple ministers across multiple departments have now been publicly tasked by the Prime Minister’s Office to work together to address an increasingly urgent climate […]
