Homeless green voters are an election wild card
CHELSEA, QUE.—While forests burn, glaciers melt, droughts threaten, and no end of climate disruption feeds an undercurrent of concern across the country, green-motivated voters can be forgiven for feeling confused and adrift. Their obvious home, the Green Party, has been imploding. Its senior ranks have been squabbling over Israel and Palestine, while its besieged leader, […]
Our climate emergency should be the main issue in next election
GIBSONS, B.C.—It looks almost certain that there will be a federal election this fall. Climate change—the climate emergency—should be the main issue because we urgently need climate action. The heat dome-demolishing temperature records in Western North America and the wildfires and smoke combined with the ever-increasing weird weather globally have put climate change as the […]
The public health case for a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty
As public and clinical health-care professionals who are deeply concerned about the risks that climate change presents to the livability of the planet, we were encouraged by Toronto City Council’s July 15th decision to endorse the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty. This treaty calls upon countries to phase out fossil fuels—whose consumption serves as the single […]
Climate change conversation reaching an inflection point
LONDON, U.K.—Zeitgeist is a slippery word. At best it’s just a fancy German way of saying “the spirit of the times;” at worst it is only pretentious noise. So maybe we should say “inflection point” instead. I think we are passing through an inflection point. People who have taken climate change seriously for 10, or […]
McKenna set to dive into new, post-politics pool to combat climate change
The day after she announced her intention to not seek re-election, Infrastructure and Communities Minister Catherine McKenna went for a morning swim at Ottawa’s Britannia Beach. Beyond the exercise and the break from the early summer heat, the post-dawn dip reconnected the two-term Member of Parliament to a high-school dream. “I wanted to be an […]
Will Canada take advantage of its wind resources to reach its climate goals?
The Canadian Renewable Energy Association (CanREA) recently reported that more wind energy capacity has been built in Canada over the last five years than any other form of electricity generation. With a current ranking of ninth in the world for total onshore installed wind capacity, Canada appears on track to maintain or improve its position, […]
Canada needs to cap its pipeline of fossil fuel supports
In the midst of unprecedented heat waves, Canada’s climate policy paradox—promising climate action, while instead supporting fossil fuel extraction—was exposed yet again this week. A new report by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), an internationally reputed research institute, reveals new details about how federal and provincial governments continue to bankroll the fossil fuel […]
A case for the ‘wave 7’ hypothesis as wildfires spike and super-hot spells lengthen
LONDON, U.K.—First the ‘heat dome’, with temperatures in the mid-to-high forties Celsius in many parts of western North America for up to a week (49.6° C in Lytton, B.C.). Then, when the forests were tinder-dry, came the wildfires (which wiped Lytton out). From northern California to northern B.C., the records were being broken every day. […]
Time to fix Canada’s broken freshwater management regime
Floods, droughts, fire, water unfit to drink—these are all increasingly common occurrences across Canada as stressed water supplies are subject to the extremes of climate change. The changing of the seasons is increasingly defined by water crises; in a country this vast, these crises manifest very differently depending on where you are. This spring, towns […]
Engineers have a key role to play in Sustainable Development Goal delivery
As young engineering students in 1986, we watched in horror as the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded only a minute after takeoff. The moment felt visceral, a physical shock to the body. Our fellow engineering students were equally speechless and despondent. What had gone wrong? As future engineers, we had already been taught about the burden […]
