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 […]
McKenna to fight climate change ‘outside’ of federal politics, says she’s done what she ‘came to do’ after two terms heading environment, infrastructure
Infrastructure Minister Catherine McKenna says she’s ready to work for change outside of federal politics and after six years in office she’s done what she “came to do.” In a surprise June 28 announcement, the two-term Liberal MP said she would not be running in the next election to represent Ottawa Centre, Ont., telling a […]
Provinces to blame for Canada’s broken international conservation promise
This week, ministers from the federal, provincial, and territorial governments responsible for protecting nature will meet to address the nation’s urgent need for a new conservation plan. Canada has promised to protect one-quarter of its land and ocean within four years, and at least 30 per cent by the end of the decade. To get […]
The petrochemical industry’s ploy to stop the regulation of harmful plastics
The federal government has taken the important step of listing plastic manufactured items as toxic under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA), a move strongly supported by Canadians and environmental groups. However, it didn’t take long for ‘Big Plastic’ to react, last month launching an outrageous lawsuit against the government’s move to regulate the tsunami […]
NDP MP McPherson out-classes Alberta Conservatives every day in Commons
EDMONTON—You might think that Alberta’s 33 Conservative MPs would overwhelm the NDP’s Heather McPherson, the only non-Conservative Alberta MP, but it’s quite the other way around. McPherson not only out-classes the Conservatives every day in the Commons, but has become a chief nemesis of Alberta Premier Jason Kenney and also has a federal minister dancing […]
Ottawa’s fixation with trees and climate: what exactly are we planting?
By two significant measures, last year’s effort to plant 300 million tree seedlings in Canada’s most forest-rich province was a remarkable achievement. Not only was it a record for a single year in British Columbia, but it was achieved in the early throes of the first lockdown associated with the then relatively new COVID-19 pandemic. […]
Some inconvenient truths in the race to a renewable energy transition
Last month, the traditionally conservative International Energy Agency dropped a bombshell on the international fossil fuel community by calling for a “net-zero” energy system by the year 2050. The report is but the latest in a series of court decisions, shareholder movements, and investment trends that point to a serious shift away from fossil fuels. […]
Virtue-signalling is not a viable path to net-zero
To the casual observer—and perhaps, to many Canadian voters—this government seems to be saying all the right things about making headway in the fight against climate change. It has made sweeping feel-good promises to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, though its record of accomplishing any real domestic reductions is far less reassuring. Meanwhile, it seems […]
For climate justice, put the law in the service of human dignity
The 2021 G7 Summit opens on June 11, less than a week after World Environment Day (June 5). On May 21, G7 climate and environment ministers acknowledged, “with grave concern that the unprecedented and interdependent crises of climate change and biodiversity loss pose an existential threat to nature, people, prosperity and security.” On May 28, […]
G7 summit a chance to rally together against a common enemy
Nothing could provide more compelling or tragic proof of the necessity of global co-operation than the pandemic, which has swept the world and claimed more than 3.7 million lives. For the first time since the onset of this catastrophe, leaders of the G7 will meet in person on June 11 for a summit that I […]
