[Image-1] Alberta is home to two of Canada’s imperilled caribou populations, the southern mountain and boreal woodland herds. Both are threatened with extinction. Under the federal Species at Risk Act, the boreal woodland caribou recovery strategy requires provinces to develop range plans by 2017, outlining paths to recovery. Because caribou need large, intact areas, degraded […]
David Suzuki
Posted inNews + Opinion
SCIENCE MATTERS: Will growing our fuels drive us to a cleaner future?
[Image-1] The shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy is occurring mainly at the power plant level. But what about transportation? Can we significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions by switching to cleaner fuels? Or is this just an attempt to keep 20th century technology chugging along while trading one set of environmental problems for another? […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
SCIENCE MATTERS: Industrial damage threatens Blueberry River’s way of life
[Image-1] Industrial activity has profoundly affected the Blueberry River First Nations in northern B.C. A recent Atlas of Cumulative Landscape Disturbance, by the First Nations, the David Suzuki Foundation and Ecotrust, found 73 percent of the area inside its traditional territory is within 250 metres of an industrial disturbance and 85 percent is within 500 […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
SCIENCE MATTERS: The future of hydro in a warming world
[Image-1] People have harnessed energy from moving water for thousands of years. Greeks used various types of water wheels to grind grain in mills more than 2,000 years ago. In the late 1800s, people figured out how to harness the power to produce electricity. Throughout the 20th century and into the 21st, hydropower has expanded, […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
SCIENCE MATTERS: Dark earth could herald a bright future for agriculture and climate
[Image-1] Feeding more than seven billion people with minimal environmental and climate impacts is no small feat. That parts of the world are plagued by obesity while starvation is rampant elsewhere shows part of the problem revolves around distribution and social equity. But agricultural methods pose some of the biggest challenges. Over the past half […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
SCIENCE MATTERS: Broken records define the climate crisis
[Image-1] We’re living in a time of records. More renewable energy came on stream in 2015 than ever—147 gigawatts, equal to Africa’s entire generating capacity—and investment in the sector broke records worldwide. Costs for producing solar and wind power have hit record lows. Portugal obtained all its electricity from renewable sources for four straight days […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
SCIENCE MATTERS: South Australia sets an example for the country and the world
First-time visitors to Australia are often drawn to the big city attractions of Sydney and Melbourne, or the fabulous beaches of Queensland’s Gold Coast. I’ve always had a soft spot for Adelaide in South Australia, a city built more on a human scale, where downtown can be easily navigated on bike, foot or tram. For […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
SCIENCE MATTERS: Feed-in tariffs help renewable energy grow
[Image-1] In the early 1990s, Germany launched Energiewende, or “energy revolution,” a program “to combat climate change, avoid nuclear risks, improve energy security, and guarantee competitiveness and growth.” Renewable energy grew from four percent in 1990 to more than 27 percent in 2014, including a significant increase in citizen-owned power projects, according to energy think […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
SCIENCE MATTERS: Oceans of reasons to protect what we love
[Image-1] June 8 marks World Oceans Day, but what if we celebrated oceans every day? Covering more than 70 percent of Earth’s surface, oceans, more than anything, define our small blue planet. We should celebrate their complex and vibrant ecosystems, life-sustaining services, calming effects and unimaginable diversity, much of which we have not yet even […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
SCIENCE MATTERS: Grassy Narrows’ fight for clean water is a struggle for environmental justice
[Image-1] Biologist Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring was published in 1962. The book—about widespread agricultural pesticide use and how toxic chemicals like DDT were threatening insects, birds and other wildlife—garnered widespread acclaim and is heralded as a catalyst for the modern environmental movement. That same year, a pulp and paper mill in Dryden, Ontario, began dumping […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
SCIENCE MATTERS: Feeding humanity in a warming world
Calculating farming’s contribution to greenhouse gas emissions is difficult, but experts agree that feeding the world’s people has tremendous climate and environmental impacts. Estimates of global emissions from farms range widely. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency puts them at 24 percent, including deforestation, making agriculture the second-largest emitter after heat and electricity. Agriculture contributes to […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
SCIENCE MATTERS: Eating less meat will reduce Earth’s heat
[Image-1] Will vegans save the world? Reading comments under climate change articles or watching the film Cowspiracy make it seem they’re the only ones who can. Cowspiracy boldly claims veganism is “the only way to sustainably and ethically live on this planet.” But, as with most issues, it’s complicated. It’s true, though, that the environment […]