Recent controversy over a natural gas pipeline blockade and the differing priorities of hereditary chiefs and elected band councillors illustrates a fundamental problem with our systems of governance and economics. Elected councils for the Wet’suwet’en and other Indigenous bands have signed lucrative “impact benefit agreements” with TransCanada (now called TC Energy), builder of the Coastal […]
David Suzuki
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SCIENCE MATTERS: Political climate is heating up
Global warming isn’t a partisan issue—or it shouldn’t be. The many experts issuing dire warnings about the implications of climate disruption work under political systems ranging from liberal democracies to autocratic dictatorships, for institutions including the U.S. Department of Defense, World Bank, International Monetary Fund and numerous business organizations and universities. In 1988, when NASA […]
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SCIENCE MATTERS: Major health study shows benefits of combatting climate change
During the holiday season, people often drink toasts to health. There’s something more we can do to ensure that we and others will enjoy good health now and into the future: combat climate change. “Climate change is the biggest global health threat of the 21st century, and tackling it could be our greatest health opportunity,” […]
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SCIENCE MATTERS: Politicians who deny reality aren’t fit to lead
When faced with conclusive evidence of a major threat to citizens, a true leader would do everything possible to confront it. So, what was the U.S. president’s reaction to a U.S. scientific report compiled by more than 300 scientists and endorsed by a dozen different agencies, including NASA, NOAA and the defence department, that warned […]
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SCIENCE MATTERS: Decades of denial and stalling have created a climate crunch
In a 1965 speech to members, American Petroleum Institute president Frank Ikard outlined the findings of a report by then-president Lyndon Johnson’s Science Advisory Committee, based in part on research the institute conducted in the 1950s. “The substance of the report is that there is still time to save the world’s peoples from the catastrophic […]
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SCIENCE MATTERS: Ocean study criticism shows benefits of scientific method
Errors in a recent ocean warming study illustrate global warming’s complexity. They also show the depths to which climate science deniers will stoop to dismiss or downplay evidence for human-caused climate change. The study by researchers from the U.S., China, France and Germany concluded, “ocean warming is at the high end of previous estimates” and […]
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SCIENCE MATTERS: Tackling climate change requires healing the divide
Canadian climate change opinion is polarized, and research shows the divide is widening. The greatest predictor of people’s outlook is political affiliation. This means people’s climate change perceptions are being increasingly driven by divisive political agendas rather than science and concern for our collective welfare. Over the past year, the Alberta Narratives Project gathered input […]
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SCIENCE MATTERS: Human behaviour is at the root of orca plight
News about orca mother Tahlequah carrying her dead newborn for 17 days through the Salish Sea this summer was heartbreaking, and rightfully captured the world’s attention. It highlighted the plight of one of Canada’s most endangered marine mammals. The southern resident killer whale (orca) population has dropped by 25 percent in two decades. Just 74 […]
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SCIENCE MATTERS: Economists’ Nobel puts spotlight on climate solutions
As the U.S. administration denies or downplays climate science, some more sensible Americans have been rewarded for developing climate solutions. Economists William Nordhaus and Paul Romer recently won the Nobel Prize in economics for their work on, respectively, “integrating climate change into long-run macroeconomic analysis” and “integrating technological innovations into long-run macroeconomic analysis.” The award […]
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SCIENCE MATTERS: Are governments giving up on global warming?
The U.S. president may think global warming is a hoax perpetrated by China, but his administration has concluded Earth’s average temperature will rise 4 C over pre-industrial levels by 2100 if we fail to address the causes. Overwhelming scientific evidence concludes that such a rise would be catastrophic for humanity and many other animals and […]
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SCIENCE MATTERS: Will the world act on climate change before it’s too late?
When our children and grandchildren and those of us still here in 20 years look back to this time, will we say it was when the world finally got serious about the climate crisis? Or will we mark a tragic time when political and business leaders prioritized short-term economic gain over the future of humanity? […]
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SCIENCE MATTERS: Protecting the complex web of life should be the priority
News that Environment and Climate Change Canada is considering “priority threat management” to assess endangered species is troubling. The method is often used to inform a “triage” approach in which some species are abandoned to focus resources on others ranked higher priority. The federal government is legally required to oversee recovery of all species at […]
