Our health, well-being, food security, energy and economic progress depend on healthy, diverse nature. Clean water and air are essential to human life and health. Nutrient-rich soils are necessary to grow food. Diversity makes the ecosystems on which human life depends resilient. But, as more than 550 experts from over 100 countries recently warned, “Biodiversity—the […]
David Suzuki
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SCIENCE MATTERS: Audit exposes Canadian climate failures
Scientists, academics, environmentalists and communicators have urged governments to take the climate crisis seriously for decades. We’ve outlined the overwhelming evidence, generated discussion and offered myriad solutions. We’ve confronted politicians who refuse to accept that a problem exists, or that we can do anything about it if it does. That’s frustrating and disheartening, especially for […]
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SCIENCE MATTERS: We’re drowning in seas of plastic
The fossil fuel era must end, or it will spell humanity’s end. The threat isn’t just from pollution and accelerating climate change. Rapid, wasteful exploitation of these valuable resources has also led to a world choked in plastic. Almost all plastics are made from fossil fuels, often by the same companies that produce oil and […]
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SCIENCE MATTERS Lessons from Cape Town’s water crisis
Many of us in Canada take water for granted, despite drinking water problems in First Nations communities—the subject of a recent column. World Water Day (March 22) reminds us that as the human population continues to grow, putting greater demand on all resources, and as climate change exacerbates drought in many places, we can’t be […]
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SCIENCE MATTERS: Renewable communities produce energy, jobs and hope
Anishinaabe economist and writer Winona LaDuke identifies two types of economies, grounded in different ways of seeing. Speaking in Vancouver recently, she characterized one as an “extreme extractive economy” fed by exploitation of people and nature. The second is a “regenerative economy” based on an understanding of the land and our relationship to it. We […]
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SCIENCE MATTERS: Climate science deniers’ credibility tested
We base our arguments about environmental issues on sound research and evidence. Sometimes people challenge us—which is often positive, as informed debate leads to greater knowledge. But many challenges come from people with suspect motives. In comments, letters and opinion articles, people spread nonsense from the likes of Ezra Levant, Tim Ball, Tom Harris and […]
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SCIENCE MATTERS: We can’t close our eyes to climate change
Contrary to a common perception, ignoring climate change won’t make it disappear. Global research going back to 1824 in fields ranging through physics, oceanography, biology and geology have confirmed human activity—mainly burning fossil fuels, raising livestock and destroying carbon sinks like forests and wetlands—is increasing greenhouse gas emissions and causing global temperatures to rise rapidly, […]
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SCIENCE MATTERS: More action needed to ensure safe water for First Nations
All nine community water systems on Lytton First Nation land in B.C. have been under boil water advisories at one time or another. Now the First Nation is taking an innovative approach to resolving its drinking water problems. It’s working with public and private organizations and universities in a “circle of trust” to identify challenges […]
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SCIENCE MATTERS: Save the planet; eat an insect
People sometimes get bugged by insects, but we need them. They play essential roles in pollination, combatting unwanted agricultural pests, recycling organic matter, feeding fish, birds and bats, and much more. They’re the most numerous and diverse animals on Earth and form the base of many terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Our admiration for these critters […]
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SCIENCE MATTERS: Emergency order aims to protect resident orcas
Canada is losing a lot of its wildlife. The World Wildlife Fund’s 2017 Living Planet Report Canada found half the monitored mammal, bird, reptile, amphibian and fish species declined from 1970 to 2014. Threatened and endangered species continue to disappear despite federal legislation designed to protect them and help their populations recover. What’s going wrong? […]
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SCIENCE MATTERS: On climate, OECD head embraces environmentalism
Angel Gurria sounds like the leader of an environmental or social justice group. In a recent University of Toronto lecture, “Climate Action: Time for Implementation,” he stressed that climate change is a public health issue “disproportionately affecting the most vulnerable as well as those least responsible for anthropogenic warming.” Gurria is secretary-general of the Organisation […]
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SCIENCE MATTERS: Large dams fail on climate change and Indigenous rights
Brazil has flooded large swaths of the Amazon for hydro dams, despite opposition from Indigenous Peoples, environmentalists and others. The country gets 70 percent of its electricity from hydropower. Brazil’s government had plans to expand development, opening half the Amazon basin to hydro. But a surprising announcement could halt that. In an interview with O […]