T he Coast sat down with local climate scientist Jeffrey Taylor to talk the basics of climate change. His key points about what climate change is—and isn’t—all centre around the idea that “for the most part, we’ve all accepted that we as humans have impacted the planet, it’s caused the climate to change,” he says. […]
Climate
Posted inNews + Opinion
A Nova Scotia teen is suing the federal government in the name of the environment
Last month, 15 kids and teenagers filed a lawsuit against the federal government for putting their lives at risk through dangerous climate change. One of them was 15-year- old Ira Reinhart-Smith from Caledonia—almost two hours outside of Halifax, on the way to Kejimkujik National Park. “This is the biggest threat that humanity has ever faced,” says […]
Posted inFood + Drink
The winds of change
After surviving last year’s late spring frost and record-breaking warm summer, Nova Scotian growers recently faced off with Hurricane Dorian’s 120-kilometre-an-hour winds. “It’s been a double whammy,” says Victor Oulton of the extreme weather events in the past two years. Oulton is the president of the Nova Scotia Federation of Agriculture, which recently sent out […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Connecting the dots between the climate and biodiversity crises
The polar bear has become the poster child for climate change impacts in the Arctic. Sea ice, which the bears depend on for hunting, is melting at an ever-expanding rate. For other species, climate impacts are not as direct. The 2019 State of Canada’s Birds report found aerial insectivores populations of birds like swifts, swallows and nightjars […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Why Nova Scotia is the perfect place to fight for climate justice
Nova Scotia is a perfect battleground for the fight for climate justice. This place is not characterized by ease or sensationalism. The ways that our gentle hills rise from our 7,400 kilometres of coastline became spectacular to me only after years of reflection. The wealth of plant life that inundates everything only became remarkable when […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
SCIENCE MATTERS: Better vehicle standards drive innovation and benefit citizens
Transportation accounts for about a quarter of Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions, making it the second-highest source, slightly behind the oil and gas industry. In the U.S., it’s the largest source of emissions and pollution. Despite continued improvements in personal vehicle fuel standards since 1975, Canada’s transportation emissions grew by 42 percent from 1990 to 2015, […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
SCIENCE MATTERS: Extinction crisis signals that it’s time to change course
[Image-1] Clean air, water and soil to grow food are necessities of life. So are diverse plant and animal populations. But as the human population continues to increase, animal numbers are falling. There’s a strong correlation. A comprehensive report from the World Wildlife Federation and the Zoological Society of London found that wild animal populations […]