When bumper-to-bumper traffic chokes roads and SUVs fill urban parking lots, we can’t say we’re taking the climate crisis seriously. But it’s more than a question of consumer choice. The issue is systemic. The auto industry spends enormous sums to convince people they need massive SUVs and trucks to haul themselves to work and the […]
Science Matters
Posted inNews + Opinion
Fuelling a climate of uncertainty in a time of war
It’s a tragic truth that some people are willing to inflict unfathomable suffering and death for the sake of power and wealth. From Russia’s aggression in Ukraine to the push for continued climate-altering fossil fuel expansion, selfish gain means more to some than the health and well-being of our children and grandchildren and those yet […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Slivers of hope in the latest IPCC report
The longer we put off seriously addressing climate disruption’s causes, the more we’ll have to adapt to unavoidable consequences. Those who have been bleating that getting off fossil fuels will be too expensive are in for a surprise: adaptation can be far costlier than mitigation, and without the latter, we’ll have to accelerate the former. […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Can carbon capture help the climate crisis?
Global heating is accelerating. Yet we continue to pump out fossil fuel emissions and destroy forests, wetlands, bogs, grasslands and marine kelp forests that remove, convert and store atmospheric carbon. Human well-being and long-term survival depend on quickly shifting course, but our failure to act sooner means we must also remove greenhouse gasses already in […]
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How humanity can start restoring nature here in the Anthropocene
Geologists have classified most epochs in Earth’s history according to fossils, radiometric dating and composition of the strata. The widely endorsed label for our current era, the Anthropocene, describes the extent to which our collective human footprint is changing the planet. It’s a proposed “geological epoch dating from the commencement of significant human impact on […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Wildlife corridors from divide and conquer to connect and restore
Robert Frost began his poem “Mending Wall” with the line, “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall.” He could have been speaking for wildlife. Walls and fences fragment their habitat, limit travel for food and mating, block migration routes and cause death. (As do roads.) A 2011 study found “the fence along the U.S.–Mexico […]
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Where go we go from COP26?
As the world moves on from the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, the signs of our predicament are everywhere. Where I live, torrential rains have flooded towns and valleys, stranding and killing people and animals; wiped out roads, bridges and railways; and cut land access to Vancouver. A state of emergency was declared. Horrific memories […]
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Failure of imagination drives the COP26 deal to cut transportation emissions
Resolving the climate crisis isn’t just about shifting from one technology to another; it’s about shifting our ways of thinking and being. It’s a point that often gets missed in conversations about major greenhouse gas emission sources. That was illustrated at the recent 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26) climate summit, in Glasgow, where governments, […]
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Despite “code red,” governments continue to support fossil fuels
What’s the best way to respond to a “code red” crisis? Recent research is testing us on that. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s “Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis”—the first part of its sixth assessment—confirms we’ll continue accelerating on a terrible trajectory if we don’t rein in greenhouse gas emissions and protect natural […]
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How action to fight the climate crisis at COP26 can be undermined by trade deals
If world representatives at the UN climate conference in Glasgow put talk into action, we could forestall the worst impacts of the rapidly accelerating climate crisis. But we have to look beyond the Conference of the Parties—COP26 this year. If agreements under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change are undermined through other international structures, […]
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The climate is changing rapidly, but the oil industry isn’t
It’s easy to think we’re beyond denial over the climate crisis, now that even oil industry executives are talking about taking it seriously. But, as with many politicians, what industry leaders say publicly often belies what they’re doing behind the scenes. An investigation by Greenpeace project Unearthed has drawn the curtain back on this duplicity. Investigators posing […]
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Indigenous Land Back movement charts better way forward
The Indigenous “Land Back” movement isn’t new, but it’s gaining increasing public attention and support. In this time of facing uncomfortable truths about past and ongoing harms inflicted on Indigenous Peoples and others, it’s important to understand the history of colonial oppression, and the roots and goals of Land Back and what it means. It’s […]
