[Image-1] Life evolved to live within limits. It’s a delicate balance. Humans need oxygen, but too much can kill us. Plants need nitrogen, but excess nitrogen harms them, and pollutes rivers, lakes and oceans. Ecosystems are complex. Our health and survival depend on intricate interactions that ensure we get the right amounts of clean air, […]
Science Matters
Posted inNews + Opinion
SCIENCE MATTERS: Wild Pacific salmon face an upstream battle for survival
[Image-1] Salmon have been swimming in Pacific Northwest waters for at least seven million years, as indicated by fossils of large saber-tooth salmon found in the area. During that time, they’ve been a key species in intricate, interconnected coastal ecosystems, bringing nitrogen and other nutrients from the ocean and up streams and rivers to spawning […]
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SCIENCE MATTERS: The simple-minded nature of human super predators
[Image-1] Humans are the world’s top predator. The way we fulfil this role is often mired in controversy, from factory farming to trophy hunting to predator control. The latter is the process governments use to kill carnivores like wolves, coyotes and cougars to stop them from hunting threatened species like caribou—even though human activity is […]
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SCIENCE MATTERS: In diversity, there is strength
[Image-1] It’s been shocking to watch news of the Brexit vote in Britain, Donald Trump’s promise to build a wall between Mexico and the U.S. and the ongoing threats and violence against ethnic minorities in many parts of the world. I’m not a political or social scientist, but my training as a biologist gives me […]
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SCIENCE MATTERS: How much food can cities produce?
[Image-1] Humans are fast becoming city dwellers. According to the United Nations, “The urban population of the world has grown rapidly from 746 million in 1950 to 3.9 billion in 2014.” Sixty-six percent of us will likely live in urban environments by 2050. The number of mega-cities (more than 10 million inhabitants) is also skyrocketing, […]
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SCIENCE MATTERS: Clyde River Inuit fight to protect territory and livelihoods from big oil
The Arctic’s Baffin Bay and Davis Strait region is home to seals, bowhead whales, polar bears and up to 90 percent of the world’s narwhals. The area’s marine waters also provide habitat for 116 species of fish, such as Arctic char, an important dietary staple for Nunavut’s Inuit communities. Although the area is crucial to […]
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SCIENCE MATTERS: Half measures aren’t enough to save caribou
[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 […]
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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? […]
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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 […]
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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, […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
