No More “Nice Guy”: Canada’s Democracy & Reputation Tarred
It turns out Canada’s reputation is getting as toxic as the Alberta tar sands tailings ponds: * Some more facts: Canadian federal taxpayers subsidize the oil industry $1.38 billion a…
Economy/Climate
Goodbye Fossil Fuels: Rejecting Scarcity & Embracing Abundance
It’s TED Talk Tuesday on 350orbust, and today’s talk, like last week’s, is from TEDx Sydney. Danny Kennedy,Founder and President of Sungevity. Before starting Sungevity Kennedy spent decades campaigning with…
Harper’s House of Cards Disintegrating Under Weight of Conservative Senators
* We are living in interesting times, as the saying goes. Here in Canada, the house of cards that is the federal Conservative government of Stephen Harper is starting to…
B.C. Votes Against Its Future
I don’t live in Canada’s most westerly province, but I know that British Columbians pride themselves in their slogan, “Beautiful British Columbia”. It is a province of vast wilderness, ancient…
Scientists To Harper Government: It’s Time For Grown Up Conversation on Climate Change
This week twelve climate scientists and energy experts penned a letter to Canada’s Natural Resources (aka “Oil”) Minister, Joe Oliver, to express their concern about his ongoing support for building…
Betting The Farm On Hazardous Pipelines With Poor Track Records
* Ready or not, painful or not, we are in the middle of a huge shift from an oil dependent economy to one that is run on renewables, the Great…
This Earth Day, Let’s Focus On Saving Humans
It’s a snowy and cold Earth Day morning in northwestern Ontario. On this Earth Day, Joe Romm over at Think Progress muses about renaming Earth Day – after all, it’s…
How To Green Deserts & Address Climate Change At The Same Time
Two thirds of the globe is turning into desert, at the same time that our population is heading towards ten billion, and we are disturbing weather patterns by pouring heat-trapping…
Internalizing the Externalities of Fossil Fuels
It’s time to internalize the externalities of the fossil fuel industry. For far too long, the extremely high price we all pay in the pollution of our “commons” – air,…
Let’s Stop Being Fossil Fools, And Just Say No To Bankrolling Climate Change
Via Fossil Free Canada: What do you call an industry that is planning to cook the planet? An industry responsible for destroying land, polluting the air and water, and violating…
Millions of Canadian Taxpayer Dollars Are Spent On Tar Sands PR
Apparently the current federal government can’t afford to spend taxpayer money on climate action or giving affordable healthcare to the poorest and most vulnerable among us, refugees, but it can…
Greedy Lying Bastards: Exposing The Fossil Fools Who Put Profit Before Human Lives
* One of the few-and-far-between perks of being a climate blogger is that occasionally I get access to books and movies before the general public does. This past weekend I…
Canadian First Nations Leader Takes Tar Sands Fight To Europe Ahead Of Key Council Vote
via Friends of the Earth Europe & Bill Erasmus, Dene National Chief A leader of Canada’s Indigenous peoples gave a dramatic eyewitness account of the environmental and social devastation associated…
Ecosystem Collapse: A Clarion Call For A New Way of Being Human
* It’s been three and a half years since I began talking about, blogging about, and working for action on, climate change. It took me a while to call myself…
Take Time To Renew Your Spirit
We act not because it’s easy, but because it’s right. Thousands of people are gathering in Washington DC today to send a message to President Obama that clean air, clean…
Happy Holidays: Oil To The World & All That
The U.S. National Oceanic And Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released its updated Arctic Report card earlier this week. Like many other recent reports about the condition of the north, the canary…
Idle No More: A Drumbeat Is Heard Across The Nation
There are a lot of things I could write about on this crisp winter morning; NOAA’s updated 2012 Arctic Report Card, for example (hint: it ain’t lookin’ good) or the…
Doha Climate Talks End With Canada Leading Race To The Bottom
So, COP18 in Doha has ended with a whimper not a bang – quelle surprise! Seems like greed is still trumping common sense and compassion for our children and those…
Despite Pleas In Doha, Our Governments Have Failed Us & Our Children
The lead negotiator for the Philippines at the Climate Conference in Doha, Naderev Saño, could not keep back the tears as he made a passionate appeal for real action on…
Exxon Hates My Children, And Your’s Too
* If you think this ad should get on television, go to ExxonHatesYourChildren.com and donate some money (I did – and it brightened my day!).