- Recent Canadian Polling Shows How the Pandemic has Changed our Views on Climate Action
There’s a school of thought that, when it comes to fighting climate change, the notions of a greener future and strong economic growth are irreconcilable. These are the people who insist you can’t have your cake and eat it, too. Others insist you can have it all, and that it’s indeed possible – if not paramount – to have both a healthy planet and a healthy economy.
Recent polling shows that the environment still looms as a longer-term issue that demands action. It is the timing and nature of this action that divides Canadians.
- Budget Cut for Tar Sands/Oil Sands Monitoring Raises Health Concerns for Nearby First Nations
Indigenous communities in northern Alberta and the Northwest Territories say they’re losing faith in federal and provincial environmental monitoring in the tar sands/oil sands, after The Canadian Press revealed earlier this week that this year’s field research program will sustain a funding cut of about 25%.
“I am so angry at this because it’s something we’ve been talking about for a long time with different governments and with industry,” said Gerry Cheezie, chief of Smith’s Landing First Nation, on the NWT-Alberta border. “I’m losing faith in the ability of governments to protect our people.”
- Alberta, Ottawa reduce oilsands environmental monitoring budget due to pandemic
Alberta has come to an agreement with the federal government that makes major cuts to environmental monitoring of the oilsands.
The deal, a copy of which has been obtained by The Canadian Press, lays out research plans for this year's field season under a federal-provincial program that oversees all monitoring of the area outside of company leases.
- Coastal flooding could hit 20% of world GDP by 2100 - study
Failure to rein in climate change and bolster sea defences could jeopardize up to a fifth of the world’s economic output by the end of the century, as flooding threatens coastal countries worldwide, according to a study released on Thursday.
From Bangladesh and India to Australia and even Britain, rising sea levels already are leading to more frequent and extreme flood events. With climate change causing polar ice to melt and ocean waters to expand, economists have sought for years to put a figure on the future potential damage.
- New climate predictions assess global temperatures in coming five years
The annual mean global temperature is likely to be at least 1° Celsius above pre-industrial levels (1850-1900) in each of the coming five years (2020-2024) and there is a 20% chance that it will exceed 1.5°C in at least one year, according to new climate predictions issued by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
- Green Recovery Under Threat in Canada
Canada’s pandemic response to date has sent just C$300 million to clean energy, compared to more than $16 billion to fossil fuels, according to new data released this week by Energy Policy Tracker, a joint effort by multiple civil society organizations including the Winnipeg-based International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD).
- We cannot sustain life, or do business, on a dead planet
As people ponder our current situation, and question how we got here, we increasingly get asked the question “is this nature fighting back at us?” It is a good question. There is not, of course, any sentient being called “nature,” but there is a biosphere upon which we depend for our very existence that has been abused to a staggering degree as human “development” has “progressed,” fixated on relentless growth. Maybe COVID-19 is just the latest in a series of metaphorical warning shots that things are running out of control.
- When it comes to climate hypocrisy, Canada's leaders have reached a new low - Bill McKibben
A territory that has 0.5% of the Earth’s population plans to use up nearly a third of the planet’s remaining carbon budget
Our Legacy. Their Future.
