An enthralling exploration of the Petrocene Age
In Fire Weather, John Vaillant combines history, science, and Promethean fable to place the 2016 Fort McMurray wildfires as a harbinger of a new fire century.
Nuclear energy never will be ‘clean,’ write Jones and Edwards
The 2024 federal budget contains many references to nuclear energy as a “clean” source of electricity. In our view, referring to nuclear electricity as “clean” is the height of absurdity. The nuclear fuel chain begins with the mining of uranium from rock underground where, without human intervention, it would remain safely locked away from the biosphere. Uranium […]
Vaillant’s Fire Weather looks at devastating synergy between our dependence on fossil fuels and its impact on the climate
Below is an excerpt from Fire Weather: The Making of a Beast, by John Vaillant, published by Knopf Canada, one of the five finalists for this year’s Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing.
Canada’s investment in AI should inform a global ‘rights-based’ approach
Canada has a role to play in pushing its influence on the world stage. Right now, we are currently fifth in terms of AI capacity on the Tortoise Global Index, yet is 23rd in actual AI infrastructure.
Buried in the budget: a potential breakthrough in meeting Canada’s net-zero goals
Budget 2024’s support of carbon removal procurement as a climate solution is a welcome breath of fresh air.
We need to bring back extensive urban, inter-urban rail and buses: letter writer
Re: “EV battery fires are a global problem that we need to address in Canada,” (The Hill Times, April 15, opinion piece). I agree with the opinion expressed by Josipa Petrunic that some planning for eventual fires needs to be done. The author points out stricter controls on battery design and sourcing. However, I think the […]
Sustainable development, here and now
Universities across Canada are generating solutions to support green technology development and deployment.
Rallying against the blaze: uniting Canadians to fight climate change
There is an urgent need to address climate change, the root cause of the wildfire crisis, across all jurisdictions.
First they came for the carbon tax, are electric vehicles next?
Canadian politicians at all levels have a choice: continue supporting a still-lucrative but damaging fossil fuel industry, or summon the courage and foresight to boost funding for the clean, proven technologies they claim to favour.
To stop plastic pollution, stop producing it
At the 2023 Global Plastics Treaty negotiation session in Nairobi, the fossil fuel and chemical industry’s lobbyists outnumbering the combined delegates from 70 of the smallest nations. The UN must disclose the number and nature of the industry lobbyists in Ottawa, and establish a conflict-of-interest policy.
