Today I think I finally connected the dots. Up till now, I hadn’t fully grasped just how many day-to-day reorderings are directly related to global warming. Not just the extreme weather events that become headlines but, perhaps even more importantly, so many smaller, local changes are directly related to the climate crisis. Scientists now report…
Category: climate change
Connecting the dots on the Fort McMurray catastrophe
My sincere condolences go to the tens of thousands of people so profoundly affected by the fires in and around Fort McMurray, Alberta. I do not ever recall such a large population evacuated due to fire in Alberta, BC, or anywhere in Canada for that matter. Fort McMurray’s population of 80,000+ is no small hamlet…
Growing quality, not quantity
With the Globe 2016 conference happening in Vancouver, politicians and leaders from some of the world’s biggest businesses are coming together to try and address “sustainable business” — in other words, how to continue to grow their businesses and the economy while doing so in an environmentally sustainable way. The implied goal — indefinite, continued…
Renewal and hope: the best wishes of the season
As the days get shorter and we move toward winter solstice and the shortest day of the year, I always look forward with great excitement to the day we turn the corner. At long last, we are now at the point when we can officially celebrate that the days are once again getting longer! For…
Paris climate talks: where the story disconnects
I’ve listened with interest to the two very different narratives coming out of the Paris climate talks. The dominant narrative is that at long last, significant achievements have been made in hammering out an agreement that will see world temperatures kept, at worst, to 2°C and possibly as little as 1.5°C above pre-industrial temperatures. The…
Press release: COPE calls for real public input into a new transportation plan
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 28, 2015 COPE CALLS FOR REAL PUBLIC INPUT INTO A NEW TRANSPORTATION PLAN ——————————— Plebiscite process a mockery of democracy Now that the people of Metro Vancouver have rejected the transportation plebiscite, the Coalition of Progressive Electors (COPE) calls on the Mayors’ Council to go back to the people and…
Liberal premiers of two different stripes
Christy Clark and Kathleen Wynne. Two Liberal premiers. Two very different approaches to global warming. In British Columbia, forest fire season is upon us a month ahead of schedule and worse than ever recorded. Thirty new wildfires are expected every day for the foreseeable future. Air quality in greater Vancouver has been the worst it’s…