Canada is the only country on the Pacific Ring of Fire that doesn’t use geothermal energy on a commercial scale. More than 30 years ago, B.C. was instructed to investigate geothermal as a cheaper, more environmentally friendly alternative to building m…
Continue readingAuthor: Emma Gilchrist
Video: This is Geothermal
Canada is the only country on the Pacific Ring of Fire that doesn’t use geothermal energy on a commercial scale. More than 30 years ago, B.C. was instructed to investigate geothermal as a cheaper, more environmentally friendly alternative to building m…
Continue reading‘It’s the Last Place We Have for Our People’: Doig River’s Last Stand Amidst Fracking Boom
In the heart of one of the continent’s biggest fracking booms stands a place the people of the Doig River First Nation have revered for generations.
Elders remember visiting this ancient spruce forest in northeastern B.C. as children on horseback. T…
Province Orders Enbridge to Seek New B.C. Environment Certificate for Northern Gateway
Enbridge will have to secure an environmental assessment certificate from the B.C. government if it wants to proceed with its Northern Gateway oil pipeline according to an order issued by B.C.’s Environmental Assessment Office on Friday.
Early o…
‘It’s No Longer About Saying No’: How B.C.’s First Nations Are Taking Charge With Tribal Parks
As the crow flies, the territory of the Tsilhqot’in Nation lies just 300 kilometres north of Vancouver— but, cut off by the coastal mountains, it feels like a world away.
By car it takes about nine hours to arrive from Vancouver, including an …
Want To Reduce Suicide in Native Communities? Step 1: Stop Destroying Native Land
For the past couple weeks, Canadians have been wringing their hands about the suicide epidemic in the Pimicikamak Cree Nation in Cross Lake, Manitoba.
In the community of 6,000, six people have killed themselves in two months and more than 140 s…
Want To Reduce Suicide in Native Communities? Step 1: Stop Destroying Native Land
For the past couple weeks, Canadians have been wringing their hands about the suicide epidemic in the Pimicikamak Cree Nation in Cross Lake, Manitoba.
In the community of 6,000, six people have killed themselves in two months and more than 140 s…
Site C Dam Permits Quietly Issued During Federal Election
Former prime minister Stephen Harper’s government issued 14 permits for work on the $9 billion Site C dam during the writ period of the last election — a move that was offside according to people familiar with the project and the workings of the fe…
Continue readingSite C Dam Permits Quietly Issued During Federal Election
Former prime minister Stephen Harper’s government issued 14 permits for work on the $9 billion Site C dam during the writ period of the last election — a move that was offside according to people familiar with the project and the workings of the fe…
Continue readingThat Time We Agreed with Ezra Levant
Ezra Levant is at it again. Only this time we aren’t rolling our eyes and quickly closing the Internet browser. No, this time we actually agree with him. Hear us out.
Last week Levant’s right-wing online news and opinion outlet The Rebel com…
That Time We Agreed with Ezra Levant
Ezra Levant is at it again. Only this time we aren’t rolling our eyes and quickly closing the Internet browser. No, this time we actually agree with him. Hear us out.
Last week Levant’s right-wing online news and opinion outlet The Rebel com…
Why Alberta’s Climate Plan Won’t Stop the Battle Over Oil Pipelines
An article published last week in the National Post that claims a “secret” deal was struck between oil companies and environmentalists has ruffled many feathers — from corporate big wigs in Calgary to environmental activists on the West Coast.
A…
DeSmog Canada Named as Finalist for Canadian Online Publishing Award
DeSmog Canada has been named as a finalist for “Best News Coverage” by the Canadian Online Publishing Awards.
The awards recognize the best of the country’s online publishing and are judged by a panel of experts from Canada and the U.S.
The other…
‘It’s a New Day’: Why Environmentalists Need to Change Their Strategy Under Trudeau Government
Nine and a half years. That’s how long Stephen Harper was prime minister of Canada — a long haul for environmentalists, who were all but shut out of Ottawa and often antagonized by the federal government.
Now that Justin Trudeau and the Liberals h…
Canada Now Has a Minister of Environment AND Climate Change
Leaders in Canada’s environmental community are expressing optimism about the appointment of lawyer Catherine McKenna as Minister of Environment and Climate Change at a swearing in ceremony in Ottawa Wednesday morning. “Including climate change in the environment minister’s title signals how high a priority this issue is to our new federal
Continue readingIs the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline Finally Dead?
In August 2014, Liberal leader Justin Trudeau made the trek to the tiny Gitga’at community of Hartley Bay, located along Enbridge’s proposed oil tanker route in northwestern B.C. There, in the village of 200 people accessible only by air and water, he met with community elders and Art Sterritt, executive
Continue readingJob Growth in Canada’s Booming Clean Energy Sector Outpaced Every Other Sector in 2013: Report
A new report from Clean Energy Canada finds that in 2014, the value of clean energy projects approached $11 billion, an increase of 88 per cent from 2013. “Here’s a good news story on the clean energy front—investment is pouring in, and employers are hiring,” said Merran Smith, executive director of
Continue readingJob Growth in Canada’s Booming Clean Energy Sector Outpaced Every Other Sector in 2013: Report
A new report from Clean Energy Canada finds that in 2014, the value of clean energy projects approached $11 billion, an increase of 88 per cent from 2013. “Here’s a good news story on the clean energy front—investment is pouring in, and employers are hiring,” said Merran Smith, executive director of
Continue readingYoung Canadians Aren’t Apathetic, They’re Ignored By Political Parties: New Study
A report released today by Samara Canada — a charity dedicated to reconnecting citizens to politics — calls into question the idea that Canadian youth are apathetic and stresses the importance of contact from political leaders to increase voter turnout. The report, Message Not Delivered, finds that across 18 forms of
Continue readingPrime Minister Harper’s Inaction on Climate Killed the Keystone XL Oilsands Pipeline
With U.S. President Barack Obama expected to deny a permit to the Keystone XL pipeline this fall, Canada’s oil industry is looking for someone to blame. The National Post’s Claudia Cattaneo wrote last week that “many Canadians … would see Obama’s fatal stab as a betrayal by a close friend and
Continue reading