Demonstration during the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference, commonly known as the Copenhagen Summit, in Copenhagen, Denmark, December 17, 2009. Photo by Kris Krüg/Flickr. The latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), published in February, painted a stark portrait of worsening global warming and the concomitant
Continue readingAuthor: Nick Gottlieb
Canadian Dimension: A US court just laid out the flaws in Canada’s climate plan
Oilsands reclamation site and Syncrude operations. Photo by Julia Kilpatrick/Pembina Institute/Flickr. In January, a United States federal court invalidated a series of oil and gas leases based on the federal government’s willful ignorance of a simple economic principle: increasing supply of a commodity lowers prices and increases overall consumption. Canada’s
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: How SUVs came to be a massive climate problem
The world’s SUV fleet is growing rapidly and the segment alone account for more emissions growth since 2010 than aviation, shipping, or heavy industry. Image by Artie61/Blendswap. Sport utility vehicles (SUVs), known best for their cultural significance among suburban families and upper middle class urban couples, are responsible for more
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Omelas and the moral catastrophe of climate change
An illustrated map of the city of Omelas, the setting of The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas, a work of short fiction by science fiction writer Ursula K. Le Guin. Illustration by Andrew DeGraff. In 1973, Ursula Le Guin imagined a city called Omelas, filled with vibrant art, culture,
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: What the Wet’suwet’en raid tells us about Canada’s ‘liberal democracy’
RCMP Emergency Response Team members stand watch during a raid on Wet’suwet’en territory in British Columbia, November 19, 2021. Photo courtesy Gidimt’en Checkpoint. Canada, like most of the Western (wealthy) world, is a self-styled “liberal democracy,” broadly considered the gold standard in global development. Liberal democracies are founded on a
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Electoral politics can’t solve climate change
A protester holds a sign at the climate strike in Nürnberg, September 2019. Photo by Markus Spiske/Unsplash. Like many dedicated volunteers last month, I spent hours doorknocking, phonebanking, and speaking with friends and colleagues about one of our federal candidates. But I didn’t volunteer for Avi Lewis’s campaign because I
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