Canada’s green cities take lead on climate change
Vancouver is Canada’s climate leader (photo: Wendy / flickr) Amid the dire warnings about global warming’s impacts, what’s often overlooked is that actions to reduce or prevent them will lead…
Dr. David Suzuki
David Suzuki: Time to save bees and ban neonic pesticides
Neonic pesticides “pose a serious risk of harm to honey bees and other pollinators,” a new study warns. Bees may be small, but they play a big role in human…
Are pipeline spills good for the economy, as Kinder Morgan says?
Health concerns plague many who worked to clean up the BP oil spill (photo: Wikimedia Commons) Energy giant Kinder Morgan was recently called insensitive for pointing out that “Pipeline spills…
White House climate report is clear: Global warming is here
Because we enjoy relatively pure air, clean water and healthy food systems, Canadians sometimes take the environment for granted. Many scarcely blink if oil from a pipeline spills into a…
Small is the new Big in sustainable urban revolution
Vancouver urban farm mixer (Photo: www.urbanfarmers.ca) “Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men’s blood and probably will not themselves be realized.” That was American architect Daniel…
Salmon farms: Has anything changed after a decade of controversy?
The David Suzuki Foundation and others have run ads over the past decade decrying British Columbia’s open net-cage salmon farm industry. With significant expansion planned for the West Coast, the…
Is it time for a real war on cars?
Gridlock in China forces drivers out of their cars In railing against everything from bike lanes to transit spending, pundits and politicians often raise the spectre of a “war on…
David Suzuki: Earth Month should be a time for action
April is Earth Month, and April 22 Earth Day. We should really celebrate our small blue planet and all it provides every day, but recent events give us particular cause…
David Suzuki: Don’t blow off wind power
I have a cabin on Quadra Island off the British Columbia coast that’s as close to my heart as you can imagine. From my porch you can see clear across…
Disappearing Monarch butterflies need citizen scientists’ help
From the age of five, Fred Urquhart was fascinated by monarch butterflies in his Toronto neighbourhood. Born in 1911, he spent hours watching the orange and black insects flutter about,…
David Suzuki: We can’t geoengineer our way out of climate change
Seawater is sprayed into clouds to make them reflect more sunlight (Illustration: Nasa) Because nature doesn’t always behave the same in a lab, test tube or computer program as it…
Urban infrastructure investment is path to Canada’s economic future
Canada’s federal government recently announced $14 billion in new funding to help municipalities repair and replace aging infrastructure, such as roads, bridges, sewer lines, energy production and distribution systems, and…
Measuring progress with GDP is a gross mistake
Governments, media and much of the public are preoccupied with the economy. That means demands such as those for recognition of First Nations treaty rights and environmental protection are often…
David Suzuki: Trading water for fuel is fracking crazy
Fracking protest in New Brunswick (photo: Colin McPhail) It would be difficult to live without oil and gas. But it would be impossible to live without water. Yet, in our…
Will thorium save us from climate change?
As knowledge about climate change increases, so does demand for clean energy. Technologies like solar, wind, hydro, geothermal, tidal and biofuels, along with energy-grid designs that will help us take…
David Suzuki: Remembering Pete Seeger
Pete Seeger at a “Farm Aid” concert, joined by Neil Young, Dave Matthews and Willie Nelson “This machine surrounds hate and forces it to surrender.” – Words painted on Pete…
David Suzuki: Citizens asked to help with Fukushima radiation research
An Internet search turns up an astounding number of pages about radiation from Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant meltdown that followed an earthquake and tsunami in March 2011. But…
Out of the darkness, the light
Nelson Mandela, who died last month at age 95, was sentenced to life in prison in 1962 because he fought for justice, equality and democracy. He was finally released 27…
David Suzuki: Canada’s environment needs constitutional protection
BC’s Great Bear Rainforest (photo: Ian McAllister/Pacific Wild) Canada is blessed with some of the last vestiges of pristine nature on Earth – unbroken forests, coastlines and prairies, thousands of…
Greenpeace Arctic 30 arrests yet another attack on enviros
Friends of the Earth-UK shows its solidarity with the Arctic 30 Early November marked the 18th anniversary of the tragic murder of outspoken writer and environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa and…