Environment, resources & sustainability

Old-growth deferrals and the elephant in the room: we’re out of trees to cut thanks to failed provincial policies

Nov 12, 2021
No one should be surprised that the British Columbia government’s decision to potentially defer logging in 26,000 square kilometres of old-growth forest angered many and pleased few. First Nation leaders were highly critical of the incredibly short, 30-day turnaround that the government imposed on them to respond to the deferral proposals, the paltry funding provided… View Article

A challenge to the 44th Parliament: Make the global fossil fuel phase-out your legacy

Oct 28, 2021
In the past five years, the federal government has brought in important climate policies — including a national carbon price and coal power phase-out — that have helped flatten Canada’s emissions curve. On the other hand, this government has championed fossil fuel extraction at home and abroad, exemplified most clearly by the purchase of the… View Article

Five lessons from BC’s horrific wildfire season

Oct 7, 2021
In British Columbia, climate change is no longer something abstract for the future. The late June heat dome event—that claimed 500-600 lives—and the wildfires that followed confirm that climate change is a clear and present danger that’s not going away any time soon. As of September 28, some 867,000 hectares of land had burned, making… View Article
Smoke stack

For climate’s sake, Canada Pension Plan needs to take a serious look at its investments

Sep 10, 2021
The Canada Pension Plan (CPP) manages the pensions of 20 million Canadians. In a recent Corporate Mapping Project report, we found that the CPP has increased the number of shares it owns in fossil fuel companies since Canada signed the Paris Agreement five years ago. The CPP’s total fossil fuel investments across its entire portfolio… View Article

More than intentions needed for BC forests

Jun 29, 2021
So, our provincial government “intends” to do something about the sorry state of our forests and forest industry. It intends to protect more old-growth forests. It intends to see more high-value wood products made in British Columbia. It intends to make rural communities more secure. And it intends to do all this while ending practices… View Article

Priming the pump

May 26, 2021
Scientist warns cumulative effect of thousands of fracked gas wells means powerful earthquakes ahead for northeast BC Massive amounts of water pumped with brute force into the earth at thousands of fracking operations is priming the pump for potentially deadly earthquakes in British Columbia’s Montney basin, warns a former top scientist with BC’s Oil and… View Article

Out of water?

May 20, 2021
As deadline looms, thousands of BC groundwater users risk losing access to water, but not most water bottling, fracking and mining companies In February 2018, the head of a little-known Surrey-based company asked the BC government for a licence to withdraw 864 cubic metres of water per day from a well drilled deep into the… View Article

Burning our way to a new climate?

Apr 7, 2021
As UK’s Drax makes play for BC’s wood pellet mills, questions grow about wood-fired electricity With its six massive 660-megawatt power units, the Drax power station in North Yorkshire is the United Kingdom’s largest thermal electricity plant. When it opened in the mid 1970s, the giant facility burned coal. Today, however, Drax burns something else:… View Article