Blog Archives
Trial of prominent Wet’suwet’en leader and land defenders begins
Three accused are charged with criminal contempt over Coastal GasLink pipeline blockades
by Jackie McKay, Jan 8, 2024
The trial is underway for three people charged with criminal contempt for breaking a court order forbidding them from blocking access to the Coastal GasLink pipeline.
Sleydo’ stands trial alongside Shaylynn Sampson, a Gitxsan woman with Wet’suwet’en family ties; and Corey Jocko, a Mohawk member of the Six Nations Haudenosaunee Confederacy from Ontario.
Native Hawaiians fear Maui wildfire destruction will lead to their cultural erasure
By Jackie McKay, CBC News, Aug 17, 2023
Keʻeaumoku Kapu has been handing out water, clothes, and emergency supplies to families in need out of the Walgreens parking lot in Lahaina, Maui. He said it is a way to keep himself occupied while he grieves the losses of his community.
“I’m afraid we’re not going to recover from this,” said Kapu, speaking to CBC from his cellphone at the distribution centre Monday.
Kapu is a Kanaka Maoli (a Hawaiian word for their Indigenous people) community leader in Lahaina, and head of the Nā ʻAikāne o Maui Cultural Center — which was destroyed by the fire that ripped through Lahaina.
Read the rest of this entryIndigenous elders at national gathering warn of dire need to react to environmental disasters
‘We want to practise our traditions but our medicines, the animals, the environment is affected,’ says elder
By Brandi Morin, CBC News, September 15, 2017
Some Indigenous elders who live traditional lifestyles that include hunting, fishing and trapping on lands and waters long utilized by their ancestors say they have noticed a rapid shift in the environment over the last several decades — a shift some attribute to climate change. Read the rest of this entry
Highway closures in B.C. raise concerns about local food security during disaster
Experts say communities have between 3-5 days of supplies before more needs to be shipped in
By Andrew Kurjata and Ash Kelly, CBC News, Feb 15, 2017
A series of highway closures has highlighted how dependent B.C. communities are on regular shipments of food and supplies and raised questions about what would happen to that supply chain during a prolonged emergency. Read the rest of this entry
Arviat, Nunavut Young Adults Are Learning To Grow Their Own Produce
by Emma Prestwich, Huffington Post, May 19, 2016
Vegetables aren’t hugely popular in the northern community of Arviat.
The hamlet of just over 2,000 people on the shores of Hudson Bay has two grocery stores, and fresh food, which has to be flown in from southern Canada, is pricey.
Many vegetables, like lettuce, also don’t keep for very long, and community educator Shirley Tagalik says this makes them even less appealing.
“If you buy something and it’s wilted and goes bad the next day, [you] don’t want to waste your money,” Tagalik tells The Huffington Post Canada. Read the rest of this entry
Fort Mac Blaze: Brace for New Era of Infernos
What’s turning northern forests into tinder? Biggest reason is climate change, but that’s not all.
A sudden shift in the wind at a critical time of day was all it took to send a wildfire out of control through Fort McMurray, forcing more than 80,000 people out of their homes in what has become the biggest natural disaster in Canadian history.
Earlier this week, Darby Allen, the regional fire chief for the area, minced no words when he was asked what might happen now that more than 1,600 homes have been destroyed. Read the rest of this entry
World’s lakes are warming surprisingly quickly due to climate change
Canadian lakes, including those that are ice-covered in winter, are warming twice as fast as others
By Emily Chung, CBC News, Dec 17, 2015
Lakes around the world are warming surprisingly quickly due to climate change, threatening the global water supply. And lakes in Canada are some of the fastest-warming in the world, a new study shows. Read the rest of this entry
‘We are moving into unchartered territory at a frightening speed’: Greenhouse gases hit new high
by The Washington Post, November 9, 2015
Greenhouse gases in the Earth’s atmosphere reached another grim milestone earlier this year as carbon dioxide levels surpassed the symbolic threshold of 400 parts per million across much of the planet, the premier global meteorological association confirmed in a report to be released Monday.
Figures compiled by the World Meteorological Organization showed strong growth — and new records — in the concentrations of all three of the most important heat-trapping gases, continuing a long-term trend with ominous implications for climate change, the group said. Read the rest of this entry