Earlier this year, the United Nations issued a warning that humanity has two years left to take urgent action on addressing climate change. The historic heat waves, ravaging wildfires and surprise floods of Summer 2024 underscored this warning. The Insurance Bureau of Canada reports that Summer 2024 was the costliest on record, with seven billion…
“We are all going to die by 2040,” the tour guide said flatly, “based on the cascading negative effects of climate change.” As shocking as that sentence was, I was more taken aback by the fact that it got zero reaction from his audience. This was last June: I was a chaperone with a group…
When 19-year-old B.C. wildfire fighter Devyn Gale died on the job in July 2023, it hit Ella Ringma, Sarah Phangura and Lucy Roseboom, all members of Terrace Christian Reformed Church (CRC), especially hard. Their kids are also wildfire fighters. “It made it real for our kids too, because this girl was their age. She was…
At the end of May, temperatures in Delhi, India, reached above 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit). Last summer was apparently the warmest in about 2,000 years, with temperatures averaging two degrees warmer than all our climate models predicted. As everyone is aware, fossil fuels continue to increase the level of carbon dioxide in the…
And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed. (Genesis 2:8) I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. (Rev. 21: 2a) The rapid urbanization of much of the world has increased the lament for…
The Canadian Federal Budget, unveiled each Spring, reveals each government’s true priorities more accurately than campaign promises or mandate letters. This motion is so crucial to our democracy that a failure to pass it is commonly considered a vote of no confidence for the sitting government. Given its significance, it is a matter of civil…
Sylvia Keesmaat lives on an off-grid permaculture farm in Ontario. She’s writing a book on climate grief. It begins with a simple ask: to go outside and “learn the space where you are, even if it’s an urban environment.” Keesmat remembers canoeing the wetlands as a child, both of her parents pausing to paint and…
In 2015 the United Nations (partly at the instigation of two women from Colombia, Paula Caballero and Patti Londoño) agreed to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These 17 goals were intended to be reached by 2030 and include things like no poverty (Goal 1), quality education (Goal 4), gender equality (Goal 5) and climate…
“How was your summer?” is a common enough autumnal question. For the residents of Kelowna, B.C. or Yellowknife, N.W.T the answer might well be “Horrific!” People as far afield as northern Quebec, Greece, Spain, Hawaii or the southern parts of the United States could be expected to reply in similar ways. Wildfires appear to be…
The 2023 Summer of Storms has reduced the number of climate change deniers in Canada. But support for the necessary changes to address the problem still often stops when the bill arrives. Why is it so difficult to move from words to action in Canada? Might faith communities have a unique role to play? Public…
This Spring, Louisa and I got rid of our front lawn. We tore out the sod and had it replaced with cedar bark chips, planted some shrubs, and installed a bench on which to sit during warm summer nights as the sun sets. We think it looks quite nice. Classist grass Have you ever wondered…
It is a health hazard to go outside today, a warm June day in Ottawa where I live. Across wide swaths of North America, smoke from wildfires has made air quality warnings as essential as UV ratings and weather forecasts. At a deeper level the threatening smoky haze adds a visceral element to concerns about…
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