The rush for nation-building projects is on. Pipelines, power grids and ports are popular proposals by premiers and corporate executives – all of them 3-P projects (public-private partnerships) – with the promise of federal funding and expedited approvals on the table. They are positioned to foster hope for a strong Canada in the face of…
When I moved to B.C., I was amazed at the number of people who travelled from the Prairies, Central and Atlantic Canada to fish. I presumed that I would become a chinook, coho and steelhead fisherman. It didn’t happen. I did continue fishing in streams for the first year or two. Then I was introduced…
When my childhood friend Inge de Beus landed at Pearson International Airport three decades ago for a visit, she sheepishly carried with her a Canon EOS 1000. Neither of us had a clue how to operate it. “No worries,” her partner had said at home in the Netherlands. “It’s foolproof.” And indeed, he was right….
On more than one occasion I have remarked to my students, “the hardest part about preaching heaven in Vancouver, is that most people think they are already there!” As we move further into a North American culture where fewer people are born nominally Christian, many are finding their expression of transcendence, beauty and longing in…
Chemistry is much more than balancing equations and examining molecules – just ask Dr. Peter Mahaffy. Students in his classes at The King’s University don’t study isolated science reactions; they use a “systems thinking” approach to look for the intrinsic connections between scientific concepts, the earth, social systems and people. When I took Mahaffy’s Chemistry…
it grows back fully / Six days after the flames / black bears return for berries. / The restoration / of the world leaks /through a broken dam
Clear skies greeted the Antigua, a sailing vessel carrying artists into the Arctic Circle. “We were in the right spot for all of these belugas that kept coming around the corner of this little coastline,” Phil Irish describes. Two artists hooked up their underwater sound equipment to speakers. “Belugas are like songbirds,” says Irish. “They’re…
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…
In 1939, Paul Müller discovered that DDT (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane) was a very effective insecticide. It became widely used to kill mosquitoes and reduce the incidence of malaria and other insect-spread diseases. In 1948, Müller received the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his work on the effects of DDT and how it aided the fight against disease….
About a mile from my childhood home flowed the Onion River, the water turgid with clay, cow manure and urine. Occasional sections were wooded but much of the wetland near to the river was used as heifer pasture. Abused would be a better word. Over the years much of the trampled riparian zone had been…
An estimated 85,000 farmers are on track to retire in the next six years, and they won’t necessarily be replaced, according to the Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council. It’s difficult “attracting employees to the sector due to challenges such as rural location, type of work and wages,” the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada reported in 2023….
“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…
|
Uploaded
Failed
|
 |
