I am feeling very sad this morning at the news that Jim MacNeil has died. He was one of my mentors when we were creating the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy and he served as one of our founding members for two years. He never failed to speak truth to power, and he taught me a lot about the meaning of integrity and intellectual rigour.
What is the relationship between animal welfare, human welfare, local economic development and buying locally? It is deep and binding, if you read the attached article entitled, What you Get When you Mix Chickens, China and Climate Change.
About three quarters of global greenhouse emissions come from burning fossil fuels, with coal making up 45% of that, oil 35%, and natural gas 20%. They are not the whole ballgame of climate change, but a very important part.
Sustainable Canada Dialogues (SCD) sent an open letter to Prime Minister Trudeau prior to his talks with his provincial counterparts in Vancouver this week urging him and the premiers that the best investment for Canada does not lie in infrastructure for fossil fuels.“We’re trying to bring our best perspective as to what’s going on in the global oil market and what are the good investments for Canada,” said James Byrne, a climatologist at the Unive
Leonardo DiCaprio’s commitment to being a voice for climate change action was at the forefront even on what was arguably the biggest night of his life. The actor used his best actor win at the 88th Academy Awards to give a very moving acceptance speech, the latter half of which addressed the very real threat climate change poses to all people, and particularly the indigenous populations around the world, and those most vulnerable to its effects.
In The shareable future of cities, Alex Steffen is challenging us to keep asking questions, and take a look at solving climate change in a novel ways. He argues that it’s possible that concentrating all our efforts solely on the transition from fossil fuel generation to clean energy alternatives may in fact be setting us up for failure. He explains: “We live in a planet that is rapidly urbanizing…by mid-century there could be 8 billion or more people living in cities or within a day’s travel of one”.
In this recent video, Naomi Klein makes a compelling case: that recent economic and environment events, which have led us to a transitory stage in our development, should be interpreted not as obstacles, so much as they should be seen as opportunities. Just a few of the ideas she mentions include: