“The buffalo – “our brothers,” made divots that filled with water for other animals to drink from, spread seeds with their beards and fertilized the prairie grasses ... The loss to earth was as profound as the loss to us. There is nothing abstract about that” www.theglobeandmail.com/culture/book...

In Eliza Sunshine, Cree author Michelle Good considers the loss of the buffalo

The multi-generational novel follows four women whose lives are inherently connected to the 19th-century near-extinction of buffalo in North America

theglobeandmail.com

“While forests are in a state of permanent adaptation, Held said the problem was the speed of change. “Our trees and ecosystems aren’t fast enough to cope with the speed of change” www.theguardian.com/environment/...

England’s ancient oak trees dying in extreme hot and dry weather

Woodland Trust says trees struggling in drought stress, with older ‘survivors’ disproportionately affected

theguardian.com

“Rainfall increasingly erratic and summers are hotter and longer, while prolonged droughts are reducing agricultural prod'n. UN’s representative for Iraq has warned that country will be able to meet only 15% of its water needs by 2035 if current trends continue” www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

Iraq’s ghost villages: Islamic State drove people away – now a new enemy is preventing their return

Nearly a decade after fighting ended in northern Iraq, the climate crisis has brought extreme heat and a water shortage, making life almost impossible

theguardian.com

“Prof Stiglitz wants new UN International Panel on Inequality, stemming from G20’s first-ever inequality report; yawning gap between rich and poor was human-made crisis corroding democracy and social cohesion while blocking efforts to tackle climate emergency” www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The Guardian view on global inequality: extreme wealth threatens democracy | Editorial

Editorial: New York mayor Zohran Mamdani shows Britain’s Andy Burnham that confronting billionaires need not mean the end of cooperation with Donald Trump

theguardian.com

“Cyclically low water levels in Hydro-Québec’s own reservoirs taken toll on utility’s profitability; cut historically lucrative exports and import more U.S. power to meet peaks in domestic demand. In 2025, Hydro-Québec net importer of power for first time” www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic...

New Churchill Falls deal faces political uncertainty, planning hurdles

The agreement is contingent on continued support from Quebec, and feasibility studies that could take years

theglobeandmail.com

“The climate changes are still not frightening enough to make radical responses acceptable. But they probably will be ready soon, and very likely in this decade.” www.therecord.com/opinion/colu...

Climate change deniers have become climate change defeatists

Climate changes are still not frightening enough to make radical responses acceptable. But they probably will be soon.

therecord.com

“Canada reported that wildfires in its managed forest emitted 870 MtCO2 during epic megafire summer of 2023. Satellite data shows double that amount Canada-wide — an amazing 1,750 MtCO2. That was three times Canada’s fossil fuel emissions for that year” www.nationalobserver.com/2026/08/17/a...

Canada’s out-of-control wildfire crisis is cooking up a future nobody wants to live in

Canada’s calm, low-fire summers are gone, cooked away by unchecked fossil fuel burning. Here’s what we’ve replaced them with and where we are headed if we don’t stop feeding the fire weather beast.

nationalobserver.com

“And the amount of CO2 lost to the atmosphere is rising rapidly along with rising wildfire. It’s a flaming climate feedback loop that climate scientists have long warned us about … four of our last five summers have been worse than anything that came before” www.nationalobserver.com/2026/08/17/a...

Canada’s out-of-control wildfire crisis is cooking up a future nobody wants to live in

Canada’s calm, low-fire summers are gone, cooked away by unchecked fossil fuel burning. Here’s what we’ve replaced them with and where we are headed if we don’t stop feeding the fire weather beast.

nationalobserver.com

“A seafarer from Kenya has gone eight months without pay and needs to send money home to cover cost of an operation for his six-year-old son. A crew on one boat told him they were down to 1 meal a day. “This is modern slavery. This is systemic exploitation”" www.theglobeandmail.com/world/articl...

Crews on hundreds of ships in the Persian Gulf stuck at sea, many in dire conditions

Unable to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, many have gone without pay for months, and some are running out of food and medicine

theglobeandmail.com

“Canadian government can now quietly bypass the Species at Risk Act and other statutes by using its super law to clear any environmental hurdles — nixing legal protections for the southern resident killer whale population in the process” www.therecord.com/politics/pol...

Mark Carney’s Building Canada Act is a threat to the rule of law, and here’s a good example

The "national interest" legislation should be revoked rather than utilized, Althia Raj writes.

therecord.com

“Failure of ice to form could have intensified a heatwave over the continent’s peninsular last week that saw daytime temperatures peak at 15.4C which is more than 20C above average … third time in four years that sea ice had been very low in the region” www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...

Antarctica’s west coast missing an area of sea ice the size of France as temperatures peak 20C above average

A vast area of the Bellingshausen Sea should be covered by sea ice by now, with one expert calling the loss of ice ‘depressing’

theguardian.com

“There is no health without land. The well-being of Indigenous peoples is inseparable from our lands, waters, and territories,” Kotierk said in her closing speech on Friday. “To restore health, we must advance decolonization.” www.nationalobserver.com/2026/05/21/n...

The uncertain future of the UN’s leading voice on Indigenous rights

The UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues is facing questions about its effectiveness amid a broader budget crisis.

nationalobserver.com

“Sand mined to build homes, roads and sea walls in concrete production, foundations, masonry work, windows, silicon chips and solar panels. Just as crucial left in place: it regulates rivers, protects coastal aquifers, filters water and sustains biodiversity” www.theguardian.com/environment/...

The global sand crisis: it’s being used up faster than it can be replaced

It is the most extracted solid material on Earth – but this extraction can threaten ecosystems and livelihoods

theguardian.com

“Between 2011 and 2020, Indigenous peoples and local communities involved in land tenure and forest management received less than 1 per cent of global funding for climate change mitigation and adaptation” www.nationalobserver.com/2026/05/12/n...

Indigenous peoples bear the brunt of climate change — and get almost none of the money to fight it

Billion-dollar climate funds have structural barriers that keep Indigenous peoples from accessing them. Advocates say that's not a bug, it's a feature.

nationalobserver.com

“She found that Otto Schaefer, member of Order of Canada described on federal website as “one of great pioneers of Arctic medicine,” had conducted “a slew” of “unethical studies done without informed consent on patients in segregated Indigenous hospitals” www.theglobeandmail.com/culture/arti...

With weeks to live, Elaine Dewar finished her most personal book

Oblivious puts a spotlight on systemic harms that she and many Canadians never knew had afflicted many Indigenous communities

theglobeandmail.com

“If people worldwide biked at rates of Dutch, avg 2.6 km per person per day, global emissions could fall by 686 million tonnes of CO2 annually, comparable to Canada’s total annual emissions … For short trips, cycling is often faster, cheaper, and healthier” www.nationalobserver.com/2026/04/07/o...

What Ontario can learn from Amsterdam’s cycling culture

In Amsterdam, a bicycle is not a quirky accessory. It is standard urban infrastructure. That sight left me curious about its implications for mobility and emissions in Ontario.

nationalobserver.com

“If the data centre project is entirely powered by natural gas and doesn't capture any of those emissions, it will set Canada back 20 years in carbon emissions reductions and wipe out the reductions gained by phasing out coal” www.nationalobserver.com/2026/04/03/n...

Alberta scraps environmental assessment for Kevin O'Leary's 'world's largest' data centre

Danielle Smith's government is exempting celebrity investor Kevin O'Leary's massive Wonder Valley data centre near Grande Prairie, Alta., from a provincial environmental assessment, Canada's National ...

nationalobserver.com

“Recycled wool saves 60% of the virgin alternative’s negative impacts. Annually, recycled textiles save 60 million kw of energy, 18,000 t of CO2, and 500,000 cubic m of water worldwide. … Mycelium Leather can see 85 to 94% reduction in CO2 emissions” www.nationalobserver.com/2025/08/08/a...

How Canada's sustainable fashion startups are unravelling our throwaway clothing culture

As emissions from the global apparel sector keep rising, a handful of Canadian textile and clothing makers are challenging cheap fast fashion with sustainable alternatives. Will consumers pay more?

nationalobserver.com

“Guardians, Indigenous version of park ranger or a coast guard, who pass province’s ranger training now have authority to enforce both BC and Indigenous laws in provincial parks, and they’re the main eyes and ears monitoring the Central Coast today.” www.nationalobserver.com/2025/08/07/n...

Welcome to the Great Bear Sea

After decades of discord, Canada and First Nations are working together to build a network of marine protected areas stretching from Vancouver Island to Alaska.

nationalobserver.com

“A classroom-worth of children killed each day in Gaza since war began.…Tens of thousands of children injured; many are amputees. Children of Gaza have rights of children anywhere – to water, to food, to shelter, to education, to play, to hope, to joy. To life.” www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The Guardian view on the children of Gaza: when 17,000 die, it’s more than a mistake | Editorial

Editorial: Israel’s military blamed the deaths of six Palestinian children on Sunday on a technical error. But a staggering toll continues to mount

theguardian.com

“25% of the micro-agrivoltaics farmers reported no change in crop yield under solar panels; 35% reported marginally higher yields; while 40% reported significantly higher yields under solar panels (>20% higher).” www.iisd.org/articles/ins...

Micro-Agrivoltaics: Hiding in plain sight

As India explores the promise of agrivoltaics, small and marginal farmers are cultivating crops beneath solar panels without formal support or mainstream recognition.

iisd.org

Featured this week in The New Quarterly is Cate Sandilands' "Cli-Fi", from our latest Issue 174! Click here to read the full story: tnq.ca/story/cli-fi/

“In natural forest, trees die, decay where they fall. Nutrients are slowly recycled through complex, interconnected, interdependent processes that take centuries. Modern forestry speeds everything up. We log, burn, mulch, pelletize. We ship out whole trees.” www.nationalobserver.com/2025/05/13/o...

The 'silent crisis' in BC's forest industry

We call current forestry “sustainable,” but it isn’t — not in any real or lasting way.

nationalobserver.com

“Before 2018, CA's largest wildfire was the Thomas fire (280,000 acres). The current Park fire burned more in it's first 3 days. It's the state's fourth-largest on record, at 430,000 acres -- joining the rapidly swelling ranks of unprecedented megafires.” www.nationalobserver.com/2024/08/26/a...

What this year's California megafire tells us about the future

Fossil fuel pollution has been searing the golden state into a hot, dry tinderbox. The megafires have followed in accelerating frequency and fury -- charts.

nationalobserver.com

Guilbeault said, “species are still going extinct, we're still unsustainably using natural resources, we're not protecting critical habitats and we've still not collectively realized that in the fight against climate change, our biggest ally is nature.” www.nationalobserver.com/2024/08/22/n...

Earth's 'combined crisis' demands common solutions, officials say

The planet is facing interconnected threats from climate change, nature loss and plastic pollution. Officials say that three upcoming environmental conferences could be key to develop strategies to ad...

nationalobserver.com