Support strong Canadian climate journalism for 2025
Indigenous Peoples are on the frontlines of the climate crisis.
The Arctic continues to warm faster than the rest of the world. In the North, vital winter roads that carry supply to remote First Nations melt earlier as years go by. Canada’s biggest polluters continue to poison Indigenous communities that sit adjacent to industry, in what are largely referred to as sacrifice zones.
As we launch our winter 2024 fundraiser with a goal to reach $150,000 by December 31, we need your support more than ever to continue bringing these critical stories to light. Your donation helps ensure that Indigenous voices and experiences remain at the center of climate journalism. Tax receipts are available for donations of $100+, see instructions at the end.
Environmental racism was an unspoken, unchallenged reality in Canada until Indigenous nations fought back. For too long journalists have failed to write these stories, treating Indigenous nations and citizens as powerless victims. But stories I’ve reported on over the past year have shown that Indigenous Peoples across Canada are agents for change and climate justice.
“Aamjiwnaang will no longer be known as the community that is a victim of Chemical Valley, but we will be known for our environmental leadership,” said Janelle Nahmabin, Aamjiwnaang’s recently elected chief.
Whether it is Aamjiwnaang in Canada’s Chemical Valley, or Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation in the Tar Sands or Grassy Narrows fighting for mercury remediation, First Nations are taking their fight to Canada. It’s time for us to walk with them: to listen and bear witness to the struggle for a territory that can sustain their future generations, rather than poison them.
Indigenous nations never asked for this. Colonialism imposed it upon them. For us, reconciliation centres reporting on the diversity of nations fighting a common enemy: our slowchanging system that stymies the health of the land and the people.
Part of Canada’s National Observer mission is to report on this fight against colonialism and climate change by stewarding the stories of Indigenous nations. Storytelling, afterall, is one of the most powerful tools for change
I am proud of our work, but journalists alone cannot challenge power in our society. A revenue crisis has dawned on our industry, swayed by the whims and greed of big tech, the loss of ad revenues and the continued decimation of newsrooms at the hands of hedge funds. Corporate interest has left independents like us to fill the gaps. But we cannot continue and grow without you.
What strengthens our mission in these frontal attacks on journalism is you and your role in our community of donors and readers.
Ask yourself this: if we are not able to fund journalism that holds power accountable, who else will?
When you donate, you join us in our mission to report on climate change and make sure critical Indigenous stories stay at the forefront of our national conversations.
We’re grateful to all our supporters who fund our journalism that unravels and explains what Canada’s changing climate means for our society. Your help means we can work together to tell the essential climate stories of our times.
Comments
Hi. I am a subscriber. I will also donate when it is clear you recognize that climate, while a huge issue, is only one component of a much larger issue called Overshoot. First popularized in 1972 in the Club of Rome Report 'The Limits to Growth'. While initially ridiculed by business and economic critics, the worst case scenario in the Report has turned out to be eerily accurate. For an up to date analysis of Overshoot refer to the report from the Potsdam Institute titled "Planetary Health Check 2024" published this fall. It is the latest and most complete report on Planetary Boundaries Science.
I agree Climate Change is now a well recognized and publicized phenomenon. But, by focussing on CC one, in effect, minimizes the much greater reach of Overshoot, while at the same time playing down the importance and extent of the integration of each element of Overshoot. These include:
climate change, plunging biodiversity, tropical deforestation,
acidifying oceans, expanding deserts, soil/landscape degradation, air, water and land pollution and resource scarcity. The report, by the way, points out that climate issues cannot be resolved without resolving all of them. That is an indication of how integrated the elements of our predicament are.
Cliff Stainsby
Yes...everything you cite is important. It is also crucial that we don't let our 'big picture' understanding blind us to the grim facts on the actual ground. Only governments can coordinate all the threats you mention into big picture solutions. And so far, we're set to elect climate deniers to at least 4 more years of inaction.
Given the foot dragging that is happening at all levels (the election of Trump being a big one) we need to continue to support our land defenders.......on the ground. Real people can only defend the territory they live on...and we need to empower them to do so as best we can.
Certainly a major reason why many Canadians continue to be sceptical about climate change is the presence of racism in our assumption base. Climate change is primarily caused by resource extraction, in particular the extraction of fossil fuels and essential minerals, extraction methods that create sacrifice zones on the back country.
All of the losses of climate change proliferate first in territories white settlers didn't settle...so the death of these regions, the poisoning of those lands and waters, is invisible to many as were the residential schools that did so much damage to indigenous people invisible to us.
Our family supports land defenders such as the Wet'suwet'en for that reason. We're monthly donators to Raven Trust...and I would encourage everyone who understands the threat global warming poses to all of us.....to give what they can.
White settler mindsets have to change....the back country is not useless land, or empty land...until we murder it.
Mammon worshipping capitalists in the USA gave corporations personhood. It's time those of us who understand our dependence on watersheds and foodsheds did that for our rivers, our wetlands, our water towers and our food sheds.
Let's stand with these folks, and give what we can.