Climate Solutions Reporting

This month, Oregon announced that homeowners in high-risk wildfire areas of the state are required to reduce vegetation on their properties and adhere to new building codes. Meanwhile, Canada, which has experienced an increase in devastating fires in recent years, relies on patchwork, mostly voluntary, measures to reduce fire risk. Some think it’s time for the rules to change.

At 79, Mary Anne Pare prefers to think of retirement as “re-firement. She is very active in climate and reconciliation work, lives on Pender Island in the Salish Sea of British Columbia, and believes "hope isn't what we have, it's what we do." 

A new large-scale reservoir project in Chapman Creek watershed is getting millions in federal funds as climate change causes a string of severe summer droughts and stringent water bans on the southern B.C. coast.

The new Community Transformations Project has pinpointed the Canadian communities and workforces most vulnerable to disruption with the global transition to a net zero economy.

Energy experts and advocates are welcoming the Ford government’s huge new energy efficiency initiative but question its partnership with Enbridge Gas, warning the initiative may contain measures to keep Ontarians on fossil fuels. A key part of the program funds the switch to heat pumps, which can save energy costs. But the program doesn’t specify which kind — and some, known as hybrid heat pumps, rely on gas to boost their power.

Sonia Vinogradova is helping small farmers gain more energy independence. This 25-year-old woman from Montreal and her business partner, Joe Workentin, broke new ground, persuading regulators to allow solar panels on the BeetBox Co-op Farm’s barn. The panels will supply 20 per cent of the farm’s electricity.

A Nova Scotia landfill is “reinventing” tens of thousands of tonnes of waste to be used again as plastics, fuels and fertilizers, instead of being landfilled.

Canada’s largest energy efficiency initiative was announced by Ontario, where a $10.9-billion investment will help families and businesses lower costs by retrofitting their homes. The Ontario government’s new Home Renovation Savings Program will offer rebates of up to 30 per cent for energy efficiency upgrades, including windows, doors, insulation, heat pumps, smart thermostats, rooftop solar panels and battery storage. Money for the retrofits will be rolled out over the next 12 years.

The idea to create a documentary about wildfire came to Ami and Ripper in late 2018 after wildfires in Williams Lake. B.C. sent smoke all the way to Vancouver. While these wildfires were a big deal at the time, they just foreshadowed more extreme fires that followed.

Individual sheets of fibreglass are notoriously difficult to recycle. This is a problem for the wind industry, whose turbine blades are essential hundred-metre-long, fibreglass tubes. Once they’ve served their 30-year-lifespans, unloading them on landfills is unpopular at best, banned (in some countries) at worst. Part of the solution has been the development of recyclable resins, more easily broken down by traditional solvents, and at lower temperatures and pressures.

Zaida Schneider is spending his retirement protecting a sliver of the Salish Sea — False Creek — near his home in downtown Vancouver.

In a study from earlier this year, researchers found that areas around beaver habitat were significantly less impacted by wildfires. Now, the same pattern has been found in Canada.

Lily YangLiu started to worry about climate change while growing up in Beijing, China, breathing in smog everyday. The air pollution was so severe, she developed terrible asthma.

Long gone are the days of sloppy joes and pepperoni pizzas being the only offerings at post-secondary cafeterias. Now, Canadian colleges and universities are setting and surpassing sustainability targets for plant-based food offerings.

Taking a train from Montreal to Ottawa recently, McGill professor John Gradek kept an eye on the speedometer. He noted it reached a top speed of about 160 kilometres per hour. That may be fast for a car, but it’s slow by train standards; high speed trains in Europe and Asia reach speeds of up to 460 kilometres per hour.