Canada's Environmental Voice
When MiningWatch Canada started up in 1999, we all hoped that our work would challenge the industry-dominated discourse about mining and smelting in Canada. We were determined to see academics, journalists, and popular publishers expose the enormous externalized costs of the metals extracted in this country to workers, indigenous peoples, […]
THE OVERRIDING QUESTION in Kai Reimer-Watts’ Beyond Crisis is why is our response to climate change “absurdly slow”? Humanity is already experiencing horrific forest fires and flooding – think Fort McMurray and Hurricane Sandy – yet many of us still engage in the flying, driving and beef-eating which bring wide-spread […]
TFor decades dams have been celebrated by some as an inherently clean form of energy. In British Columbia the Christy Clark government recently dubbed a highly controversial $9-billion mega dam on the Peace River as “the site C Clean Energy Project.”
A few centuries ago humans ignited a fossil fire, liberating stocks of carbon long-buried in the Earth’s crust. Since then this fire has powered civilization, enabling the extraction of all other minerals. But it is now flickering, its fuel almost exhausted, even as the waste it produced threatens the biosphere. […]
See a gallery of Kevin McElvaney’s photos from his visit below It took me three flights, one train ride, two motorcycle trips and a long trek up the volcano before I saw the mine for the first time. I met Imam, a former sulphur miner, at the train station in […]
Several weeks ago, I watched Pride, a fascinating political drama documenting the true story of a few London-based gay rights campaigners who in 1984 decided to support some beleaguered striking Welsh coal miners. It’s a genuinely heartwarming story about political solidarity. If you have a chance to see Pride, you […]
While the media has focused its lens upon the Harper government’s undermining of scientific research, scant consideration has been given to the impact of the “war on science” on Canada’s judiciary. Tasked with reviewing and adjudicating upon the constitutionality and validity of Canada’s resource regulatory process, the judiciary may be […]
The scene was absurd: four activists, each with a bundle of 75 black and gold helium-filled balloons, riding an escalator. As we reached the top, we clipped our banner to the bundles and let go, watching our work rise slowly toward the hundred-foot ceiling of the lobby of a downtown […]
Imagine going to your favourite bar year after year and ordering beer on tap. Then, one day, the tap runs dry. All that’s left are the drops that have fallen on the bar floor after decades of beer-thirsty customers. The only way to get more beer is to squeeze droplets […]
One year after The Economist declared an “unwelcomed coal renaissance,” Bloomberg News reported in early January that Europe’s lust for lower energy prices was reviving lignite mining for coal-fired generation in a big way.
