Climate Solutions Reporting

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.

Researchers from Dalhousie University spent six years charging and discharging an emerging lithium-ion battery material to see how many charging cycles it could take: a typical battery lasts 2,400 cycles, while the new battery lasted more than 20,000 cycles.

Geddes Creek is adjacent to Kootenay National Park and just east of the Columbia mountains and Purcell Wilderness Conservancy. This piece of land is an important piece of the Radium wildlife corridor.

In a net-zero by 2050 Canada, 700,000 more energy jobs will exist than today, according to a 2023 report by Clean Energy Canada. In the wind sector alone, the Global Wind Energy Council estimates that over half a million new wind technicians will be required worldwide by 2026.

The University of Toronto is ranked the world’s most sustainable university for the second consecutive year, in large part because of its work to decarbonize its campuses.

Researchers from Dalhousie University used satellite data to analyze methane emissions from over 575 dairy farms and 384 dairy processors. The data comes as the industry is staring down at its target of reaching net-zero emissions by 2050, but struggles to take stock of where its emissions are coming from.

Patricia Dijak is spending her retirement persuading local governments to design climate-adapted cities.

When Stefan Teodorescu’s aunt returned from a trip to the Pacific islands, one memory stuck with her: she described for Teodorescu the labour-intensive process of volunteers manually planting mangrove seeds to combat coastal erosion. The repetitive nature of the task, combined with the role mangroves play in climate adaptation, inspired Teodorescu to find a way to automate the process.

The encounter between Mamgark and the tourists is where the real and practical world of the North confronts an idealized and romanticized Arctic. It’s an imaginary Arctic, part of an image sold for southerners’ consumption. That tension is underlined by an increasingly common phrase: “last chance tourism." This phrase refers to the threats posed by the rapid ebbs and flows of the Anthropocene. As for Churchill, the term could mean a tourist’s last opportunity to see the Arctic as it is now, before its iconic wildlife is gone, a relic of a colder era.

Charlotte Gilmour is increasing demand for action on climate change. As managing director of Environmental Impact for Yulu Impact Communications, this Vancouverite supports not-for-profits, governments and companies taking leadership to increase pressure on decision-makers to protect what we love.

Drew Bernard, the ambitious young energy leader from Lennox Island First Nation, graduated from community college with a mission to make his nation energy self sufficient. Now, the community of about 400 people is working toward large-scale renewable projects, a revamped greenhouse and a major retrofit campaign on every house.

More than half of Toronto’s electricity needs could be met with solar power generated from rooftops and parking lots, according to a new report by the Ontario Clean Air Alliance. The report by the clean energy advocacy group estimates the city could produce up to 12 terawatt-hours (TWh) of clean energy annually if its solar capacity is fully realized.

In a conference hall a few feet away from the Atlantic Ocean, industry players from the marine renewable energy sector discussed the challenges tidal has faced so far, and highlighted what they dubbed a “new era” for the fledgling industry.