Carrie Saxifrage

About Carrie Saxifrage

Carrie Saxifrage has written for the Vancouver and National Observer since 2006. She is the author of The Big Swim: Coming Ashore in a World Adrift (2015), which Bill McKibben called “serious adventure on a serious planet.” Carrie also wrote Extract: The Pipeline Wars in 2012.

14 Articles

Four women in their 70s chain themselves to the Bridge of Matriarchs in protest of old-growth logging in Fairy Creek. Photo by Carrie Saxifrage

When the RCMP moved on Fairy Creek protesters’ last stronghold

Carrie Saxifrage ventures seven kilometres down a logging road to see the last remaining camp at Fairy Creek and witness the Bridge of Matriarchs, a structure where four women in their 70s have chained themselves.

LNG BC ferries don't deliver environmental promise

LNG fueled ferries result in little or no net greenhouse gas reduction. But that hasn't stopped BC Ferries from buying them.

Meet some of the Burnaby Mountain injuction defendants

For several months, a number of people have slowed progress at Kinder Morgan's Burnaby Mountain site, often using their bodies to block traffic. We caught up with a few of them outside of the B.C. Supreme Court.

Trans Mountain

What I learned in Mexico about violence against women that everyone should know

In Mexico City I met Maria, 20. She lives in one of Mexico City’s poorest neighborhoods where violence is a part of life. “Throughout my life, I’ve witnessed many situations of violence that I didn’t even know were violence,” she told me. “I’ve been in violent relationships that I thought were normal. Now I wonder, 'Why is it men can hit us?'"

Fight with Polar Bears by Francois-Auguste Biard, 1839 (detail). Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Polar bear prints throughout history: Michael Engelhard and the "Ice Bear"

Perhaps our fascination for polar bears arise from their similarities to humans. We each, in our way, have been "master existences."

State Of The Animal

Frances Deverell, retired minister and climate activist

The visions of Frances Deverell

If we spent money on computers and electrification and high speed transmission wires and networks for matching up complex energy inputs and outputs, those would be very sexy, high paying jobs.

The Climate Innovator Next Door

David Trowbridge, Clean North, Sault Ste. Marie

David Trowbridge's baby boomer activism for sustainability

David Trowbridge of Clean North hates to see trees cut down. "It's almost like they're cutting me," he said. So he's working on tree by-law for the City of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario

The Climate Innovator Next Door

Winnipeg: decolonization and being a good ally

The declaration by Maclean's magazine that Winnipeg is Canada's most racist city mortified those residents who have been working for years to become "good settlers."

The Climate Innovator Next Door

Chickadee Richard, Anishinaabe elder and Idle No More spokeswoman

Chickadee Richard, Anishinaabe elder: Live your prayer

Chickadee Richard: "I don't know why our movement is called 'Idle No More.' I've never been idle."

The Climate Innovator Next Door

Idle No More spokeswoman Chantal Chagnon

Chantal Stormsong Chagnon: Out of the frying pan and into the 8th Fire

Chantal Chagnon presents First Nations culture to schools, universities and other public forums, with some politics thrown in.

The Climate Innovator Next Door