Tori Fitzpatrick

Journalism Practicum Student Vancouver English

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About Tori Fitzpatrick

Tori Fitzpatrick is completing a practicum with Canada's National Observer as part of the Master of Journalism program at the University of British Columbia. She has a Bachelor of Science from Dalhousie University, where she majored in Biology and minored in Environmental Science. She is passionate about covering the environment, climate and wildlife.

10 Articles

Matthew Christensen and Richard Topp, members of the BC Spartina Working Group, examine plants recently sprayed with herbicide at the Boundary Bay wildlife management area in Delta, B.C. Photo by Tori Fitzpatrick/Canada's National Observer

How conservationists are pushing back against a West Coast invader

A non-native plant species is invading the marsh and tidal mudflats along the Fraser River delta in B.C. A group of conservationists is fighting to control its spread.

News, Climate Solutions Reporting | July 18th 2023

Dr. Ilona Hale is a primary care physician in Kimberley B.C and author of Planetary Health for Primary Care. Photo by Nicole Leclair.

Climate change strains the health-care system. How we treat patients is part of the problem

A new guide aims to educate doctors on how to reduce environmental impacts of the care they provide.

News, Climate Solutions Reporting | July 13th 2023

As the global average temperature soared to two consecutive record highs, parts of Canada are under extreme heat warnings and air quality advisories due to wildfires across the country. Photo by Ketut Subiyanto/Pexels

As Earth smashes temperature records, Canadians get a taste of a hotter world

On Monday, the global average temperature reached a record high of 17.01 C. The next day, the record was broken by another 0.17 C, according to the University of Maine’s Climate Reanalyzer. Scientists predict Wednesday’s temperatures might surpass both of these.

News | July 6th 2023

Damage from the White Rock Lake wildfire on a property in the Paxton Valley, near Monte Lake, B.C., on Sept. 3, 2021. Photo by Jesse Winter for Canada's National Observer

Could wildfires wipe out Canadians’ access to home insurance? It’s complicated

Canadian homeowners facing wildfires, floods and other extreme weather events don't have to worry about companies pulling out of the country's home insurance market, experts say — at least not yet.

News | July 5th 2023

Environmental advocates called on Premier David Eby and the B.C. government to put an end to fracking and other fossil fuel extraction in the province. Photo by Tori Fitzpatrick

Environmental advocates slam ‘insufficient’ efforts to cut climate pollution

On the two-year anniversary of a heat dome that killed 619 people, environmental advocates issued a plea to B.C. Premier David Eby to slash greenhouse gas emissions in line with climate targets the province has set for the end of the decade.

News, Energy | June 29th 2023

Nicole Rycroft, founder and executive director of the Vancouver environmental non-profit Canopy, is helping companies transition away from single-use paper packaging and fabrics sourced from unsustainable forestry practices. Photo by Ryan Lash / TED

How can Canada transition away from the forestry industry?

Climate change, pests and unsustainable harvesting have left the Canadian forestry industry vulnerable. But as wildfires across the country decimate large swaths of Canada’s remaining forests, a Vancouver non-profit is helping companies find alternatives to pulp and paper-based packaging.

News, Climate Solutions Reporting | June 27th 2023

Telus and Jolt have partnered to install 5,000 EV chargers across Canada beginning this year. Drivers will be able to charge up to seven kilowatt-hours for free. Photo provided by Jolt

Telus partners with Australian company to install 5,000 EV chargers across Canada

Drivers will be able to recharge up to seven kilowatt-hours for free, which equals 40 to 50 kilometres of driving range and takes 15 to 20 minutes of charging, according to Jolt.

News, Climate Solutions Reporting | June 21st 2023

A Cascadia bus with activists went to South Dakota as part of the Standing Rock protests in 2016. Photo by Brandon Letsinger

Fighting climate change by reconnecting to ecosystems in our own backyards

Climate change does not recognize borders. Proof can be found in the smoke from Canadian fires that recently fouled the air in the United States and the catastrophic flooding of B.C.’s Sumas Prairie when the Nooksack River in the U.S. burst its banks in 2021.

News, Climate Solutions Reporting | June 20th 2023

The Foodlands construction crew setting up a silt screen prior to the bank stabilization work on the sc̓e:ɬxʷəy̓əm (Salmon River). Photo by Justine Nelson

Communities band together to save the river that sustains them

B.C.’s Fraser River or stɑl̓əw̓, as it is called by the Kwantlen and Katzie First Nations, is under siege. Climate change is warming its waters and aquatic species are suffocating from supercharged plant growth fed by fertilizer runoff from agriculture.

News, Climate Solutions Reporting | June 14th 2023

The wildfire in Kátł’odeeche First Nation as seen from Hay River at 9:49 p.m. on May 14. Photo by April Glaicar

‘I'll never forget that low, sad feeling’

As wildfire approached a neighbouring community, April Glaicar grabbed her camera. What she witnessed was “alarming.”

Canada burns

News | June 9th 2023