Under pressure from municipalities and groups concerned about the climate crisis, the operator of Ontario’s electricity system is looking at what phasing out the province’s gas plants could look like. Ontario intends to rely more on natural gas-fired plants for power over the next decade, a change that is set to erase climate progress made […]
by Mallory MacDonnell Work in fishing has received increasing attention as one of the most difficult but also poorly monitored and regulated jobs in the world. It is subject to ambiguous and overlapping jurisdiction. I travelled to Taiwan in October 2020 to start fieldwork for my dissertation. Taiwan has one of the world’s largest distant […]
As major oil and gas producers and exporters, Norway and Canada share a particular responsibility for confronting the planet’s existential climate threat. However, their different political, economic and cultural features have resulted in major differences in their climate policy track records. Overall, Norway is a leader on climate change performance and Canada is a laggard. The 2021 Climate […]
Over the past five years a series of scandals concerning slave-like working conditions on fishing vessels have provoked global efforts to improve working conditions for fishery workers. Yet initiatives that seek to improve working conditions are hampered by a lack of empirical evidence and explanatory analysis of the dynamics that lead to such unacceptable working […]
They’re important for agriculture, but they’re not so good for the environment “Beekeeping is for people; it's not a conservation practice,” says Sheila Colla, an assistant professor and conservation biologist at Toronto’s 91ŃÇÉ«, Canada. “People mistakenly think keeping honey bees, or helping honey bees, is somehow helping the native bees, which are at risk […]
How well do you know your bees? 91ŃÇÉ« researchers have found bee knowledge in Canada lacking with about half of those surveyed thinking honey bees are wild and native to Canada. They’re not. They were brought over from Europe and are managed by beekeepers like other farm animals, such as dairy cattle for example, […]
Canadian Minister of Environment and Climate Change Jonathan Wilkinson announced on October 7 that Canada will be banning many single-use plastics by 2021, as a means of achieving the country’s goal of producing zero plastic waste by 2030. Among the soon-to-be banned items are: plastic straws, plastic cutlery, plastic grocery bags, six-pack rings for beverages, stir sticks, […]
Principal Investigator: Mark Winfield Funding: SSHRC Connections Grant. Term: 2020-2022. The project provides opportunities and platforms for researchers and practitioners to make connections between findings arising through different research projects and aids in setting future research agendas, including the impact of COVID-19 on low-carbon energy transitions. The subjects addressed through these projects have included energy […]
Principal Investigator: Peter Vandergeest/Co-Investigator: Philip Kelly. Funding: SSHRC Insight Grant. Term: 2019-2024. The research sets out to examine marine fisheries work, focusing on fisheries based out of Thailand and Taiwan that have been identified as having large numbers of migrant workers and instances of labour abuse. In particular, it aims to understand labour issues as […]
By Marc Montgomery | english@rcinet.ca You probably never noticed, but last week we used up all the resources that can be renewed annually by the Earth. That means we’re now spending more than we earn environmentally, so to speak. Last Saturday was Earth Overshoot Day, or as they put it on the website, it’s the date “when humanity’s […]