Latest news with #PatriciaLane
National Observer
a day ago
- General
- National Observer
'Super-cool' birds of prey make valuable contributions
These in-their-own-words pieces are told to Patricia Lane and co-edited with input from the interviewee for the purpose of brevity. Ginger Boehme-Vertefeuille invites us to get close to raptors. This 19-year-old from Cowichan Valley, British Columbia, spends her summers educating visitors at Vancouver Island's The Raptors. Tell us about your work. Birds of prey fascinate people — with their size, speed and deadly — intent but 30 per cent are threatened with extinction, so they are much more vulnerable than most of us realize. Vancouver Island's The Raptors facility offers people of all ages a chance to watch as eagles fly within a couple of feet of them or to carry a hawk or owl on their own wrists as they walk through a forest. Our goal is to use proximity to increase awareness about the critical role these super-cool animals play in their environments. For example, turkey vultures are not exactly beautiful at first glance. They scavenge and never hunt for themselves. But they help clean their surroundings. They eat rotting deer and other animal flesh and their digestive systems can cleanse it of anthrax, botulism and rabies. This service makes the environment safer for others, including humans. We bring hawks to places where gulls might be an expensive nuisance or even a danger, like airports, landfills and rooftop gardens. Once we fly the hawk, the gulls quickly decide to hang out elsewhere. This is a much more desirable way of managing human-nature interactions than some other alternatives! How did you get involved? Ginger Boehme-Vertefeuille invites us to get close to raptors. This 19-year-old from Cowichan Valley, British Columbia, spends her summers educating visitors at Vancouver Island's The Raptors. I grew up on Vancouver Island surrounded by forests, elk and other creatures, and the ocean. I was taught early to value Indigenous understandings that we are part of nature and intimately connected to it. Once you start seeing the world this way, protecting what we are raised to love becomes imperative. I would often go to the Raptors as a kid, and then began volunteering there as a young teen. That turned into a summer job. How do you think the way you were raised has affected you? I was taught to practice empathy and look for it in others. Celebrating the experiences of others and of the more-than-human world is a core value for me. What makes it hard? Climate change and the loss of nature that goes with it often feels overwhelming. We do protect a few birds, and we make a difference in the way our visitors relate to nature in general. But the need to see the big picture in all its political, scientific, personal and economic system complexities can feel impossible. What gives you hope? We each do our own part, and when we see each other, that is inspiring. I am a University of British Columbia student now and still finding my path, but spending time building community and connections with so many smart people, who are each doing cool things, leaves me hopeful more often than not. What possibilities do you see if we get this right? If we are able to protect our climate, we will have solved so many other problems, too. Wealth inequality, corporate power, colonialism — all these depend on treating our impact on the environment as irrelevant. If, instead, we centre it in our culture, we will make the world so much better, and our human species will still have a home. What would you like to say to other young people? Find something you love and do that. If you find an endeavour that reflects your values, you will meet others who also align. I love birds. You never know what you will fall in love with. But as I protect birds, you will protect what you love, and we will be working together even if we never meet. What about older readers?
National Observer
26-05-2025
- Politics
- National Observer
How to create a climate-safe future
These in-their-own-words pieces are told to Patricia Lane and co-edited with input from the interviewee for the purpose of brevity. Trenton McIntyre helps people across Canada plan for the climate emergencies coming their way. This 30-year-old from Victoria, BC, works at My Climate Plan, a non-profit with a mission to create a climate-safe, affordable future for everyone. Tell us about your project. We make it easy for our members to plan for the climate events most likely to happen in their own neighbourhoods. We provide serious discounts on things that make the future safer and improve the day- to-day, like heat pumps, air filters, masks and emergency preparedness kits. We also help prevent deaths from isolation by building stronger networks with events like 'Heat Buddies.' Our weekly online newsletter tells stories of people working to keep us safe, like firefighters coping with the changing nature of wildfires. It provides practical advice, like how to keep pets safe during climate disasters, tips for dealing with the rising cost of insurance and the logic and pleasure of eating more local and seasonal food. We tell readers about cities becoming more fireproof and publish personal accounts of the front lines. We are especially concerned about people living in rural and remote areas because often they have fewer emergency resources at their disposal but are more vulnerable to climate impacts. We are also an advocacy group. Our first campaign, Don't Let Canada Burn, calls on the federal government to double support for firefighters fighting climate-fuelled wildfires and to stop the problem at the source with clean energy and fixing forest management. In partnership with firefighters and wildfire survivors, the campaign has reached half a million people across the country, and we are engaging directly with federal decision-makers on solutions. Our Impact Voters program helps people especially at risk from climate change impacts and living in ridings politicians need to win, to understand their potential to make a difference. Impact voters are just three per cent of the population, but because they live in consistently competitive ridings, they are uniquely positioned to press candidates for policies to better protect us all. My role is to identify and grow partnerships with companies that provide products and services our members need to be safe. For $10 a month, members can benefit from a rapidly expanding range of incentives. For example, members get $1,000 off the purchase of a heat pump with Victoria's Method Air, discounts on energy audits with Toronto's Goldfinch Energy, and serious discounts for emergency preparedness kits and radios from Trenton McIntyre helps people across Canada plan for the climate emergencies coming their way. This 30-year-old from Victoria, BC, works at My Climate Plan, a non-profit with a mission to create a climate-safe, affordable future for everyone. How did you get into this work? I was driving home from work one day and noticed a street close to my home had flooded after torrential rain. I wanted to keep my family safe. I had no idea whether flooding would happen a lot, or if it was a rare event or what to do if the flooding reached us. After three hours of research on the Internet, I was not much wiser. I felt really at sea. It took a lot of time, research and thought to make a plan. When the opportunity came to work with My Climate Plan helping others understand their own situations and more easily prepare for the coming climate impacts, I jumped at it. I genuinely care about both the well-being of the people in the businesses we encounter and our members, so the role, which combines sales and partnership-building, is a good fit for me. What makes it hard? Climate change is overwhelming, and each new headline makes it more so. But being raised in Indigenous culture has taught me to look for safety and hope in communities of care. My parents, the people who raised me, and my wife Taylor support me and are my beacons. What keeps you awake at night? Global heating is not an equal-impact set of catastrophes. It affects Indigenous people all over the world disproportionately. This awareness gives me a passion to protect vulnerable people everywhere. One of the best ways is to help them and their communities make a plan. What gives you hope? The people who work at our partner companies really care about their customers' safety. The team at My Climate Plan are knowledgeable, creative and kind. My extended family's relationship to the land grounds me. What would you like to say to other young people? Climate change can be scary. Even if we are preoccupied with our day-to-day priorities, for so many of us, it is an anxiety-provoking backdrop. Know you are not alone. Most people are there with you. We will get through it in community, whatever that looks like for you. What about older readers?
National Observer
20-05-2025
- Business
- National Observer
Committed to clean energy in the North
These in-their-own-words pieces are told to Patricia Lane and co-edited with input from the interviewee for the purpose of brevity. As director at Nunavut Nukkiksautiit Corporation (NNC), 32-year-old Heather Shilton is passionately committed to ensuring communities drive the clean-energy transition. Tell us about your work. NNC is Nunavut's first 100-per-cent, Inuit-owned renewable energy developer. We aim to sustainably power the Qikiqtani region by empowering communities to take ownership of renewable energy projects that reflect their values. Our largest project, scheduled to come online in 2033, will replace all of Iqaluit's diesel use with hydroelectricity with potential additional capacity for clean home heating. Twelve other projects under various stages of development, construction and operation range from building-specific, micro-grid solar and battery energy storage to community-scaled wind and solar. Most renewable energy conversations are about technology, but it is the chance to empower communities to make their futures healthier, cleaner, and eventually more affordable, that propels me. We are breathing life into the concept of free, prior and informed consent in a way that sets an appropriately high benchmark for the entire country. There is a sad history of renewable projects attracting negative attention when rights-holders have their priorities ignored. None of our projects are complete until affected communities say, 'Yes,' at least four times. They must agree to explore alternatives to diesel, identify their preferred alternative, understand the economics, costs and social benefits, and approve the execution plan. Communities also play a key role in identifying co-benefits. For example, as we prepare to build the road to the water-power project, we are exploring erecting shelters to make snowmobile transportation and recreational land access safer. Building shelters is not part of our core business, but we do intend that people affected see maximum benefits. So, we build shelters. Popular support has helped regulators and the utility modernize their approaches and allows us to move more rapidly with each project. In 2019, we had two megawatts (MW) of renewable energy under various phases of development. By 2025, we have more than 30 MW. As director at Nunavut Nukkiksautiit Corporation (NNC), 32-year-old Heather Shilton is passionately committed to ensuring communities drive the clean-energy transition. Does disinformation slow you down? We believe in telling people everything we know. For the water-power project, we identified 16 alternatives for power to Iqaluit. One of those was remaining on diesel. Every development has costs and benefits, and people have the right to make the choice. It is our experience that if we respect people's intelligence, value relationships and add technical know-how, communities will sort through the disinformation themselves. Everything we say is presented in both Inuktitut and English, and we use a lot of visuals. We allow the process to take the time it needs. What makes your work hard? Sometimes, lack of accurate data gets in our way. For example, much is made of how expensive renewables are in the North, and we require federal financial support. But diesel is also subsidized. We have been attempting to calculate the taxpayer-funded support for diesel in Nunavut for five years without success, making it harder to provide our communities with good data for their decisions. Our team is talented, passionate and feels the urgency of economic and climate change. Moving at the pace of community trust can be hard, but we know it is fundamental to a just, clean-energy transition in Nunavut. We have learned to take a longer view. What keeps you awake at night? If we don't get the way we communicate right, we risk losing community trust. It is hard to win that back. Funders are sometimes impatient with our process. Climate change is a daily reality. It's worrisome when hunters get lost because they are not able to read the ice the way they used to, due to unreliable weather patterns. What gives you hope? When an elder feels their values are prioritized for the first time in their lives, I know we are on the right track. My team is inspiring every day. We are creating energy sovereignty and good, clean jobs close to home. That feels good. What do you see if we get this right? People all over the North and across the country engage in a collective re-imagining of the kind of futures that are possible. How did the way you were raised affect you? In a high school ecology class, we read former US vice president Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. I was terrified, but I knew that being part of the solution would guide the rest of my life. The fear galvanized me, but the desire to protect the people and places I love and help them thrive in their own ways keeps me engaged. What would you like to say to other young people? There is no better feeling than working with people who are making a difference and learning together. Check the sources of your information. Ask who might benefit from you believing it. What about older readers? It can be frustrating to hear older people say, "It's your generation that will save us.' Older people often have power and agency that are not available to younger folks. Use it to protect our future.
National Observer
12-05-2025
- General
- National Observer
Juliana Janot
Juliana Janot wants all post-secondary students to understand climate change. This 20-year-old University of British Columbia student co-founded Climate Education for All (CEFA) (@climateeducation4all on Instagram) to make sure every student is educated about the causes and impacts of the climate crisis and its solutions. By Patricia Lane Juliana Janot
National Observer
12-05-2025
- Science
- National Observer
Students educating students about climate change
These in-their-own-words pieces are told to Patricia Lane and co-edited with input from the interviewee for the purpose of brevity. Juliana Janot wants all post-secondary students to understand climate change. This 20-year-old University of British Columbia student co-founded Climate Education for All (CEFA) (@climateeducation4all on Instagram) to make sure every student is educated about the causes and impacts of the climate crisis and its solutions. Tell us about your project. A friend, who is an engineering student, recently asked me if climate change was real! He never had a class of any kind on it and really did not know. But he wants to. So, I launched the Climate Education for All (CEFA) campaign at UBC, with co-organizers Taylor Nitzsche and Professor Fernanda Tomaselli. The 2,000 UBC undergraduates we surveyed overwhelmingly support including climate education in their programs. CEFA has already secured this commitment from the deans of the UBC faculties of Forestry, Land and Food Systems, and the School of Nursing. These will serve as models and inspiration for the remainder of UBC. I attended Starfish Canada's Youth Environmental Changemakers Summit and recruited students from across Canada to launch campaigns at their own schools. The CEFA network will ask post-secondary institutions everywhere to educate and empower a generation of climate-conscious professionals to make actionable change. We are currently active at the University of Toronto, Simon Fraser University, University of Guelph, University of Calgary, Okanagan College, Mount Allison University, Acadia University and University of British Columbia. We have international interest too, and CEFA now includes Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and most recently, IPB University Indonesia. We are just getting started. CEFA will host strategy discussions, provide materials and campaign training and mentoring for students running their campaigns. Where it is already happening, we daylight the approach and hope to facilitate interaction and learning. Where change is needed, the approach is different for each campus. For example, at UBC, faculties have autonomy, so we took that into account. At other schools, sometimes a policy change can happen university-wide. How did you get into this work? Juliana Janot is a 20-year-old University of British Columbia student who co-founded Climate Education for All (CEFA) (@climateeducation4all on Instagram) to make sure every student is educated about climate change. I attended a conference for climate leaders at the University of California and learned that students and faculty from the San Diego campus successfully campaigned to persuade their school to require climate education as a graduation prerequisite, so they are prepared for the future they will actually live. I was inspired to bring the effort back to UBC. What makes it hard? Universities are complex institutions. We are eager but thinking through a plan and developing strong relationships to carry it out are essential. I am excited to begin a directed studies research project next term, learning different approaches taken at universities and colleges that have already implemented a climate literacy graduation requirement. I hope my findings will make it easier for others. What gives you hope? The current lack of knowledge about global heating among government and business decision-makers is dangerous. I believe we will succeed. Sometimes we face inertia but no one disagrees with the basic concept. We are helping to make a safer world. What keeps you awake at night? Excitement! Students have so much anxiety and sadness. We are developing a pathway to transform those emotions into building a better world. The politicians and CEOs leading the world's largest polluting nations and corporations are highly educated. One has to ask: Are universities creating change-makers or just followers who comply with and reproduce existing systems of inequity and climate destruction? I see us sparking a student-led global movement that educates and empowers us to be much more effective leaders than those currently in charge. How did your childhood affect your work? When I was a small child in Brazil, I was aware there were many other children who did not have enough to eat. I was highly empathic and wanted to help. In middle school, we explored topics like human rights and, once I learned about the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, I could see adults around the world were working on solutions. I thought I could, too. My passion for climate action began when I understood that continuing to burn fossil fuels carries threats to human dignity, disproportionately affecting those most vulnerable. I dream that no child's future is threatened by climate disasters and no human's health is endangered by pollution. What would you like to say to other young people? We are often asked, 'What would you like to do when you grow up?' But later is too late! I started wanting to help when I was 11 but most NGOs only allowed volunteers if you were 16. But I knew kids could make a difference and co-founded a non-profit organization called Construindo o Futuro (CF). It has empowered more than 400 teenagers to realize their change-making potential. We have helped more than 7,000 people across Brazil and beyond through youth-led socio-environmental community projects.
