Latest news with #WhatOnEarth
CBC
27-03-2025
- General
- CBC
Young people want to work on climate. This group is helping
Also: See how to recycle an office building into apartments Image | What on Earth logo slimmer (Sködt McNalty/CBC) Open Image in New Tab Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox every Thursday. This week: Young people want to work on climate. This group is helping Image | Ann Ralls at the BC Insulators training centre Caption: Ann Ralls went through three months of training as a mechanical insulator. The training was set up by the Youth Climate Corps B.C., a program that offers young people paid training in a variety of jobs that help with climate change. (Rachel Sanders/CBC) Ann Ralls had never considered working in the construction industry. But after three months of paid training — coordinated by a non-profit called Youth Climate Corps B.C. — she loves it. "It's a lot of work but it's fun. It's like doing arts and crafts every day," she told CBC Radio's climate solutions show What On Earth. Ralls, 23, trained as a mechanical insulator, a trade focused on insulating equipment such as pipes and ducts using a variety of materials like fibreglass, PVC and metal. The work can improve the energy efficiency of buildings and lower their carbon footprints. The climate benefits are what attracted her to the work. "I was really just trying to find a job in the climate industry," she said. Ralls said, in recent years, wildfires, drought, extreme heat and supercharged storms have threatened the people and places she loves. "It's kind of scary, especially when people you know have farms and they are at risk," she said. "I feel like it's so important to find how you can make a difference." Despite the fact that she'd "never really touched a power tool before," Ralls took to mechanical insulating quickly. She said the work is interesting and well-paid, and it gives her a sense of satisfaction to be contributing to climate solutions. Ashley Duncan, the president of union Local 118 with the B.C. Insulators, which partnered with Youth Climate Corps B.C. on the training program, said the climate link seems to attract young people who are considering the trades as a career. "When we've done trade fairs and things like that, that piece brings a lot more people over to us than a lot of the other stuff we discuss," she said. Duncan said attracting more climate-motivated young people to this work could help solve the shortage of trades workers in Canada. "When I first started out [in this trade], I didn't see a lot of women. I didn't see a lot of diversity," she said. "So being able to bring people in now, especially under climate literacy, I think it's so important." Media Audio | What On Earth : Move over Peace Corps, meet Climate Corps. Enlist now! Open Full Embed in New Tab Loading external pages may require significantly more data usage than loading CBC Lite story pages. Ben Simoni, executive director of Youth Climate Corps B.C. (YCCBC), said the organization has heard from young people that they're concerned about the future and want to work on climate change in their communities. "The younger generation really wants to be working in areas that align with their values," he said. Simoni said the program, which started in Nelson, B.C., in 2020, has to date hired approximately 100 young people who have completed around 10,000 paid days of climate action through the program. The four-to-six month training sessions are open to people aged 17 to 30. Trainees have worked in communities around B.C., from the Interior to the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island, on a variety of climate related projects, including wildfire mitigation, ecological restoration, and home retrofitting. "We like to connect it to the needs of the community and also the job opportunities that are in the community so that … people are being set up for a really solid career," said Simoni. The program secures funding for wages by partnering with local governments and employers as well as by applying for grants. Last year, the B.C. government announced $3 million for the program over three years. Simoni said the group would like to expand the program to other provinces and offer longer training sessions to give young people hands-on experience in a wider variety of climate-related jobs. "I'm really excited to see where this goes because I do truly believe it is a program to meet the moment," he said. With youth unemployment high across Canada, Simoni said young people are facing economic uncertainty as well as climate uncertainty. "When we have wealth concentration and when we have the delegitimization of governments, that's when we see far right nationalism and that's where we see wealth inequality expand more and more," he said. "What I think is a big potential of Youth Climate Corps is giving people other stories of how we can be as a nation, how we can be as communities." As for Ralls, she's been hired on with the company she trained with and intends to continue with the work while she applies to graduate schools. She's not the only one continuing on as a mechanical insulator. The other six trainees in her cohort have also been hired on to work as mechanical insulators. Some, said Ralls, intend to pursue Red Seal certification and continue with the job long term. "Thanks to YCCBC some people are finding a career in trades," she said. — Check out our podcast and radio show. In our newest episode: Kids and veggies don't always go hand in hand, but this after-school workshop is introducing plant-based cooking to children as a climate solution. It's called EcoCooks. Producer Nick Logan stopped by a session to meet the kids aged nine to 12 who are learning to make, and appreciate, tasty, vegetable-forward food that also cuts emissions. Then, we learn about other community efforts across Canada to put more veggies in the spotlight and onto plates. Media Audio | What On Earth : Tasty, climate-friendly food that kids will make (and eat) Open Full Embed in New Tab Loading external pages may require significantly more data usage than loading CBC Lite story pages. What On Earth drops new podcast episodes every Wednesday and Saturday. You can find them on your favourite podcast app or on demand at CBC Listen. The radio show airs Sundays at 11 a.m., 11:30 a.m. in Newfoundland and Labrador. Have a compelling personal story about climate change you want to share with CBC News? Pitch a First Person column here. Reader Feedback Last week, we wrote about a student science project to test eco-friendly laundry water for watering garden plants. Francis Hill wrote: "I'm a member of the Native Plant Stewardship Group (part of Transition Salt Spring) and we're tackling invasive English ivy and discussing ways to dispose of it. Someone mentioned it contains the same chemical, saponin, found in the soap nuts, and I found recipes for making laundry soap from ivy leaves online. It would be wonderful if we could find a practical use for this invasive species." Merry Kern and Irene Mathias both wrote in to say they re-use their bath water to water plants. Irene added that not only does she pour bath water into the pots of houseplants, tomatoes and hanging baskets, but she also uses it to fill her toilet tank: "One bath equals about four flushes so that feels very worthwhile!" Write us at whatonearth@ (And feel free to send photos, too!) The Big Picture: Who wins and who loses with the carbon tax cut? Mark Carney's first move after being sworn in as prime minister was to end the federal consumer carbon tax and the rebate that came with it to offset the cost. The fuel charge was intended as an incentive for people to invest in clean technology such as EVs and heat pumps, and it applied in provinces without their own carbon pricing. It will be removed from consumer gasoline, diesel natural gas and oil bills on April 1. The April 15 carbon rebates will be the last one Canadians receive. But who will benefit from this? The chart above, created by CBC data journalist Robson Fletcher in 2023, shows the trends. For each income range, you can see what share of households gained or lost money under the carbon tax and rebate system, depending on their consumption habits — or specifically, how much they spent on gasoline, natural gas and other products covered by the tax. (The further to the right side, the more money gained. The further to the left side, the more money lost.) Back then, the carbon tax was $65 per tonne and it's now $80 per tonne, so the actual dollar amounts would be higher in 2025, but the trend would be the same. The chart shows lower-income Canadians largely benefited from the carbon tax and rebate. For example, 94 per cent of households with incomes below $50,000 received rebates greater than the carbon tax they paid. When the carbon tax and rebate are gone, higher-income Canadians will benefit the most, while many lower-income Canadians will lose money. — Emily Chung How do you recycle an office building into apartments? Check out this reno. In less than a year, someone will be living in what used to be the finance department of a local insurance company. Someone else will be taking a shower where lawyers held meetings or cooking where human resources staff signed paycheques. Work is underway to turn 195 Dufferin Avenue in London, Ont., an eight-storey building that once housed insurance companies and law offices, into apartment units. It's the first project that's using incentive money from the city to convert empty or under-used offices into much-needed housing. "We're doing something that is better for the community and better for London," said Richard Sifton, CEO of Sifton Properties, which is heading up the conversion. Sifton leases the building, which sits on land owned by St. Paul's Cathedral and the Anglican Diocese of Huron. Homes Unlimited, London's largest provider of non-profit housing, will eventually run the apartment building. "It just seemed to be the right project at the right time," Sifton said, standing on the ground floor of the building, which will eventually house a laundry room, an office, and community rooms. "Those of us that have done well need to ensure that we are there for the communities that we work in and help people out as best we can, wherever we can." Converting an office into residential units comes with unique challenges. Commercial buildings tend to have only one set of washrooms — and the required plumbing — per floor. "Obviously, you have to have washrooms and a kitchen in every unit, so we have to relocate all of that plumbing and the mechanical systems because each unit has to have its own heating and cooling and fresh air," Sifton said. "It's not as simple as just putting up some walls and hoping that everything works." Media Audio | London Morning : Converting a downtown office building into affordable housing units Caption: One of London's oldest builders is converting a downtown office building into affordable housing units. CBC reporter Kate Dubinski got a tour of the work in progress by Sifton Properties CEO Richard Sifton. Open Full Embed in New Tab Loading external pages may require significantly more data usage than loading CBC Lite story pages. Crews have used radar equipment to see what they're cutting into before drilling holes into each floor to feed mechanical and electrical systems through, as well as plumbing. Sifton said starting from scratch would have been simpler, but there are many advantages to converting an existing building. "We have the good bones of the structure, so we're able to make this project happen a lot faster." Normally, he said, an apartment building would take two and a half years to construct. In this case, construction began last October, and he expects people to be able to move in by the end of this year or early 2026. The units tend to be narrower than ones that would have been created in a new build, Sifton said, but many will have very large windows and views of downtown. "Some of the bedrooms don't have windows, per se, but we do have lighting cells so they get natural light coming into the bedroom, which will make it much more appealing for the resident. It just has to be a little bit different in order for the layout to work." All of the windows are being replaced to be more energy-efficient, as are heating and cooling systems. Sifton said the biggest surprises have come from opening up walls, floors, and ceilings and finding unexpected challenges, such as asbestos piping wrap. "The renovators of the world are used to this, but we're not," he said. "Sometimes, when things are built, the plans show you how it's supposed to be built, but that doesn't necessarily how it actually was built, so that takes some more time and effort." Sifton is also working with other major London developers Tricar, Auburn and Drewlo, to convert a former long-term care home into 40 supportive housing units, where people can move after getting the stability they need in one of the city's homeless hubs. "That's people coming together and doing something with a common cause," Sifton said. "We're normally competitors, but not in this process. We're all contributing as much as we can, thinking that we want to contribute to the community and try to fill in where we can make things better." — Kate Dubinski Thanks for reading. If you have questions, criticisms or story tips, please send them to whatonearth@ What on Earth? comes straight to your inbox every Thursday. Editors: Emily Chung and Hannah Hoag | Logo design: Sködt McNalty
CBC
22-03-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Why these island nations want ecocide to become an international crime
Environmental destruction should be on the same level as genocide and war crimes, a group of island nations argues. "We don't take damage to nature seriously enough. We don't even take nature seriously enough," Jojo Mehta, co-founder and CEO of Stop Ecocide International, told What On Earth. The South Pacific country of Vanuatu, backed by its fellow island nations of Fiji and Samoa, is pushing to have ecocide recognized by the International Criminal Court (ICC), the independent court based in The Hague, Netherlands, responsible for prosecuting individuals who are charged with the gravest crimes. Ecocide is defined as the destruction of large areas of the natural environment as a consequence of human activity. The proposal, made in September 2024, seeks to have ecocide recognized alongside the four crimes under the ICC's jurisdiction through the Rome Statute: genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression. It would allow for the prosecution of individuals accused of committing the worst environmental destruction. "We see that law as having always been necessary. But we're just coming to the point now where people are realizing it must be in place," said Mehta. But opinions are mixed on whether making ecocide a recognized crime would make a difference. Vulnerability Payam Akhavan, a professor of international law at the University of Toronto, says these island nations are some of the most at risk. "Small island states are the canary in the coal mine of climate catastrophe," said Akhavan. "Some of the low-lying islands … are literally going to be fully submerged in the foreseeable future, they will be swallowed by the ocean. So it's no exaggeration to say that for small island states, climate change and environmental harm is an existential threat." Mehta says this push for ecocide to be recognized by the ICC is in addition to another legal initiative at the United Nations' International Court of Justice, which is looking at how much nation-states are responsible for human rights and climate change. "There's a very clear and very concrete wish on the part of those islands to put something in place that actually creates a degree of safety and creates a kind of guardrail," said Mehta. Why make it an international crime? The term "ecocide" was first used in 1970, in reference to the damage done by the U.S. military's use of the Agent Orange chemical herbicide during the Vietnam War. Akhavan says it would have extended to incidents like Russia destroying the Kakhovka Dam near Kherson, Ukraine, in 2023, or when former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein ordered the spilling of 11 million barrels of crude oil into the Persian Gulf in 1991, for example. Many countries around the world already have environment-specific laws. But according to Mehta, it's "not proving adequate." She says it's going to take a cultural shift, and putting ecocide alongside some of the world's worst crimes will impact people's perspectives. "Criminal law taps into the moral and ethical sense that we have in society what is acceptable, what is not, what is bad, what is good, what is wrong, what is right," said Mehta. "So criminalizing something is saying something quite powerful." Mehta says this would put companies on notice, as a charge of ecocide is more powerful than just a fine. It would come with a larger moral stigma. According to Stop Ecocide International, once a country ratifies ecocide as a crime at the international level, they are likely to incorporate it into their domestic legislation. Other crimes under the ICC come with a sentence of imprisonment for life. The ICC is a court of last resort, when nations can't or won't prosecute cases involving the most serious crimes. But Mehta believes that having ecocide under ICC jurisdiction could serve as a deterrent. That would have the potential to impact a company's reputation and, she says, its stock value. "If we put ecocide alongside crimes against humanity and genocide, what we're saying is it's just as bad, wrong, dangerous to severely destroy ecosystems as it is to commit those other crimes." Would it make a difference? Akhavan isn't so sure this is a magic bullet. He's also a former United Nations prosecutor in The Hague, a former special adviser to the ICC, and recently served as legal counsel in a climate-related case before the International Court of Justice, the UN's main judicial body. "We have to understand that creating deterrence at the global level is a very long-term historical project," said Akhavan. "It's not something that's going to be achieved with the wave of a magic wand by simply including the crime of ecocide." There is ongoing diplomatic conversation around whether to include ecocide as the fifth crime under the Rome Statute, the international treaty that established the ICC. To amend the statute, two-thirds of the 125 member states must approve it, which includes Canada but not the U.S., Russia or China. "I think other states may be reluctant to expand the remit of the courts," said Akhavan. He says some may be concerned about how ecocide could be interpreted and applied. Others may worry that the ICC already struggles to prosecute crimes that currently fall under its statutes. He believes national legislation is the most important area of legal activity, as even if ecocide is recognized by the ICC, it may take years of debate and discussion. But Mehta says it's a "key piece" of the puzzle. "It's not just symbolic. Shifting that mindset is actually a very practical thing that needs to happen. So we would say that it's about putting in place a ground rule that should always have been there.… And it's one that needs to be in place going forward into the future."
CBC
06-02-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Why misinformation spreads during climate disasters, and how to stop it
Hello, Earthlings! This is our weekly newsletter on all things environmental, where we highlight trends and solutions that are moving us to a more sustainable world. Keep up with the latest news on our Climate and Environment page. Why misinformation spreads during climate disasters, and how to stop it As wildfires spread though Los Angeles last month, so did false information, from theories that the fires were started by lasers or aliens, and to speculation about why some fire hydrants ran out of water to fight the fires. (U.S. President Donald Trump blamed California fish protection regulations, but the New York Times debunked that explanation. Here's why the firefighters were actually short on water.) That didn't surprise Chris Russill, associate professor in Carleton University's School of Journalism and Communication. He told Laura Lynch, host of CBC's What On Earth, that misinformation also spread quickly during the 2023 Canadian wildfires. It happened during the 2023 Maui fire s too. But why does misinformation (false info) and disinformation (false info deliberately spread to deceive people) spread so wildly during natural disasters? In Russill's view, disasters such as wildfires and hurricanes are "really intense and immediate focusing events" that bring more people into the climate change conversation. "And that includes those invested in climate conspiracies … which seek engagement in these moments." He described conspiracy theories as a kind of misinformation or disinformation that explain events as the work of a group of people acting in unison to pursue a hidden plan. He gave the example of online rumours that the government "was setting the fires to generate fear in order to build support for their climate policy." Erin Blondeau, director of communications for the Climate Emergency Unit, part of the David Suzuki Institute, told Lynch that when she was a young person struggling with poverty, she was attracted to and believed conspiracy theories. They "offered explanations that seemed to make sense of the things that I was struggling with," said Blondeau. They also validated her anger in a way that no one else did, she recalled, but "did so while redirecting that anger at the wrong targets." While she thinks anyone is susceptible to conspiracy culture these days, she also thinks social and economic inequality can make some people more susceptible, and that needs to be addressed. So what can be done to stop the spread of misinformation in times of crisis? Blondeau thinks people should be directed away from online discussions. "We really need to, as much as we can, focus on communicating outside of social media and offline, so in real life," she said. "We need our elected leaders to actually be accessible and even have local scientists available in person." She said people need places like climate town halls where they can go to voice their worries about things like losing their jobs in the transition away from fossil fuels. She said she'd love to be able to talk to climate skeptics in the community about the fair sustainable society that climate activists are seeking. "It's really hard to show them that when politicians, especially far-right politicians, are always turning climate action into the enemy." Russill, who is academic director at a centre for climate communication, thinks the solutions include improving the public's information literacy and better regulation of digital platforms where misinformation is spreading. But he noted that a 2024 report that looked at a wide range of research evidence found the most effective antidote to misinformation was local journalism. "Timely, accurate local knowledge is something that local journalism provides, particularly in moments of crisis," he said. "So I think really leaning into and supporting journalism is something we need to think about." Check out our podcast and radio show. In our newest episode: It helps farmers and protects against wildfire. "The world needs to know about biochar," says one scientist. So, what the heck is this charcoal-like, carbon-storing material? We meet a man on Vancouver Island who's spending his retirement years making it for his neighbours. Then, producer Rachel Sanders finds out what potential this climate solution holds, what the pitfalls may be and what the challenges are with scaling it up. What On Earth drops new podcast episodes every Wednesday and Saturday. You can find them on your favourite podcast app or on demand at CBC Listen. The radio show airs Sundays at 11 a.m., 11:30 a.m. in Newfoundland and Labrador. Reader feedback A couple of weeks ago, we wrote about the climate impact of food waste apps. Amy Every wrote: " Regarding food waste apps, could they also be used by food banks?" Lori Pickering wrote that consumers who buy waste food with the apps "might just throw it out anyway because they can't eat it in time and they bought it for cheap. A better use would be to donate it to the food banks (whose users probably don't waste food to the same degree) and the stores would be able to get a charitable donation tax receipt." We asked food banks what they think of this. Food Banks Canada, a national umbrella group that supports 5500 food banks across the country, said it has long-standing partnerships with many of Canada's leading grocery chains. They both donate surplus food and lead fundraising programs and food drives. Last year, 650 retail stores donated 9,000 tonnes of surplus food, Food Banks Canada reported. Eva Molina, VP of Marketing and Communications for Toronto's Daily Bread Food Bank, said her food bank works with a number of Toronto retailers to "capture nearing date products." She added that food waste apps have led to a slight decline in donations of food products from certain categories, but "we recognize that these apps can be a great resource for individuals who may be struggling with food insecurity as well, and they can create cheaper access to quality food." While Food Banks Canada said tax receipts are provided for all corporate donations of surplus food, Molina said Canada Revenue Agency doesn't assign a value to food commodities "so the tax receipt is not necessarily an incentive for retailers in this case." The Big Picture: The biggest years for insurance damage The Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) recently reported that as a result of events like the Jasper wildfire and flooding in eastern Canada, 2024 set a record for insurance payouts in Canada: $8.55 billion. It was the most expensive year for insurers since 2016, the year of the Fort McMurray wildfires, which resulted in more than $6 billion in payouts. As Craig Stewart, vice-president of climate change and federal issues for IBC, recently told the CBC Radio program What on Earth, flooding generally accounts for the biggest chunk of insurance payouts in Canada — about $3.7 billion in 2024. But the sheer unpredictability of global warming is leading to freak occurrences with major financial ramifications. For example, the most expensive event in Canada last year was a 20-minute hailstorm near Calgary that resulted in 70,000 claims. "It obliterated cars, damaged houses — it came in at about $2.8 billion for that one event," said Stewart. — Andre Mayer remove references to climate change from their websites, forcing some of them to go dark. "Drill, baby, drill" is a catchy slogan – "simple and understandable," writes Zain Haq, a B.C. student recently deported to Pakistan after his arrest in two environmental protests. Haq argues that the climate movement should learn from the Republicans and Canadian Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre on how to speak to the public. Wildlife doesn't respect political boundaries. That's why despite the conflict in Israel, Israeli and Arab scientists are collaborating to save barn owls, whose nests have been destroyed by human war near the Israel-Lebanon border. Menus often nudge people to eat meat by making it the default option, intentionally or not. But Canadian universities and hospitals are among those trying more plant-based defaults to promote healthier eating and fight climate change. The University of Northern Colorado is replacing grass with native plants as part of a statewide initiative to save water. But how much water can replacing grass really save? Artist saves old growth trees with new way to carve totem poles Spiral wood shavings pile at the feet of artist Hayalthkin'geme Carey Newman. He's in his carving workshop along the shore of Saanichton Bay, B.C., just north of Victoria, where a totem different than any other he has made before with partner Tejas Collison is starting to take shape. "This is the first pole that I'm making this way, so I'm learning as I go," said Newman, who is Kwakwaka'wakw from northern Vancouver Island and Sto:lo from Cheam First Nation. Fourteen beams of second growth wood are wedged in a contraption built to make totem carving possible out of multiple pieces of wood. The device was designed and made by Camosun Innovates, a technology access centre at Camosun College in Victoria. The idea for what Newman calls "Totem 2.0" came out of a responsibility he felt to preserve old growth trees. About 10 years ago he noticed old growth logs were harder to come by. "It became more and more difficult to find them," said Newman. Newman was commissioned to make a pole that would go to Germany and the person who ordered it wanted to see the tree that would be used get cut down. "That's something that I'd never done before," said Newman. Watching the ginormous tree fall made him question if he should be doing this. "I was also thinking about my own traditional teachings around responsibility to future generations and started to wonder if I should be carving old growth anymore," said Newman.
