Latest news with #iPolitics
11-07-2025
- Politics
No, David Suzuki hasn't given up on the climate fight — but his battle plan is changing
Canadian environmentalist David Suzuki made headlines last week when he said in an interview with iPolitics (new window) that humanity has lost its fight against climate change. We're in deep trouble, Suzuki told the outlet. I've never said this before to the media, but it's too late. Though he made it clear that he hasn't entirely given up, Suzuki says that rather than getting caught up in trying to force change through legal, political and economic systems, we now need to focus on community action. 'We've passed too many boundaries' I look at what the straight science says and that is that we've passed too many boundaries, said Suzuki in an interview with CBC News on Monday. It's going to get hotter, there's going to be floods, and all kinds of other things that we can't predict at this point, he said. As the temperature rises, even half a degree to a degree warmer, the repercussions ecologically are going to be immense. Suzuki says he goes by Johan Rockström's work with the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research to define nine planetary boundaries, or safe limits for human pressure on certain critical processes. During an interview with CBC in June about deep-sea mining (new window) , Rockström discussed how humanity is approaching tipping points when it comes to climate change. We have more and more scientific evidence that we are pushing these systems to the brink of potential collapse, he said. WATCH | What we can do to continue climate fight even as warnings grow dire: Début du widget Widget. Passer le widget ? Fin du widget Widget. Retourner au début du widget ? Suzuki says that we passed the seventh boundary this year and are now in the extreme danger zone, noting that Rockström says we have five years to get out of it. According to Suzuki, it's not likely we'll be able to pull back on these boundaries within five years. It's crystal clear, we're going to overshoot. For example, the 1.5 C target in global warming set by the 2015 Paris Agreement has now been surpassed. And that was the level we were supposed to reach by 2100, said Suzuki, noting that we haven't capped emissions and they continue to climb. At some point, you have to say, we're not going to do it. Why Suzuki has given up on politics Climate advocates have long said that one of the biggest things people can do to impact climate change is to vote, contact politicians and get involved. But now, Suzuki says he's changing his advice to environmental advocates. He says he hasn't given up on finding solutions, just on waiting for governments and institutions to take meaningful action. WATCH | Suzuki explains why he's given up on governments solving climate crisis: Début du widget Widget. Passer le widget ? Fin du widget Widget. Retourner au début du widget ? It's an unpredictable world that we're heading to, and so much of our efforts in the environmental movement have been spent on assuming that politicians are going to take the right steps, he said. As an example, he recalls approaching an MP at a fundraiser gala for his non-profit environmental foundation. Suzuki says he believed the MP understood the severity of the climate crisis and urged him to reach out across party lines to take action because climate change couldn't remain political. But he says the MP responded by saying he was worried about the next election. And I said, 'Are you saying that you're not going to do what should have been done years ago that must be done immediately because of the political possibility that you'll lose the next election?' Suzuki recalled. And he said, 'Yeah, that's politics — politics prevents you from doing the right thing.' Focus on community and resilience Having abandoned politics as a solution, Suzuki says he's turning to community. Do we just give up? No, he said. Get together with your local block or your series of blocks and start finding out who's going to need help in an emergency. Suzuki says the Kitsilano neighbourhood in Vancouver where he's lived for 50 years is having a block party next week that he hopes will help combat the isolation and loneliness he says will be major challenges for what lies ahead. There are other places in Canada that are also prioritizing community. Enlarge image (new window) In June last year, Lytton Mayor Denise O'Connor walks on the property where her house once stood and will be rebuilt. It and most other buildings in the B.C. town were destroyed in a 2021 wildfire. Today, the town's rebuilding plans include a community hub that will be net zero and have climate resilience built in. Photo: The Canadian Press / Darryl Dyck The town of Lytton, B.C., is still rebuilding after a 2021 wildfire destroyed most of its homes and businesses. Part of their rebuilding plan includes a Community Hub project. We're calling it a hub because we plan to have a number of services within that building … and an outdoor space like a covered festival, farmers market multi-purpose space as well, Lytton Mayor Denise O'Connor told CBC News. The community hub will be net zero and will also have climate resilience built in, with a swimming pool that can double as a water reservoir. Suzuki says this kind of community resilience will be key. LISTEN | How engaging with your community can help with climate anxiety (new window) Mother Nature is going to come down so hard that we're going to have to face up to the big changes, but I'm saying to environmental groups now, 'focus on the local community, get them to be as self-sufficient and self-reliant as you can possibly be,' he said. The science says that we're done for, but I'm saying at least the time that we've got left, let's fight like mad to be as resilient as we can in the face of what's coming. Bridget Stringer-Holden (new window) · CBC News Bridget Stringer-Holden is a 2024 Joan Donaldson CBC News Scholar, currently working as an associate producer. She graduated from UBC's Master of Journalism program and is passionate about science and climate reporting. Her work has been featured in The Globe and Mail, Vancouver Magazine, B.C. Business, The Vancouver Sun, The Georgia Straight and a variety of student papers, podcasts and radio stations. You can reach her at
National Observer
11-07-2025
- Politics
- National Observer
Is Suzuki right that it's 'too late'? We are in an era of simultaneous wins and losses
I didn't mean for it to happen. I was watching a Disney show on my laptop with my 10-year-old son. But when the show ended, and I closed the tab, the next open tab filled my screen. It was an article from iPolitics with the neck-throttling headline: ''It's too late': David Suzuki says the fight against climate change is lost.' 'What?' cried my son. 'David Suzuki said that!' I was caught off-guard. 'It's complicated,' I stammered, that last refuge of scoundrels. 'He is wrestling with some despair after trying for so many years.' He's in good company. Truth is, the article caught many of us off-guard, if my social network is any indication. Some of its readers concur, while others were angry. 'I'm really annoyed about that Suzuki thing. It's irresponsible,' a colleague texted me. 'He is saying out loud the private thoughts that many of us have all the time,' wrote Devika Shah, executive director of Environment Funders Canada on LinkedIn. 'It was a tough read, but we humans are where we are. For my fellow climate peeps who think he is wrong to say this — please recognize that he's earned the right.' All of us who work on climate have long walked a razor's edge between hope and despair, and the last few months (or years) have made it near impossible to keep one's balance. But I would put the current predicament differently. While we all know Suzuki as a communicator, he is firstly a scientist and is speaking some basic scientific truths. He's also trying to sound an alarm and rouse us out of a collective stupor, and he's not wrong to want to do that — while polling indicates Canadians are worried about climate change, we are clearly not as scared as we should be. The scientific community as a whole is worried. The situation is grim — temperature increases are happening faster than predicted, extreme weather events are escalating, planetary boundaries are being breached. The assaults on the people and places we love aren't a distant threat somewhere else, sometime in the future — they are here and now. Governments throw in the towel I, too, am losing faith. All of us who work on climate have long walked a razor's edge between hope and despair, and the last few months (or years) have made it near impossible to keep one's balance. We are all wrestling with the jarring and growing disconnect between climate events and our politics. President Trump's brutal roll-back of climate actions south of the border is throwing us all for a loop. But even in our own country, our federal and provincial governments are acting like a bunch of surrender monkeys, walking away from their climate commitments. Our official climate plans are in a shambles and riddled with incoherence, as governments continue to approve new fossil fuel infrastructure while abandoning carbon pricing, emission caps and, potentially, vehicle mandates. The defeatism is hard to take. The complicated psychology of now All that said, I would put the current predicament differently than saying it's 'too late.' More accurately, it both is and isn't too late. Those of us trying to move the public to action must hold with care the collective psychology of the moment, and engage in responsible truth-telling. For example, the leaders we most remember from the Second World War were outstanding communicators who managed to walk a difficult line — they were forthright with the public about the severity of the threat, while still managing to impart hope. That's what this moment requires. We are motivated by a complicated and highly personal mix of hope and fear, love and anger. All of which needs to be tapped to win this fight. There is no place for false optimism. But as the climate scientist Kate Marvel says, this battle for our lives doesn't need optimists, it needs heroes — people of courage, which she defines as, 'the resolve to do well without the assurance of a happy ending.' Ten years ago, the countries of the world signed the Paris Agreement and committed to do what they could to keep global temperature rise below 1.5 degrees Celsius. Sadly, on that score, it is indeed too late. Admitting this defeat is not something that should be done nonchalantly; it is a brutal indictment of us all. In Paris, the rallying cry of Pacific Island nations and others from the Global South was '1.5 to stay alive.' That threshold is indeed existential for them, and we have failed them. But the climate fight is not something we either win or lose. As the saying goes, it functions as a 'matter of degrees.' Each incremental increase in temperature comes with devastating losses to the people and places we love. But it is also the case that each incremental increase we prevent saves millions. While we are already witnessing the death and destruction that comes with 1.5 degrees, a 2-degree world — which can still be prevented — will be that much worse, while a 3-degree world is unimaginable, and a 4-degree world is not one any of us would want our children and grandchildren to inhabit. To not continue to do everything we can to avoid that next incremental increase is obscene. The awkwardness of the current period is that, for the next many years, we are going to experience both losses and wins simultaneously. Yes, we need to be eyes wide open to the devastating extreme events now underway. But we also need to be alive to the hopeful trends: China looks to have peaked its GHG emissions, years ahead of schedule; Europe is driving down emissions much faster than Canada; in Norway, 97 per cent of new vehicle sales are now zero-emission; in the UK, emissions are now lower than at any time since the start of the industrial revolution in the late 1800's; and around the world, the adoption of renewable energy is exploding. The point being, the struggle to tackle the climate emergency is a steep climb down, not a cliff. This September, the global climate movement will be trying to recapture some of the lost momentum of recent post-pandemic years. At rallies across Canada and around the world, under the banner ' Draw the Line,' people are being invited to shake off their feelings of isolation and join this call: 'Floods, droughts, storms and heatwaves are getting worse. Food and energy costs are going up while a few billionaires profit and prop up the industries that harm people and pollute our lands, air and waters. Indigenous leaders from the Amazon to the Pacific have spoken out: our future is at stake. To solve this crisis, the answer is us — the people… This September we will come together to draw the line against injustice, pollution, and violence — and for a future built on peace, clean energy and fairness. This world is ours. This is our line to draw.'
Calgary Herald
01-05-2025
- Politics
- Calgary Herald
After election loss, Poilievre likely to lose his home. What to know about Stornoway, residence of Canada's leader of the Opposition
Article content It was purchased by the Government of Canada on Jan. 1, 1970. The NCC has managed the property since 1988. Article content In 1950, former Ontario premier and Conservative leader George Drew was the first leader of the Opposition to stay in the home, along with his wife, Fiorenza Johnson. Next were Lester and Marion Pearson, in 1958. Article content Stornoway has also been home to John G. Diefenbaker, Robert L. Stanfield, C. Joseph Clark, Pierre Trudeau and John Turner. Article content Article content More recently, Stornoway was home to Andrew Scheer, Erin O'Toole, Candice Bergen, and then Poilievre. Article content Are there any Opposition leaders who did not stay at Stornoway? Article content Yes. In 2011, NDP leader Jack Layton only stayed in the residence for one night, according to an archived iPolitics article. Layton later opted to spend most of his time in Toronto to receive medical care for cancer. He died later that year. Article content Previously, Bloc Quebecois leader Lucien Bouchard refused to live there in 1993, according to iPolitics. Article content Article content What features does Stornoway have? Article content 'Stornoway was designed as a two and one half storey wooden house sheathed in stucco,' Parks Canada explains. 'All detailing was of the simplest nature, with bracketed wooden window shades above the ground floor windows on the front facade. The most evident decorative elements were a small pediment above the entrance door, flanked by narrow vertical windows; and a tall round headed window to the right of the main entrance emphasized by a small wrought iron rail.' Article content It continued: 'In 1923, Keefer designed a projecting two storey wing at the north-western corner of the house. The stable on the grounds was converted to a three-car garage and a second floor added above it. The house was virtually unaltered from 1923 until 1978 when the porte cochère was removed.' Article content A square porch was added in 1983, which 'incorporates a cornice, pilasters and a rectangular transom and sidelights evocative of those which surrounded the original entrance, yet gives the house a more traditional appearance.' Article content Article content
National Post
01-05-2025
- Politics
- National Post
After election loss, Poilievre likely to lose his home. What to know about Stornoway, residence of Canada's leader of the Opposition
Article content It was purchased by the Government of Canada on Jan. 1, 1970. The NCC has managed the property since 1988. Article content In 1950, former Ontario premier and Conservative leader George Drew was the first leader of the Opposition to stay in the home, along with his wife, Fiorenza Johnson. Next were Lester and Marion Pearson, in 1958. Article content Stornoway has also been home to John G. Diefenbaker, Robert L. Stanfield, C. Joseph Clark, Pierre Trudeau and John Turner. Article content Article content More recently, Stornoway was home to Andrew Scheer, Erin O'Toole, Candice Bergen, and then Poilievre. Article content Yes. In 2011, NDP leader Jack Layton only stayed in the residence for one night, according to an archived iPolitics article. Layton later opted to spend most of his time in Toronto to receive medical care for cancer. He died later that year. Article content Previously, Bloc Quebecois leader Lucien Bouchard refused to live there in 1993, according to iPolitics. Article content What features does Stornoway have? Article content 'Stornoway was designed as a two and one half storey wooden house sheathed in stucco,' Parks Canada explains. 'All detailing was of the simplest nature, with bracketed wooden window shades above the ground floor windows on the front facade. The most evident decorative elements were a small pediment above the entrance door, flanked by narrow vertical windows; and a tall round headed window to the right of the main entrance emphasized by a small wrought iron rail.' Article content It continued: 'In 1923, Keefer designed a projecting two storey wing at the north-western corner of the house. The stable on the grounds was converted to a three-car garage and a second floor added above it. The house was virtually unaltered from 1923 until 1978 when the porte cochère was removed.' Article content A square porch was added in 1983, which 'incorporates a cornice, pilasters and a rectangular transom and sidelights evocative of those which surrounded the original entrance, yet gives the house a more traditional appearance.' Article content Article content
