Before you tuck into a plate piled high with potatoes and vegetables this weekend, the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) is encouraging people to give thanks for the heroic recovery story embodied by the centrepiece of Thanksgiving dinner: the turkey. Not so long ago, wild turkeys were a rare sight in Canada. Once abundant,...

The greatest tool in tackling climate change needs our help: nature  As we begin to enjoy the fall colours and foliage, let’s consider what our forests provide. The short answer is, much more than we realize. The roots of trees, from BC’s hulking cedars to Newfoundland and Labrador’s rare black ash, reach out to us all,...

To The Editor: Our society is facing three major crises killing our fellow citizens that cry out for individual moral power. Our human hearts are being asked to respond to the fourth wave of COVID-19, a climate emergency, and an opioid epidemic. Our actions with regard to the three crises we face are insufficient. Although ...

As autumn rains extinguish the last of this summer’s fires, the final accounting for a brutal B.C. wildfire season is becoming clear. Nearly one million hectares of forest has been burnt and more than $500 million spent containing the carnage. We are no strangers to the impacts of wildfires here in the Kootenays as we have ...

“We can envisage a world that is different but in order to bring it into being, we must take action.” – Alastair McIntosh Activism comes in all sizes, shapes, and at all ages. Greta Thunberg was only eight when she first learned about the climate crisis. As a 15-year-old, her concern about climate change caused her to sit in...

To The Editor: There is predictable certainty during election time: grand promises will be made minus the details of how those “deliverables” will actually be delivered, monitored and reported.  In the context of anthropogenic climate change, the same strategy is used with no mention that inertia will be one of the major...

To The Editor: I write about courage of convictions. Afghanistan has fallen. Will Canada admit its mistake making war there? I hope so. Some Nelsonites will know I protested our war there for a decade, on every Remembrance Day from 2002 to 2013, sometimes at personal risk from very angry members of the ceremony crowds. I hope...

“It is into the yawning gap between the urgent response scientists say is needed and the timid measures governments are willing to take that geoengineering has stepped.” – Clive Hamilton Talk about a diverse range of opinions. Geneticist and broadcaster David Suzuki labels it “insane”, geophysicist Raymond Pierrehumbert calls...

By Richard Klafki, Canadian Rockies Program Director, Nature Conservancy of Canada This summer British Columbians are witnessing an unprecedented wildfire season. Already, as of late July, we have had over 1,200 wildfires burning on lands and in communities across the province. Smoke-filled skies remind even those far from ...

Dear friends, We join in your excitement as we start to feel that our lives are normal again. It has been so wonderful to hug friends, see family, host a party and watch sports in person. But we are writing to caution you that COVID-19 is not gone. Wherever vaccination rates are lower we are seeing a resurgence of COVID-19 ...