By Cam Fenton, Canada Team Lead for 350.org
Last week, President Joe Biden signed sweeping executive orders on climate change. As expected, the orders reversed a wide range of Trump-era environmental rollbacks, but they didn’t stop there. In both symbol and substance, Biden’s early climate actions have positioned him to potentially emerge as one of the world’s most ambitious political leaders when it comes to climate change. And, it put Canada in a difficult situation, showing just how wide the gap is between what we need to do and what Justin Trudeau is actually doing.
The good news is that…
By Atiya Jaffar, Senior Digital Specialist for 350 Canada
It’s been nearly impossible to take our eyes off the horrifying political drama unfurling south of the border. But as captivating as it may be, we can’t lose sight of the shocking climate-related stories making the news as well. We’re just 2 weeks into 2021 and, already, we’re seeing record-breaking warming, climate disasters, and unbelievably out-of-touch decisions by our very own political leaders. Luckily, it’s not all bad news. People-powered movements are pushing back and gearing up for some big fights ahead at the cusp of this new decade.
1. Canada greenlights three offshore drilling projects
Yup, while…
By Atiya Jaffar, Senior Digital Specialist with 350 Canada
1. People power stops the last tar sands pipelines
Currently, two major (and highly controversial) tar sands pipelines are under construction: Keystone XL (KXL), stretching south from Alberta into the United States, and Trans Mountain (TMX), travelling west from Alberta to BC’s southern coastline. And their fate has never been quite so uncertain.
The writing seems to be on the wall for Keystone. President-Elect Biden has remained steadfast in his commitment to cancel the project as soon as he steps into office. Thousands of Canadians have taken action to make sure he keeps his promise.
By Chris Gusen, Digital Organizer with 350 Canada
2020 was tough. But, as we look back on the past year, it also brings us a tremendous amount of hope.
Seeing how the world mobilized to fight COVID-19 gave us a glimpse of what might be possible if our elected officials treated the climate emergency just as seriously. As we rest up and prepare to continue our fight for a made-in-Canada Green New Deal in 2021, here are the biggest lessons we’re taking from 2020.
1. Bold government action has always been possible
We’re organizing to win a Green New Deal for Canada because it’s the only plan that…
Earlier today, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland delivered a fall fiscal update in the House of Commons. The update made it clear that there is so much our government needs to spend money on right now to help us build back better. And, it made it even clearer that we can’t afford to keep pumping billions of dollars into a pipeline that we don’t need.
So why is our government still planning to spend billions of public dollars on a pipeline that their own regulator said is unnecessary? Well, let’s ask them.
This Wednesday, Minister Freeland and Prime Minister Trudeau are…
Blog by Chris Gusen
Yesterday, the Trans Mountain Crown corporation — the publicly owned company that Trudeau created when he bought the Trans Mountain pipeline back in 2018 — held their Annual “Public” Meeting. While the CEO of the Trans Mountain Crown Corporation recorded a video update on the taxpayer-funded pipeline expansion, people across the country took to the streets to make one thing clear: it’s time to defund TMX.
A not-so-public meeting
The contrast could not have been clearer. What the Canadian Development Investment Corporation (CDEV) had advertised as a public meeting turned out to be nothing more than four white men…
By Jennifer Deol
As of Sunday, 4 million acres in the western US have been scorched by deadly wildfires of an unfathomable scale. These climate-fuelled blazes have created the world’s poorest levels of air quality in the Pacific Northwest, and blanketed communities across Canada.
The smoke-filled skies are a stark reminder that the climate emergency is at our doorstep. It is an emergency that compounds with a global health pandemic to force our communities into an unprecedented chokehold.
I, like so many across BC, woke up to a heavy blanket of smoke on Sunday hanging over my hometown of…
Canada has committed to handing out $16 billion in public money to fossil fuel companies since the pandemic started. Here are 6 better ways to spend that money.
Blog by Jennifer Deol and Atiya Jaffar
A report released by Energy Policy Tracker this week revealed that, since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Canada has committed to handing out $16 billion in public money to fossil fuel companies. At a time when thousands across the country are struggling to make ends meet, it’s unacceptable for the government to pour billions into an industry that’s cooking the planet.
As governments…
The work of dismantling white supremacy is critical to building a climate movement that is rooted in justice.
Blog by Jennifer Deol
As we watch people across North America rise up to confront racist police violence and white supremacy, we must grapple with Canada’s long history of state-sanctioned violence against Black and Indigenous people.
We, at 350 Canada, share the grief and outrage over the police-state violence that claimed the lives of Regis Korchinski-Paquet, George Floyd, and Breonna Taylor. Their lives were tragically cut short because of entrenched white supremacy in our society that over-polices, criminalizes, and systematically murders Black and Indigenous people.
We also acknowledge that the work of dismantling white supremacy is critical to building a…
By Amara Possian
There are so many parallels between the climate crisis and the global COVID-19 pandemic. It’s global in scope. Historically marginalized communities are the most impacted. And corporations, including Big Oil, are trying their hardest to push politicians to put profit before people.
It’s overwhelming. But over the last few weeks, my colleagues and I at 350.org have been figuring out how we can fight these two converging crises.
We came up with an ambitious, three-phase plan to respond, recover, and rebuild through the pandemic.
350 Canada
Pushing Canada to take real #climate leadership by freezing #tarsands and keeping fossil fuels in the ground. We're part of a global climate justice movement.
