Tag Archives: Melissa Lem

Energy

B.C. town ‘built by industry’ adjusts to life with LNG

Matt Simmons – The Narwhal, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

For the past few months, the buzz in the small coastal community of Kitimat, B.C., has been all about the flares. 

LNG Canada, the newly completed gas liquefaction and export plant, began firing up its smokestack last fall, lighting the skies with a flame that got as tall as 90 metres at one point. That’s roughly the equivalent of four 18-wheeler trucks, stacked end-to-end on top of each other. It could be seen from more than 50 kilometres away. 

Continue reading B.C. town ‘built by industry’ adjusts to life with LNG →
Cost of Climate Change, Fire, Health

Wildfire Smoke Is Making Us Sick

By Michelle Gamage, The Tyee, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

It’s early June and there are 80 wildfires burning in the province, according to the BC Wildfire Service dashboard. 

There are evacuation orders in place for areas of the Peace River Regional District, and localities close to significant fires are blanketed in smoke.  

Fires are also bringing hazy skies to  Vancouver and other areas of the province farther away from active  fires. Across the continent, smoke is coating Toronto and New York right now. 

While smoky days and even weeks might be a  regular feature of future Canadian summers, they’re not something we  should be complacent with, according to health experts. 

Continue reading Wildfire Smoke Is Making Us Sick →
Energy, Health

Doctors’ groups push for truth in advertising when it comes to fossil fuels

By Cloe Logan, National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

In the late 1980s, the federal government banned all cigarette ads — photos making a carcinogenic product look appealing went against public health advice. Now, many physicians are saying the same should apply to fossil fuel advertising.

Continue reading Doctors’ groups push for truth in advertising when it comes to fossil fuels →
Cost of Climate Change, Energy

WHO urges world leaders to phase out fossil fuels

By John Woodside,  National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Ahead of a major UN climate conference, the World Health Organization is making a desperate plea to world leaders to phase out fossil fuels to help save millions of lives around the globe.

In a special report, the world’s leading health organization is echoing the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s latest study, which UN Secretary-General António Guterres said must sound a “death knell” for fossil fuels “before they destroy our planet.”

“Extreme heat, floods, droughts, increasingly frequent wildfires and hurricanes; the events of 2021 have broken many records,” wrote Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the WHO, in the report’s foreword.

Continue reading WHO urges world leaders to phase out fossil fuels →