Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Sunfish sightings continue to surface on the West Coast and — Holy Mola! — some examples are pretty big ones.
Jackie Hildering was astonished by a recent photo depicting an enormous Mola mola submitted to the Marine Education Resource Society citizen science project, which is collecting data on two different species of sunfish along the Pacific Coast.
Continue reading Holy Mola! That’s a big fish!In respect to British Columbia’s old growth trees, “Most of what is left is in the difficult-to-access areas and the not so productive sites. Most of the best and easy to get is gone” – Bruce Ellingsen, one of the founders of the Cortes Community Forest Co-operative.
In the first of two articles about current forestry practices, Ellingsen looks to dynamics in nature for indicators toward a more sustainable harvesting rate.
Continue reading Interview with Bruce Ellingsen p1: What is a sustainable rate of consumption for forestry?UBC marine ecologist Dr. Chris Harley initially told the media that more than a billion mussels, clams, sea stars and other invertebrates may have cooked to death in the area between Campbell River and Washington state. That was a ‘back of the envelope’ estimate, based on his observations among the Lower Mainland’s mussel population and some preliminary reports. Harley has done a great deal more research since then. He now guesstimates that, conservatively speaking, the number of marine fatalities during last June’s heat wave is closer to 10 billion.
Continue reading Heat wave killed far more marine animals than originally thought, says scientistThe offshore region between Northern Vancouver Island and Haida Gwaii is one of the most seismically active regions in Canada. There have been more than 2,000 earthquakes during the last 4 to 5 years, and four of them measured more than 6 on the richer scale. While the magnitude 2.9 quake in Campbell River last February was smaller, it is a reminder that earthquakes happen here. In this morning’s broadcast Andrew Schaeffer, an Earthquake Seismologist with the Geological Survey of Canada, describes the network of seismic stations that observe earthquakes off the West Coast
Continue reading Observing Earthquakes off the West CoastWhat are the most important factors that make a nation thrive? What is more important: the welfare of a people or corporate interest? Will Donald Trump’s fossil-fueled America First policies plunge the world’s leading economy into mediocrity? Which nations are best poised to lead the world into a more sustainable future? These are a few of the questions that Sol Ability’s 2017 guide to the upside-down world of Sustainable Competitiveness deals with.
Continue reading The Upside Down World of Global Competitiveness
