contributor
Science Matters
On March 24, I’ll complete my 90th ride around the sun. I’m often asked to what I owe my longevity. I usually joke, “I chose my parents carefully.” As a geneticist, I know the genetic lottery plays a part. I once interviewed a Toronto docto
Mar 26, 2026
Science Matters
A large swarm of anchovies recently swam into Semiahmoo Bay near White Rock, British Columbia, staying for about a week. The abundance of tiny fish attracted an explosion of biodiversity. Thousands of gulls, grebes, surf scoters and the occ
Jan 16, 2026
Science Matters
Canada’s government has been silent about the United States killing people on boats off the Venezuela coast. Whether or not the boats were being used to transport drugs (and there’s no evidence they were), these appalling acts have been lab
Dec 18, 2025
Science Matters
During a recent parliamentary committee meeting, Bloc Quebecois MP Patrick Bonin grilled Alberta Premier Danielle Smith about climate change. Her answers were evasive — although she conceded that the planet is warming. Bonin asked if she th
Dec 5, 2025
Science Matters
Because the fossil fuel industry and its supporters have done everything they can to stall needed solutions to the climate crisis, some people say we must now engineer our way out of the mess we created. Many are promoting schemes that bloc
Oct 13, 2025
Science Matters
When we think of solutions to the climate and biodiversity crises, we often imagine technologies, government policies or new infrastructure. But sometimes the most powerful tools are far older and more human: stories, songs, images and perf
Sep 28, 2025
Science Matters
What is it with politicians who are dead set against any kind of progress? It’s clear that digging up, processing, transporting and wastefully burning gas, oil and coal is polluting land, water and air, heating the planet to critical levels
Sep 11, 2025
Science Matters
The natural world is foundational to every aspect of our lives. We all need food, air and water. But nature is not our sole underpinning; stories are also foundational. Without them, we wouldn’t be able to make sense of the world or create
Aug 15, 2025
Science Matters
Many people find insects annoying, even frightening. As a former fruit fly geneticist who spent many boyhood years exploring insect and other life in the swamps near my home in Leamington, Ontario, I’ve always been fascinated by them. They’
Jul 4, 2025
Science Matters
Do you ever wonder where opposition to sensible climate policies is coming from? We know the coal, oil and gas industries have been waging a disinformation campaign for decades, hiding research from their own scientists and others that accu
May 22, 2025
Science Matters
Greenpeace was founded in my hometown of Vancouver in 1971. It has since become an international force, campaigning and advocating for environmental sanity on issues ranging from plastic pollution to the climate crisis. I’m a proud supporte
May 1, 2025
Science Matters
It’s election time in Canada. All elections are important, but the April 28 election comes at a critical time. We’re facing an increasingly costly, accelerating climate crisis, daily plant and animal extinctions, a worsening affordability c
Apr 13, 2025
Science Matters
In 1987, Canada was caught up in a debate over a free trade agreement with the United States. Economist John Crispo, an outspoken FTA supporter, warned that failing to ratify it would make Canada an “economic basket case.” In 1988, Prime Mi
Mar 28, 2025
Science Matters
If we measured the amount of space and time devoted to issues in news outlets, we would conclude audiences are most interested in politics, business, sports and entertainment. This is astonishing when we consider the impact of science when
Mar 24, 2025
Science Matters
My heart is with the family and community who are experiencing loss. March 20th will be the first day of spring for this year. Does this year seem like it’s flying by too fast or like each day is inching forward? When my kids were very youn
Mar 24, 2025
Science Matters
Former Premier Jason Kenney opened the province to coal mining in 2020 but backed down under public pressure in 2022, reinstating an eastern slopes moratorium that had been in place since 1976. Four coal companies are now suing the government for $13.8 billion.
Mar 8, 2025
Science Matters
Fires scorching California, floods inundating Spain, heat killing and knocking monkeys from trees in Mexico, droughts scouring southern Africa, hurricanes ripping through the U.S. — it’s impossible to ignore. Scientists confirm 2024 was the
Feb 22, 2025
Science Matters
The climate crisis is too big to be remedied by individual actions alone. It requires government policies and regulations and international cooperation in everything from research to global agreements. One critical area where individual act
Jan 31, 2025
Science Matters
The odds are stacked against people standing up for the planet’s interconnected life-support systems. We don’t have the wealth of billionaires, oligarchs and industrialists or their armies of lobbyists. We don’t have their massive resources
Jan 17, 2025
Science Matters
Under global consumer-capitalism, power and wealth are concentrated in the hands of oligarchs, billionaires and CEOs, supported by the politicians they fund. That was evident at the 29th United Nations Conference of the Parties climate summ
Jan 4, 2025
Science Matters
During the recent British Columbia election campaign, Conservative Party Leader John Rustad vowed to bring back plastic straws, cutlery and bags. It’s an all-too-common political talking point.Imagine knowing the world is choked with plasti
Dec 19, 2024
Science Matters
War is insane. Humans spend enormous amounts of money, consume massive resources, develop jaw-dropping technologies, destroy infrastructure and natural areas and kill millions of people, including many non-combatants, often just to stroke t
Nov 7, 2024
Science Matters
Microplastics, soft plastics, burning plastics, plastics in the ocean, plastics in our brains, livers, kidneys, joints, reproductive organs, bones, blood… Plastic, a byproduct of the oil and gas industry, is everywhere, in various forms. Li
Sep 26, 2024
Science Matters
Most people understand that the climate crisis is real, and they want their leaders to do something about it. That means politicians who deny the problem or refuse to address it are not just putting people and the planet at great risk, they
Aug 29, 2024