Canadian News

Three people were charged Wednesday in connection with the protest that forced police to shut down the Jacques-Cartier Bridge and caused traffic chaos for hours on Tuesday. Read More

The driver of a vehicle that rear-ended a construction truck on Highway 417 shortly before midnight Tuesday has been charged with careless driving. Read More

Gisèle Pélicot addressed other survivors of rape and sexual violence, saying 'it's not for us to have shame – it's for them.'

A countrywide study says radioactive radon exposure is on the rise and continues to be a critical public health concern.

The Alouettes might have the CFL's best record this season, but the defending Grey Cup champions have been devoid of a dominant offensive player. Read More

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 the egos of petty power-seeking men.

Our killing technologies may have advanced tremendously, but our mindsets haven’t evolved much from 3,000 years ago when Homer wrote his epic story The Iliad, about a bloody battle over perceived loss of “honour” when Paris, prince of Troy, absconded with Spartan king Menelaus’s wife Helen. Wars have since become far costlier, in lives, resources and money, but their justifications seem no less absurd.

We often hear how expensive it is to address the climate change and biodiversity loss crises, but it’s a pittance compared to spending on weapons and destruction — and addressing environmental crises is necessary and offers numerous benefits. Wars rarely do any good other than to enrich weapons manufacturers and, now, the fossil fuel industry.

That’s not to say that military and defence spending isn’t sometimes needed. In a world rife with conflicting ideologies and power-hungry leaders, people sometimes have to fight back against those who threaten freedom, democracy and human rights, or who engage in genocidal actions. And militaries often help out in times of disaster, such as hurricanes and other extreme weather–related events. But the overall concept of war is suicidal. It’s a testament to how little our thinking has evolved that we still don’t have better ways to settle differences.

Not only do wars prevent us from resolving serious, survival-threatening emergencies such as climate change and biodiversity loss — by sucking up money and resources and prioritizing destruction over problem-solving — they also contribute greatly to those problems.

A recent study by researchers in the U.S. and U.K. found greenhouse gas emissions generated during the first two months of the war in Gaza — more than 99 per cent from Israel’s devastating retaliation for Hamas’s brutal October 7 attacks — were greater than the annual emissions of more than 20 of the nations most vulnerable to climate change impacts.

Those figures are a significant underestimate, as they’re based on just a few carbon-intensive activities. They include emissions from warplanes, tanks and other vehicles, building and using bombs, artillery and rockets and flying weapons and equipment from the United States to Israel. Other studies show the numbers could be as much as eight times higher if emissions from the entire supply chain were included.

Considering these conservative estimates are from just the first two months of a conflict that has escalated over more than a year, one can only imagine the current toll with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the many other conflicts worldwide added.

Although military emissions contribute significantly to global heating, reporting on them is voluntary. They’re mostly kept secret and aren’t included in United Nations climate negotiations. According to the Guardian, “Even without comprehensive data, one recent study found that militaries account for almost 5.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions annually — more than the aviation and shipping industries combined.”

The U.S. is one of the largest contributors to overall military emissions, about 20 per cent from protecting oil and gas interests in the Persian Gulf region — which is warming twice as fast as the rest of the inhabited world.

Beyond their emissions, military actions and war create a lot of other toxic pollutants. And, the UN reports, “while conflict exacerbates the effects of climate change, climate change, at least indirectly, drives conflict.”

David Boyd, UN special rapporteur for human rights and the environment (who has done work for the David Suzuki Foundation), told the Guardian, “This research helps us understand the immense magnitude of military emissions — from preparing for war, carrying out war and rebuilding after war. Armed conflict pushes humanity even closer to the precipice of climate catastrophe, and is an idiotic way to spend our shrinking carbon budget.”

Millions of people in the Middle East, Ukraine and around the world are being killed, maimed, orphaned, displaced and starved as a result of war and climate change. Imagine what we could accomplish if all the resources used to kill and destroy went into solving the existential threats we’ve created.

We’d better come to our senses before it’s too late.

David Suzuki is a scientist, broadcaster, author and co-founder of the David Suzuki Foundation. Written with David Suzuki Foundation Senior Writer and Editor Ian Hanington.

Learn more at davidsuzuki.org.

The post War and climate change fuel a survival-threatening cycle appeared first on rabble.ca.

Two environmental activists who scaled Montreal's Jacques Cartier Bridge early Tuesday have been charged with mischief and wilfully resisting or obstructing a peace officer.

Firefighters and their victims are on Parliament Hill today to demand the federal government better support wildfire fighters, warning more will leave the job.

Launching on Nov. 7 at the W.J. McCallion Planetarium, Onekwá:tara – The Seven Dancers of the Pleiades will be the second Indigenous astronomy program available at McMaster University. Its co-creator Thomas Deer has been working to share Indigenous star knowledge for decades.

Winnipeg (10-7) can clinch first in the West — and home field for the division final Nov. 9 — with a road win or tie Saturday versus the Montreal Alouettes (12-4-1).

The chair of an Ontario school board under fire for a summertime Italy trip claims several donors are 'very interested' in footing the $100,000 bill for artwork it commissioned.

Police are investigating nearly a dozen reports of rocks being thrown at vehicles in York Region that have caused major damage to vehicles and injuries to drivers and passengers.

A group is demanding the federal government better support Canada's wildfire fighters, warning that without action, more of them will leave the job as fire seasons become longer.

The province has issued a request for information to potential suppliers about building small publicly run liquor kiosks within up to six stores in Winnipeg.

The federal government is set to announce major changes to Canada’s immigration system on Thursday, three sources tell Global News.

Police said they've received multiple complaints from residents, and are tackling the issue with an initiative called Project Stunt Driving.

Up to three times a week, health workers pack mobile equipment and tests into the back of a vehicle and take the uOttawa Heart Institute on the road. The goal? To find people in the community living with undiagnosed heart disease and help them get the treatment they need. Read More

When she was a child, Sheila Baslaw would sometimes ask her father about his own childhood, one of grinding poverty in a tiny Russian "shtetl," or Jewish village, in the early 1900s. Read More

The D'Arcy McGee's Pub in Kanata has shut down, faced with what bailiffs say is more than $73,000 in arrears allegedly owed to the franchisor. Read More

Ottawa chef and restaurateur Joe Thottungal has won a Taste Canada award for his second cookbook, My Thali, which takes its name from his downtown restaurant. Read More