Keeling’s Curve
How do we know for sure that human activities are resulting in an increase in global carbon dioxide concentrations? The answer involves accurately measuring the amount of CO2 in the air, a seemingly […]
Eight Ways Cities are Building Climate Resilience
The Building a Climate-Resilient City series was prepared for the City of Edmonton and the City of Calgary by the Prairie Climate Centre, a collaboration between the University of Winnipeg and the International Institute for Sustainable Development. […]
Welcome to your new winter, Winnipeg
It’s a slushy, wet, late-November day in Winnipeg. I walked to work this morning missing the usual abrupt onset of the cold, dry prairie winter, and thinking that I’d been happy to leave this kind […]
The Heat is On, Or Why A Few Degrees is a Big Deal
Sometimes it’s hot. Sometimes it’s not. But, wait: if we’re emitting more and more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and heating up the planet, why doesn’t the temperature always increase too? The answer comes partly […]
Flood Risks, Big Data, and Political Leadership
At the end of October the Intact Centre for Climate Adaptation at the University of Waterloo released a report entitled Climate Change and the Preparedness of Canadian Provinces and Yukon to Limit Potential Flood Damage (PDF) […]
Manitoba climate policy leadership
German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) noted that our perception of truth evolves over time: “To truth only a brief celebration of victory is allowed between the two long periods during which it is condemned as […]
Four degrees of separation: lessons from the last Ice Age
Share This: The pace and magnitude of human-caused climate change is nothing short of remarkable. The dramatic climate change we are now experiencing is a rapid and unexpected side effect of the astonishing ingenuity […]
Punching above our carbon weight: Canada could be low-carbon leader
Share This: Pundits and politicians sometimes argue against taking action on climate change because Canada is responsible for a relatively low percentage of the world’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Why, they ask, should Canadians be […]
Carbon Tax: your questions, our answers
Share This: Q: “What is a carbon tax?” A carbon tax is a fee paid to the government upon the purchase of fossil fuels, which are major sources of the well-known, planet-warming gas: carbon dioxide. […]
“Climate” vs “Weather”
Share This: Canadians pay a lot of attention to weather. Over the course of the year most of us see remarkable extremes of heat and cold—from -40°C in the winter to +40°C in the summer—that […]