The SCAN! Blog

Edward Bernays was the American nephew of Sigmund Freud, the creator of the field of psychoanalysis. Freud’s theories are deeply rooted in attributing the role of primate instincts in determining human motivations and thus resultant human logic and behaviour. Bernays...

The majority of Canadians now say there is an urgent need to address climate change.  That is a welcome advance, probably due more to increasingly severe climate disasters than anything scientists or environmentalists are saying - or politicians or corporations are...

Art can inspire us, frame issues, express the strength of the world, send messages that endure, give hope, and guide how we live.  Art can help us feel the urgency of the climate crisis and can be the bridge between the cold hard facts of climate change, and the...

The kitchen is the emotional centre of many people’s homes. It’s the place where family and friends gather to chat, catch up, laugh, and snack while meals are being prepared. And it’s the room where many families eat their meals. Unfortunately, few people are aware...

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.”  Margaret Mead – anthropologist There are no greater threats to the future survival of humanity than the climate emergency and...

A crisis can be defined as any event or period that will lead, or may lead, to an unstable and dangerous situation affecting an individual, group, or all of society and a time when a difficult or important decision must be made. We are in such a time.  Due to the...

“If I have to hop on a bulldozer myself, we’re going to start building roads to the Ring of Fire.”  Doug Ford, 2018 “It cannot take us 12 to 15 years to open a mine in this country.  Not if we want to achieve our ultimate goals.”  Jonathan Wilkinson, Federal Natural...

The demand for electricity continues to rise as countries transition to an electrified economy. To ensure an adequate and reliable supply during peak hours, governments must decide which energy technologies should be prioritised and developed to help with this...

 Fighting in a World on Fire The next generation’s guide to protecting the climate and saving our future by Andreas Malm and adapted by Jimmy and Llewyn Whipps In their book, Jimmy and Llewyn Whipps make the following observation: “The point is that conditions are...

  At the end of June, I was shocked up when I looked across the small lake my family cottage overlooks. Normally I see a green line of trees hugging the far shore but that day a grey-blue-brown haze shrouded the shoreline, the air smelled like burning plastic and...

Driving the inland and costal highways on Vancouver Island is a never-ending road trip like no other. It involves travelling through and around dense forest, homeland of old-growth and the mythic giants called Douglas Fir. Traversing the length of Highway #4 west...

  ­­Canada’s Minerals Strategy looks like a poorly thought-out pipe dream and a gift to corporations. Currently less than 1% of the global fleet is electric, which means that 99% is yet to be built. Renewables currently make up only 4% of global energy source. In...

Every April the government of Canada produces a progress report on the country’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Although the data is always two years out of date, the report is the most comprehensive accounting of the amount, type, and sources of the country’s GHG...

Early in June, Canada’s Energy Regulator (CER) issued its 2023 annual report on Canada’s Energy Future.Inadvertently, the evidence in the report points a damning finger at the energy and climate policies of the Ontario government. But before getting to that point a...

 Eco-Types: Five Ways of Caring about the Environment By Emily Huddart Kennedy Princeton University Press, 2022 Emily Kennedy, a Canadian sociologist, who started her career in forestry, has written an important book that addresses the divisiveness that undermines...

Hope Matters: Why Changing the Way We Think is Critical to Solving the Environmental Crisis by Elin Kelsey, science communicator at the University of Victoria, BC Greystone Books, 2020 (Also see various postings on the Internet) Elin Kelsey is concerned about the...

Stay Cool:  Why Dark Comedy Matters in the Fight Against Climate Change by Aaron Sachs “We don’t have a sense of humour when the prospects of life are great.  We have it when life becomes terrible—uncertain, unhealthy, precarious and outright dangerous.” Paraphrasing...

I am sitting here under a smoke advisory. I am in southern Ontario, about 200 kilometres from the nearest forest fire but the air is hazy, there is smoke in every breath, our windows are closed and the air is being filtered. I can only imagine what it is like for...

This morning, for me, it started with Finn’s cheery chirp before he hopped up on the bed purring breakfast suggestions. Cuillin, on the other side of the bed, chimed in. I whispered that it was too early. Then the numbers began. No, not the cats’ unfortunately, but...

The Canadian government should insist on absolute emission-reduction targets instead of continuing the deceptive practice of carbon offsets. Setting net-zero emissions as a target for 2050 is so vague and ambiguous as to be almost meaningless. If an absolute reduction...

April Fool’s Day was auspicious this year, falling as it did on a Saturday when downtown Toronto has little traffic.  Even construction work in the financial district seemed muted heading into the weekend.  By 10:45 am the pavement was still damp from the previous...

The Web They Weave – the arachnids - the Goliaths of economic and political power.  There are two main obstacles to reducing GHG emissions and transitioning to renewable forms of energy – but not money or technology as often thought: The existing, massive, physical...

Energy sector models show that nearly all countries can provide all their energy needs from renewable energy: especially wind, water and solar.  But it’s not so simple. Mark Jacobson is a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University who has...

I’ve had an account at the Royal Bank account for some thirty-five years, much longer than I have lived in Kingston. I have, however, just removed virtually all the money from RBC as part of a “divestment” effort by fellow seniors who are appalled by the bank’s...

The Ontario Electrical Grid is operated by Hydro One. It consists of Transmission Lines, Switching Stations, Transformer Stations, and Distribution Lines. It is the power broker's bank for the Electricity Market. Some wholesale participants deposit, while others...

The International Criminal Court (ICC) headquartered in The Hague is currently empowered by the Rome Statute to prosecute individuals for war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and crimes of aggression.  A movement has been underway around the world (Stop...

The title of this recent book evokes the local and global Commons (Elinor Ostrom, “Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action”). The many enclosed European Commons and the vaster and more numerous Indigenous Commons were and are being...

COP 27 failed. Countries must rapidly shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy and yet the COP accord failed to even mention it. The UN secretary general, with growing dismay, concluded that the goal of limiting global heating to 1.5C is “gasping for breath”....

It is not news that there is huge public opposition to Doug Ford`s recent attacks on our environment.  But can anything be done to stop the changes that will come about by the passage of legislation like Bills 23 and 39? The short answer is yes. “Government wants us...

In early December, 2022, the Ford government broke ground for the construction of the GE-Hitachi, Small Modular Reactor (SMR) at the Darlington nuclear site. The time between shovels in the ground and the production of energy is expected to be about 6 years. But only...

Much has been written and said by experts, advocates and citizens regarding Bill 23 the More Homes Built Faster Act (2022). Thousands continue to take to the streets in protest.  Keep reading to find out what the Act does but first let’s talk about the rationale for...

The COP 15 Biodiversity Conference took place in Montreal this past December from which came an agreement on a Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF). In the three years prior to the conference several workshops were convened to produce a draft framework using...

Canada’s oil and gas industry is expected to make $147 billion after taxes this year. The profits have been described as “extraordinary”, “record-breaking” and “eye-popping” An even more graphic description came from a Calgary-based financial manager: "This is...

Political cynicism has reached a level in Canada where there is now little surprise when government leaders break election promises. Two such promises recently broken by Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau have prompted no calls for...

Conferences of the Parties, COPs, to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) are an annual venue for shaming the countries responsible for producing the greenhouse (GHG) gas emissions causing man-made climate change.  Where else can the voices of Less...

Sometimes the improbable happens as when the ordinary is revealed as exceptional, or the exceptional as commonplace. So it was with live music during the dog days of the pandemic, when theatres and concert halls were shuttered. Some musicians took to the streets and...

The federal government wants to ‘future proof’ carbon pricing but still lets big emitters off the hook. At the beginning of November, the federal government delivered its fall Economic Statement. It was another failing on the climate front. In the foreword to the...

Canada and Germany look set to ink a major energy project in Newfoundland that will see that province manufacture large amounts of green hydrogen over the next decade and ship the gas over to Germany. It’s an ambitious proposal but Germany is in a bind.  It needs...