🍃This newsletter is 950 words long, a 7.3 minutes read.🍃
On September 8, something important was revealed. The kind of event that will impact us for decades. No, we’re not talking about Queen Elizabeth’s death, about which the Canadian media published some 4000 stories between September 8th and 10th alone (yes, 4000!), according to the data we scrapped using newsapi.ai. The day the British monarch passed away, Science published a study stating that the current level of warming is enough to risk passing five of the 16 tipping points with irrevocable and dramatic consequences on our planet, such as permafrost thawing and polar ice collapses. We only found a handful of media informing you about it, and they did so quite discreetly.
But, with the global climate strike on September 23, the last month has seen a small surge, compared to August, in climate-related tweets published by our set of 27 Canadian media sentinels. The proportion was up, at 0.65% of tweets mentioning the climate.
We only kept the best content for you. We hope you’ll enjoy it!
News
ONTARIO - Climate plan won't prevent disaster: 7 young people are suing Doug Ford's government.
In Ontario, seven youth climate activists are suing the Ontarian government in court as they believe the most recent climate plan proposes emission reduction under the recommended amount by experts in climate change. The case was brought to the Supreme Court of Ontario during the week of Sept 12. In this Toronto Star article, the lawyer that helped organize the case with EcoJustice, Fraser Thomson, said: “Our elected politicians have ignored the warnings on climate change. They’ve continued to worsen this crisis with little regard for our collective future and that of future generations.”
Climate strike: Thousands of young people are calling for immediate action
Environmental groups came together once again on Sept 23, organizing multiple climate marches all over the globe. In Canada, we also had a few with the biggest happenings in Vancouver, Ottawa and Montreal. In Montreal, more than 15 000 persons came together in front of the George-Étienne Cartier monument and took to the streets in the downtown core to protest climate inaction. This story published by La Presse took specific interest in looking at which provincial political candidates were at the march, with the Québec elections taking place on Oct 3. The presence of certain politicians was more celebrated than others…
The climate march in Montreal, September 23. Credit: Mélanie Lussier
“Increasingly intense” storms in sight
Many Canadians are worried about increasing storms and extreme weather after the passage of hurricane Fiona in the Maritimes and eastern Quebec’s Îles-de-la-Madeleine region. According to experts cited by La Presse, climate change makes these extreme weather events more likely to occur thanks to the mixing of hot and cold temperatures. You can read the complete article here.
"You can't put the brakes on the carbon tax": Atlantic provinces submit their climate plans
After having their first climate plan rejected, Nova Scotia has made their second attempt available to the public last month. The conservative provincial government is still rejecting the federal carbon tax, however, Radio-Canada explains the proposed actions. This plan and the no-yet-public one from New Brunswick came three weeks before hurricane Fiona devastated Atlantic provinces and parts of Eastern Quebec.
Research
Studying climate change with artificial intelligence
Two researchers at McGill University are working with artificial intelligence to see how people are affected by and adapt to climate change. Because AI can easily analyze large amounts of data, the research will scan through two million words from various publications , such as newspapers, dating back to any time between the Industrial Revolution and today. The data collected will allow for a better understanding of those who are most vulnerable to the social consequences of climate change.
Longform
‘An edifice of lies’: how climate denial and religion kickstarted Alberta’s oilsands
In this Narwhal’s article, journalist Carl Meyer interviews journalist Geoff Dembicki, the author of a new book investigating how the oil companies and organizations in the province attempted to cover up environmental disasters linked to the industry. The narratives pushed by Alberta’s oil companies in the 1950s and 60s shaped the way the US and the world look at climate change, says Dembicki.
Local
Torrential rain and climate change: what do we do with the flooded metro?
For those that are tired of hearing the metro has stopped running, here’s another reason why you should be concerned about climate change. On Sept 13, intense rains caused massive flooding that briefly halted and then slowed down metro services in Montreal. Climate change was partly responsible for this type of extreme weather, and we’ll have to be prepared for more of these types of interruptions in the future. Montreal’s infrastructure wasn’t built for the realities of climate change, as explained general director of Ouranos Alain Bourque, in the article published by 24heures.
Podcasts
Meet one of the youth climate activists suing the Ontario government
This month, we really enjoyed listening to this episode of This Matters, a podcast by the Toronto Star, where host Saba Eitizaz spoke with Madison Dyck, a young climate activist from Thunder Bay and one of seven activists suing the Ontario government for its inaction on climate. If you'd like to hear Dyck and Eitizaz discuss the implications of the lawsuit, next steps, and the impact of climate change on Dyck's mental health, click on this link.
Extras
"Quebec politics" special: Climate, campaigns and electoral platforms
In Quebec, the election campaign that ended last Monday with the election of a Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) majority government was in full swing in September. To help untangle the different electoral promises on climate change, we really appreciated this article published in L'Actualité and this video created by Rad.
Screenshot: Rad
This week’s newsletter was written by Brianna Losinger-Ross and Mélanie Lussier. Editor in chief: Léa Beaulieu-Kratchanov. Editor: Amélie Daoust-Boisvert
The Climate and the Media in Canada newsletter is a monthly publication brought to you by Concordia Journalism assistant professor Amélie Daoust-Boisvert and her team. It’s made possible because of support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). Questions, feedback? Reach out at cmrconcordia@gmail.com
You are receiving this because you are on our mailing list.
You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list: Do you want to help us? Share this newsletter with anyone curious about climate change and its media coverage in Canada, or tweet about it.
And if you’re not a subscriber yet, join our mailing list here.