Reading Time: 5 minutesDisponible en français. International Ozone Protection Day, or World Ozone Day, is marked every year on 16 September – the date the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer (the Montreal Protocol) was signed in 1987. This HillNote… Read More ›
Reading Time: 5 minutesDisponible en français. Two environmental laws. Two constitutional challenges. Two Supreme Court of Canada (Supreme Court) opinions. Two different outcomes. An examination of two recent environmental law cases demonstrates the reach and limitations of the federal government’s ability to make… Read More ›
Reading Time: 7 minutesDisponible en français. The size and impact of wildfires in Canada has grown over the past 20 years. This HillNote provides a statistical portrait of wildfires in Canada since 2005, including the personnel mobilized to respond to them and the… Read More ›
Reading Time: 6 minutesDisponible en français. Given the growing frequency and intensity of severe weather events around the world, like hurricanes, wildfires, floods and violent storms, households have had to make increasingly costly home insurance claims. Canada has not been spared; it even… Read More ›
Reading Time: 2 minutesDisponible en français. A healthy environment is essential to human life, health and well-being. Climate change is increasingly impacting the environment in ways that harm people. Climate change affects the air we breathe, the availability of food and water, and… Read More ›
Reading Time: 7 minutesDisponible en français. There are more living organisms in a tablespoon of soil than there are people on Earth. Dig deeper and you will find that one cubic metre of healthy soil can retain over 250 litres of water. More than… Read More ›
Reading Time: 5 minutesDisponible en français. The oceans are much deeper than we think. The high seas – defined in international law as the waters beyond all national territorial waters and exclusive economic zones (EEZs) – extend to depths ranging from an average of over… Read More ›
Reading Time: 5 minutesDisponible en français. In November 2021, Canada joined the Global Methane Pledge launched by the United States and the European Union at COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland. The collective goal of this pledge is to reduce human-caused methane emissions by at least… Read More ›
Reading Time: 6 minutesDisponible en français. As the main greenhouse gas emitted due to human activities, carbon dioxide (CO2) is one of the primary contributors to climate change. Capturing some of this gas and keeping it out of the atmosphere is one approach… Read More ›
Reading Time: < 1 minuteDisponible en français. Climate change, changes in biological diversity, and the accumulation of toxic substances are three main interrelated issues affecting the rapidly shifting Arctic environment. While these issues, with climate change as a dominant driver, are largely the result of human activities in distant southern regions, they have serious cultural, socio‑economic and health impacts on residents… Read More ›