Divest McGill held a virtual workshop titled “Divest 101” on Jan. 20 to educate students about divestment and encourage them to take action. Two representatives of Divest McGill, Zahur Ashrafuzzaman, U1 Arts & Science, and Millie Murray, U1 Arts, led the presentation by outlining the ethical, social, and financial incentives[Read More…]
Tag: climate change
McGill’s new Climate and Sustainability Strategy receives mixed reactions
After months of consultation spanning from January 2020 to September 2020, McGill’s new Climate and Sustainability Strategy (2020-2025) was endorsed by the McGill Board of Governors during their meeting on Dec. 10. The strategy addresses the three long-term goals of achieving a platinum sustainability rating by 2030, becoming zero-waste by[Read More…]
Switch banks: It may save the planet
The Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) recently became Canada’s first major financial institution to refuse to invest in fossil fuel drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). RBC’s new policy comes after the U.S. government’s controversial decision to open some of the refuge for oil and gas development, to[Read More…]
Revealing the burning truth about droughts and heatwaves
Throughout the 1930s, horrific dust storms swept through Western North American, eviscerating agricultural fields and leaving the livelihoods of millions of underprepared farmers in peril. This period, known as the Dust Bowl, was characterized by severe drought and wind erosion. Since then, scientific advances have helped farmers develop more resilient[Read More…]
Discussing the necessity of positive rhetoric on climate change
On Sept. 16, the Trottier Institute for Sustainability in Engineering and Design held its seventh annual symposium titled “Lessons from a Pandemic: Solutions for Addressing the Climate Change Crisis.” The first speaker, Dr. Naomi Oreskes, an affiliated professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University, discussed why people should[Read More…]
Divest McGill forms coalition, writes open letter with 18 divestment groups across Canada
The Divest Canada Coalition, a consortium of climate action groups at 19 Canadian universities, penned an open letter in September 2020 calling on universities across the country to divest from fossil fuels. The coalition’s demands centre on divestment, but also address related issues such as the violation of Indigenous sovereignty,[Read More…]
Academic panel presents perspectives on environmental racism in Canada
While recent demonstrations such as BLM marches, the Scholar Strike, and environmental protection protests call for a racial reckoning, many scholars have been prompted to explore the link between environmental degradation and racial injustice. On Sept. 24, McGill’s Research and Sustainability Network (RSN) hosted a panel of academics to discuss[Read More…]
The changing nature of sea ice
Over the last few decades, climate change has profoundly changed the shape and movement of the layer of sea ice covering the Arctic Ocean. As a result of a warming climate, melting sea ice has become more mobile. A new study conducted by McGill’s Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science[Read More…]
Modelling climate action on the response to COVID-19
Some scholars, politicians, and activists believe that the climate crisis merits the same kind of national and international response that COVID-19 is receiving, but others think that would be impossible. While climate change and COVID-19 are fundamentally different problems, they both pose massive threats to human well-being and require enormous[Read More…]
Geoengineering is a band-aid solution to the climate crisis
The conversation around geoengineering, otherwise known as climate intervention or climate engineering, is gaining traction as climate projections remain dire. Offering many salient yet controversial ways to mitigate Earth’s rising temperatures, geoengineering methods include spraying sulphate particulates into the atmosphere to block out solar radiation, fertilizing the ocean with iron[Read More…]
