A two-day conference starting Friday will bring together B.C. politicians, policy-makers, educators and others who are at the cutting edge of social change -- and finding that edge close to home. The range of workshops at The Future Is Local Civic Governance Forum, to be held at Harrison Hot Springs, reflects various hot button issues local public officials face these days, said Charley Beresford, executive director of The Columbia Institute, which is putting on the event. Read more…

"We've dug ourselves into a hole with fossil fuels and climate change," noted environmental activist and author Bill McKibben told a sold-out crowd at the 15th anniversary banquet for the B.C. office of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives on March 27, citing an alarming increase in climate change related disasters over the past decades. Read more…

Despite the British Columbia government's approval of the Jumbo Glacier ski resort, the project is unlikely to happen anytime soon, said New Democratic Party MLA Norm MacDonald. Read more…

The British Columbia government has approved a controversial plan to build Jumbo Glacier ski resort in the southeast of the province. Read more…

A oil spill from TransCanada's Keystone XL pipeline could have major economic consequences, claims a new report from Cornell University. Read more…

A 49-year-old rancher battling air pollution in Alberta’s Peace River country hopes a high profile meeting with four Alberta government ministries and two local MLAs will result in some concrete changes this Friday. Read more…

Atlantic salmon purchased in three Lower Mainland supermarkets have tested positive for Infectious Salmon Anemia virus (ISAV), according to biologist and wild-salmon advocate Alexandra Morton. While ISAV is not known to harm humans, it poses a threat to both farmed and wild salmon. Read more…

Quicker environmental assessments are step closer to reality now that a House of Commons committee has given the federal government a blueprint for how to streamline lengthy hearings. Read more…

Alberta's oilsands producers are used to thinking big, and their plans to clean up the mess their mines leave behind are fully in line with the outsized trucks that prowl their pits and the outsized budgets that keep them growing. Read more…

Five Lakota peoples were arrested Tuesday at an oil sands blockade in North Dakota, including two who The Tyee spent time with last September. Read more…

Five years after B.C. passed its cutting-edge Climate Action Plan, an extensive reporting project on the results is getting a lot of attention in California and beyond. Read more…

VANCOUVER - First Nations along British Columbia's north and central coast say it's unfathomable that Transport Canada approves the use of oil supertankers in the province's treacherous inlets and marine passages. Read more…

An EU committee has failed to decide on a proposal to label so-called oil sands as worse for climate change than average crude oil. Read more…

British Columbia's "world-leading" carbon tax is being reviewed because the rest of North America hasn't followed through on pledges to keep up, the province's finance minister says. Read more…

Today's unveiled budget will harm the BC Liberal government's reputation as a leader on climate change policies, says Ben West, spokesperson for the Wilderness Committee, a B.C.-based environmental group claiming Canada's largest membership. Read more…

A prominent water scientist and climate change defender has apologized for using a fake identity to obtain sensitive documents from the Heartland Institute, an American think-tank which questions the scientific basis of global warming. Read more…

A big swathe of land on the west coast of Galiano Island is going to be protected from loggers and developers, thanks to the efforts of an island-based non-profit group, the Galiano Conservancy Association. Read more…

With recreational fishing numbers reaching all time highs, scientists say it's time for governments to start putting caps on the number of fish being caught outside of mainstream industrial catches. But there's a catch: most governments don't know how much recreational fishers take. Read more…

The British Columbia environment ministry's website says Jan. 1, 2012 is the planned start date for a cap and trade program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. That date has passed, the program is not in place, and the minister responsible says the government hasn't decided what to do. Read more…

Good environmental news is hard to find, so what a relief to sit in on a session where scientist Heather Tallis shared creeping evidence that when humans exploit the environment, it's not always a slam dunk that they will decimate it. There may be practical, sustainable ways to manage an ecosystem that still benefits humans. Read more…