By United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner Water is crucial to life. Rivers serve as the Earth’s arteries, conveying water, nutrients and sediments from the sources of rivers to oceans. The grave unsustainability of freshwater ecosystems not only degrades biodiversity, but also severely affects the lives and human rights of the most impoverished. Large dams break the susta
by Emily Hayes on Sep 9, 2021 for RTO Insider "A critic of hydropower says politicians often make “vacuous statements about a particular energy source being clean, but that is not the case.” The Nation Anishnabe of Lac Simon in Quebec, seen here, says that hydropower dams and associated infrastructure have robbed the Anishnabe people of resources and their way of life. The New England
USE THE SMALLEST AMOUNT OF PERSONAL ENERGY TO SAVE THE LARGEST AMOUNT OF ELECTRICAL ENERGY. By Michael Tyas In my previous article, “Don’t sweat the savings: How a warmer home can make saving a breeze, and let you live like royalty,” I explained how setting your air conditioner to ~26°C, when combined with moving air from a fan in the rooms you occupy, is the most comfortable, and cheap
By Tanjina Tahsin The Indian Residential School educational system played a remarkable role in undermining Indigenous knowledge, language, and cultures and forceful assimilating Indigenous children to the colonization system. All these restricted the accessibility of Indigenous knowledge, language, and cultures to future generations. Ever since the closed down of the Residential Schools (in the
By Tanjina Tahsin The primary goal of the camps is to provide Indigenous youth the opportunity to learn about the science: in water, plants, fish, wildlife, and human relationships with their environment through land-based teaching. Kis Kin Ha Ma Ki Win camps also provide the community a unique opportunity to build and strengthen the relationship between the youth and elders through sharing kno
By Josh Aldrich Via Winnipeg Free Press published Sep 29, 2021 The Federal Court has ruled the federal government did not conduct sufficient consultation with Peguis First Nation prior to the construction of the Manitoba-Minnesota Transmission Project. The project was geared to make the export of power to the U.S. easier. The $490 million project has been completed and has been in operati
By Andrea Sutherland Many features essential to a hydroelectric generating station are inherently harmful to fish populations. Aside from the obvious ones, like the barrier to migration, and injury from turbines, hydro dams slow the fast-moving water that some species require for spawning and flush away the eggs of others. They alter ecosystems and destroy populations through changes in water q
By Michael Tyas I am going to say two crazy things, one more insane and maddening than the other, but they are both true: 1. Sweating is the cheapest way to stay cool in the summer. 2. Sweating can make you feel like a king or queen. If you are still reading, thank you. I will attempt to redeem myself by explaining how you can be the absolute most comfortable you have ever been while reducin
By Ivan Penn and Clifford KraussPhotographs and Video by Tamir Kalifa July 11, 2021 The president and energy companies want new transmission lines to carry electricity from solar and wind farms. Some environmentalists and homeowners are pushing for smaller, more local systems. The nation is facing once in a generation choices about how energy ought to be delivered to homes, businesses and e
Speech for Senator McCallum on Bill C-12, the “Canadian Net-Zero Emissions Accountability Act” from the Waniskātān Alliance of Hydro-Impacted Communities June, 2021 We welcome the opportunity to speak to this bill and to the impacts of hydro dams and climate change in Manitoba, particularly on Indigenous communities. Cree and Anishinabe peoples in Manitoba have been living with the impacts