A River in the Sky “Above the waters of the North Pacific a ribbon of moist air some 800 kilometres wide and 5,000 kilometres long spins off from swirling winds. To the naked eye this ribbon may be no more than a sea of wispy clouds, disguising an atmospheric river that carries 25 Mississippi Rivers worth of water vapour – and it’s headed for B.C.’s south coast. When it collides with land, it will release tremendous rains that could last for a couple of days and trigger devastating landslides, floods, and fatal avalanches.” Ainslie Cruickshank – Star Vancouver – May 2019 Advertisements
Nuclear Winter “Spinning out of control, the satellite came to its journey’s fiery end in January 1978, just four months after its launch. After weeks in a decaying orbit, it re-entered the atmosphere near Haida Gwaii, then known as the Queen Charlotte Islands. The Soviets had intended, in such a scenario, for the reactor onboard to disengage from the satellite’s body and safely burn up seperately. But that didn’t happen. Instead, the remains of Cosmos 954 streaked across northern Canada and the reactor broke apart, spilling its radioactive contents into the air.” Lorcan Archer – Maisonneuve – January 2019 https://maisonneuve.org/article/2019/01/29/nuclear-winter/
The Riddle of the Roaming Plastics “Codfish eat everything. ‘Everyone here has a story about the Barbie doll they found in a cod,’ quips Max Liboiron, referring to St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, her home. So the geography professor at Memorial University in St. John’s thought she knew what to expect in 2015 when she conducted the first study on plastic ingestion among cod in Newfoundland’s inshore waters. The results surprised her; in contradiction of the local lore, the data showed one of the lowest rates of plastic ingestion by fish in the world.” Matthew Halliday – Hakai Magazine – December 2018
Bitter Pill “Sherman also spends a small fortune on litigation—a full 50 per cent of what he invests in research. Generic manufacturers like Apotex live or die by the speed with which they can plunge into the marketplace with copycat versions. So they make it their business to shorten the duration that brand name companies hold on to drug monopolies, weighing potential profits against the risk of lawsuits. It’s not unusual for Apotex—probably the country’s biggest litigator—to be engaged in 100 court cases simultaneously.” Geraldine Sherman – Toronto Life – July 2008
Keepers of the spotted owl “McCulligh knew the breeding centre could not afford to lose this newborn. At that point in time, in April 2017, there were only six spotted owls left in B.C.’s wild, even though scientists had been sounding the alarm for decades about widespread destruction of the species’ ancient rainforest habitat. Ten years into operation, the breeding centre had hatched just eight other spotted owls — and one was blind, couldn’t fly and laid eggs in her water dish. ‘It was the most stressful thing of my entire life,’ McCulligh remembered. ‘It was at the point where I just didn’t know what to do anymore.'” Sarah Cox – The Narwhal – November 2018
In the Kingdom of the Bears “A snuffling and snorting outside my tent stirs me awake. I sit up, feel for my bear spray, and try to recall my surroundings. My tent is just one of several, and the food is locked in an old trailer down a path through the scrubby trees. The only other sound is my breathing—until a sharp bang from someone hitting a pot splits the air, shooing away our midnight visitor in a calm, firm voice: ‘Yau ‘thà. [Hello, black bear.] Go on now. Not tonight, thank you.'” Jude Isabella – Hakai Magazine – October 2018
One man hatches a plan to fix Canada’s lobster fishing industry “What if he could bring the fish to Canada, frozen in pieces, to sell as lobster bait? It could reduce the silver-carp population back in Illinois, lower their chances of spilling into the Great Lakes – and, more to the point, ease rising bait prices in Atlantic Canada. Even saving 10 cents a pound would make a huge difference, Mr. Swim says, for fishermen buying an average estimated 40,000 pounds (about 18,000 kilograms) of bait every year. ‘That’s your vacation, or your Christmas presents,’ he says. ‘Or whatever four grand buys, which is a lot for a fisherman. With fuel, it’s crazy what they spend.’ But would silver carp catch lobster? ‘That was the million-dollar question.'” Victoria Gibson – The Globe and Mail – October 2018
