Resource laws and processes have tried to keep politics out of decision making. But this technocratic approach carries its own problems. The challenge is getting the balance right.
Aluminium is an important global ingredient in industrial development.
Greg Pease/Getty Images
Ghana needs strong political will to enhance its climate change regulation.
The Supreme Court of Canada ordered the federal government back to the drawing board on its Impact Assessment Act. But the legislation got a lot of things right in an era of climate change and related issues.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that the federal Impact Assessment Act needs amendments for Constitutional compliance, but the court’s recommended approach is no longer viable.
An Osage delegation with President Calvin Coolidge at the White House on Jan. 20, 1924.
Bettman via Getty Images
The Osage murders of the 1920s are just one episode in nearly two centuries of stealing land and resources from Native Americans. Much of this theft was guided and sanctioned by federal law.
An African antelope at the Mekrou river in the W National Park, Niger.
DeAgostini/Getty Images
The work done by the campaign before, during and after the drought remains important for the food security of Cape Town
A paddler launches a canoe on Bass Lake in central Ontario on Canada Day, 2021. Could humble Canada be heading towards superpower status in the decades to come?
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Fred Thornhill
In 1776, with a population of 2.5 million, few imagined that within two centuries, the U.S. would become the dominant superpower. It’s not inconceivable that Canada could do the same by 2223.
The energy-intensive process of producing cement and concrete contributes significantly to global warming while depleting resources. Much more sustainable alternatives are being developed.
Nigeria’s economy needs to diversify away from oil.
Pius Utomi Ekpei/AFP via Getty Images
There should be a better long-term strategy for foreign direct investments in Nigeria that’s not tied to its oil reserves.
Maria Elena Paredes, coordinator of the Community Vigilance Committee for the Ashéninka community of Sawawo Hito 40, points to satellite images showing deforestation.
Reynaldo Vela/USAID
Illegal roads have brought deforestation, fire and other environmental damage to the Amazon. The results of the 2022 presidential runoff could have a major impact for the future.
Image of Earth’s city lights, created with data from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program.
NASA/Newsmakers via Getty Images
Matthew E. Kahn, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
A 1972 report warned that unchecked consumption could crater the world economy by 2100. Fifty years and much debate later, can humanity innovate quickly enough to avoid that fate?
Tourism-driven development is threatening one of Puerto Rico’s greatest draws: its rural coastlines.
R9 Studios FL/Flickr
Puerto Rico’s tourism industry is booming as nations lift COVID-19 travel restrictions, but development is displacing people who have lived along its coastlines for years.
Marabou storks perch on a tree at sunrise in Serengeti National Park, Tanzania.
Sergio Pitamitz /VWPics/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
As a major conference on the global biodiversity crisis opens in Montreal, a conservation biologist explains how ideas about protecting nature have evolved over the past 40 years.
Alain Libondo (17) left, and Nsinku Zihindula (25), hammering at solid rock to find cassiterite and coltan at Szibira, South Kivu.
Photo by Tom Stoddart via Getty Images
Degrowth offers the world a new story, one that acknowledges the role economic growth has had in climate change and identifies alternatives.
An abandoned forest road that has become impassable due to the washout of the culvert fill. The beaver dam has also contributed to road erosion.
(Forest Hydrology Laboratory of Université Laval)
By mismanaging its forestry road system, Québec and the forestry companies operating in public forests have made significant savings, to the detriment of protecting aquatic environments.
Alberta’s approach to fiscal management involves a nauseating cycle of big spending followed by massive cuts — almost entirely due to the outsized influence of oil and gas revenues. The rollercoaster at the West Edmonton Mall is seen in this photo.
(Jerry Bowley/Flickr)
Every time Alberta’s energy-based economy goes into a tailspin, it’s because the price of oil has declined precipitously, and when it booms, it’s because the price has soared.