Yes, Los Angeles is still burning in January, and yes, the political winds have shifted — big time. But the time for hope, and all that comes from it, is now.
Photo: Taylor Roades / The Narwhal
There’s no point in despair when there’s so much to hope for
More than a decade into environmental journalism, my message remains the same: we’ve got way too much to remain hopeful about instead of giving up — even when the forces at play want us to give up
As I settle back into my desk after a whole year on maternity leave, I keep thinking about a common way parents describe the time-distortion effect of life with a new baby: “the longest shortest time.”
It’s meant to capture the dizzying impact of experiencing long, exhausted, gruelling days that meld into large chunks of time that seem to whip by in a flash.
And I’m experiencing that feeling now as I dig into a familiar, albeit overloaded, inbox (send help), take in the accomplishments of our team over the past year (we won the Michener!) and attempt to digest the reality of a new term for U.S. President Donald Trump.
A year can bring so much transformative change but also, it can seem, none at all.
In the wake of the Jan. 20 inauguration in the U.S., a broad kind of cultural malaise is at risk of taking hold. It might tempt us to despair about the passage of time, about the thwarted efforts of progress (environmental rollbacks; new plans for pipelines and oil and gas drilling; middle fingers lifted to the Paris Accord; cancelled asylum programs for the world’s most vulnerable, just to name a few) and that slow arc toward justice that looks so in peril.
Our world is giving us every indication we are moving into new versions of reality that are accelerating our collective vulnerabilities across the board. It is January, and Los Angeles is still burning. Our team is already thinking ahead to wildfire coverage in Canada as we brace for the apocalyptic summers we’ve subsumed into our collective sense of what’s normal.
We are definitely worried about what the political upheavals south of the border signal about the future of Canadian politics in an election year.
I have been asked many times how, as an environmental journalist, I keep going, year after year. And my answer now is the same as it was a decade ago: there is no sense in being hopeless until there is nothing left to hope for. And we have so much to hope for. Big, bad stories are all over the headlines, but less mentioned are how hard people are working to protect the natural world every day: if you need proof, look at all our stories on solutions.
There is simply too much at stake to give up. Journalists at The Narwhal are looking clear-eyed at these shapeshifting realities in order to do what we do best: bring high-quality, public-interest reporting to all for free.
Just this week we published a story on all the feathers Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has ruffled by making two visits to meet with Trump, to the chagrin of many Canadian leaders; and another piece on what Trump’s tariff threats mean for the two countries’ shared electricity use. We also covered how the B.C. government is using the tariff threat to whittle down environmental protections.
And if you’re feeling overwhelmed, just go read this story we published today about how birds wearing tiny little backpacks are solving big, big problems.
The Narwhal keeps our coverage within Canada’s borders for a reason. Given the size and volume of our nearest neighbour, it’s easy for news about what’s happening here to go unnoticed. We don’t like that.
But when reporter Fatima Syed was invited to interview International Development Minister Ahmed Hussen, we made an exception. With a federal election pending, it seemed important to discuss the successes and challenges of Canada’s global environmental efforts, and how those efforts could change, soon.
So Fatima and climate investigations reporter Carl Meyer headed to Hussen’s office for a wide-ranging discussion. The three took a sober look at how war and environmental degradation inflame each other, particularly in Gaza since October 2023, and beyond. Hussen also stressed both local and international efforts are needed to mitigate the effects of global warming — the California fires are the latest example of our long history of sharing firefighting resources with the U.S.
“We have a global responsibility to be there for humanity, as well as being there for Canadians,” he said. “You can do both.”
The Great Bear Rainforest is protected. So why is an abandoned industrial site leaching heavy metals? By Steph Kwetásel’wet Wood
Heiltsuk Nation has a vision to revitalize Namu, an ancient village and former vibrant cannery. According to B.C., it’s Crown land — so the nation is calling on the province to clean it up.
Here at The Narwhal, we don’t use profit, awards or pageviews to measure success. The thing that matters most is real-world impact — evidence that our reporting influenced citizens to hold power to account and pushed policymakers to do better.
And in 2024, our stories were raised in parliaments across the country and cited by citizens in their petitions and letters to politicians.
In Alberta, our reporting revealed Premier Danielle Smith made false statements about the controversial renewables pause. In Manitoba, we proved that officials failed to formally inspect a leaky pipeline for years. And our investigations on a leaked recording of TC Energy executives were called “the most important Canadian political story of the year.”
Here at The Narwhal, we don’t use profit, awards or pageviews to measure success. The thing that matters most is real-world impact — evidence that our reporting influenced citizens to hold power to account and pushed policymakers to do better.
And in 2024, our stories were raised in parliaments across the country and cited by citizens in their petitions and letters to politicians.
In Alberta, our reporting revealed Premier Danielle Smith made false statements about the controversial renewables pause. In Manitoba, we proved that officials failed to formally inspect a leaky pipeline for years. And our investigations on a leaked recording of TC Energy executives were called “the most important Canadian political story of the year.”
We’re fighting for our right to report — and your right to know. Stay in the loop about our trial against the RCMP and get a weekly dose of The Narwhal’s independent journalism
We’re fighting for our right to report — and your right to know. Stay in the loop about our trial against the RCMP and get a weekly dose of The Narwhal’s independent journalism
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