As many of our readers have already seen, DeSmog Canada recently completed a successful Kickstarter campaign where we raised $50,000 from our generous supporters. Even though we're on the other side of that fundraiser, we still rely on support from readers like you. That's why we make it easy to contribute to DeSmog Canada at anytime through PayPal. 

If you are wondering why DeSmog Canada deserves your support, here's a list of our top reasons: 

1. We’re doing something no one else in Canada is

Our vision for DeSmog Canada is to build an independent, non-profit media outlet dedicated to reporting on energy and environment issues in Canada. That work doesn’t stop with climate reporting: we provide in-depth news on new energy projects and resource development and show how those projects affect local communities, First Nations and the local environment. We keep track of federal and provincial policies surrounding pollution and health, holding government and industry officials to account for their promises and their actions. We bring new knowledge and insight to Canadian politics and the impact decision-makers have on democracy and the rights of all Canadian citizens.

1. We need strong and balanced reporting on energy and environment issues

There’s no question environmental issues have become increasingly polarized in Canada. With government calling some of Canada’s prominent environment groups ‘foreign funded radicals’ and celebrities traveling to the Alberta oilsands to highlight the human and environmental impacts of extraction in the region – there’s no shortage of talking points being trumpeted across the aisle. But what about the conversation in the middle? The meaningful discussion of solutions that gets drowned out in all the noise? DeSmog Canada is designed not only to provide hard-hitting journalism, but to foster discussions about Canada’s energy future, the needs and rights of local communities, and environmental stewardship for generations to come.

1. Freedom of expression and transparency are endangered in Canada

Canada is one of the lowest-ranked developed nations on the world press freedom index. Even our own Information Commissioner says Canada has a problem with providing citizens access to information. And a new report just published this week gave many of Canada’s major federal departments a failing grade for lack of open communication, lack of whistleblower protection and political interference in science and research.

Canada is at the centre of what critics, academics and journalists are calling a “war on science,” with taxpayer funded scientists being muzzled by politicians. The need to get information to average Canadians has never been more difficult and important. We play a critical role in filling that gap while continuously telling the story of Canada’s silenced scientists.

That's why we helped launch the #CDNFOI hastag as part of an effort with the Canadian Association of Journalists, IntegrityBC, and the B.C. Freedom of Information and Privacy Association to highlight government secrecy in Canada.

1. In Canada and across the world investigative journalists are disappearing

According to the Canadian Association of Journalists, since 2012 almost 2000 journalists have lost their jobs in Canada. We wrote about this happening to investigative reporter Mike De Souza, highlighting all the important stories he broke while working at Postmedia. We also just covered the story of Postmedia preparing to purchase many of the major English-language papers across the entire country. With greater concentration of media ownership, press freedom comes under threat. That’s why independent and non-profit outlets like DeSmog Canada are important for maintaining a healthy flow of information in Canada. We tell stories that corporate media isn’t interested in.

1. Our team is made of talented journalists, writers and researchers that we pay but we still aren’t exclusive with our content

If you didn’t already know, DeSmog Canada has an amazing team that brings you breaking news, intelligent analysis and in-depth reporting. We also have skilled graphic designers and social media experts that ensure our reporting doesn’t just stop at our homepage. We work overtime to amplify our content and spread our reporting. That’s why you’ll see our work published on the Huffington Post, the Vancouver Observer, the Times Colonist, The Tyee, and many small town papers across the country. We really get a bang for our buck.

1. We bring our work offline to build knowledge and democracy IRL

Much of what we do happens offline. We send experts out into the community to train organizations and individuals how to do access to information requests. We give presentations on the muzzling of Canada’s scientists and how misinformation can be used to try to confuse the public about natural resource issues like pipelines or fracking. Our team also provides rapid fire research to talk show hosts, reporters, academics, authors, artists and individuals on a regular basis. We’re known for our great work, and for our exceptional team and we’re not afraid to share it. At DeSmog Canada we believe in what we do and the impact engaged and informed citizens can have in a healthy democracy.

That’s the short list of reasons why you should support DeSmog Canada, but there’s even more up our sleeves. To learn more about what we do, browse our site and Facebook page.

We hope you’ll find any one of these points reason enough to go to our PayPal page and give generously. Remember, we're independent, non-profit and we don't advertise. That's pretty cool.

The Narwhal’s reporters are telling environment stories you won’t read about anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for our free weekly dose of independent journalism.

In her new book, This Changes Everything, Canadian author Naomi Klein positions climate change as a form of social disaster, which, like a lot of other disasters cannot be gazed upon for too long.

We are constantly finding ways and reasons to “look away,” she writes, “or maybe we do look – really look – but then, inevitably, we seem to forget.”

“Climate change is like that; it’s hard to keep it in your head for very long. We engage in this odd form of on-again-off-again ecological amnesia for perfectly rational reasons. We deny because we fear that letting in the full reality of this crisis will change everything.”

“And we are right.”

Part of the strategy of this forgetting or looking away, as Klein frames it, is in the myriad technical, lifestyle or personal ‘solutions’ to a warming globe that refuse to question the deeper roots of the climate crisis, the structural and socio-economic logic both creating the problem and masquerading as its solution.

The challenge, says Klein, is looking at the challenge of climate change head on, and realizing, whether we like it or not, it undoes a lot of what we take for granted in our everyday notions of the political, the economic, the corporate and the radical.

Canada, a world leader in the release of greenhouse gas emissions, is no exception.

The country's current political mantra – that nothing but increasing resource extraction can ensure us a stable economy – is one of those everyday presumptions that is drastically challenged in the face of global climate change.

Much of the work we do at DeSmog Canada is dedicated to bringing to light Canada’s failure to meaningfully address climate change. And to discuss how the scientific reality of climate change affects Canada's future.

This country’s efforts in the political sphere to bolster oilsands and natural gas development, western coal exports and proposed oil pipelines heading in literally every cardinal direction, all fail to heed the immediate message of climate science: that no future stable economy can rely on carbon-intensive development.

Climate change will change everything in Canada, too, there’s no question of that.

The question is whether we will become leaders in that change, or watch those early opportunities – to hitch our economy to a clean energy future – pass by.

Klein recently told DeSmog Canada that our work was an “indispensible tool” while she was writing This Changes Everything.

Right now DeSmog Canada is in the middle of our first-ever crowd-funding campaign on Kickstarter.

Klein lent her support to our campaign because she recognized that a crucial part of addressing climate change is looking at it face on and refusing to look away.

And that’s a big part of what we do here at DeSmog Canada – face the tough issues and ask the hard questions. 

We believe that Canadians deserve strong leadership and a secure energy future, one that accounts for the reality of a changing global climate, not one that looks away.

If you believe that too, I hope you’ll join us and the other Canadians who want to have a more constructive debate about Canada’s climate and energy future.

Image Credit: Nicolas Haeringer, 2008.  

The Narwhal’s reporters are telling environment stories you won’t read about anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for our free weekly dose of independent journalism.

DeSmog Canada is excited to announce the launch of our new crowdfunding campaign: “Let’s Clean Up Canada’s Climate and Energy Debate.”

For the past 18 months, DeSmog Canada has delivered cutting-edge investigative journalism to clean up Canada's polluted public square and foster science-based debate on climate and energy issues. Now, we are ready to take it to the next level.

Over the next thirty days, we need your help to raise $50,000 to fund our upcoming work that will focus on three priorities:

• leading in-depth investigations of government and industry spending on multi-million dollar ad campaigns to sell oil development and pipelines instead of clean energy solutions,
• shining a light on fake grassroots groups designed to confuse the public debate,
• exposing Canada’s war on science and the scientists who are prevented from sharing critical information with the public.

Climate and energy debates have never been more important to setting the course for Canada's future. Yet conversations about Canada’s energy have never been more polarized, divisive and polluted with misinformation.

The stakes have never been higher.

In helping us to launch this ambitious crowd-funding campaign, David Suzuki puts it best:

“Everyday, we are bombarded with ads from oil companies telling us how their dirty products offer a clean, bright future. And we see advertisements for major energy projects like the Northern Gateway pipeline or the oilsands on the very sites that are supposed to be giving us the ‘facts’ about these projects.

Canadians want to hear about the issues, understand them and be part of the process, but instead all we get is noise. There is little honest debate on these issues – some of the most important issues we collectively face today.

But there are, importantly, organizations like DeSmog Canada, pushing back, to promote rational dialogue and informed discussions about Canada’s future. DeSmog Canada really rises above the fray – delivering trustworthy, high quality journalism and analysis that presses the issues that matter to Canadians – like pollution, climate change, environmental policy, the rights of First Nations and directly affected local communities.

They’re really doing something different on DeSmog Canada and that’s why I not only read desmog.ca every day and support their goals, but actually am working to help fundraise to support their efforts to grow so they can keep bringing this kind of high-quality content to Canadians.

And I’m asking you to do the same.”

We’re committed to putting the public interest first, to bringing you the news and analysis you need to make sense of policy, politics and, ultimately, democracy.

We believe an informed citizenry is the first step to meaningful debate about our natural resource wealth and what we choose to do with it.

If you’re a DeSmog Canada fan, you’re already ahead of the game. Your readership and online support has been pivotal to our online success over the last year and a half.

Now we’re ready to take it to the next level and we want you to be a part of that.

Not only does our Kickstarter campaign give you the chance to become a personal DeSmog Canada supporter, but our incredible assortment of perks will bring you even closer with our team and the amazing celebrity supporters who are backing our work.

If you don’t believe me, check it out! And be sure to share the campaign with your friends, family and anyone you think will benefit from the informed debate DeSmog Canada is bringing to the country.

The Narwhal’s reporters are telling environment stories you won’t read about anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for our free weekly dose of independent journalism.