A conversation with Brendan Haley - Policy Director for Efficiency Canada, a national voice for an energy efficient economy, and an EAC energy team alum.

In this audio series, you’ll hear EAC’s friends, volunteers, former staff, and collaborators, reflecting on the impacts of 50 years of environmental activism,  the unique ways that EAC has gone about its work and engaged with communities, how we can deal with failures, how environmental justice fits into the picture, and what they see when they look to the future.


The Ecology Action Centre is made up of so many people. Over the past 50 years, countless volunteers, members, advisors, staffers, students, and community partners have all contributed to EAC’s work and the environmental movement, of which EAC is a part. Their work has had an amazing impact across the province and beyond. They’ve helped protect land and water, changed the  food system, fought for climate justice and so much more. Of course, the past 50 years have not been without their share of failures and foibles. Like most of the mainstream environmental movement, EAC still has a lot of work to do to make sure that Mi’kmaq and African Nova Scotian communities are represented in our work and our community partnerships. And we still have lots to learn and unlearn about how colonialist ways of thinking continue to shape our approach to protecting nature and the environment. In this moment, where we find ourselves on the brink of climate crisis tipping points, with increasing destruction to our earth and her life support systems, it can sometimes feel as though we are facing a very big failure of all our efforts. And at the same time, we know it is possible to shape change and build stronger communities together: our world truly would be a different place without the passion and brilliance of all the dedicated activists of the past 50 years. And so we must ask ourselves: Where do we go from here? What is the environmental movement and the EAC called to be now, in this moment?