The Climate Lens

The world seems as bewildering today as it's ever been. A report from the United Nations tells us that we've breached 1.5 degrees of global heating. Canada's government released a damning report on our changing climate, meanwhile carving out special treatment for the Big Oil projects they have been laser-focussed on throughout Mark Carney's tenure as Prime Minister. Throw on top of that the latest battle in the larger US trade war and a referendum in Alberta with separatism on the ballot, and what's an activist to do?

We don't expect Gerald Wheatley to have the definitive answer to this, but he'll have something. Gerald is a longtime manager of the Arusha Centre, a collectively run, member-supported organization that provides resources and initiatives on social justice and environmental issues and has been a bright light to a great number of people for generations here in Calgary. He’s also a Director at Large for your Calgary Climate Hub

Episode 47 Transcript: https://bit.ly/4z42SzF
Episode 47 Sources: https://bit.ly/4jveSFT

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Jenny Yeremiy’s recent investigation into Alberta’s AI data centre boom asked the questions many governments seem reluctant to answer. Who really benefits? Who bears the costs? And are we building an economy that’s fit for our climate future and the fastest-moving energy transition in history?

Transcript: https://bit.ly/4hO1g89
Sources: https://bit.ly/3SIM9T9

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Plug-in, or balcony solar is changing the way people think about energy. Already taking off in Germany and other countries, this simple technology allows homeowners and renters to generate their own electricity without many of the costs and complications of traditional rooftop solar. Will Alberta be next?

Host Steve Bentley is joined by Christopher Cashen of Volta Home, Peter Driftmier of Bow Valley Green Energy, and Calgary Climate Hub co-chair Dr. Joe Vipond to explore how plug-in solar could make clean energy more affordable, more accessible, and more democratic—and what it will take to make it a reality in Alberta.

Transcript: https://bit.ly/4pIr07E

Sources: https://bit.ly/4ftS9Ic

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The challenge of climate change rests almost entirely in the realm of the politics. The solutions are largely known, and in many cases already being deployed and doing good work. Nature based solutions, like reforestation, wetland restoration, green roofs and urban forests, fit perfectly in this category. 

Worldwide, you'll find no better practitioners of Nature-Based Solutions than Indigenous people. Yet, in so many places, Indigenous rights are ignored in favour of the same disastrous approaches and systemic blindspots that got us into the problem in the first place.  Carole Monture of Indigenous Climate Action and Jared Blustein, Executive Director of the Calgary Climate Hub.

Transcript - http://bit.ly/4w4adOl

Sources - https://bit.ly/4gz5HTm

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Against overhwhelming opposition clear across all political divdies Coal mining is back on the table in Alberta—and so is a fight that just won’t go away. Over the past few years, we’ve seen protections rolled back, reinstated, and reshaped, projects rejected then revived for no good reason and growing evidence of pollution risks that could reach far beyond the mine sites themselves and through it all an entirely captured-by-industry Alberta Energy Regulator as well as a host of cynical, anti-democratic provincial government shenanigans and outright dirty tricks. Now, with new approvals on the horizon, a $2-billion doillar lawsuit looming over taxpayers, and public frustration hitting a boiling point, the battle over the Eastern Slopes rages on. At the same time, something unusual has organically grown around all of this: strong sustained resistance from a one of the broadest coalition of Albertans we've ever seen: ranchers, scientists, communities across the rural/urban divide, conservationists, climate activists and voices like musician Corb Lund are finding common ground around one core concern: water. Because what happens in these mountains doesn’t stay there, it flows downstream to farms, towns, cities across southern Alberta and even all the way next door to our neighbours in Saskatchewan. This month on the Climate Lens, we’re very lucky to be joined by Kevin Van Tighem - writer, conservationist, and former superintendent of Banff National Park - to unpack what’s really going on beneath the headlines—and what’s at stake for Alberta’s water, land, and future.

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Sources used in this episode: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gvTf1leSB_pHmkM692EKy1jIR_pt1hLD1zodirbpSxQ

Transcript of the episode: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bFRJPDy4jxbKdR2ti79xP5RKNjvlyaJmsynwSX6gIFU

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Kevin Van Tighem

Website: https://kevinvantighem.ca/

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If you appreciate what we're doing here at the Climate Lens one way you could help out is become a member of our Patreon for just 5 bucks a month at https://www.patreon.com/TheClimateLens or make a one time donation via the Calgary Climate Hub website at https://www.canadahelps.org/en/dn/92219

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Calgary Climate Hub

Website: https://www.calgaryclimatehub.ca

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Mastodon: https://campaign.openworlds.info/@ClimateHubYYC

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Volunteer! https://www.calgaryclimatehub.ca/volunteer

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Our economic models assume endless growth, endless oil demand, and stable climate. In 2026, these assumptions are failing us. From pensions tied to fossil dependency, to housing inequality and affordability, these “safe” forecasts are locking us into a risky future. Journalist Stephen Leahy is here to ask the more hopeful question: What happens if we fix the models instead of defending them? What if we plan for an electrified world?

Transcript https://bit.ly/4cSFQ5s

Sources https://bit.ly/4dcEHHa

Join, Volunteer, Donate: https://www.calgaryclimatehub.ca/

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As strange as it sounds in the face of the highest temperatures, the biggest wildfires we've ever encountered and the most smoke we've ever breathed, climate activism is said to be on the wane, that the best approach in 2026 is to stop saying the words climate change. To challenge all that Steve Bentley talks with his guest Seth Klein, one of Canada's prime minds and voices when it comes to climate change and author of the book, A Good War: Mobilising Canada for the Climate Emergency.

Transcript: http://bit.ly/4lPEmNy

Sources: https://bit.ly/4bEYnTH

Calgary Climate Hub: Join, Donate, Volunteer! https://www.calgaryclimatehub.ca/

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Some of us are old enough to remember the lead up to the Iraq War in the early two thousands in which America had a series of ever-shifting reasons for their invasion, all of which proved either false or irrelevant, and none of which mentioned oil, which is the prime reason America has ever cared about the Middle East. For America's invasion of Venezuela in 2026, though there's the thinnest patina around it being the latest front in the war on drugs, just about nobody in the world is fooled by that this time, thanks in no small part to President Trump himself who says it's about oil several times a day. So as the world burns around us due to climate change and many countries have joined the global energy transition in taking their first steps to becoming electro states rather than petro states, might Trump’s be the biggest oil war yet, or is the larger war the end of oil forever? And if so, which side exactly is Canada on? With me today to break this down, the heaviest of topics is Canada's most prolific and best energy writer, the indefatiguable Markham Hislop of Energy Media.

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Sources used in this episode: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kw0BUSnYD8qG5c4e0rrWdXnPiGMzbAivUrZ5QUsKFHM/

Transcript of the episode: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1q7av2NRp-QKhc9o3pq5OHiPH3DFzLzsRTsNJ1UZlHF8/

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Markham Hislop and Energi Media

Website: https://energi.media/

Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@EnergiMedia

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If you appreciate what we're doing here at the Climate Lens one way you could help out is become a member of our Patreon for just 5 bucks a month at https://www.patreon.com/TheClimateLens or make a one time donation via the Calgary Climate Hub website at https://www.canadahelps.org/en/dn/92219

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Calgary Climate Hub

Website: https://www.calgaryclimatehub.ca

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/climatehubyyc.bsky.social

Mastodon: https://campaign.openworlds.info/@ClimateHubYYC

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/calgaryclimatehub/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/calgaryclimatehub/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@calgaryclimatehub

Volunteer! https://www.calgaryclimatehub.ca/volunteer

Become a Member! https://www.calgaryclimatehub.ca/membership

Donate! https://www.calgaryclimatehub.ca/donate

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We've never felt the ramifications of climate change more than over the last few years and yet in 2025 much of the world seems reluctant to even say its name any more and yet China continues to lap the rest of the world on energy transition, Australia is now generating so much solar power it's offering its citizens free electricity during peak hours and in South Korea there's a new law that parking lots beyond a certain size must now also become solar farms. And of course as we've hit up repeatedly here on the Climate Lens throughout 2025 there remains a rock solid consistent worldwide majority of humans that support more & bigger climate-smart policies.To help us dig into all this we're very happy to have on this month's show Caroline Brouilette, Executive Director for Climate Action Network or CANRAC, a network representing 140 organizations working for climate change from coast to coast to coast and fellow Calgary Climate Hub co-founder Dr Joe Vipond of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment.

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Sources used in this episode: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1G1cNrMsvzZM8mIfShGB6Bse_962EXJ1SggtQUxkhGUM/

Transcript of the episode: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Y14mFS3IDaDwzMu0b_t0WInFebEEX6GsCqzYixSs6Fs/

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Climate Action Network (CANRAC): https://climateactionnetwork.ca/

Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment: https://cape.ca/

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If you appreciate what we're doing here at the Climate Lens one way you could help out is become a member of our Patreon for just 5 bucks a month at https://www.patreon.com/TheClimateLens or make a one time donation via the Calgary Climate Hub website at https://www.canadahelps.org/en/dn/92219

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Calgary Climate Hub

Website: https://www.calgaryclimatehub.ca

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/climatehubyyc.bsky.social

Mastodon: https://campaign.openworlds.info/@ClimateHubYYC

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/calgaryclimatehub/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/calgaryclimatehub/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@calgaryclimatehub

Volunteer! https://www.calgaryclimatehub.ca/volunteer

Become a Member! https://www.calgaryclimatehub.ca/membership

Donate! https://www.calgaryclimatehub.ca/donate

Support us on Patreon!

Oil companies made the people of Alberta and specifically the landowners a deal, that if they come on to your land to drill you will be paid for it and the land will be returned to its previous state. Whatt we've been seeing for some time now with a muti-billion dollar price tag attached is a great many oil companies just taking the the profits and skipping out on those cleanup costs, leaving them instead to the landowners themselves, and to you the Albertan and/or Canadian taxpayer.

We've got a powerhouse panel featuring Phillip Meintzer, a co-founder and campaign organizer with the Coalition for Responsible Energy, affected landowner Dwight Popowich, Alberta land rights advocate and Vice Chair of the Polluter Pay Federation Mark Dorin and finally Susanne Callabrese from Ecojustice, Canada’s largest environmental law charity.

Episode 38 Transcript

Episode 38 Sources

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