Jimmy Thomson

Freelance environmental journalist focusing on environmental stories

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Thaidene Nëné heralds a new era of parks

For decades, establishing a park in Canada meant removing Indigenous people from their traditional territories. In Canada’s newest national park — Thaidene Nëné National Park Reserve — the Łutsel K’e Dene will hunt and fish, work as guardians of the…

Apr 8, 2020

Fisheries and Oceans Canada pulls at-sea observers from fishing boats due to coronavirus pandemic

Fishermen rely on observers to keep the industry honest. Now they’re worried about maintaining a level playing field The Canadian government has removed observers from all fishing vessels for at least 45 days due to COVID-19. Fisheries and Oceans…

Apr 3, 2020

Heiltsuk First Nation urges outsiders to stay away after yachts arrive during B.C. coronavirus lockdown

The remote coastal community of Bella Bella, B.C., home to roughly 1,400 people, has little capacity to take care of its own residents with just one ventilator and only two doctors The community of Bella Bella, B.C., is on lockdown. No one is coming…

Mar 30, 2020

A Couple Drove 5,000 KM to Yukon to Escape Coronavirus. Locals Were Furious

Old Crow, the northernmost community in Yukon, is seething after two uninvited guests showed up in spite of warnings not to come. At around 10 a.m. on Friday, an Air North flight brought two Quebeckers to the Arctic community. “We were busy dealing…

Mar 21, 2020

‘We can make this work’: ecologists get creative to keep research projects alive amid coronavirus travel bans

As flights and field seasons are cancelled, some scientists see building capacity at the local level as an opportunity to keep vital work alive — and possibly reshape the way remote research is done Partway through a trip to Gjoa Haven, Nunavut, this…

Feb 5, 2020

The World’s Last Rainforest Is Under Threat

Ernie Tallio has seen a lot while patrolling his community of Bella Coola, BC: he’s rescued swamped kayakers, recovered bodies, and protected sacred sites. As a Nuxalk Guardian, Tallio relies on a boat and a truck owned and maintained by the Nuxalk…

Jan 31, 2020

Why $25 million of carbon credits from the Great Bear Rainforest are sitting on the shelf

Carbon offsets were meant to fund a conservation economy in the world’s last intact temperate rainforest, but sales have fallen short of expectations. Still, some say there is reason for optimism Ernie Tallio has seen a lot on patrol from his…

Jan 13, 2020

What We Lost When Ghanimat Azhdari Was Killed in the Iran Plane Crash

A petite Iranian woman stands before a roomful of hundreds of experts, in an Egyptian auditorium, wearing a flowing purple dress her mother sewed for her. International delegates at the UN Convention on Biological Diversity summit listen…

Jan 10, 2020

‘She was absolutely adored’: Iranian scientist spent her life fighting for Indigenous voices in conservation

Ghanimat Azhdari was born into a nomadic tribe in Iran and was a PhD student at Canada’s University of Guelph, where she was working with Indigenous communities in the boreal forest to map cultural sites. This week, she died along with 175 others…

Nov 20, 2019

Rethinking the Colonial Mentality of Our National Parks

Our nine-passenger Cessna drops 2,000 feet out of the sky as pilot Andy Brock descends into the East Arm of Great Slave Lake. Seen up close, the blurry and distant landscape resolves into full relief. What had been a low, rolling landscape of bogs…

Nov 20, 2019

Microplastics found in the stomach and intestines of Arctic belugas harvested for food

In the North, where food prices are notoriously high, beluga whales are a staple community resource John Noksana, Jr., learned the many skills of harvesting beluga whales in his teens. He’s spent the intervening decades perfecting them. “I can…

Nov 12, 2019

Broadview Magazine

The travel industry is selling us a myth about self-growth

“Finding myself in India,” wrote the social media influencer Jack Morris on an Instagram post in March, captioning a photo of himself in a mock meditation posture and topping it off with an ironic laughing-crying emoji. Morris’s account, which is…

Oct 31, 2019

A gathering of guardians: Indigenous monitors convene for historic knowledge exchange

In remote areas from the B.C. coast to Nunavut’s far north, Indigenous guardians and coastal watchmen are increasingly relied on to monitor landscapes, conduct search and rescue, gather environmental samples and document the impacts of climate…

Oct 30, 2019

Mining company secretly proposes to increase industrial shipping in Arctic marine conservation area

The owners of one of the world's northernmost mines is telling investors it has plans to increase shipping capacity 50 per cent higher than what it’s telling the public. That could have major impacts for the narwhals who — until recently — enjoyed…

Oct 12, 2019

Thaidene Nëné heralds a new era of parks

For decades, establishing a park in Canada meant removing Indigenous people from their traditional territories. In Canada’s newest national park — Thaidene Nëné National Park Reserve — the Łutsel K’e Dene will hunt and fish, work as guardians of the…

Sep 12, 2019

Canada’s major parties on all things environment, explained

Canadians are more concerned than ever about the environment — it's emerged as a top issue in the upcoming federal election. So what are the country’s leadership hopefuls promising? Environmental issues are top-of-mind for more Canadians than ever…

Aug 15, 2019

Canadian taxpayers on hook for $61 million for road to open up mining in Arctic

MMG Limited, a mining company controlled by the Chinese government, praised the public investment in Arctic infrastructure as biologists sounded the alarm about impacts on a dwindling caribou herd A proposed road connecting Yellowknife to the Arctic…

Aug 12, 2019

Indigenous Knowledge and the Future of Science

Jean Polfus had a moment of clarity sitting around a long oval table in Tulít’a, a community on the Mackenzie River in central Northwest Territories. It started with confusion over a pair of Dene words. Goecha gots’anele. The words refer to a process…

Aug 8, 2019

In the age of misinformation, advocates call for Canadians to vote for science

As U.S. President Donald Trump slashes science budgets south of the border, a coalition of Canadian organizations is campaigning for Canadians to put science on the agenda of this fall’s federal election Cue the lab coat-clad politicians with their…

Jul 24, 2019

A Canadian company’s mine waste is threatening a pristine Alaskan valley

Last week, the Alaskan government issued a waste management permit to Constantine North, allowing the company to discharge waste water from an underground tunnel at its Palmer project, upstream of Haines, Alaska, and alongside B.C.’s…

Jul 19, 2019

Indigenous Guardians get $6.4 million to monitor traditional territories

From tracking wildlife populations to reporting industrial pollution, more than 40 Indigenous Guardian programs across Canada are proving their value The federal government has boosted its investment in Indigenous-led conservation projects across the…