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…

Jul. 8, 2020

One key solution to the world’s climate woes? Canada’s natural landscapes

Scientists have found protecting nature can provide more than one-third of the emissions reductions required to meet the world’s 2030 climate targets, thrusting Canada — home to 25 per cent of the planet’s wetlands and boreal forests — into the hot…

Jun. 26, 2020

Australia just committed $650 million to Indigenous rangers programs. Should Canada do the same?

As the federal government crafts its COVID-19 economic recovery plan, Indigenous leaders argue investments in guardian programs can create thousands of jobs, while protecting the land and healing communities Indigenous guardians have been on the…

Jun. 19, 2020

Whales Keep Dying Under Canadian Law That Gently Suggests Ships Slow Down

The Canadian government has kindly asked ships to slow down in the waters between Cape Breton and Newfoundland, in order to prevent them from killing endangered North Atlantic right whales. But most ships are ignoring that request, putting the very…

Jun. 11, 2020

B.C. mine proposed in critical caribou habitat shows how endangered species ‘fall through the cracks’

If the newly proposed Sukunka coal mine follows the same trajectory as nearly every project reviewed under the province’s environmental assessment process, it will be approved even if it is found to have harmful effects on caribou B.C. is considering…

Jun. 3, 2020

The Globe and Mail

I spilled a drink all over my laptop while working from home. What do I do?

The feeling of spilling a drink on your expensive laptop is so unique that Cindy Jacob can see it on your face before you even say a word. Ms. Jacob, co-owner of the MacPros repair shop in Victoria, says the feeling is a mixture of sheepishness and…

May. 19, 2020

The Globe and Mail

Campgrounds try to prepare for a safe summer season

If there’s one tradition that has remained more or less constant throughout Canada’s history, surely it’s camping. But as the country warms up and people prepare to get outside with the first wave of COVID-19 beginning to ebb away, some traditions…

May. 15, 2020

The state of the Arctic Ocean? Unpredictable

A broad report on Canada’s North finds transformations in sea ice, due to climate change, are altering the landscape — and ways of life that depend on it — in all sorts of significant, destructive and deadly ways Transformations of Arctic sea ice are…

May. 6, 2020

‘You’re out there alone’: whistleblowers say workplace abuse hides true impacts of B.C.’s trawl fishery

A months-long investigation by The Narwhal, including interviews with 11 current or former at-sea observers, reveals a culture of intimidation and harassment that has resulted in the vast and systematic under-reporting of deep-sea fish harvested from…

Apr. 19, 2020

‘An important time to listen’: ocean scientists race to hear the effects of coronavirus under water

The pandemic offers a temporary reprieve from the clamour of ocean noise — which can affect how whales and other species communicate, navigate and feed — and an opportunity to reflect on the consequences of human activity for marine life The world…

Apr. 10, 2020

Will the next great pandemic come from the permafrost?

As the Arctic warms, ‘zombie’ viruses and microbes are rising from the thawing ground. But infectious diseases migrating north could pose an even bigger threat to human and animal health In November 2019, 50 scientists from around the world assembled…

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…