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.

*****

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/

*****

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

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

*****

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

****

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

Support us on Patreon!

In August of 2025, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice ruled Premier Doug Ford's ambitions to rip out the City of Toronto's bike lanes as a violation of Canadian Charter rights. Heading into the municipal elections right here in Alberta, cyclists are hearing these same fact-free attacks. What's going on here? To help debunk all this, as well as tell us a little about what bikes and bike lanes mean to them, are Bike Calgary's Doug Clark and Alyssa Quinney.

Transcript: https://docs.google.com/document/d/12opePOulnLPPYNbWXu-ThX-kNcJC8RajBjbtoXn5sGE/edit?usp=sharing

Sources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1avT40teyFq4rseWRGsFmMMUPwearS5LunXF2JiDghbg/edit?usp=sharing

Support us on Patreon!

On this month's Climate Lens, we welcome one of the world's top urbanists, Canadian Brent Toderian. He has been shaping conversations around smart, sustainable cities for decades, including right here in Calgary. Most recently, he co-curated the "From Paris to Belém" exhibition, an international effort celebrating urban climate policy, and connecting it to global climate goals ahead of this year’s COP30 climate summit in Brazil. With Alberta’s municipal elections fast approaching, who better to have on and tell us what types of climate solutions we can apply at the local level for a safe and prosperous climate-smart future, and what types of policies must we avoid at all costs?

Transcript: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1q55cnLlZNG2q7n7Zyuub922IZ5lIQkQzlxZHEfLPxAk/edit?usp=drive_link

Sources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1i76td6P1tsorydFzJr9eXpJPy9QdB0huse6bCwNDgiU/edit?usp=sharing

Support us on Patreon!

Investigative journalist Geoff Dembicki of Desmog joins us to talk about the 'Petroleum Papers' his bombshell expose of Big Oil's dirty history on climate change, what they really think about Carbon Capture and what it all means for Canada’s so-called Clean Energy future.

Sources for this episode linked here.

Transcript of this episode linked here.

Support us on Patreon!

As wildfires ravage northern Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, the oil and gas lobby in Canada is pushing for fewer rules and restrictions on resource development. Calgary Climate Hub’s own Dr. Joe Vipond is here to remind us that this is no time for the climate movement to give up. As a medical doctor and longtime environmental activist, Vipond delivers a timely reminder to get out of the petrostate news bubble and take charge of the narrative.

Transcript:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1beWj0sO5F9y73G_YrD_reqfz56nVcAfGqdlA0AgoLdw/edit?tab=t.0

Sources used in episode:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1O4e-Kv96VdXUEahw-KNXQvWZG_ehSakRNzFLhD5TdqM/edit?usp=sharing

Moral Ambition by Rutger Berman: https://calgary.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S95C1698706

Climate-friendly Canadian News Sources:
National Observer
The Tyee
The Narwhal
The Sprawl
CBC What on Earth

Support us on Patreon!

In this episode of The Climate Lens, we feature Hannah Muhajarine from Climate Reality Canada about the National Climate League, a volunteer-driven report that tracks and compares how Canadian cities are tackling the climate crisis.
From innovative policies in Nanaimo and Halifax, to Calgary’s strengths and weaknesses, the NCL provides a clear, data-backed snapshot of municipal climate progress. Learn how local action stacks up across Canada, why cities are critical to climate solutions, and how you can use this report to spark real change in your community.

*****

Sources used in this episode:
Climate Reality Canada: https://www.climatereality.ca
The National Climate League 2024 Standings: https://theclimaterealityproject.app.box.com/s/jw30lpua7r7wsl53wxoaopwm5tx35zdh

Transcript of the episode: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QFx0zJZt4WnKiMUYmsRQKB8HWSi6As6IYki7jxvXSWY/edit?usp=sharing

Hannah Muhajarine

Calgary Climate Hub: Join, Donate, Volunteer!

*****

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

****

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!

It's always easy to shrug things off by saying "well that's just how things have always been" except, when it comes to our entirely human constructed global economic system it's categorically untrue. It has NOT always been like this. Our current model which is increasingly shrinking the world's middle class, making the poor poorer, the rich richer and the world increasingly on fire is just ONE now demonstrably failing human made system. Others economic systems systems have existed before and will exist on this planet again. In 2025 it's way past time we started exploring them. This month's guest is Lindsay McLaren, Professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences at the University of Calgary and a Research Associate with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and member of the Advisory Board of the Parkland Institute.

*****

Sources used in this episode: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1p-y5HrsyYbvbzpu_7povU725OyCw7Pc_N90PGZCmTZE/edit?usp=sharing

Transcript of the episode: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1C8Zqp9ti9WZlzB2y7CFVSIJxdngiQaIrpPHOi8ob_RU/edit?usp=sharing

*****

Linday McLaren: https://www.parklandinstitute.ca/lmclaren

*****

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

****

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!