Ralph Martin

‘My ideas are a little revolutionary’: ecologist Suzanne Simard on intelligent forests, the climate and her critics Her research popularised the idea of the wood wide web, but the scientific backlash was brutal. As the author of The Mother Tree returns to the forest in a new book, she discusses her battle to reimag...

“If I take forestry, for example, for a long time we studied: how do we grow bigger trees? And we got so focused on growing bigger trees that we didn’t think about the water and the plants and the animals and the impacts on them” www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Stripped of life: the deadly South Australian algal bloom is still spreading one year on More than 20,000 sq km of coast has succumbed to Australia’s first bloom of toxic Karenia cristata algae – and scientists worry it could explode again

“More than 780 species have been affected, including “devastating losses” of the state’s marine emblem, the leafy sea dragon, reported by divers and citizen scientists.” www.theguardian.com/environment/...

‘You are all worse than each other’: anti-regime Iranians turn on Trump Mood among some in Iran shifts from hope of being rescued to dismay at destruction of infrastructure, culture and lives

“The turning point for Amir was Israeli strikes on fuel depots in Tehran last week, with one attack on the Shahran oil depot overshadowing the capital with black smoke. “I genuinely believe now the US didn’t have a plan ... What about us, the ordinary Iranians?” www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

Opinion: He’s useful in a crisis – but is he any good at politics? A look at Mark Carney’s first year For the first time, Canada has a Prime Minister figuring out how to be a politician on the job, in front of everyone

“The odd permission slip for Mr. Carney in the fact that Trump insanity is the world’s most reliable renewable resource.” www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/opi...

‘Massive boost of serotonin!’: How a dose of nature is treating mental illness A project in London is helping hundreds of people, providing a genuine alternative to traditional treatments

“It will not only work best for you now, if you do it in a particular way, but will be there for you for the rest of your life. You don’t need to make an appointment with nature.” www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Mining’s toxic timebomb: dams full of poisonous waste are dotted around the world. What happens when they burst? While tailings dams are meant to last for ever, extreme weather events are making many unstable – with devastating consequences for nature and humans

“108 tailings dams in key biodiversity areas around world, 5% of known tailing facilities; probably an underestimate due to data limitations … Heavy metals not degrade; evolve into poisonous forms, go up food chains, inhibit plant growth, alter soil microbes” www.theguardian.com/environment/...

The Guardian view on the Iran war and international law: it’s worse than a mistake; it’s a crime | Editorial Editorial: Double standards in Europe and elsewhere are laid bare by the muted response to US and Israeli aggression and the killing of civilians

“The difficulty of upholding international law, and the limits of its scope, are no reason to jettison it. If those who lament the decline of the rules-based order remain complicit with the erosion of law, we will all be in greater danger.” www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Melting ice and transforming beliefs - Nature Climate Change Mountains and their ecosystems have been important to religious beliefs in many regions around the world. In this Viewpoint, researchers describe how climate change in mountain regions is interpreted ...

“Rwenzori’s glaciers decreased by 90% since early twentieth century — driven by global warming. This physical transformation, along with shifts in climatic conditions affecting the region’s plants and animals, has profound implications for Bakonjo’s spiritual life” www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Alberta landowners take stand over years of missed payments by delinquent oil company Some Edmonton landowners are taking a stand by erecting a blockade against what they call a delinquent oil and gas company. The group says MAGA Energy hasn't paid its lease for three years, and theref...

Some Edmonton landowners are taking a stand by erecting a blockade against what they call a delinquent oil and gas company. The group says MAGA Energy hasn't paid its lease for three years, and therefore the company is no longer allowed on their land www.nationalobserver.com/2026/03/12/n...

Why Canada’s housing plan must look to the past to build the future It should be easier to reuse and get more value out of the goods we consume, but it's not really a thing we do in Canada.

Canada’s construction industry produces more than four million tonnes of waste a year, about 12 per cent of the national waste generated. Only 18 per cent is diverted and roughly a third of what ends up in landfill is wood, writes Raphael Lopoukhine www.nationalobserver.com/2026/03/13/o...

Federal parties exempt themselves from privacy laws — despite Senate warnings Every national party except the Greens chose on Thursday to grant themselves an indefinite exemption from laws protecting the privacy of Canadians, rejecting Senate concerns about Bill C-4.

Every political party except the Greens chose on Thursday to grant themselves an indefinite exemption from laws protecting the privacy of Canadians, rejecting Senate concerns about Bill C-4. www.nationalobserver.com/2026/03/13/n...

Opinion: Kashechewan First Nation faces a new problem in its decades-long water crisis Flooding is an annual fact of life for the fly-in Northern Ontario community. Now, its people have been forced to leave because of a parasite in the water

““I don’t know how much the government has in emergency management. But if they can come up with this money to do this with us every year, wouldn’t there be a cost benefit to moving the community to higher ground quicker?” www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/arti...

Opinion: Kashechewan First Nation faces a new problem in its decades-long water crisis Flooding is an annual fact of life for the fly-in Northern Ontario community. Now, its people have been forced to leave because of a parasite in the water

“Community should never have been built on flood plain near fast-moving Albany R. But Canadian officials forcibly relocated them there in 1957 … In 2019, leaders proudly announced that the Kashechewan would be moved to safer, higher grounds … It didn’t happen” www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/arti...

OPINION: Canada’s shifting snowpack reveals water-loss location matters for agriculture - Country Guide From the Prairies to the Great Lakes, uneven snowmelt patterns signal new era of water supply risk.

“Farmers on the Prairies rely on mountain snowpack for irrigation, the Great Lakes basin relies on snowmelt to sustain spring inflows, and hydroelectricity systems in B.C. and Quebec also depend on snow accumulation in upland watersheds” www.country-guide.ca/daily/opinio...

The war in Iran is an American failure. What do we do now? | Robert Reich The most powerful nation in the world is now being led by a rogue president who rejects its longstanding values

“Spending huge resources on this war – so far, roughly $1bn per day, or $11,574 per second. These are resources that could be better spent improving the lives of the American people” www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Fears about nuclear war are reaching a fever pitch. Another grim sign of the times | Judith Levine News stories are weighing nuclear risk as experts muse on the possibility of global warfare

”Texan manufacturer of nuke-resistant “bunkers” business booming. A fundamentalist Christian, he sees metastasizing war as sign of the End Times, which he is contently waiting out, serving his clientele, many of them also Christians eager for the rapture to come” www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

‘Kast is more like Trump’: Chile’s environmentalists prepare to do battle for the country’s future Fears are growing that the new far-right president will slash environmental protections in favour of foreign investment

“Azapa valley, one of the region’s main agricultural centres, is known as “Chile’s refrigerator”, producing tomatoes, olives and other vegetables all year. Yet the Azapa aquifer has been facing shortages” www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

‘Unbelievably unequal’: report shows how 1% of Mexicans own 40% of country’s wealth Fortunes of the country’s 22 billionaires doubled in last five years, reaching unprecedented collective wealth of $219bn

“Mexico’s 22 billionaires fortunes doubled in last 5 yrs, to unprecedented wealth of $219bn … Rich Mexicans isolate themselves from rest of country, by neighborhoods they live in, the way they live, and not use public services like health or education” www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

Opinion: As U.S. state and Big Tech become one, we become digital serfs, and it sucks Without stronger privacy rules and public AI infrastructure, the value of our data will continue to flow abroad

“Trump administration appears willing to thwart other countries’ ability to regulate their own digital economies in order to protect an extractive business model: surveillance” www.theglobeandmail.com/business/com...

The cost of interceptors has made the war with Iran one of economic attrition The U.S. and Israel have sophisticated, very expensive air-defence systems. Iran has lots of cheap drones

“Iran can try to exploit asymmetries, put in place as many cheap drones as it can and force U.S., Israel and Gulf states to expend enormous sums of money defending against their cheap drones and hope that, over time, that becomes an unsustainable situation,” www.theglobeandmail.com/world/articl...

This is the story of Weda Bay – and how nature is being sacrificed for mining Analysis has found more than 3,000 mining operations within the most naturally precious areas of the planet – a much bigger footprint than previously thought

“More than 4,500 animal species are threatened with extinction by mining. Immediate destruction of habitat, along with pollution of watercourses and deforestation for access, all threaten their survival” www.theguardian.com/environment/...

‘The shine has been taken off’: Dubai faces existential threat as foreigners flee conflict Tens of thousands of residents and tourists have left UAE since the US and Israel started bombing Iran two weeks ago, leaving beach bars, malls and hotels eerily empty

“2 million Indians, up to 700,000 Nepalis and 400,000 Pakistanis living in Dubai, many of them low-status and exploited economic migrants who are often not free to return as they please” www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

Peak interest: Toronto’s snow mountains that refuse to melt are a toxic hazard Reaching up to 100ft, these massive piles contain tonnes of salt that keep roads clear but pose environmental and health risks

“You can have places where it’s elevated to 10, or even 100, times the background level,” he said. “But we’ve also seen locations in where the amount of salt in the water exceeds seawater concentration.” www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

Chronic ocean heating is fueling a ‘staggering’ loss of marine life: study Fish levels fall by 7.2 per cent with as little as 0.1C of warming per decade, northern hemisphere research shows.

“Fish levels fall by 7.2% from as little as 0.1C of warming per decade … drop in biomass from chronic heating as high as 19.8% in a single year … Put simply, the faster the ocean floor warms, the faster we lose fish” www.nationalobserver.com/2026/03/11/n...

Alberta’s oil and gas industry should be held to a fair methane standard For years, researchers and oil and gas engineers have suspected there’s a lot more methane being emitted than was being reported.

“NIR model starts with industry estimates and integrates actual measurement data; fly over select oil and gas sites with methane-detecting sensors, finding more methane than was originally estimated ... more accurate estimate of methane emissions” www.nationalobserver.com/2026/03/11/o...

Ford government ignores backlash in push to merge conservation authorities Ontario is pressing ahead with plans to centralize its control of Ontario's conservation authorities, despite warnings from municipalities and environmental groups that the changes will weaken local w...

Critics say the overhaul is the latest step in the Ford government’s long-running effort to curb the influence of conservation authorities — agencies that have pushed back against the government’s moves to fast-track development. www.nationalobserver.com/2026/03/11/n...

Fossil fuels, logging and Carney's old employer: meet the Canadian companies backing election denialists Sixteen of Canada's largest corporations donated to the political campaigns of US politicians who supported Trump's false claim the 2020 election was "stolen" by voting against certifying the results,...

The companies whose PACs donated include natural gas giants Fortis and Enbridge; the Canadian National Railway Corporation (CN); the Bank of Montreal (BMO); forestry and paper giant Domtar; and Canadian investment firm Brookfield. www.nationalobserver.com/2026/03/10/n...

Opinion: In Iran, there is both pain and potential The astonishing resilience of Iranians fighting for freedom offers hope for a future country that will allow its people to live in dignity

“Evin Prison in Tehran targeted by Israeli rockets ... amidst death and destruction, some prisoners helped rescue prison guards from rubble. Now, amidst renewed war, prison guards abandoned same prisoners in locked cells, w severe shortages of food and water” www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/arti...

Opinion: Emergency departments are the lighthouses of our health care system. But the lights are starting to flicker ERs are a safety net for those who lack primary care, have substance use disorders or are unhoused. They are meant to be open every hour of every day, no matter what

“Since 2019, at least 34% of Canadian ERs either closed suddenly on short-term basis or planned long-term reduction in hours. Those closures added to 1.14 million hours in which the light in the lighthouse was off ... everyone in Denmark is assigned to a GP” www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/arti...

Flying (comfortably) once again into the Lebanese war zone by the sea The flight was fine, and everything seemed normal when we landed, until it wasn’t

“MEA is owned not by wealthy investors, nor government, but by Bank of Lebanon. Central bank setting interest rates and airfares is odder diversification strategies I have come across in my 35 years working primarily as an economics and business writer” www.theglobeandmail.com/world/articl...