James Snider

Canada is off track to protect 25% of land & water by 2025 AND 30% by 2030.

“Protected & conserved areas are a cornerstone of our efforts to stop biodiversity loss & build climate resilience. There's great urgency for CA to recommit & invest further in our lands & waters.” —@jamessnider.bsky.social

YouTube video by CP24 52% of species are decreasing in abundance, World Wildlife Fund report says

Earlier this week, I joined CP24 to discuss the findings of Living Planet Report Canada and what’s needed for wildlife conservation in Canada.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=SuOQ...

“Following five decades of persistent declines in wildlife populations, now is not the time to walk back protections for wildlife & habitats. Rather, Canada has a growing responsibility to scale up efforts to restore, protect & steward what remains of species’ habitats.” – @jamessnider.bsky.social

🚨 BREAKING: All major groups of wildlife in Canada are in decline

#LPRC2025: Across 910 species of birds, fish, mammals, reptiles & amphibians, wildlife populations in Canada have declined by 10%, on average, since 1970.

BUT not all is lost. Together, we can help nature heal & wildlife recover.

Wetlands are disappearing and with them, vital lifelines for migratory species. 🦆

@ramsar.org's new #GlobalWetlandOutlook2025 reveals we could lose 1 in 5 wetlands by 2050. 🐆

Discover why protecting wetlands is essential for the future of migratory species & our planet: www.cms.int/en/news/migr...

Map of Canada showing locations of fires and their status as of july 12, 2025

Area burned in Canada for 2025 is now at 5.6 M ha exceeding the total for the entire 2024 fire season. This fire season is not as bad as 2023 that had 9.37 M ha burned by July 12, 2023. However, 2025 is a very active year with 365 fires out of control and 2 months still left in the fire season.

‘Sheila just went for it’: York University scientist Sheila Colla remembered as a fierce advocate to save wild bees Colla, 43, died Sunday of cancer. She successfully fought for the rusty-patched bumblebee to become the first bee listed as an endangered species in Canada and the U.S.

‘Sheila just went for it’: York University scientist Sheila Colla remembered as a fierce advocate to save wild bees

The Premiers of Ontario and Alberta are calling for the utter destruction of Canada's existing climate action plan: repeal Impact Assessment (c-69), industrial carbon price (GGPPA), O&G emissions cap, clean electricity regs & parts of Species at Risk Act (plus clean water for FNs legislation).

Bill C-5 is not just bad policy, it’s a constitutional mess Under Prime Minister Mark Carney's plan to speed up development in the country's "national interest", projects will get the green light before they are reviewed.

Under Prime Minister Mark Carney's plan to speed up development in the country's "national interest", projects will get the green light before they are reviewed, writes Anna Johnston www.nationalobserver.com/2025/07/02/o...

For all you Canadian parliamentary nerds - debate on the third reading of Bill C-5 has just begun. You can watch the live stream right here The first speech this morning is from the bill's sponsor, Senator Hassan Yussuff. #cdnpoli #SenCa #SenateofCanada

Giles: Ontario must not dismantle protection for endangered wildlife Bill 5 would scrap the province’s landmark Endangered Species Act — at a time when we are increasingly concerned about our natural world.

What's at stake with Bill 5? 🤔

"Our data shows that without action, Ontario is on the path to losing iconic species such as the Eastern wolf, American badger & barn owl... The hopeful news is that we also know how to reverse the path we’re on." — WWF-Canada's Emily Giles

Read the op-ed here. ⬇️

"All attempts to fast-track to the Ring of Fire will fail"

"Ontario is trying to legislate us out of the conversation. That won’t work”

"If you pass Bill 5, you can say goodbye nature"

First Nations demand the Ontario gov't revoke Bill 5. It's the most powerful stand off I've seen at Queens Park

YouTube video by Legal Advocates For Nature's Defence Bill 5 Address at Queen's Park - Standing Committee on the Interior (May 26, 2025)

"Companies are coming and promising prosperity. I don't believe in it because I'm still suffering from your prosperity... We have to stop this bill."

Michael Koostachin, Friends of the Attiwapiskat River, explains what is on the line with Ontario's Bill 5.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKGc...

Ring of Fire road report highlights impacts to Ontario First Nation | The Narwhal Environmental impacts and hundreds of recommendations outlined in report on northern Ontario road project, as Doug Ford government pushes to speed up Ring of Fire mining

With so much talk of speeding up processes and approvals for development, it's pretty timely that this draft environmental assessment came out on a proposed road to the Ring of Fire. There's a reason it took so long to produce: it contains A LOT of critical information: thenarwhal.ca/ontario-ring...

“The headline message is, this is a globally significant area. The amount of carbon here is vast. From a conservation perspective, it reaffirms the importance of special management & stewardship activities." — WWF-Canada's @jamessnider.bsky.social on the importance of the Hudson James Bay Lowlands

Ontario’s #Bill5 that is in hearings today, poses considerable threat to the HJBL through proposed changes to environmental assessment, creation of “Special Economic Zones” and broader changes to Ontario’s legal framework for environmental protection like repealing the Endangered Species Act.

And, also to better understand the risks we assume if planning, assessment and regulatory oversight of proposed development is weakened.

This research helps reinforce a needed baseline information on the carbon storage benefits of this globally significant ecosystem— one that is increasingly under pressure from proposed development.

New study reveals massive carbon stores in Hudson and James Bay peatlands 'The headline message is, this is a globally significant area,' says James Snider

Recent research from a multi-year collaboration between the Mushkegowuk Council, McMaster University and @wwfcanada.org further underlines the globally significant carbon storage in the Hudson James Bay Lowlands: www.timminstoday.com/local-news/n...

Hearings for Ontario’s Bill 5 - which includes systematic weakening of environmental protections, including for Species at Risk, and raises considerable concerns on consultation with Indigenous Peoples — are underway now. Live stream is here: www.ola.org/en/legislati...

🚨 Ontario’s latest attack on environmental safeguards could drive endangered species to extinction. 🚨

Bill 5, which would scrap the Endangered Species Act, sidelines science & oversight to hand power to politicians & developers, putting 270+ endangered species & their habitats at even more risk.

"This is not streamlining — it’s steamrolling," said Laura Bowman, lawyer at Ecojustice. "Doug Ford and his government are putting profit over people and ecosystems, plain and simple."

(From a press release that just landed in my inbox.)

Just in time for the long weekend: Ontario announces intent to repeal Endangered Species Act and replace it with new Species Conservation Act: ero.ontario.ca/notice/025-0...

Record 2024 temperatures accelerate ice loss, sea level rise: UN weather body - The Weather Network Annual average mean temperatures stood at 1.55 degrees Celsius (2.79 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels last year, surpassing the previous 2023 record by 0.1 C, the World Meteorological Organizat...

Record greenhouse gas levels helped bring temperatures to an all-time high in 2024, accelerating glacier and sea ice loss, raising sea levels and edging the world closer to a key warming threshold, @wmo-global.bsky.social said in its annual #climate report. www.theweathernetwork.com/en/news/clim...

If you've ever said "that journalist interviewed me for half an hour and quoted just one sentence," or "that journalist interviewed my academic archnemesis in an article about my work," or "why is the headline of the article about my work so bad," you need to read this. 🧪

Liber Ero Fellowship Program

Looking for a postdoc in 🇨🇦?

Liber Ero Fellowship
liberero.ca

* Applied conservation science
* Leadership training
* Open to int’l applicants
* Due Nov 1

🌎🧪🦤

Trump moves to close facility that helps track planet-warming pollution The lab is connected to the Mauna Loa Observatory, where scientists gather data to produce the Keeling Curve, a chart on the daily status of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations.

The Trump administration is planning to cancel its lease at a government laboratory in Hawaii, a site where scientists support key observations of surging greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere, according to a list obtained by Democratic members of Congress and shared with The Post.

Trump officials to reconsider whether greenhouse gases cause harm amid climate rollbacks Activists horrified as EPA reverses pollution laws and reviews landmark finding that gases harm public health

“Today marks the most disastrous day in #EPA history. Rolling these rules back is not just a disgrace, it’s a threat to all of us. The agency has fully abdicated its mission to protect Americans’ health and wellbeing." 🌎

A chart showing average hourly and daily observations of carbon dioxide as measured by NOAA on Mauna Loa in Hawaii.

For the first time in human history -- not just in recorded history, but in the 3+ million year existence of modern humans -- carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere has just breached 430 parts per million.

We are in a climate emergency.

Protected Seal River conservation area moves closer to reality Federal, provincial and Indigenous leaders will pursue formal designation for Canada’s largest Indigenous-led protected area after a year-long assessment found conserving northern Manitoba’s Seal Rive...

“This will be the starting point for that big change that we see happening in our communities. To make big changes, we need to make sure that we have sustainable access to lands and waters that are healthy.” — Stephanie Thorassie, executive director of the Seal River Watershed Alliance