Fare-free transit is an essential part of the solution to the combined crises of climate change and inequality. However, we can and should dream much bigger. A Green New Deal could provide the framework within which to demand the transit system we deserve: everything from nationalized electric-bus companies to the return of inter-city transit, to high-speed rail and, of course, free transit.

Insects keep the planet’s ecological system running, and ensure our food supply—75 percent of our most important crops depend on pollination by insects. Insects also improve soil quality and reduce plant pests by decomposing manure and dead plant matter. The Insect Atlas shows that insect species and pollinators are in severe decline because of pesticide-dependent industrial farming.

This marks the fourth installment in an ongoing curated series that asks contributors to imagine the perils and possibilities that will ground our collective response to or emergence from the COVID-19 crisis. The fourth edition is about infrastructure, with contributions from Deb Cowen, Adele Perry, Dayna Nadine Scott, and Michael Mascarenhas.

This marks the third installment in an ongoing curated series that asks contributors to imagine the perils and possibilities that will ground our collective response to or emergence from the COVID-19 crisis. The third edition is about energy, with contributions from Caroline Desbiens, Emily Eaton, Dr. Kathryn Nwajiaku, Dr. Isaac ‘Asume’ Osuoka, Anna Zalik, and Andrew Watson.

Canadian Dimension spoke with Max Ajl, an associated researcher at the Tunisian Observatory for Food Sovereignty and the Environment, about his critiques of the Green New Deal, its relationship to capitalism, colonialism, and imperialism, and examples of struggles fighting for climate justice, food sovereignty, and self-determination.

Why is the Government of Ontario trying to stall renewable energy development when renewables provide the cheapest and cleanest source of electricity? Specifically, why spend millions of dollars to cut clean energy projects, only to turn around and spend billions more to develop an economically floundering nuclear sector and prop up an environmentally disastrous oil industry?

This marks the first installment in an ongoing curated series that asks contributors to imagine the perils and possibilities that will ground our collective response to or emergence from the COVID-19 crisis. The first edition features contributions from Rosemary-Claire Collard, Zoe Todd, Kendra Coulter, Stephanie Rutherford, and Jonathan Luedee.

The socio-ecological transition—toward an ecosocialist alternative—implies public control of the principal means of production and democratic planning. Decisions concerning investment and technological change must be taken away from the banks and capitalist businesses, if we want them to serve the common good of society and respect for the environment.

Despite claiming to take the climate crisis seriously, the Trudeau government has failed to put Canada on track to meet even dangerously insufficient targets for reducing GHG emissions. The profits from oil and natural gas flow to their producers and distributers—as well as the banks that finance them—and other investors whose portfolios include these stocks. These are the people who, under the current economic system, hold the most sway in determining government policy.

Governments around the world are comparing the resolution of the COVID-19 crisis to a war. After all, it was the New Deal and World War II that launched an era of globally unprecedented economic growth, prosperity and the swelling of the middle class. Let us use this ‘war on COVID-19’ and the Green New Deal to learn from our past mistakes, and prepare us for a socially and environmentally just future.