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Living in a Passive House: The Week Ottawa Tried to Freeze Us (and Lost)
Several times this week, I looked around my house and thought, Wait… how is this even possible? Ottawa (Ontario, Canada) has been in a proper deep freeze – six straight days of -20°C to -30°C. The kind of cold where your face hurts in under a minute and the dog doesn’t want to go for a walk. Outside there’s a sharp breeze and everything is crunchy.
The Dollar Keeps Surviving. That Doesn’t Mean the System Can.
The US dollar has been “about to collapse” for most of the past half-century. And yet, each time the prediction returns, the dollar endures. Now again many pundits are musing about the dollar as the Middle East war reveals many vulnerabilities. But the dollar goes on.
Holding Opposites: On Paradox, Perception and Wisdom
The parable of the Blind Men and the Elephant offers a powerful illustration of the limits of human perception. In the story, each blind man encounters a different part of the elephant and confidently proclaims the animal to be something else (a wall, a rope, a spear), mistaking a fragment of experience for the whole. The lesson is not that any one man is wrong, but that each is incomplete. Understanding deepens only when perspectives are shared and integrated, and the story warns us against the temptation to turn partial insight into absolute truth.
Community as a System
How we think about anything will necessarily shape how we feel about it, and what occurs to us to do about it. We are widely taught to break problems down into their respective components and look at them in isolation (and in a linear way). This can be helpful in breaking things down into manageable pieces. However, when we don’t zoom out and understand how those pieces fit into, and impact, the larger context then we often miss important information, which frequently leads to unintended consequences.
When the World Heats Up, How Do We Respond?
Two years ago, I wrote “A Sizzling 2024 Awaits” while watching winter turn to rain in Whistler, one of Canada’s most iconic ski towns. I wrote about methane, ‘weather whiplash,’ the unintended consequences of falling aerosol emissions, and the oceans absorbing unprecedented heat.
Where the Tide Turns: How Coastal Women in Bangladesh Are Quietly Rewriting the Rules of Survival
Life along Bangladesh’s coast has always existed in a delicate negotiation with water; a place where the land ends not in certainty but in a conversation with the tide. Rivers bend into the Bay of Bengal, carrying silt, memories, and the quiet knowledge that nothing here is ever still. People grow up with the rhythm of monsoon winds and the hum of fishing boats, but in recent years, the climate crisis has twisted that familiar rhythm into something harsher, something less forgiving.
Transitioning From Drifting Goals to Soaring Ones
The COP (Conference of Parties) is now convening for the 30th time to discuss how the world can work together to avoid the worst of the anthropogenic emissions that are trapping heat in our atmosphere and causing our climate to change in dangerous ways. We have known what is causing this problem – and what to do about it – for decades.
A Riff on Krista Tippett’s 3 Practices for Wisdom and Wholeness
This Ted Talk by Krista Tippett is a perennial favourite that I find myself returning to time and again. And while I certainly think that it’s jam-packed with insight and can stand all on its own, I would like to spend a little time discussing how I see it relating to the work that we are doing here at Common Earth.
Building a Sustainable Future Together
Exploring Community and Climate with Sarah Patterson, President of Common Earth. Discover insights on local climate action, community resilience, and nurturing a post-carbon society in this inspiring podcast episode.
Earth Day 2025 – Our Power, Our Planet
In 2025, the theme for Earth Day is 'Our Power, Our Planet'. Some of the areas the organisers cite as being important to this theme include: A push to switch to renewable energy sources to power or homes, businesses and vehicles. Investing in innovative solutions to provide more sustainable materials to fossil fuels. To honour this day, we at Common Earth have created an Earth Week
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