Today is the World Day to Combat Desertification, a United Nations observance, and as I write these words a slow mass death at the hands of drought is occuring in Niger. Due to poor rainfall, the African nation, located in the Sahel, that region between the Sahara desert to the north and the greener savannas to the south, is experiencing a severe shortfall in food production. This is the human cost of ecological disasters. However innocuous droughts might appear, the toll they take on real human beings can be immense

With climate change becoming an increasingly recognized –- and feared –- phenomenon, it’s remarkable just how indifferent, even contemptuous, the Canadian Conservative government appears to be of it. The government has recently made the decision to withhold further funding for the research organization, Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Science, making this its last year in operation.

The health of a people -- their vulnerability to illnesses and diseases -- is often an indicator of something larger. A new report shows that the rate of tuberculosis among Inuit is 185 times greater than for the rest of the country. That's an incredible number and, sadly, it's the product of our unfair social institutions.