Grassroots Action

What makes the Sierra Club Canada Foundation so effective is our network of experts, partners and volunteers. Our chapters are engaged in many projects at the local level. Want to get involved? Contact our national office or your local chapter. If you have a dedicated group of members who want to lead their own projects within a region, you could start a Group. According to our organization's policy: Groups may be formed by any three or more members who wish to be active in their local community or within a larger geographic area, in relation to a particular conservation issue or issues, with the intention that the group exist on an ongoing basis. Otherwise, more time-limited local issues are to be managed within the auspices of the Chapter, or if none exists, then in co- operation with program staff working at the national level.

BreatheEasy

Do YOU know the quality of air you breathe? Many people do not. 

Air quality (AQ) and its impacts are rarely discussed. It remains a silent killer. 

Breathe Easy is looking to change that.

Field Notes from a Citizen Scientist

Posted on November 22, 2021
I live a few hundred metres from the Queensway in Ottawa, and have long wondered about the air quality in the neighbourhood. Is my proximity to the highway and a major feeder road bad for my health? Ottawa is quite green, but is the air quality okay? After reading about the Breathe Easy campaign in an Ottawa Citizen article, I put my hand up to get involved. After a quick tutorial by the friendly local coordinator, Jake Cole, I set out to take some readings, and made a few observations along the way:

Decade of Change 2020 - 2030

Caroline John's picture
Posted on October 27, 2021
It was in 2013, eight years ago when the carbon monitoring station in Mauna Loa measured levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere at levels above 400 parts per million for the first time in human history. Since then, investigations by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ascertain that we cannot let the atmosphere reach 430 parts per million of carbon dioxide to avoid global warming beyond 1.5 degrees, at which point there will be far reaching consequences for life on earth.

Open Letter: Stop Gull Island

Posted on October 4, 2021

October 13, 2021

Dear Prime Minister Trudeau, Premiers of Atlantic Canada, and Elected Leaders, 

We, the undersigned organizations and individuals are calling on you as elected leaders to oppose the construction of the Gull Island mega-hydro project (Phase 2 of Nalcor’s Lower Churchill Project) and to protect the Grand River/Mistashipu (colonially known as Churchill River) in Labrador and other endangered rivers across the country.

Top 5 Tips on How to Make the Environment Your Top Issue This Election

Posted on September 9, 2021

Election time is a unique time where your decision-makers want to hear from you about the issues that you care about.

We want to empower you to connect with your local candidates on local environmental issues that are important to you. Here are our top 5 tips on how to get started.

1)  Get to know your local candidates

Plastic Free July 2021 Wrap Up

Posted on August 5, 2021

Another year of the Plastic Free July Challenge has come to an end. I first want to thank everyone across Canada and the Great Lakes who participated in the challenge, your support means the world to us. We had a great time hosting the challenge and hope that everyone who participated enjoyed it as much as we did.

Thirty-one days of refusing, reducing and reusing. Thirty-one days of activities and action against plastic pollution in Canada.

Canada's Prairie Pothole Region

Alyssa Vibert — July 1, 2021

The Canadian Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) encompasses 467,000km² of wetland and grassland area stretching from Alberta’s Rocky Mountain foothills to Manitoba’s Red River Valley. The appearance of these ‘pothole’ structured wetlands, were formed by the movement of glaciers across North America, where the ice melted into the pools that are now the potholes wetlands we have today. The formation of the pothole region took tens of thousands of years during the Wisconsin glaciation period.

3 Degrees & Counting

Tynette Deveaux — June 30, 2021
As things heat up—literally—from coast to coast, shattering high-temperature records day after day, one report by the National Observer’s Chris Hatch stood out to me. In his Carbon Zero e-newsletter, he wrote: “What’s truly ‘unfathomable’ for most is that this will be one of the coldest summers of the rest of our lives. Very possibly of all human lives. These are the cool old days.”

Plastic Free July 2021

Posted on June 28, 2021

This summer, take the Plastic Free July Challenge with us!

ALL MONTH: Refuse, reduce, re-use – take steps to reduce your plastic use all month long. Under COVID, we know not all actions to reduce plastic waste will be possible. but many still are: for instance, stores can let you re-use bags you pack yourself.

Native Prairie Week

Alyssa Vibert — June 24, 2021
Preserve, Protect and Celebrate Canada's Prairie Ecozone

Native Prairie Appreciation Week is officially celebrated in Saskatchewan from June 13-19 in collaboration with the Saskatchewan Prairie Conservation Action Plan (SK PCAP). It is celebrated nationwide from June 17-22. However, the Canadian prairies boast many incredible ecoregions, unique wildlife and stunning landscapes that should be celebrated all the time!

Report From the Greenbelt Coordinator

Posted on June 21, 2021

The provincial government of Doug Ford has waged quite a negative attack on land use planning policies in Ontario. However, what is important is that due to the cornerstones of good policy, the Greenbelt and Wetland protection have remained intact. This has been a major victory for the environmental protection movement. This is a good contrast with the United States where policies to protect wetlands were gutted by the first George Bush Presidential administration.

Ring of Fire

In June of 2021, the Ontario Sierra Club Chapter commenced the research project for the Regional Assessment of the Ring of Fire. The Ring of Fire research project was led by Sierra Club Ontario’s former Chapter Chair, Joseph Duncan; an Indigenous member from Treaty Nine Territory.

Here are a few new things we want to share with you as we go into the weekend

Tynette Deveaux — May 29, 2021
An Interfaith Coalition for Treaty Rights recently formed in the Maritimes in anticipation of the start of the Mi’kmaw moderate livelihood fishery. The coalition is made up of a group of concerned individuals and representatives of faith communities and social justice organizations.