A recent report from CBC News regarding the massive logging operations in Stanley Park due to a hemlock looper moth infestation highlights a deep environmental controversy in my local region. The Vancouver Park Board has removed thousands of dead and dying trees to manage public safety and wildfire risks, prompting legal pushback from community advocates who argue the cutting is excessive. In my view, addressing this devastating infestation purely as a localized logging problem misses the bigger picture. While public safety along main trails matters, this infestation is a direct symptom of climate change, where a lack of freezing winter…

Completing these exercises provided an opportunity to connect my family history and my immediate Vancouver surroundings with the broader themes of environmental history. Before starting this course, I viewed my daily environment around Heather Street and West 16th Avenue through a purely modern lens and saw my family’s timeline as a simple collection of personal memories. However, learning how environmental historians read the past transformed my perspective. I now see both my local neighbourhood and my family’s multi-generational journey as part of a larger narrative of human expansion and ecological modification. If I were to expand the first two exercises…

Environmental Activism and Civil Disobedience For this exercise, I looked at the recent protests against proposed AI data centers in Vancouver. Hundreds of people have taken part in demonstrations against plans for new AI data centers in British Columbia, with protesters raising concerns about how much electricity and water these facilities could use. A CityNews report focused on the demonstrations themselves and included concerns from protesters about water use, pressure on B.C.’s electrical grid, and the environmental effects of the proposed facilities. By the second major protest in June, a petition opposing the projects had received more than 15,000 signatures.¹…

I chose to examine opposition to open-net salmon farming in British Columbia, beginning with the 2017 occupation of the Midsummer Island salmon farm in the Broughton Archipelago. CBC and The Tyee reported that Indigenous protesters occupied the farm for approximately 81 days, arguing that open-net farms threatened wild salmon and were operating in their traditional territories without their consent. The occupation disrupted the farm’s operations and prevented the company from restocking some of its pens. Although the B.C. Supreme Court eventually ordered the protesters to remove their structures, their actions brought greater public and political attention to both the environmental…

Mainstream media: CBC News – “B.C. extends deferral of logging in Fairy Creek amid reports of tree spiking” Link: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/fairy-creek-defer-old-growth-logging-extension-2025-1.7445346 Alternative media: Ricochet Media – “With more old-growth logging set to begin near Fairy Creek, a new blockade has emerged to save the irreplaceable forests” Link: https://ricochet.media/climate/environment/with-more-old-growth-logging-set-to-begin-near-fairy-creek-a-new-blockade-has-emerged-to-save-the-irreplaceable-forests/ When reflecting upon the role of civil disobedience the Fairy Creek protests seem quite relevant given the fact that this directly relates to the documentary If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front. The Fairy Creek protests on Vancouver Island provide a more modern example of the same debates surrounding…