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Chris Hatch

Chris Hatch

National Observer

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Mark Carney's new climate doctrine

Mark Carney's new climate doctrine

Prior to being elected prime minister, Carney dubbed climate change “an existential threat.” This week, he was calling the plan to fight climate...

06.07.2026 10

National Observer

Chris Hatch

This may be the coolest summer Europe has left

Today’s heatwaves are bad enough, but far too few people realize that these are still the early days and there’s much worse to come. It will keep...

29.06.2026 20

National Observer

Chris Hatch

The battery revolution has turned night into day

Batteries break the tyranny of time. They can absorb excess power at noon and discharge through the evening peak, all while stabilizing the grid in...

22.06.2026 10

National Observer

Chris Hatch

Concern is up. Priority is down. Welcome to the climate paradox

Our opinions are conflicted. Physics is not.

15.06.2026 20

National Observer

Chris Hatch

What happens when El Niño meets a hotter planet?

The most recent forecasts are, in a word, “insane,” according to one veteran meteorologist. Almost all of them now anticipate it could surpass any...

08.06.2026 30

National Observer

Chris Hatch

You don’t know what you’ve got till Guilbeault’s gone

Name a dimension to the climate struggle and Steven Guilbeault has given his lifeforce to it.

01.06.2026 30

National Observer

Chris Hatch

Why climate deniers are celebrating the wrong victory

An infamous climate forecast has been dropped by one of the important research consortiums. But that doesn't mean that global heating is a hoax, no...

25.05.2026 30

National Observer

Chris Hatch

Carney puts climate policy on the ropes

Canada has sustained a bruising combination of blows to its climate ambitions this past week — and all at the hands of the prime minister himself.

19.05.2026 40

National Observer

Chris Hatch

The blind spot is closing — led by those with the least

In Santa Marta, hearing from nation after nation that is already facing challenges greater than ours while being substantially poorer — and yet...

04.05.2026 40

National Observer

Chris Hatch

A fossil fuel reckoning, within earshot of a coal port

Profound tensions are nothing new for Santa Marta. It is the oldest colonial city in South America, founded by conquistadors in the early 1500s to...

27.04.2026 50

National Observer

Chris Hatch

A new front in the push to phase out fossil fuels

Ministers and diplomats from 55 countries are about to convene on the Caribbean coast of Colombia for what’s billed as the 'First Conference on...

20.04.2026 50

National Observer

Chris Hatch

The thin line between everything and nothing

One of the most important aspects of the images beamed home from space is one we are only beginning to grasp. Look at the pictures, and look again....

13.04.2026 40

National Observer

Chris Hatch

The scariest climate statistic

It isn't the target set out in the Paris agreement, the amount of carbon in the atmosphere or the record-breaking string of record-hot years. Now,...

30.03.2026 40

National Observer

Chris Hatch

El Niño is back — but the planet has changed

The telltale plume of hot water has been spreading in the Eastern Pacific and the world’s forecasters are converging on agreement that an El Niño...

23.03.2026 70

National Observer

Chris Hatch

The fine art of infinite delay

Instead of sowing doubt about the science of climate change and denying the need for a green transition, the industries and their promoters play for...

16.03.2026 50

National Observer

Chris Hatch

Military miseries and bloody oil wars

As the world’s biggest petrostate bombs the runner-up in fossil gas reserves (and number 3 in oil reserves), the rest of the world is looking for an...

09.03.2026 60

National Observer

Chris Hatch

The spiral of silence around climate change

Though many Canadians think our neighbours aren't thinking about climate change much at all, more than 30 million Canadians admit to being concerned...

02.03.2026 50

National Observer

Chris Hatch

China’s carbon curve may be bending at last

It’s worth pausing on the point that the world’s largest source of climate pollution is no longer growing relentlessly.

17.02.2026 100

National Observer

Chris Hatch

Canada’s auto strategy is driving blind

The most telling revelation about the announcement of the Canadian government's new auto strategy came during the technical briefing when government...

09.02.2026 40

National Observer

Chris Hatch

The multi-billion problem Canada’s oilpatch doesn’t want to disclose

Canada's oil and gas industry is a fiscal time bomb due to oil well cleanup liabilities that have been kept off the books.

03.02.2026 40

National Observer

Chris Hatch

What Carney didn’t say at Davos

The prime minister's speech was a radical contrast to the weaving, menacing ramble from US President Donald Trump later in the program. But it left...

26.01.2026 40

National Observer

Chris Hatch

Is Carney's China deal our EV onramp?

Opening the door to Chinese EVs might just begin a reckoning with the transition to cleaner transportation.

20.01.2026 40

National Observer

Chris Hatch

Why world markets are shrugging at Trump's oil wars

The grip once held on the world by fossil fuels is slipping as electrification efforts at varying scales and speeds rise around the globe. But one...

13.01.2026 30

National Observer

Chris Hatch

Readers' choice: What you were reading (and watching) in 2025

Last week, I asked for your recommendations of your top books of the year. The list was eclectic and very wide-ranging. But two non-fiction books and...

22.12.2025 40

National Observer

Chris Hatch

The numbers sound small. The consequences are not

As 2025 draws to its close, European scientists are noting that the three-year average temperature has exceeded 1.5C above preindustrial levels for...

15.12.2025 40

National Observer

Chris Hatch

The vanishing accountability act

In a case of highly suspect timing, the Ontario government has now repealed all requirements to set climate targets, make a plan, and issue...

08.12.2025 30

National Observer

Chris Hatch

Can I call you obstinate?

06.12.2025 20

National Observer

Chris Hatch

A love tap to launch a million barrels

The MOU’s provisions read like a photocopy of the list of demands Danielle Smith and the oil industry nailed to the federal government’s door in...

01.12.2025 30

National Observer

Chris Hatch

A tough climate summit for Canada

Labeled the "Fossil of the Day" at COP30, Canada faces accusations of pulling back climate policies while pushing forward fossil subsidies...

24.11.2025 30

National Observer

Chris Hatch

The rise of the electric dragon

For so many years, “China” has been brandished in the West as the ultimate whataboutism. China’s carbon pollution is so big, its coal plants so...

17.11.2025 30

National Observer

Chris Hatch

A decade since Paris: why Canada is still running in place

As the governments of the world arrive in Brazil for the 30th annual climate gathering, let's take stock of what’s happened globally, and here at...

10.11.2025 30

National Observer

Chris Hatch

A Category 5 correction to climate complacency

Around the same time as Melissa terrorized and killed people across the Caribbean, Bill Gates was publishing his own self-proclaimed “tough truths...

03.11.2025 30

National Observer

Chris Hatch

Cheaper, cleaner — and not available here

Even as we rail in outrage at Donald Trump’s tariffs, the Canadian government has imposed our own punishingly high tariffs on Chinese vehicles —...

27.10.2025 30

National Observer

Chris Hatch

A great unravelling: carbon soars, nature falters

Last year, the global concentration of carbon dioxide jumped by 3.5 parts per million (ppm) and reached 424 ppm, the biggest jump since modern...

20.10.2025 30

National Observer

Chris Hatch

Our friendly neighbourhood fireball

Solar and wind are growing so quickly that they outpaced all the growth in electricity demand this year. Which means they started eating into fossil...

13.10.2025 30

National Observer

Chris Hatch

Jane Goodall’s gaze is still on us

In some deep sense, seeing is why she’s famous. She looked at chimpanzees and didn’t see objects or specimens. She gave the chimps in Gombe names...

06.10.2025 30

National Observer

Chris Hatch

Trump’s climate con job

Given 15 minutes to address the United Nations General Assembly, Donald Trump found a fresh way to shock the world by rambling on for about an hour...

29.09.2025 30

National Observer

Chris Hatch

Canada’s climate progress has flatlined

Our 2030 climate target is 'out of reach' and progress is 'fragile and slipping,' according to a leading climate policy think...

22.09.2025 30

National Observer

Chris Hatch

Stop with the 'new normal' already

'The new normal' is a pitifully inadequate phrase, a stumbling step towards accuracy that results in misdirection.

15.09.2025 30

National Observer

Chris Hatch

The World Court throws f-bombs — and lots of 'em

With its landmark ruling, the International Court of Justice has finally offered its first opinion on questions about climate change, concluding that...

28.07.2025 30

National Observer

Chris Hatch

The 'why' of wildfires

There are 72 countries in the world whose landmass is smaller than the amount of hectares of forest that have burned across Canada this year — and...

21.07.2025 40

National Observer

Chris Hatch

Republicans complain about smoke. But they voted for fire

It had to be a joke, right? A group of MAGA lawmakers moaning about “suffocating Canadian wildfire smoke” in a complaint fired off to Canada’s...

14.07.2025 30

National Observer

Chris Hatch

Halfway to 2050, and far from where we need to be

This halfway point to 2050 offers a stark reckoning. We've burned through a quarter century in what feels like a blink. Now, we’re left with...

07.07.2025 30

National Observer

Chris Hatch

A splash of paint, a flood of warnings: climate protest in a time of acceleration

The drop in public priority is grossly out of sync with the worsening reality of climate change. The past years have seen a marked jump in global...

30.06.2025 30

National Observer

Chris Hatch

Danielle Smith's revealing 'living standards' slip

Danielle Smith blurted out that “we’ve got the lowest living standards in the world," in a clear case of misspeaking. But what did she really...

16.06.2025 40

National Observer

Chris Hatch

There is no such thing as "decarbonized oil"

The decarbonized doublespeak may not be new but it was jarring coming from the mouth of our new PM, who has an undeniable grasp of the impacts of...

09.06.2025 40

National Observer

Chris Hatch

Burning through the guardrails

Only seven years ago, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) projected the world wouldn’t heat beyond 1.5 C until the 2040s. Two years...

02.06.2025 40

National Observer

Chris Hatch

A deadly start to wildfire season

It’s hard to imagine a more terrifying and excruciating way to die — trapped by wildfire as the flames close in. Richard and Sue Nowell were...

20.05.2025 30

National Observer

Chris Hatch

‘Build, baby, build.’ Some conditions apply

Canadians are demanding new homes but buildings are already the third-largest source of fossil fuel pollution in Canada and cutting those emissions...

12.05.2025 30

National Observer

Chris Hatch

It's time to shift from relief to gratitude as Carney helps steer the climate transition

Danielle Smith's agitations and the insatiable fossil fuel industry's demands will make climate action difficult, but Canada's new...

05.05.2025 30

National Observer

Chris Hatch