Articles by Alanna Mitchell
What if thousands of unused dams in Canada could generate clean power again?
Reprinted with permission from Be Giant, a non-profit, non-partisan media outlet reporting on the people, places, ideas and breakthroughs shaping Canada's future. Sign up for their weekly newsletter. In the early days of the pandemic, Andrew Murray was at a crossroads. He had just sold his first company, a software venture he had launched a few years earlier on the heels of his undergrad degree at Dalhousie University.
What if thousands of unused dams in Canada could generate clean power again?
Reprinted with permission from Be Giant, a non-profit, non-partisan media outlet reporting on the people, places, ideas and breakthroughs shaping Canada's future. Sign up for their weekly newsletter. In the early days of the pandemic, Andrew Murray was at a crossroads. He had just sold his first company, a software venture he had launched a few years earlier on the heels of his undergrad degree at Dalhousie University.
What if thousands of unused dams in Canada could generate clean power again?
9 min read In the early days of the pandemic, Andrew Murray was at a crossroads. He had just sold his first company, a software venture he had launched a few years earlier on the heels of his undergrad degree at Dalhousie University. He was locked down in his apartment in Charlottetown, P.E.I., trying to keep active. So he would go for walks along Confederation Trail, a path that meanders across the island along decommissioned railway tracks. Many days, he'd pass small dams, one after another.
Infographie : Comprendre le mécanisme des rivières atmosphériques
Infographie : Comprendre le mécanisme des rivières atmosphériques Des rivières atmosphériques et les pluies intenses qu’elles apportent sur la côte ouest À mesure que la charge de carbone dans l’atmosphère réchauffe la planète, l’air retient davantage d’humidité et de chaleur. Rien que depuis 1980, les rivières atmosphériques sont devenues plus fréquentes, plus volumineuses et plus chargées d’humidité.
This is what it’s really like to do science at sea
Friday, October 24, 2025 Nothing about mounting a scientific expedition at sea is easy, as we’re discovering. A dozen of us have gathered in St. John’s and are waiting to board the Polar Prince, a former Canadian Coast Guard light icebreaker, on our way to the Southern Newfoundland Slope, a 24-hour sail from here. Our aim is to drop video cameras and water samplers onto the seabed and see what creatures live there.
How Last Mountain Lake, Sask. became Canada’s first migratory bird sanctuary
In May, Saskatchewan’s Last Mountain Lake Migratory Bird Sanctuary is waking from its winter slumber. Prairie crocus, stubby and purple, pops up in bunches in the surrounding grasslands, a shy sign of spring. Slender spears of native prairie grass peek through the soil. Midges, the ones that don’t bite, rise in soft clouds from the ground. Claret-coloured mourning cloak butterflies with wings edged in yellow flit by, and so do red admirals. But the visitors haven’t yet arrived in big numbers.
Comment le Lac-Last Mountain est devenu le premier sanctuaire d’oiseaux migrateurs du Canada
En mai, le refuge d’oiseaux migrateurs du Lac-Last Mountain, en Saskatchewan, sort de son sommeil hivernal. Les crocus des prairies, trapus et violets, apparaissent en grappes dans les prairies environnantes, signe timide du printemps. De minces tiges de graminées indigènes apparaissent à travers le sol. Les moucherons, ceux qui ne piquent pas, s’élèvent en nuées depuis le sol. Des papillons morios de couleur bordeaux, aux ailes bordées de jaune, ainsi que des vulcains, passent en coup de vent.
“It’s almost like a treasure hunt :” investigating deepsea corals off Newfoundland’s Grand Banks
Isabelle Jubinville is in a clothing store in St. John’s, N.L., trying on tall rubber boots. A marine scientist with the conservation advocacy group Oceana Canada, she has been on her fair share of ships. But now, as she gets ready for an expedition to the deepsea clefts of the Southern Newfoundland Slope, she wants even more protection from the ocean’s ferocity.
Live updates: countdown to the Artemis II launch
Live Updated 4 hours ago Live updates: countdown to the Artemis II launch Canadian Geographic is on the scene at Kennedy Space Center for the final countdown to this history-making mission, which will see Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen become the first Canadian to fly around the moon Dramatic skies illuminate NASA's SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft on launchpad 39B at Kennedy Space Center, Florida, Jan. 28, 2026.
Who is Jeremy Hansen , the Canadian tapped by NASA to fly around the moon?
To be an astronaut is to be humanity’s highest symbol of daring, of curiosity, of longing. These sailors of the stars, as the translation from Greek has it, hold a unique place in the human imagination. Alone among the billions of people who have ever walked our planet, they have been chosen to journey to the celestial bodies that have fascinated and even ruled our species since we first looked to the sky. As a result, astronauts, as individuals, are inscrutable.
Into the storm: the Canadian transforming tornado science
Amid the all-American heroes and villains that populate last summer’s hit tornado movie Twisters, an outsider plays a key role. He is a meek, bespectacled British journalist who has come to Tornado Alley in the southern United States to write a story about a storm chaser played by the chiselled actor Glen Powell. Powell’s character is all swashbuckle and nerve in the face of imminent death.
Dual Citizen
The most anxious moment of the day occurred a few hours earlier. Phil Timpany had taken a pair of guests to a gravel bar on the Nakina River where hundreds of spawnedout chinook salmon lay in the water, either dead or dying. They were a feast for the three or so dozen grizzly bears, more in some years, that gather along the river every August to meet the run. One had sauntered past only a few minutes earlier, ignoring the people who’d come to see them.
UP HERE - NOV/DEC 2024
Edmonton newspapers hoped James Balsillie would be a Rip Van Winkle of the North. Better luck next time. A murre colony on Nunavut’s Coats Island has a lot to say about the future of animals and plants in the North—and elsewhere. As the Eskimofo, Dez Loreen is Finding his mojo, one body slam at a time.
Hometown Heel
Deztro the Eskimofo emerges from behind a curtain to a chorus of boos and jeers. A group of kids meet him, flashing L-shaped hand gestures and pointing their thumbs down. One boy hands him a folded-up note. It reads, “You suck!” Deztro chuckles and makes his way to the ring. The self-proclaimed “King of the North” has cultivated this twisted fandom for years. This is a big night for the Eskimofo, known by day as Dez Loreen, the face of CBC North in the NWT’s Beaufort-Delta region.
Celebrating 50 years of the Toronto Zoo
Despite the zoo’s focus on these reproductive techniques, DeJong would prefer not to have to use them. He’d rather think of them as an insurance policy than as a necessity. “Noah built the ark before the rain, right? When it comes to conservation, it’s raining. It’s changing. And we need more than one ark. We need a lot of them,” he says.
Hand talk: Reclaiming Plains sign language for healing, expression and connection
This story was originally printed in Canadian Geographic and appears here with permission and minor stylistic edits. One summer, when the theatre artist Floyd Favel was in his early 20s, he went to a Sun Dance ceremony in the Qu’Appelle Valley of southern “Saskatchewan.” An Assiniboine Elder from “Montana” spotted him and gestured for him to come over. Intrigued, Favel did. The Elder made more gestures with his hands. Favel was astounded.
Parler avec les mains : se réapproprier la langue des signes des Autochtones des Plaines
Un été, alors qu’il n’avait qu’une vingtaine d’années, l’artiste de théâtre Floyd Favel s’est rendu à une cérémonie de danse du soleil dans la vallée de la Qu’Appelle, dans le sud de la Saskatchewan. Un aîné assiniboine du Montana l’aperçoit et lui fait signe de s’approcher. Intrigué, il s’approche. L’aîné fait d’autres gestes avec ses mains. Le jeune Floyd est stupéfait. « Alors je lui ai demandé : Connaissez-vous cette langue des signes?
Hand talk: Reclaiming Plains Indian Sign Language
One summer, when the theatre artist Floyd Favel was in his early 20s, he went to a Sun Dance ceremony in the Qu’Appelle Valley of southern Saskatchewan. An Assiniboine Elder from Montana spotted him and gestured for him to come over. Intrigued, Favel did. The Elder made more gestures with his hands. Favel was astounded.
Alanna’s top 5 recommended albums
Is your playlist becoming repetitive? Are you getting bored of the same music over and over again? Well, you’re in luck because there are so many new albums to discover, varying in all different genres and moods. Here are my favorites and my top five albums that I recommend to you. 5. Who Really Cares- TV Girl For those of you who don’t know TV Girl, they are a band that has taken the world by storm. They’re known for their upbeat. 60s bubble gum pop-inspired beats mixed with their melancholy lyrics.
Top movie picks of 2023
2023 was a year that filled with stellar movies. With back-to-back hits like Barbie, Oppenheimer, etc, many were rushing to theatres to watch with anticipation. We may all have favorites, but here are my top five movies from last year. Remember that if you disagree, remember that this is my opinion; we aren’t all the same! Spider-Man Across The Spiderverse As a connoisseur of cartoons, this movie was astonishing from start to finish.
Job vs. no job: Which one is better?
There are over three thousand students at North Penn High School. Many of these students have lives outside of the classroom. Clubs, sports, and other extracurriculars are always talked about and given recognition, but a certain activity is overlooked: a job. An enormous chunk of students have a school job and you may not even know it. When students do have jobs, many of them have to tackle the stress of schoolwork, clubs, and just life overall all at the same time.
Review: Na Brasa Steakhouse
Do you have a love for all-you-can-eat buffets? Are you looking for a place to take your parents, grandparents, or even a date? Well, look no further! Na Brasa Steakhouse may be the perfect place for you. Na Brasa is located in Horsham, which is not a far drive if you’re looking for a short drive. With its clean and sleek environment and a variety of foods, it is sure to make you fall in love. Na Brasa has a wide variety of meats, spanning from pork to beef.
Layers of meaning: Francine McCarthy on the Anthropocene
Francine McCarthy toast of the world’s geologists, is sitting on a bench beside the lake that made her famous, talking about how she never wanted to be a geologist. Face shaded by a wide-brimmed hat, sapphire-blue-polished toenails peeking out from workaday sandals, she’s already had one major press interview this morning and has to grab lunch before a third. But you can tell she’s relishing telling the tale. It was art school that called to her, she says. She wanted to study environmental design.
What is life without goals?
October 26, 2023 Seven months. Seven months is all it took for Junior Varsity lacrosse player Victoria Rossi to become a Division 2 collegiate athlete. But just how did Rossi pull it off? At first, it was just for fun, but then it became serious. But then, from doubts to triumph, Rossi sheds light on her experiences and outcomes as a player and how she wouldn’t change a single thing. Rossi started playing lacrosse in eighth grade during the peak of COVID.
Ava Warner: running sensation and mental health advocate
Ava Warner makes running look effortless, but balancing school and mental health can be challenging. Warner grew up with a love for running and started to embrace it early. In fifth grade, she ran for the “Girls On The Run” nonprofit group. Warner never felt confident about herself, but she discovered her passion for running, which helped her gain more confidence. She joined her track and field team in middle school, where she did sprints, but she realized it wasn’t for her.
Ava Warner: running sensation and mental health advocate
Ava Warner makes running look effortless, but balancing school and mental health can be challenging. Warner grew up with a love for running and started to embrace it early. In fifth grade, she ran for the “Girls On The Run” nonprofit group. Warner never felt confident about herself, but she discovered her passion for running, which helped her gain more confidence. She joined her track and field team in middle school, where she did sprints, but she realized it wasn’t for her.
A juicy review: The Juice Pod
Are you looking for something brand new and healthy to eat? Well, you’re in luck because The Juice Pod is up and coming! With its variety of smoothies, paninis, toasts, and juices, the Juice Pod is sure to be delicious for anyone looking for something refreshing to eat or drink. The Juice Pod is a popular super-food spot known for its smoothies, acai bowls, and overall healthy selection. It has become extremely popular due to its multiple locations all across Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
The history behind North Penn’s Marine and Botanical Society
Plants and Animals may not be up everyone’s ally, but for members of the Marine And Botanical Society, it’s a match made in heaven. Catering to all things green and earthy, this club is looking to better our environment and create a safe space for someone who is just looking for some time to relax. The Marine and Botanical Society was founded by two students and a teacher who shared a niche bond for plants and animals and wanted to express it to others.
The Anthropocene is here - and tiny Crawford Lake has been chosen as the global ground zero
The planet’s crust is an archive of time and catastrophe. Its layers carry evidence of asteroid hits, mass extinctions, toxic changes to the atmosphere and continental ruptures. Now, an international team of the scientists who painstakingly catalogue those layers has declared that Earth moved into a new phase of its history about 73 years ago and that the best piece of crust in the world to represent it is a tiny lake in southern Ontario.
Muskoxen: the tundra’s ultimate survivors
The muskox, that shaggy-coated, white-stockinged, short-legged, warty-lipped, thick-skulled, inbred, plant-munching, cold-loving, sociable beast of the Arctic, the ultimate survivor. When the last ice age, which ended about 10,000 years ago, remorselessly excised mammoths, woolly rhinoceroses and cave lions from the book of life, muskoxen, who shared the same landscapes, somehow pulled through.
20 Canadian innovations you should know about
What started as a terrific idea in 2017 has evolved into an indispensable community-based social enterprise tool across the North to help Inuit community members avoid hazardous ice. The problem is climate heating. As the air warms, the sea ice thins. When sea ice is your mode of travel, your route to hunting and your main way of connecting to others, that’s an alarming situation. SmartICE marries high tech with traditional Indigenous knowledge to monitor the thickness of sea ice.
Un concert à ne pas manquer
Notre planète a une bande sonore. Il y a les oiseaux, bien sûr — les pépiements, les gazouillis, les chants, les sifflements et les clics du chœur de l’aube. Les mammifères aussi jouent dans l’orchestre de la Terre. Les lions rugissent. Les orignaux brament. La panthère a son ronronnement terrifiant. Les insectes sont réputés bavards, demandez aux cigales. Les crocodiles claquent de la mâchoire. Et que serait le concert de la Terre sans la basse langoureuse du ouaouaron ? Les poissons gloussent.
It’s official: The leap second will be retired (a decade from now)
The time has come — or will come, in 2035 — to abandon the leap second. So voted the member states of the international treaty governing science and measurement standards, at a meeting in Versailles, France, on Friday. The nearly unanimous vote on what was known as Resolution D was met with relief and jubilation from the world’s metrologists, some of whom have been pressing for a solution to the leap second problem for decades.
Time Is Running Out for the Leap Second
Roughly every four years, an extra day gets tacked onto the end of February, a time-keeping convention known as the leap year. The practice of adjusting the calendar with an extra day was established by Julius Caesar more than 2,000 years ago and modified in the 16th century by Pope Gregory XIII, bequeathing us the Julian and Gregorian calendars.
Time Is Running Out for the Leap Second
Roughly every four years, an extra day gets tacked onto the end of February, a time-keeping convention known as the leap year. The practice of adjusting the calendar with an extra day was established by Julius Caesar more than 2,000 years ago and modified in the 16th century by Pope Gregory XIII, bequeathing us the Julian and Gregorian calendars.
It’s Official: The Leap Second Will Be Retired (a Decade from Now)
Science|It’s Official: The Leap Second Will Be Retired (a Decade from Now) https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/19/science/time-leap-second-bipm.html On Friday, an international vote was taken to ditch the leap second, a technical fudge that has caused headaches since its inception 50 years ago. Send any friend a story As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Anyone can read what you share. Clock faces at the Electric Time Company in Medfield, Mass.
Time is running out for the leap second
By ALANNA MITCHELL Roughly every four years, an extra day gets tacked onto the end of February, a time-keeping convention known as the leap year. The practice of adjusting the calendar with an extra day was established by Julius Caesar more than 2,000 years ago and modified in the 16th century by Pope Gregory XIII, bequeathing us the Julian and Gregorian calendars.
Time Has Run Out for the Leap Second
Roughly every four years, an extra day gets tacked onto the end of February, a time-keeping convention known as the leap year. The practice of adjusting the calendar with an extra day was established by Julius Caesar more than 2,000 years ago and modified in the 16th century by Pope Gregory XIII, bequeathing us the Julian and Gregorian calendars.
The land holds memories
It’s easy to overlook the female greater sage grouse. She’s built for camouflage. One of the grasslands’ iconic birds, her feathers are a complex chevron tweed of black, brown and grey, touched with bright white, bearing a striking resemblance to the habitat she requires for survival. One of the key tells that she is even there is the elegant neck, leading to a downward curving beak and large, wary black eyes.
The many benefits of the minuscule but mighty Miyawaki forests
Environment Pioneered by a Japanese botanist, compact Miyawaki forests are beginning to replace backyard lawns on tiny plots around Canada Expand Image A tree is not just a tree. It is part of a collaboration of living creatures both intricate and mysterious — microbes, fungi, shrubs, ground- covers. In turn, this assemblage attracts insects, birds and mammals in a merry mashup of collegiality.
Bioacoustics: What nature’s sounds can tell us about the health of our world
Our planet has a soundtrack. There are the birds, of course — the chirps, warbles, tweedles, whistles and clicks of the dawn chorus. But mammals play in Earth’s orchestra, too. Lions roar. Moose bellow. The panther has its deadly purr. Insects are famously chatty; just ask the cicadas. Crocodiles snap. And where would Earth’s concert be without the languorous basso of the bullfrog? Fish burble. Whales sing in linguistically discrete dialects.
Think like a bear: learning to coexist
The sun won’t rise for another hour, but Andrew Szklaruk is already on patrol in his truck here in Churchill, Man., prowling through the town’s frozen shadows looking for polar bears. He shines headlights down every snowbound street, each backroad and waterfront trail, running a practised eye behind all the sheds, half-ton trucks, boulders and clumps of evergreens.
Un grupo de científicos trabaja para redefinir los segundos
Se dice que la civilización moderna sería imposible sin medidas. Y las medidas no tendrían sentido si todos no usáramos las mismas unidades. Por lo tanto, durante casi 150 años, los metrólogos del mundo han coincidido en definiciones estrictas para las unidades de medidas por medio de la Oficina Internacional de Pesas y Medidas (BIPM, por su sigla en francés), ubicada a las afueras de París.
Get ready for the new, improved second
Modern civilization, it is said, would be impossible without measurement. And measurement would be pointless if we were not all using the same units. kAm$@[ 7@C ?62C=J `d_ J62CD[ E96 H@C=5’D >6EC@=@8:DED 92G6 28C665 @? DEC:4E 567:?:E:@?D 7@C F?:ED @7 >62DFC6>6?E E9C@F89 E96 x?E6C?2E:@?2= qFC62F @7 (6:89ED 2?5 |62DFC6D[ <?@H? 3J :ED uC6?49 24C@?J>[ qx!|[ 2?5 32D65 @FED:56 !2C:D]k^Am kAm}@H252JD E96 3FC62F C68F=2E6D E96 D6G6? 32D6 F?:ED E92E 8@G6C?
Get Ready For the New, Improved Second Original
Modern civilization, it is said, would be impossible without measurement. And measurement would be pointless if we weren’t all using the same units. So, for nearly 150 years, the world’s metrologists have agreed on strict definitions for units of measurement through the International Bureau of Weights and Measures, known by its French acronym, B.I.P.M., and based outside Paris.
What the world's most powerful telescope is teaching us about the origins of the universe
The James Webb telescope is allowing astronomers to time-travel into our deep, dark past Far off in space, in the middle of the Sword of Orion, just below the mythical hunter’s belt, is a hot and violent nebula swathed in dust, where new stars are busy being born. And while the nebula itself has always been visible to the naked eye, the enigmas of the embryonic celestial bodies inside it, particularly those in a section known as the Orion Bar, were not. Until now.
Opinion | The myth of zero risk: Have two years of a pandemic taught us anything about navigating uncertainty?
In the months before September 2008, as physicists were getting ready to test-drive the Large Hadron Collider, a massive machine designed to smash bits of atoms together at high speed, public panic set in, fuelled by a debate between a handful of physicists about a theoretical possibility. What if the device, the most powerful ever made, created black holes by mistake that would swallow Earth?
The myth of zero risk: Have two years of a pandemic taught us anything about navigating uncertainty?
In the months before September 2008, as physicists were getting ready to test-drive the Large Hadron Collider, a massive machine designed to smash bits of atoms together at high speed, public panic set in, fuelled by a debate between a handful of physicists about a theoretical possibility. What if the device, the most powerful ever made, created black holes by mistake that would swallow Earth?
The myth of zero risk: Have two years of a pandemic taught us anything about navigating uncertainty?
Opinion While some risks do pose serious or even mortal danger, writes Alanna Mitchell, there are others we must take in order to progress and thrive. When it comes to COVID the key is to know the difference.
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