Blog | FirstThingsFirstOK

A Better House Part 2

Retrofitting a home with solar can save money, improve residents' health, and reduce emissions.

7 days ago6 min read

Gas truck driving on Sea to Sky Highway BC

CleanBC needs a renewal, not a retreat

CleanBC review has shortfalls.

Jan 52 min read

Myth and the reality of annual allowable cut in BC forests

Logging trucks (photo CTV) Eli Pivnick argues a new approach is needed to logging in B.C. Eli lives in the north Okanagan near Vernon and has a PhD in insect ecology from Université Laval in Quebec City. He has conducted insect research in the Canadian Prairies for the National Research Council, Agriculture Canada and Parks Canada. from The Castanet Dec 23, 2025 The annual allowable cut is the cornerstone for how the B.C. government manages logging on Crown forested lands. It

Dec 23, 20254 min read

A Warning Letter about Cutting Funding from Data Science

"Cuts at Natural Resources Canada ' decimate' wildfire and flood tracking capacity, unions warn", Natasha Bulowski , Dec 05/25 Athabasca Tar Sands (Flickr SkyTruth) How many of you remember in 2011 when Conservative PM Harper cut over $1.1 billion from science & technology ( Watershed Sentinel) , causing the loss of almost 4000 federal researchers from our civil service, closed libraries that held a huge amount of historical information for scientists at the Department o

Dec 23, 20253 min read

A better house: our journey to a passive home.

For a long time, my husband, Gordon Cornwall, and I dreamed of a home that would minimize energy consumption.

Dec 12, 20252 min read

A Powerful Letter to the PM

Laura Sacks, West Kootenay Climate Hub, has worked for years to advocate for climate solutions and better policies for a clean future. Her anger and frustration directed to PM Carney are clear in this letter she wrote to him in November 2025. Many of us share her emotions and feelings of betrayal. Mark Carney fast-tracking LNG and mining and other polluting projects (screenshot from CBC September 11) Dear Prime Minister Carney, I was first introduced to the term “stranded ass

Nov 25, 20254 min read

Breaking: Ksi Lisims LNG should be named a Project of National Liability not of National Interest

A flaring stack at the LNG Canada plant in Kitimat. Production there will exceed Canadian guidelines for nitrogen dioxide. Photo via BC Energy Regulator. Richard Brooks wrote this excellent article on the dangers of the Ksi Lisims LNG project. It is reposted with permission. November 12, 2025 The Ksi Lisims LNG project in British Columbia is being presented as a "Project of National Interest." However, a serious analysis of its legal, financial, and operational realities re

Nov 16, 20254 min read

Talking to Kids about Climate and Home Tips

Sara Goldstein of the website Motherly quotes Laura Schifter, founder of This Is Planet Ed and author of Students, Schools, and Our Climate Momen t , who explains that “worry, sadness, grief, and fear are all normal climate feelings.” It's not easy to talk to kids sometimes about climate change as we're afraid to scare them, but opening the conversation is critical as extreme weather events are impacting our daily lives. These home climate tips can guide us. Kids get solar

Nov 15, 20251 min read

Do Electric Vehicles Reduce Power Grid Capacity?

Bruce Murdoch, Cranbrook, BC, discusses the misinformation that abounds about BC's electricity capacity and the impact Electric Vehicles (EVs) have on the power grid. Electric Vehicle (EV) charging How EVs Can Boost Power Grid This sounds counter-intuitive right? It sure does! I am going to demonstrate how EVs can (and already do to a small extent) free up capacity on the grid and electrical generation capacity. We are facing a lot of fearmongering about power utilities runni

Nov 1, 20254 min read

Opinion: BC’s massive carbon bomb approval is an act of arson — BC Climate Emergency Campaign

bcclimateemergency.ca Gingolx, near Ksi Lisims project (screenshot C. Reibin) (This opinion piece was shared on the BC Climate Emergency Campaign website. It is posted here with permission of the authors.) We must stay aware of the facts about fossil fuels in general and LNG in particular. The rush to build new gas, coal, and oil projects goes against science and will increase deadly pollution. Extracting fossil fuels is dangerous to the environment around the project and to

Oct 20, 20255 min read