Barry Saxifrage
Climate Analyst | Vancouver
About Barry Saxifrage
Barry Saxifrage is Canada's National Observer's resident chart geek and climate analyst. In his visual carbon columns, Saxifrage deconstructs the data behind global warming and Canada's climate targets, as he charts international progress and graphically documents failures by industry and governments. His work is cited frequently by academics and climate publications internationally, including by George Monbiot in The Guardian, Yale Climate Connections, Bill McKibben's New Yorker newsletter, The Times Colonist, and many others. When he's not analyzing the corporate reports of major oil companies or comparing Canada's government's promises against Canada's actual emissions, Saxifrage is an avid soccer player.
Prime Minister Brian Mulroney set Canada’s first climate target, way back in 1988. Are we there yet?
Here’s a quick look at how it started in Canada — and how it’s going.
Fill ’er up. Burn it down
Fuelling our rising horde of gas-guzzlers in Canada is burning down our nation’s climate promises and our kids’ future.
The brutal math of climate foot-dragging
Five charts show how Canada is running out the clock on climate hope.
Canada’s methane leaks — underreported and overwhelming
Methane is becoming a serious threat to humanity, and Canada’s oil and gas industry is emitting a huge amount of it.
Our forests have reached a tipping point
Unrelenting logging and fossil fuel burning have flipped one of the planet's largest forests from a critical CO2 sink into a surging CO2 source. This year's climate-fuelled wildfires are the latest acceleration in a multi-decade trend, writes Barry Saxifrage.
We're blindly accelerating into the oncoming climate train
Most of Canada's greenhouse gas emissions cuts have been focused on just one sector: electricity generation. That's left the rest of our economy hyper-emitting and exposed.
Are Canada's climate emissions going down?
The government says yes. But the latest climate pollution numbers seem to tell a different story. Barry Saxifrage breaks it down for us.
Renewable Natural Gas-light-ing and You
Do you love your cozy gas fireplace and uber-sexy gas stove, but are tired of feeling guilty about all that climate pollution frying your kid's future? Has Barry Saxifrage got great news for you. Wink, wink.
A deep dive into HFCs, one of Canada’s fastest-growing climate problems
One of Canada's fastest-growing sources of emissions is the extreme greenhouse gas leaking from our businesses and homes. Barry Saxifrage takes us on a chart-packed tour of one of our least-known climate threats.
Gasoline versus electric cars
Spoiler alert: Over the full life cycle of Canadian gasoline cars and electric cars, the 70 tonnes of CO2 from burning gasoline absolutely crushes everything else — including Canadian climate hopes. But other nations have found ways to rein in the beast.