Stephen Leahy is an award-winning international environmental journalist with over 25 years of experience in the field. His work has been published in a wide range of prestigious publications around the world, including National Geographic, The Guardian, Vice, New Scientist, Maclean’s, Al Jazeera, and many others. Leahy’s journalism focuses on critical environmental issues such as climate change, water scarcity, and biodiversity loss, aiming to bring global attention to these urgent matters.
Leahy’s notable achievements include receiving the SEAL Environmental Journalism Award in 2018 and 2019 for his reporting on climate change impacts and solutions at National Geographic and Vice. This award celebrates journalists who have made significant contributions to environmental reporting.
Additionally, he was a co-winner of the Prince Albert/United Nations Global Prize for reporting on climate change and environmental topics around the world.
He is the author of “Your Water Footprint: The Shocking Facts About How Much Water We Use To Make Everyday Products,” which won the Best Science Book of the Year in Canada. The book is acclaimed for its brilliant and shocking exposé on the extensive amount of water used in the production of everyday products.
Leahy’s career began after a mid-life crisis led him to become an independent environmental journalist, leaving behind a successful corporate career to pursue his passion for writing, science, conservation, and the environment.
Over the years, he has written more than 2000 articles on a wide range of science and environmental topics, demonstrating his commitment to raising awareness and understanding of environmental issues.Thank you for joining us today Stephen Leahy.
1. Would you please start by telling us why you became an environmental journalist and maybe a bit about that mid life crisis?
5:07 For about 10 years I had a career in marketing. At one time I was kind of the junk mail king of Canada sending out paper flyers by mail. I was at a direct mail conference and David Suzki was the guest speaker. It was kind of a downer because he was talking about climate change and environmental impact . And when he was asked “what can we do as an industry?” he replied “stop what you are doing and do something useful.”
6:01 I took that to heart because I was feeling tired of the long commute to work, the direct mail industry, wanted to do something more meaningful, spend more time with my family and more time outside of highly air conditioned offices. I wanted to integrate my work with my family life.
2. Were you able to achieve what you set out to do?
7:14 Absolutely. I was there for my kids before and after school. Could go for walks and schedule my won time . It took a few years because I had a family, a mortgage, and there were financial pressures.
3. You wrote a book Your Water Footprint – please tell us a little about that and is there any good news here? What are the 3 things people can do day to day that will make a difference.
8:11 The book came about when someone in Uxbridge where I lived at the time asked me to do a info graphic approach to show in a visual the impact of our use of water. An Ottawa school is using the book for a project called Blue Schools. I ask the school kids if there is anything that we can make that does not require water. There really isn’t anything.
4. Is there anything we can do to protect water?
10:18 Any time you consume anything be aware of the water consumption. The idea is to respect water. For thousands of years water has been considered sacred because we cannot survive without it or do anything without it. I think having that mindset of awareness helps us and water.
The water we have on the planet is all the water that we are ever going to have – so if we are dumping something down the drain that is harmful it is going to affect the water quality and it is not going to go away. It is going to be there, it is going to effect something – so to be conscious of that fact.
Water conservation is really important because we are in climate era of droughts. This is happening in Canada which is considered one of the most water rich countries of the world.
The water we have on the planet is all the water that we are ever going to have – so if we are dumping something down the drain that is harmful it is going to affect the water quality and it is not going to go away. It is going to be there, it is going to effect something – so to be conscious of that fact.
Water conservation is really important because we are in climate era of droughts. This is happening in Canada which is considered one of the most water rich countries of the world. Out west there is an ongoing drought right now.
Host: I am thinking about the fact that I just flushed my sour dough mixture down the toilet this morning….
It is probably ok because it is organic material. It is cleaners and cleansers that are most harmful and toxic. our chemical use is extraordinarily high. Vinegar is the answer for a more natural and healthy cleaning.
3. You wrote a recent piece called “100% Renewable Energy For The World: Possible and It’s Happening” please share the positive with us.
13:13 There is a bit of a story here. Maybe 10 years ago heard about this visiting professor who was going to speak at a Quaker meeting house in Toronto. No sure if you are familiar with these, I am not a Quaker but they do these semi public meetings. I went because he was going to talk about energy and I was interested.. There were only 4 people. He talked about this idea of renewables. He gave us these studies that operated on the 100% renewables for energy. His name was Mark Jacobson and he is the pioneer of this. I interviewed him afterwards, was skeptical at first, but followed his work and that of others ever since.
14:10 Using wind, solar and water – so that’s hydro power, California is on its 10th day of 100% renewables. California is 39 million people and the 5 largest economy in the world (behind only US, China, Japan and Germany).
There are a number of other countries that are running 90-100% on renewables. These include: Costa Rica, Sweden, Norway, and Uruguay.
It’s happening, Germany got up to 50% renewable electricity. Europe as a whole got up to 27% renewable electricity. Germany, the UK, the US and many other countries plan to use 100% renewables by 2035.
14:51 These countries don’t need as much gas anymore which is important given the current situation in Ukraine with Russia. They are getting rid of their coal and at some stage later – their gas as they continue to increase the amount of their renewables.
These are the practicalities of renewables. They found out that the costs are cheaper, it’s doable and more and more countries and regions are going that way.
Texas is not the obvious example but they get about 20% of their electricity from wind and solar (and saved 31.5 billion in energy costs between 2010 and 2022) compared to fossil gas or coal.
And they saved alot of water in a place that is constantly drought stricken. You don’t need very much water for solar. Renewables saved nearly 250 billion gallons of water and reduced air pollution saving 10s of billions in healthcare costs. Almost all future projects in Texas will be renewables.
There is enormous water use for fossil fuel production.
4. 17:02 You say that it is cheaper to produce renewables?
Yes that is because wind and solar are free and it is relatively easy to set up wind turbines and solar panels and they last 20-30 years.
17:23 With coal and oil it takes a lot of money to dig up and extract coal or gas. And it takes alot water. Sp there is a huge water footprint in the oil and gas sector that is rarely taken into account or even paid for.
5. You make the connection to air pollution, the energy sector, and our health….. that 1 in 5 deaths per year are linked to air pollution.
Yes the PM2.5 leads to cardiac arrests, difficulty breathing, and can affect brain development in children. We are not talking enough about how dangerous air pollution from fossil fuels really is for all of us.
6. What should we do when lovely people and friends tell us that electric car batteries are exploding, that there is no global warming – this is a natural cycle. And alot of this information is in our news feeds.
21:27 This has been a problem for a long time and it is not going to go away any time soon. There is a massive industry that is being threatened. That industry has alot of clout in our society. Their position is that we staying put – it is in their interest. By delaying renewables – the public will be the big winners in terms of health and the climate. Find the best way to connect with others is the weather. Pretty clear that things are changing in terms of climate.
7. 26:40 Your article Lawyer Up for Climate – new climate litigation strategies.
There is a whole new concept of climate lawsuits – there is a duty to protect our environment. Another aspect is the greenwashing – another of lawsuit – false advertising. KLM, Delta and United , Nike, and Esty are being sued for deceptive advertising.
The third is the misinformation – suing fossil fuel industry that has real costs. Liken to lawsuits of smoking in the past. Something similar is happening in Europe. 32 Governments are being sued at the European Court of Human Rights for failure to adequately address climate action,.
Climate science is getting better at attributing – this event – forest fires, the large die off of animals was 6 or 8 or 10 times more likely because of climate change. A few dozen companies of fossil fuels. It’s a new field. The strategy is often to draw out as long as possible. Countries and companies are told to do more. In the Netherlands the Dutch government was forced to improve its climate action plan and meet the target of 49% emissions reduction by 2030.
The idea here is that banks and financial institutions need to align their actions and decisions with keeping global warming well below 2 degrees C or risk climate lawsuits.
We have the Paris Agreement that everyone sign on to do this – to meet this less than 2 degrees increase in global warming.
Vice Chair at the European Central Bank “Counsel, judges, academics see that urgent change is needed to protect humanity. “
8. Your article Clean Energy Has Displaced Coal. Gas is Next. Please tell us about that.
Increasingly being able to use solar and wind we don’t have to use coal plants anymore. Coal plants are not efficient. Nobody is building new coal plants. China has stopped building coal plants. Coal use. Nobody has built more wind or solar than China. Make alot of the solar panels. They made a decision 20-30 years to become the Solar Leader of the World and they have done it.
37:26 Solar and wind are cheaper because they are not commodities, they are technologies. It is like our smart phones that get more advanced every year. Coal plants are massive construction projects whereas solar and wind technologies are relatively compact and we need more – so production and quality improves over time. So there is that advantage – can make alot and improve every year – solar and wind can be installed in a few months. Improvement in megawatt production goes up every year. You just don’t have that kind of improvement in large coal or fossil fuel industries – who still have the problem of digging it out of the ground, processing and then cleaning it, transporting it over large distances. 40 % percent of all marine shipping is moving oil across the world.
9. 41:00 How do you cope with this climate information. I cope by doing alot of my writing outside. I figured out ways to do it. I used an old camera tripod with a thin piece of wood so that I can write while standing up. That fits in my back pack. I have a kind of riser so that if there is a picnic table somewhere I can write on that with my laptop. Not when it is too cold, my hands get too cold.
I do most of my writing outside. There is where I think better and feel better. When we lived in Uxbridge I worked in the forest every day. I put a tarp up when it rained. I did zoom interviews that way. Things would happen, an otter would stream down the stream…a deer would stop by. Those are the reasons I changed careers. I wanted to be outside more because I think better, I feel better, I am better as a person when I am outside. It makes me alot calmer. It helps put the work into perspective. I don’t think I could have done it as long as I have without spending all that time outside.
10. How do listeners find your work?
I have a newsletter google Stephen Leahy, substack.com
11. Last question, in the news we are hearing about carbon pricing. In your weekly newsletter you help us to see that. Will you explain?
Carbon pricing in Canada – conservatives making it a big issue. a tool that we need – like a speeding ticket. To discourage carbon – the polluter pays principle. If we don’t want this then we penalize it. If we don’t want it to happen. People make in Canada make money on it – through the rebate program. Canada has a pretty good system The bottom is that we need to do something about.
12. Is there anything you would like to add before we close Stephen Leahy?
Essentially do what you can. I think most of understand that we need to do something. We have to push our companies and governments. Alot of this stuff is beneficial and healthy for us and our families. You can change your diet to eat less meat, drive less, take more public transport, join a climate action group, grow your own vegetables, naturalize your lawn and a hundred other things.
We can talk about what we see outside and how the weather and seasons are changing. We can acknowledge that significant changes are underway and that collectively and individually we can make a difference. Small changes can make a big difference in our lives. This should not be stressful or make anyone guilty. As Stephen Leahy says we can simply do what feels right for each of us on our journey to help the environment …..because we all need a little more of Your Outside Mindset. See you next time.
