Author: Blair Lockhart, Vancouver, BC

Solving complex global challenges such as environmental sustainability calls for systems thinking: the process of understanding how things influence one another within a whole. 

As University of British Columbia alumni, my husband Tony and I spent two weeks in Iceland last year supporting Drs. Lee Groat, Denise Gabriel, and Steve Quane leading an intensive UBC field course on scientific approaches to sustainability. Eighteen students – all creative thinkers – spent ten days considering how land, air, water, human societies, plants, and animals, interact in ways that influence the likelihood that the system will survive or perish. 

Author: Katrín Níelsdóttir, Winnipeg, MB

As the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre prepares for the world premiere of a new play in January 2027, a Winnipeg-based organization is working to ensure audiences understand the remarkable life behind the story.

The play will focus on Sir William Stephenson, the Winnipeg-born spymaster whose wartime intelligence work earned him the codename “Intrepid.” Supporting that effort is the Intrepid Society, led by Dwight MacAulay, which continues to advocate for broader recognition of Stephenson’s legacy in Canada and beyond.

“This is someone from Winnipeg who had a global impact,” MacAulay said in a recent interview. “We want to make sure people don’t forget that.”

Author: Merrill Albert, Providence, RI

Most people are familiar with puffins in Iceland, but did you know that the Atlantic puffin also lives off the coast of Maine? On a recent trip, I took a cruise out to one of the islands they live on. I learned that they have quite a history.

There was a time when puffins were quite plentiful in the area. Unfortunately, a desire for food and feathers for hats severely devastated the population in the 1800s. A once-popular island for puffins was down to one breeding pair by 1902. Raising one chick per year meant the population would never rebound.