Globe Climate: As temperatures rise, so does risk to athlete health

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Good afternoon, and welcome to Globe Climate, a newsletter about climate change, environment and resources in Canada.

Boomer activism is on the rise as retirees return to their protest-movement youth, such as Nick De Carlo, 75, who is returning to the frontlines of activism from his younger days. It’s an influential generation, in part due to its sheer numbers. Boomers also vote in much larger proportions than other demographics and are much wealthier, controlling an estimated one-third of the country’s financial assets.

“I was involved in the anti-war movement and anti-racist and the civil rights movement in the 60s and 70s. That’s what first got me started,” he said. Today, the climate crisis has the former union employee’s attention.

Now, let’s catch you up on other news.

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Noteworthy reporting this week:

1. Wildlife: Indigenous cowboy, last of his kind, makes hard choices to save starving wild horses in B.C.’s Osoyoos desert
2. Policy: Insurers, others on front lines of adapting to climate change sound alarm on Canada’s ‘vague and distant’ strategy
3. Investing: How BlackRock, the world’s largest money manager, is navigating the market chaos – and a nasty ESG backlash. Scroll down to read more investing news.
4. On the ground with The Narwhal: Checking for vital signs on a fading Arctic icescape

A deeper dive

The climate crisis may prompt a rethink of when sports are played

Matt Lundy is an economics reporter with The Globe. For this week’s deeper dive, he takes a step into the sports world to talk about how a warming climate could hurt athlete health.

In the soaring heat and humidity of a Toronto summer, my running slows down. And not by a trivial amount. On sweltering days, I’m often 30 seconds slower than usual for every kilometre I run. On a crisp autumn day, running is a joy; in the summer, it’s a slog.

I’m not the only one suffering. Another summer of punishing heat waves is rattling the sports world, leading to event cancellations and injury. On occasion, professional athletes – despite having an abundance of resources – are getting heat stroke, which can prove fatal.

It got me thinking: In a warming world, is the current schedule for outdoor sports untenable? And what’s being done to protect athletes? I explored these questions in a recent Globe article.

In reporting that story, I had an interesting chat with Evan Dunfee, a Canadian race walker who won a bronze medal at last year’s Tokyo Olympics, which was quite hot and humid. Dunfee does a lot to mitigate the heat, from drinking plenty to taking ice baths just before the race. But what resonated with me is how much he does to cool his skin temperature during the race. He dumps chilly water over himself. He wears ice-cold hats, then swaps them out for new ones. He wore “neck sausages” filled with ice at the world championships in Qatar in 2019, where he also won bronze. (These “sausages” were concocted from women’s pantyhose purchased at a dollar store.)

For amateur athletes, there’s a lesson here. We may not have the same resources as Dunfee, but it’s necessary to find ways of tempering the heat. Now, when I’m out for a jog, I fill up my bottle at water fountains – them promptly dump the contents over me. My times haven’t improved much, but it’s making for a more pleasant – and presumably, less risky – workout.

- Matt

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What else you missed

• Pakistan looks ‘like a sea’ after floods, Prime Minister. As many as 33 million have been affected in a disaster blamed on climate change. UN chief Guterres asks world for ‘massive’ amounts of relief
• Wildfire smoke continues to blanket parts of B.C., improves slightly over Vancouver
• Ontario court to hear arguments in climate lawsuit launched by youth activists
• Quebec Liberals, CAQ criticize solidaire’s wealth tax proposal as attack on farmers
• Summer of 2022 brought record heat, solar power to Europe
• Modern slavery on the rise as crises fuel poverty: U.N. report

Opinion and analysis

David Israelson: Is it time to reimagine the school portable?

Robert W. Gray and Dr. Robin Gregory: Solving B.C.’s wildfire crisis requires us to make hard choices

Green Investing

Canada’s companies are the worst in the G7 for disclosure on emission reduction targets

As the richest countries make the most noise about trying to avoid the worst consequences of climate change, it’s clear they are coming up short on setting targets to achieve that. And Canada is faring the worst in the club by one important measure: disclosure by companies of their targets for reducing greenhouse emissions.

A new analysis led by CDP, a non-profit that runs a worldwide system that companies and governments can use to disclose their environmental impacts, found that Canada is at the back of the G7 pack with corporate disclosure among 297 companies suggesting an increase of 3.1 degrees. Just 9 per cent of corporate emissions are covered by publicly announced targets, and only 4 per cent by targets that meet Science-Based Targets initiative standards. Jeffrey Jones has the full story, including what this means for Canada.

• Also read: Amid energy uncertainty, investors are betting big on nuclear. Here’s how to approach it

Making waves

Each week The Globe will profile a Canadian making a difference. This week we’re highlighting the work of Jim Kingham, a Canadian author exploring climate solutions.

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Hi there, I’m Jim Kingham, 81, from Vancouver Island.

All my life I have been looking to solve environmental problems at many levels, from the most personal to the most complex negotiations at international conventions. I recently published the book Solutions for a Wounded Planet.

There are solutions to the climate change problem – solutions that require action at all levels, from individual ones to those requiring the most extensive global international co-operation. The single most important solution is not difficult to implement from a technical perspective, but it does pose significant socio-economic challenges. To reverse climate change and other environmental damage requires that we first recognize the deliberate disequilibrium we have created, and then take steps to restore equilibrium with respect to both population and the consumer mentality. We need to accept limits to quantitative growth in our economic models and focus on economic growth through improvements in the quality of the things we produce instead.

- Jim

Do you know an engaged individual? Someone who represents the real engines pursuing change in the country? Email us at GlobeClimate@globeandmail.com to tell us about them.

Photo of the week

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Guides and Explainers

• Want to learn to invest sustainably? We have a class for that: Green Investing 101 newsletter course for the climate-conscious investor. Not sure you need help? Take our quiz to challenge your knowledge.
• We've rounded up our reporters' content to help you learn about what a carbon tax is, what happened at COP 26, and just generally how Canada will change because of climate change.
• We have ways to make your travelling more sustainable and if you like to read, here are books to help the environmentalist in you grow, as well as a downloadable e-book of Micro Skills - Little Steps to Big Change.

Catch up on Globe Climate

• Mercury in the Arctic puts Indigenous communities, wildlife at risk
• Climate change is making it harder for you to sleep
• Hydrogen is a big bet game, Canada could hit the jackpot
• Is the U.S. climate bill great news for Canada?

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