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Good afternoon, and welcome to Globe Climate, a newsletter about climate change, environment and resources in Canada.
We have seen some milestones recently, but not the kind we were hoping for.
July is forecast to be the warmest month on record. The planet experienced its hottest June since records began in 1850. July 6 was its hottest day. The eight warmest years on the books are the past eight years we’ve experienced.
We have entered what forecasters say could be a multiyear period of exceptional warmth, not just because of humankind’s greenhouse gas emissions, but also compounded by El Nino.
Now, let’s catch you up on other news.
Noteworthy reporting this week:
- Flooding: Nova Scotia RCMP suspend search for youth missing since severe flooding, after Freeland called on CRTC to fix cellular dead zones in wake of Nova Scotia flash flood
- Wildfires: Smoke from wildfires believed to cause up to thousands of premature deaths in Canada each year. Meanwhile, rain didn’t stop the threat of fires, and B.C. hikers were dramatically rescued by helicopter from forest fire last week.
- Heat: Americans are flocking to cities most at risk of extreme weather. Can they stand the heat?
- Analysis: The nonsensical ban on compostable plastic bags
- Innovation: Can a disease-free, drought-proof potato exist? A map of the vegetable’s genes aims to find out
- Environment: Imperial Oil cleans up new spill in Cold Lake that contaminated flock of Canada geese
- Technology: Cool pavement is like sunscreen for streets. Can it take the heat out of concrete cities?
- Listen to The Decibel: Canada’s multibillion dollar bet on the electric vehicle market
- Drought: B.C. towns, farmers finding ways to cope. As record heat persists, the province looks to the U.S. for hay, livestock feed as severe drought limits supply
- In depth with The Narhwal: The mysterious death of Grace, a beloved 125-year-old snapping turtle
A deeper dive
Digitizing a nation, while trying to save it
Andrea Woo is a Globe reporter typically based in Vancouver. For this week’s deeper dive, she writes about what she learned while in Tuvalu, and the nation’s extreme vulnerability.
In Canada, we’ve seen the fingerprints of climate change on a series of devastating extreme weather events: three months’ worth of rain dumped on Nova Scotia in 24 hours; the cross-country wildfires of 2023 marking Canada’s worst wildfire season on record; a B.C. heat wave that pushed temperatures in parts of the province to a record-shattering 49.6 degrees Celsius, killing 619 people and incinerating an entire village.
And yet, in the lulls between crises, many of the symptoms of our warming world could be ignored, if one so desired – the news changed with a remote control, the can kicked down the road.
It’s not like that on Tuvalu. Composed of nine reef islands and atolls and located midway between Australia and Hawaii, the tiny, island nation totals only 26 square kilometres of land – together, hardly a fleck on most maps.
The archipelago’s extreme vulnerability to severe weather events and variability has made it a potent symbol for the acute threat of climate change. Tropical cyclones have displaced up to half the population at a time, persistent droughts have drained the island of fresh water and spread waterborne disease, and sea level rise threatens not only Tuvalu’s physical coastline but its coastal ecosystems. Government officials have issued dire warnings that Tuvalu could be completely submerged in the next 50 to 100 years.
On our reporting trip there, we stood on narrow islands where ocean waves lapped at opposing sides, mere metres apart. We saw the large plastic “food cubes” distributed to locals to grow vegetables where saltwater intrusion had rendered soil in the ground unsuitable for cultivation. We watched as workers used heavy machinery to build up coastlines that had been lost to the sea. And we spoke with people working to preserve coral reefs whose degradation threaten Tuvalu’s marine life and food security. On Tuvalu, there is no ignoring climate change.
“It is a matter of life or death for the people living here in Tuvalu,” Maina Talia, former director of the Tuvalu Association of NGOs, told me. “We should tell the world that we are drowning.”
- Andrea
Tuvaluan climate action advocate Maina Talia swims in the Funafuti lagoon with his son Taliafua. Less than 5 meters above sea level at its highest point, the tiny South Pacific island nation of Tuvalu is one of several that faces an existential threat from sea level rise driven by climate change. Talia worries without immediate action to reduce green house gasses and slow sea level rise, his son might lose the only home he’s ever known.Jesse Winter/The Globe and Mail
What else you missed
- Commercial building codes lack strong wildfire-management provisions, indoor air quality controls, says expert
- Biden looks to provide relief from extreme heat as record high temperatures persist across the US
- After ‘historic’ fires, Cree fire marshal wants more training for community members
- How the alert system for hot weather varies across Canada
- G20 ministers reach agreement on most, but not all, climate issues
- Plane fighting Greek island wildfire crashes killing both pilots, as Italian blaze claims two lives
- Italy adopts measures to tackle extreme climate events
- South Florida waters hit hot tub level and may have set world record for warmest seawater
- Britain to grant hundreds of new oil and gas licences, ignoring calls from environmentalists
- Biden administration launches methane emission task force to boost leak detection
Opinion and analysis
Keith Ambachtsheer: Thames Water crisis offers cautionary tale for pension funds investing in private-market assets
Peter Kuitenbrouwer: Our simplistic approach to forest management has added fuel to the fire
Deborah Yedlin: Billions given to Volkswagen and Stellantis – what about oil and gas’s carbon initiatives?
Ralph Torrie: Ford government’s nuclear push is a costly déjà vu for Ontario’s power sector
Editorial board: Nuclear and the cost of clean power
Tom Rachman: My Greek holiday went from heaven to Hades. How can we vacation in the climate crisis?
Green Investing
Researchers create system for companies to report physical risks of climate change
Canadian researchers have developed a system for companies to report the physical impact of climate change on operations – from wildfires to floods – with the aim of filling a disclosure gap that leaves investors without important data for managing risk.
The system, called Climate Risk Matrices, spells out potential trouble spots for companies in a range of industries stemming from changing climate and extreme weather. Portfolio managers and others can use the tool to assess the risks when deciding to buy or sell. Longer term, the developers hope that its use becomes commonplace alongside new emissions and sustainability disclosure rules being rolled out globally.
- Investing: A climate-change gut check. The price of Canada’s oil-sands crude is soaring, testing investors’ ESG principles
- News: Cenovus CEO Jon McKenzie labels Ottawa’s plan to eliminate oil and gas subsidies ‘political rhetoric’
- Global securities watchdog backs new company climate disclosures
- Tim Kiladze: How TC Energy, the former darling of dividend investors, fell into a financial hole that forced a pipeline sale
Making waves
Each week The Globe profiles a Canadian making a difference, but we are taking a little break for the rest of summer. We’ll be back to showing off everyone’s great work in a few weeks.
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
Marine Scientist Angela Stevenson of GEOMAR picks flowering seagrass in Laboe, Germany July 10, 2023. Seagrasses store carbon from planet-warming carbon dioxide, protect coasts from erosion and help to support climate and fisheries.LISI NIESNER/Reuters
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 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
- Cowboys confront the threat of climate change
- This lake shows when humans started changing the planet
- Is Canada’s waste management system trash?
- Drone shows are the new fireworks
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