Globe Climate: Cowboys confront the threat of climate change

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

A team of researchers has travelled to Axel Heiberg Island in the Arctic in the hopes of better understanding the possibility of life on Mars. The uninhabited island is in Nunavut’s Qikiqtaaluk region and has conditions similar to the red planet

Astrobiologist Haley Sapers, an adjunct professor at York University in the Lassonde School of Engineering, is leading the team at the McGill Arctic Research Station (MARS). Under the 24-hour midnight sun, they plan to study super-salty cold springs that release methane. They also plan to take methane readings from the atmosphere and carry out a simulated Mars Rover mission.

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

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Noteworthy reporting this week:

1. Extreme weather: The consequences of climate change are hitting a wider swath of the U.S. than ever before
2. Listen to The Decibel: Preparing for the decline of oil and gas in Canada
3. Agriculture: From pasta to bread, Canada races to put protein from pulses in everyday foods
4. Wildfires: A third person has died while fighting the fires in Alberta, the same week that we saw almost 900 fires burning across the country. In B.C., officials call for water conservation measures and the province has been asking onlookers to stay away from fires while intense heat warnings remain in place
5. Flooding: Search still under way for four missing after catastrophic flooding in Nova Scotia
6. Policy: Canada has gone big to match U.S. clean-tech subsidies, report finds – but not big enough
7. Food and drink: Wine lovers are helping to map biodiversity in Portugal’s Douro Valley
8. On the ground with The Narwhal: How a feathery love triangle spurred Canada and the U.S. to save tiny endangered birds

A deeper dive

Are we seeing the end of the cowboy?

Years of drought have parched eastern Oregon, whose bunchgrass meadows have been grazing land since the 1870s – so coveted that ranchers and shepherds once fought murderous wars for primacy.

Central Oregon’s “flat-hat” buckaroo cowboys still ride with traditions inherited from Spanish vaqueros, wanderers whose slick-horn saddles and 20-metre ropes have been American icons since the dawn of westward colonial expansion.

For some, the drought was the end of the line.

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As temperatures approached 50 C in recent years, springs that long sustained cowboys and cow alike went dry. Reservoirs receded to mud. Ranchers built water pipelines to keep cows alive. Landowners barred grazing in places to preserve what grasses remained.

Some culled herds. Others sold off altogether. The number of beef cattle in Oregon further contracted; it’s down by a fifth since 2005.

You could say this is the way it has always been, livelihoods sometimes thirsting, sometimes thriving on cycles of weather and beef prices. But the severity of recent drought has brought new anxieties, even in a year when moisture has returned. Confidence no longer comes as easily.

Read Nathan VanderKlippe’s full story today.

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What else you missed

• Europe’s sweltering summer could send tourists to cooler climates
• Canada won’t meet UN Sustainable Development Goals, lacks data according to grassroots groups
• Opponents of telescope development in Hawaii urge UN to hold Canada accountable
• Oil and gas methane reductions less expensive than paying carbon tax, study finds
• China says it will work with U.S. on climate change as long as political conditions are met
• U.S. announces first offshore wind power development rights sale in Gulf of Mexico
• Greenhouses aim to bring fresh produce to North, putting a dent in food insecurity
• 19,000 people evacuated as wildfire blazes on the Greek island of Rhodes

Opinion and analysis

Sarah Wolfe and Steve Grundy: Fewer students are enrolling in environmental studies – how do we stop this trend?

Marsha Lederman: This summer of our climate discontent should drive us to action

Kelly Cryderman: Alberta balks at Ottawa’s one-size-fits-all net zero power generation promise

André Picard: Where there’s smoke, there’s health risks for vulnerable groups

Green Investing

Personal finance in a perma-crisis world: Thoughts on debt, saving, taxes, food and houses

The last normal summer was in 2019. Since then, we’ve slipped into what feels like a perma-crisis world of pandemic, war in Europe, an overloaded health care system and climate change disruption. Personal finance writer Rob Carrick has five realities, both good and bad, to guide your planning.

• G20 bloc fails to reach agreement on cutting fossil fuels
• Blow for activists as British court dismisses Shell climate case

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

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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 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

• This lake shows when humans started changing the planet
• Is Canada’s waste management system trash?
• Drone shows are the new fireworks
• Canada’s music industry is changing its tune

We want to hear from you. Email us: GlobeClimate@globeandmail.com. Do you know someone who needs this newsletter? Send them to our Newsletters page.