If you’re reading this on the web or someone forwarded this e-mail newsletter to you, you can sign up for Globe Climate and all Globe newsletters here.
Good afternoon, and welcome to Globe Climate, a newsletter about climate change, environment and resources in Canada.
Mysterious white blobs have been washing up on Newfoundland’s shores, baffling locals and government researchers – but one scientist has finally cracked the case.
Chris Kozak and his graduate students at Memorial University analyzed the slimy, Silly Putty-like substance in his lab, until they came to the most probable conclusion: The blobs are likely globs of glue.
Dr. Kozak found that the blobs are a mixture of synthetic latex rubber and a synthetic plastic polymer that is the active ingredient in glue. He said the blobs are likely an adhesive used in the shipping industry.
Evidence suggests that a large amount has been dumped at sea, either by accident or by someone who was patching up a boat and disposed of the leftovers overboard, Dr. Kozak said.
“We’re only seeing the stuff that’s churned up and washed ashore, so there could be loads of stuff at the bottom of the sea,” he told The Globe and Mail in an interview.
Now, let’s catch you up on other news.
Noteworthy reporting this week:
- Oil and gas: How Ottawa’s proposed emissions cap could have an impact on oil production costs
- Climate summit: Credibility of COP29 climate talks in questions over host’s oil interests
- Research: Engineer who pioneered landfill barrier systems awarded top research prize
- Conservation: Canada’s endangered species could disappear before being protected because of assessment backlog: commissioner
- From The Narwhal: What an effort to preserve Cree homelands in northern Manitoba means to the people behind it
A deeper dive
For The Globe’s 180th anniversary, we look back in time
Gary Mason is a national affairs columnist for The Globe, based in Vancouver. For this week’s deeper dive, he talks about his essay, which is part of a series exploring the role that the newspaper has played in Canada’s history.
When the rain started, it felt different. It sounded different too. It was like the sky was emptying everything it had, so intense was the constant pounding. There was another difference from the old days: it didn’t stop.
It lasted three days.
The term “heavy rain” has been replaced by a new one: atmospheric river. It’s a long strand of moisture that has travelled from the tropics to mid-latitude locations like Canada. And they are freighted with water, so much so that the downpours can last for days.
After this latest particular storm in Greater Vancouver concluded, three people were confirmed dead, falling victim to road washouts, mudslides and rampant flooding. West Vancouver recorded 134.6 millimetres in a single day, beating the old record of 34.8 set 54 years ago. Some areas saw more than 300 millimetres fall over the weekend.
Welcome to our new climate.
It seems like British Columbia has been on the front lines of the changing nature of our climate and the brutal consequences that evolution is imposing on the province.
It’s a subject I explored in an essay for A Nation’s Paper: The Globe and Mail in the Life of Canada. In many ways, the essay felt personal, as some of the most intense examples of our new climate came from B.C.
Three years ago, the town of Lytton burned to the ground as a result of a massive wildfire. It was part of a heat wave in which temperatures in the small community on the banks of the Thompson River reached a record 49.6 C. The BC Coroners Service would reveal that 619 people in the province died from extreme heat – the deadliest weather event in Canadian history. Lives continue to be turned upside down by climate change. Many across the country are being forced to adapt to a “new normal,” little of it pleasant.
As our climate has changed, so has The Globe’s coverage of the environment, something I discovered in researching for my essay. As I wrote in Our Nation’s Paper, The Globe has often, but not always, been a strong advocate for the changes proposed by our best scientific minds to help the environment confront everything from DDT to acid rain to what was once a giant hole in our ozone layer.
Over the years, readers have pointed out the paper’s contradictory positions on some matters, like hailing the need to do something about our warming planet while championing various new oil and gas pipeline developments. The Globe has sometimes struggled to balance local priorities with global concerns. That said, The Globe has, in recent years, been a clear and often fierce advocate on the side of the planet, putting its editorial might and influence on the side of fixing what’s ailing it.
- Gary
Alonzo Crocker (left) and foreman Bob Neal of Toronto Streets Department collected more than a ton of pesticides in the second day of a three-day collection in December 1969. On Jan. 1, 1970, Ontario banned most uses of DDT.Barrie Davis/The Globe and Mail
What else you missed
- Canada’s priorities at COP29 global climate talks, and the Trump impact
- Japan’s Mount Fuji is still without its snowcap for the first time in 130 years
- Azerbaijan is the host of the UN’s climate conference, shining a spotlight on the petrostate
- European climate agency says this will likely be the hottest year on record – again
- Emissions cap puts methane in spotlight; industry says low-hanging fruit already gone
- Fire crews gain greater control over destructive Southern California wildfire
- MEG Energy says 2024 production to come in at low end of forecast due to Alberta wildfires
- Global solar capacity hits record two terawatts on path to climate goal: data
Opinion and analysis
David Miller: Let’s stop pretending ‘natural’ gas is in any way good for the environment
Kevin Krausert: Ottawa’s new emissions cap throws yet another chill on energy transition investment
Amanda Bryant, Jon Goldstein and Thomas Green: Every year at COP, Canada shows progress on cutting methane. What about this year?
The Editorial Board: To bargain with Donald Trump, wield the advantage of an oil superpower
Green Investing
Canada’s largest emitters make some progress on decarbonization, but more action needed, top investors say
Canada’s largest industrial emitters are making gradual progress on decarbonization targets, but they need to take more aggressive action to align with global efforts aimed at limiting the rise in temperatures, a coalition of institutional investors said on Thursday. In a first for the corporations under the Climate Engagement Canada microscope, three Alberta-based businesses – Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd., Enbridge Inc. and TransAlta Corp. – have started aligning capital spending plans with their stated emission-reduction targets.
The Climate Exchange
We’ve launched the next chapter of The Climate Exchange, an interactive, digital hub where The Globe answers your most pressing questions about climate change. More than 300 questions were submitted as of September. The first batch of answers tackles 30 of them. They can be found with the help of a search tool developed by The Globe that makes use of artificial intelligence to match readers’ questions with the closest answer drafted. We plan to answer a total of 75 questions.
Photo of the week
Mushrooms grow on the woodland floor on Nov. 07, in Bromley, United Kingdom. At the recent COP16 biodiversity summit in Colombia, the British and Chilean governments co-sponsored a pledge for fungal conservation that would have raised the conservation status of funga to the same level as flora and fauna. The pledge was not adopted by the convention, but in a statement following the summit, the British government highlighted fungi's elevated role and noted their "vital role in addressing the environmental crisis."Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
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 carbon pricing is, what happened at COP28 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
- Will America vote red, blue or green?
- In B.C., we go diving for dinner
- Wildlife photography of the year
- Tree equity in Toronto neighbourhoods
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.