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Good afternoon, and welcome to Globe Climate, a newsletter about climate change, environment and resources in Canada.
Two prominent themes emerged from residents’ stories and politicians’ speeches after a storm flooded Toronto on Tuesday: climate change and the likelihood it will occur again.
Both Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau cited climate change when speaking about the extreme weather event that set the record for the city’s fifth rainiest day and emphasized the urgency at which climate-resilient infrastructure must be implemented.
One of the ways to make a city more resilient is to build green infrastructure, which includes surfaces that can absorb water, such as parks, urban forests, permeable surfaces or green roofs. These act in contrast to impermeable surfaces, such as paved streets or parking lots, which Toronto is abundant in and are known to contribute to harmful run-off or pooling of water.
The ability to trap stormwater where it lands is what defines a “sponge city,” experts say, something that some cities in Canada are clearly working toward. In Ottawa, a pilot program that provides retrofits for rain gardens and permeable driveways is becoming permanent and in Montreal, the city is in the process of implementing 30 parks and 400 permeable sidewalks.
In Toronto, permeable asphalt is built into some parking lots and a city bylaw mandates new developments or additions with a large enough roof must dedicate a percentage of it to being green.
But how spongy is spongy enough?
Now, let’s catch you up on other news.
A flooded parking lot at Grand Touring Automobiles, a luxury car dealership on Dundas Street in east end Toronto, on July 16, 2024. Torrential rain flooded the nearby Don River and closed down the Don Valley Parkway.Melissa Tait/The Globe and Mail
Noteworthy reporting this week:
- Electric Vehicles: How FLO aims to conquer the EV charging market
- Wildfires: Extreme heat fuels wildfires in Alberta and B.C., forcing hundreds to flee
- Innovation: Spurred by personal experience with expensive and bulky pregnancy tests, Canadian Jackie Rhind developed a better option
- Energy: Suncor CEO Rich Kruger talks politics of oil and gas and the company’s future
- Finance: Climate change damage is harming companies’ profits, KPMG survey shows
- From The Narwhal: The big life — and looming death — of a Rocky Mountain defender
A deeper dive
The Seine River will be a swimming hotspot for the Olympics. How long will it last?
Paul Waldie is The Globe’s Europe correspondent. For this week’s deeper dive, Paul talks about the history of the water quality in the Seine River in Paris, where the Olympics are set to take centre stage this week.
A local resident dives in the Seine in Paris on July 17, 2024, after the city's mayor swam in the river to demonstrate that it is clean enough to host the outdoor swimming events at the Paris Olympics later this month.JOEL SAGET/Getty Images
The Paris Olympics are set to begin on Friday with a flashy opening ceremony that includes a flotilla of boats carrying thousands of athletes along the Seine River.
If all goes well, it will be a spectacular event and put the Seine front and centre of the Olympics.
Few rivers can match the romance and allure of the Seine which winds past Notre Dame, the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower and so many other iconic landmarks. It also has a long Olympic history, having been used for rowing, swimming and water polo when Paris hosted the Games in 1900 and 1924. This time it will be the venue for the swimming legs for the triathlon and para-triathlon, as well as the open water marathon.
But is the water safe?
That question that has vexed athletes, environmental activists and Games’ organizers for months.
Like many urban waterways in Europe, the Seine has a long history of being used as a water highway and, in the last 150 years or so, as a garbage dump. Swimming in the river was banned in 1923 mainly because of boat traffic, but the pollution got so bad that by the 1960s the Seine was declared ecologically dead.
The 1990s brought a change in attitude and a resolve to clean up the river. Water treatment centres were built and in 1991 the riverbank was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site. Mayor Jacque Chirac became so committed to the clean-up that in 1988 he promised to swim in the river within five years.
That didn’t happen but the water quality has improved substantially over the years. Pollution levels have been slashed and there are now around 32 fish species in the Seine, up from just a handful in 1995. Among them are salmon and sea trout.
The Olympics have brought a new vigour to the clean-up and current mayor Anne Hidalgo has promised to open several public swimming sites along the river next summer as part of the Games’ legacy.
To help make that happen French officials have spent €1.4 billion – or $2-billion – on a variety of initiatives. One of the biggest is a rainwater retention basin that’s capable of collecting 50,000 cubic metres of water, or roughly 20 Olympic-sized pools. The basin is designed to gather up excess rainwater so that it can go to the treatment centre directly, rather than saturating potentially contaminated soil that may drag toxic runoff into the river.
There is still plenty of worry.
Testing done this spring by the environmental group Surfrider found dangerously high levels of E. coli and enterococci, an intestinal bacteria. And while test results in July from Surfrider and city officials have been much better, the water quality varies almost daily.
Hidalgo did her best last week to quell the naysayers by taking a plunge in the river. But the first real test will come on July 30 when the men’s triathlon is scheduled to start.
What else you missed
- Yukon contemplating seizing control of Eagle mine site as Victoria Gold runs low on storage for contaminated water
- Plan Automation sees growing demand for X-ray machines for food producers
- Ontario startup looks to save classic cars in the electric era
- Ottawa on track to slap big tariffs on Chinese-made EVs and cut eligibility for subsidies: Volpe
- Cycling may be the best way to explore South Korea
- More than 250 wildfires in B.C. as hot and dry weather persists
- Federal government announces $89-million for conservation projects across Canada
- Group says photos of reclusive tribe on Peru beach show logging concessions are ‘dangerously close’
- Stegosaurus fossil fetches nearly $45-million, setting record for dinosaur auctions
- Maui wildfire victims reach proposed $4-billion settlement deal with Hawaiian officials, utility company
- Hikers and cyclists can now cross Vermont on New England’s longest rail trail, a year after floods
Opinion and analysis
Hugh Helferty: Is the oil industry fighting for the right to greenwash?
Editorial board: Extreme weather and climate skepticism underline urgent need for more policy action
Heather Exner-Pirot: Nuclear industry deserves praise for the way it searched for waste-disposal site
Obituary: Amateur astronomer David Lane lived with his head in the stars and his heart on the water
Green Investing
Indigenous-led hydrogen project in B.C. seeks to supply transportation sector with decarbonization solutions
An Indigenous-led hydrogen project is seeking to supply the heavy-duty transportation sector, gearing up to play a role in decarbonization in British Columbia.
Salish Elements is aiming to become a small-scale producer of “green hydrogen” in the Lillooet area in southwest B.C. Green hydrogen would be produced through a process known as water electrolysis, in which hydrogen is captured as fuel after being split from oxygen.
The company says it will think globally and act locally. Dozens of governments around the world have backed hydrogen over the past four years, promoting its increased use in transportation and heating as crucial for the planet to achieve the goal of net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050.
- Insurance claims from Toronto floods could be ‘significant but manageable,’ ratings agency says
- Small companies risk buckling under the burdens of mandatory sustainability reporting
- Northisle Copper & Gold officer buys as resources grow
The Climate Exchange
Check out our new digital hub where you can ask your most pressing questions about climate change. It’s a place where we hope to help by answering your questions, big and small, about the continuing changes and challenges around climate change. Along the way, we’ll aim to highlight the people, communities and companies who are working toward climate solutions and innovations. For the record: while RBC supports the initiative financially, the company has no say in what questions get asked or how The Globe answers them.
Photo of the week
A drone light show celebrates the arrival of the 111th edition of the Tour de France cycling race in Nice, southeastern France, on July 20, 2024.VALERY HACHE/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 a carbon tax 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.