Globe Climate: This lake shows when humans started changing the planet

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

Canadian waters provide delicious and ecologically beneficial seafood. And that sustainability is increasingly extending beyond fisheries’ management to the distribution systems, carbon footprint, and local and regional health of people and communities engaged in fishing. We have some recipes that highlight some of the best examples. Think of the tastes-good, does-good snow crab, now thriving owing to good management and a warming climate.

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

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Noteworthy reporting this week:

1. Wildfires: Canadian military joins battle against wildfires in B.C. as another firefighter dies on the job. Also: international help on the way as B.C. wildfires surge. The province tightened water use in the oil industry
2. Air quality: Indigenous communities face harsher effects from wildfire smoke
3. Green finance: Is Canada seeking too much credit for its natural gas as a climate-change cure?
4. Drought: Climate change is speeding up the demise of the cowboy
5. Listen to The Decibel: The reality of how your chocolate gets made
6. Industry: Ottawa promised a new low-carbon industrial strategy. Putting it in place is proving the hard part
7. Policy: Premiers push back on Ottawa’s clean energy policies
8. Clean energy: Ontario opens door to new wind, solar power projects as electrical demand to grow
9. Oil and gas: Oil sands can’t meet federal emissions targets without production cuts, analysis finds; Plus, Enbridge lining up support for B.C. natural-gas pipeline plans
10. In-depth with The Narwhal: ‘We’re going to make things better’: Yukon First Nations adopt youth climate plan

A deeper dive

The Canadian lake that marks a turning point in history

Ivan Semeniuk is science reporter for The Globe. For this week’s deeper dive, he talks about the Anthropocene.

Last week many Canadians were fascinated to learn that Crawford Lake, a small body of water located west of Toronto has been selected by an international panel of scientists to represent the moment in time when humans first began to measurably and irrevocably alter the planet.

The scientists propose that this moment represents the start of a new geological epoch called The Anthropocene — an idea that has yet to be officially endorsed by the broader community of researchers who study and subdivide Earth’s physical history. But because every geological epoch needs a representative site that exemplifies its defining characteristics, Crawford Lake has become that site for the Anthropocene.

For Torontonians who are used to thinking of the world’s most significant and special places as being somewhere else, it’s a bit of a surprise when the global spotlight suddenly falls on the backyard.

The obvious question is: “Why here?” If the Anthropocene is something that is happening to all of Earth, on every continent, why highlight with a little lake in Southern Ontario?

The first answer is that the chemistry and depth of the lake has created an especially good location for recording recent global change with a precision that can be measured in individual years. That includes the period in the 1950s when plutonium fallout from nuclear weapons tests was sprinkled on the lake — the marker that has been chosen as the Anthropocene’s starting line.

But there is a second way in which Crawford Lake is different from other sites that were considered. Its sediments tell the story of human interaction with the environment at two distinct times. The first corresponds to Indigenous farmers who lived by the lake for two centuries. After their disappearance there followed a second period of Canadian settlement by people of European descent.

As scientists continue to examine the sediment cores extracted from Crawford Lake, we can expect a more detailed picture of human impact on the environment to emerge. Perhaps what really makes the case for the Anthropocene being a separate epoch is that it shows what is possible when the phenomenon of consciousness first begins to exert its influence on a planetary scale. And somewhere in that meeting point of geology and the brain lies a pathway to a long-term and viable future for life on Earth.

- Ivan

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What else you missed

• A Perfect Storm: How the deadly 2022 Durban floods hold crucial lessons for the future of the city and others like it
• Researchers study how the degradation of permafrost will impact arctic communities
• Canada pledges $450-million for UN climate change fund
• U.S. Department of Agriculture to invest $300-million in monitoring emissions
• Natural Resources minister says net-zero electricity grid for Alberta is possible, meanwhile critics say Environment Minister’s mandate letter lacks specifics on climate
• Snow shovels in hand, volunteers help Vermont communities clear the mud from epic floods
• El Nino is threatening rice crops while grain supplies already are squeezed by the war in Ukraine
• UAE’s incoming COP28 president lays out plan for ‘brutally honest’ climate summit
• Virtual reality project immerses viewers in climate change on Yukon island
• A heat wave named Cerberus has Southern Europe in its jaws, and it’s only going to get worse

Opinion and analysis

David Shribman analysis: John Kerry says China is ‘critical’ in climate fight as he prepares for visit

Rupp Carriveau: Strain on our electricity grids means Texas blackouts can happen in Canada as well

The editorial board: Nuclear power is a key part of a green future

Kira Hoffman: Canada’s wildfire approach needs to shift from reactive to proactive

Green Investing

As executives continue their millionaire ways, another kind of green enters the picture

A growing number of Canada’s largest public companies are using climate or social responsibility goals in their executive compensation plans – although those that do are giving those metrics minimal weight in pay packages.

Chief executives at 100 of the largest Canadian companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange received a median of just under $8.6-million in 2022. But while many shareholders are looking for a stronger link between those paycheques and environmental, social and governance (ESG) measures, it’s unlikely top executives will immediately take a big hit in their pay if their companies fall short.

• Jeffrey Jones: Renewable-energy analysis startup Orennia raises US$25-million in funding
• Canada set to end domestic subsidies for unabated fossil-fuel production
• Environmental law charity ClientEarth tries to revive U.K. Shell lawsuit over climate plan
• U.S. launches $20-billion in funds to spark carbon cutting projects

Making waves

Each week The Globe will profile a Canadian making a difference. This week we’re highlighting the work of Cooper Waisberg upcycling tennis balls.

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Hi, I’m Cooper Waisberg, a 21-year-old university student living in Toronto, who loves tennis and the environment.

My brother Ethan Waisberg and I co-founded Balls 4 Eyeballs, a non-profit with a mission to make tennis “greener” while funding eye research. Many tennis players discard perfectly good balls after only a few hours of play when they start to lose pressure, as they are unaware of how harmful this is to the environment, or that these balls can be reused for many other purposes.

We place collection bins at local tennis clubs and donate the proceeds to Canadian eye charities to help fight blindness. Balls 4 Eyeballs has over 30 partner clubs and has kept more than 150,000 tennis balls out of landfills (over 18,750 pounds of non-decomp­osable waste).

We help raise awareness about the enviro­nmental harm of discarding tennis balls, which take hundreds of years to decompose. I hope I can teach others that small contributions can lead to a big positive impact on the environment over time.

- Cooper

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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Catch up on Globe Climate

• Is Canada’s waste management system trash?
• Drone shows are the new fireworks
• Canada’s music industry is changing its tune
• Meet the Coast Salish woman protecting the North Pacific’s orca whales

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