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64% of Canadians have air conditioning. Is it enough for climate change? – Global News

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Climate scientists proclaimed July 3, 2023, the hottest day in human record keeping.

Canada has seen a swathe of heat warnings in the past week, warning of elevated risks for heat-related illnesses and air quality. And the return of El Niño, a naturally occurring climate pattern, is bringing even warmer weather than the country has seen in the past seven years.

But data shows many Canadians don’t have air conditioning.


Data from Statistics Canada shows 64 per cent of Canadian households had some type of air conditioning in 2021. StatCan only listed figures for the provinces.


Amanda Griffin / Global News

According to Statistics Canada, 64 per cent of Canadian households had some kind of air conditioning in 2021, the most recent year for which figures are available.

The numbers vary by province, as low as 19 per cent in Newfoundland and Labrador and as high as 90 per cent in Manitoba.

Dr. Melissa Lem, president of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, told Global News those numbers were likely appropriate, based on local climates, in the past. She said they likely aren’t enough for the future as climate change brings about more heat waves.

“Our bodies are designed to operate in a really narrow temperature range,” she said, speaking from Vancouver, “and when we go past that temperature range, we start to get sick.”

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Lem said it’s important for people to have access to cool indoor environments, either in their own homes or via public transit, and to keep in contact with others.

“One of the major risk factors for death during the 2021 heat dome on the West Coast was social isolation,” she said, adding that many seniors — who are among those more vulnerable to extreme heat — are socially isolated.

With that said, how we create cooler environments matters too, she noted. Adapting in the wrong way could make things worse.

“People talk about air conditioning as being the solution, but in fact, what’s even more important is electrifying our cooling,” she said.



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World Meteorological Organization sounds alarm over El Niño’s return


Using air conditioners, depending on how the electricity powering them is generated, can create more carbon emissions and ultimately raise temperatures even further.

Lem said it’s also important to reduce fossil fuel use.

According to city data, 55 per cent of Vancouver’s carbon emissions come from heating buildings with natural gas.

“If we rapidly retrofit our buildings to electrify and install heat pumps that can cool, that will both keep us safe indoors but also tackle the climate change issue at the same time,” she said.



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Heat wave, high demand for AC repairs spurs home cooling solutions: Winnipeg expert


Using air conditioning can pose further challenges, a University of Waterloo researcher told Global News.

Joanna Eyquem said air conditioning units pump hot air outdoors – just one of the reasons why urban areas can be between 10 to 15 degrees warmer than surrounding rural areas.

Eyquem said the artificial surfaces within cities retain heat and release it in the evening.

Moreover, if many people are using air conditioning during hot weather, the strain on the power grid can heighten the risk of blackouts, which could lead to other problems.



1:39
Heat wave driving demand for air conditioners in Alberta


Eyquem’s research showed that the National Building Code does not consider extreme heat to be an emergency. Eyquem said that means most cities or apartment buildings don’t have more than two hours of emergency backup power.

According to Eyquem, adaptation is necessary. That involves preparing homes to keep heat out and cool air in – meaning using things like more awnings and energy-efficient windows.

Outside of households, she said it requires adding more green spaces to cities, limiting the amount of heat-storing concrete and metal, as well as planting more trees that provide shade.

Both Eyquem and Lem said provincial and federal governments must update building codes to ensure living spaces are cooler.

“If we’ve only relied on air conditioning, we haven’t put any of those kinds of passive approaches that really stop heat entering our homes,” Eyquem told Global News.

Eyquem and Lem both said adaptation is ultimately about keeping people safe.

“It’s not just important to start to gradually electrify and start to introduce cooling. This has to be done at speed and scale to make sure that lives are protected,” Lem said.

– with files from The Canadian Press and Reuters

&copy 2023 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

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France investigating disappearances of 2 Congolese Paralympic athletes

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PARIS (AP) — French judicial authorities are investigating the disappearance of two Paralympic athletes from Congo who recently competed in the Paris Games, the prosecutor’s office in the Paris suburb of Bobigny confirmed on Thursday.

Prosecutors opened the investigation on Sept. 7, after members of the athletes’ delegation warned authorities of their disappearance two days before.

Le Parisien newspaper reported that shot putter Mireille Nganga and Emmanuel Grace Mouambako, a visually impaired sprinter who was accompanied by a guide, went missing on Sept. 5, along with a third person.

The athletes’ suitcases were also gone but their passports remained with the Congolese delegation, according to an official with knowledge of the investigation, who asked to remain anonymous as they were not allowed to speak publicly about the case.

The Paralympic Committee of the Democratic Republic of Congo did not respond to requests for information from The Associated Press.

Nganga — who recorded no mark in the seated javelin and shot put competitions — and Mouambako were Congo’s flag bearers at the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games, organizers said.

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A linebacker at West Virginia State is fatally shot on the eve of a game against his old school

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CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A linebacker at Division II West Virginia State was fatally shot during what the university said Thursday is being investigated by police as a home invasion.

The body of Jyilek Zyiare Harrington, 21, of Charlotte, North Carolina, was found inside an apartment Wednesday night in Charleston, police Lt. Tony Hazelett said in a statement.

Hazelett said several gunshots were fired during a disturbance in a hallway and inside the apartment. The statement said Harrington had multiple gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene. Police said they had no information on a possible suspect.

West Virginia State said counselors were available to students and faculty on campus.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with Jyilek’s family as they mourn the loss of this incredible young man,” West Virginia State President Ericke S. Cage said in a letter to students and faculty.

Harrington, a senior, had eight total tackles, including a sack, in a 27-24 win at Barton College last week.

“Jyilek truly embodied what it means to be a student-athlete and was a leader not only on campus but in the community,” West Virginia State Vice President of Intercollegiate Athletics Nate Burton said. “Jyilek was a young man that, during Christmas, would create a GoFundMe to help less fortunate families.”

Burton said donations to a fund established by the athletic department in Harrington’s memory will be distributed to an organization in Charlotte to continue his charity work.

West Virginia State’s home opener against Carson-Newman, originally scheduled for Thursday night, has been rescheduled to Friday, and a private vigil involving both teams was set for Thursday night. Harrington previously attended Carson-Newman, where he made seven tackles in six games last season. He began his college career at Division II Erskine College.

“Carson-Newman joins West Virginia State in mourning the untimely passing of former student-athlete Jyilek Harrington,” Carson-Newman Vice President of Athletics Matt Pope said in a statement. “The Harrington family and the Yellow Jackets’ campus community is in our prayers. News like this is sad to hear anytime, but today it feels worse with two teams who knew him coming together to play.”

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Hall of Famer Joe Schmidt, who helped Detroit Lions win 2 NFL titles, dies at 92

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DETROIT (AP) — Joe Schmidt, the Hall of Fame linebacker who helped the Detroit Lions win NFL championships in 1953 and 1957 and later coached the team, has died. He was 92.

The Lions said family informed the team Schmidt died Wednesday. A cause of death was not provided.

One of pro football’s first great middle linebackers, Schmidt played his entire NFL career with the Lions from 1953-65. An eight-time All-Pro, he was enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1973 and the college football version in 2000.

“Joe likes to say that at one point in his career, he was 6-3, but he had tackled so many fullbacks that it drove his neck into his shoulders and now he is 6-foot,” said the late Lions owner William Clay Ford, Schmidt’s presenter at his Hall of Fame induction in 1973. “At any rate, he was listed at 6-feet and as I say was marginal for that position. There are, however, qualities that certainly scouts or anybody who is drafting a ballplayer cannot measure.”

Born in Pittsburgh, Schmidt played college football in his hometown at Pitt, beginning his stint there as a fullback and guard before coach Len Casanova switched him to linebacker.

“Pitt provided me with the opportunity to do what I’ve wanted to do, and further myself through my athletic abilities,” Schmidt said. “Everything I have stemmed from that opportunity.”

Schmidt dealt with injuries throughout his college career and was drafted by the Lions in the seventh round in 1953. As defenses evolved in that era, Schmidt’s speed, savvy and tackling ability made him a valuable part of some of the franchise’s greatest teams.

Schmidt was elected to the Pro Bowl 10 straight years from 1955-64, and after his arrival, the Lions won the last two of their three NFL titles in the 1950s.

In a 1957 playoff game at San Francisco, the Lions trailed 27-7 in the third quarter before rallying to win 31-27. That was the NFL’s largest comeback in postseason history until Buffalo rallied from a 32-point deficit to beat Houston in 1993.

“We just decided to go after them, blitz them almost every down,” Schmidt recalled. “We had nothing to lose. When you’re up against it, you let both barrels fly.”

Schmidt became an assistant coach after wrapping up his career as a player. He was Detroit’s head coach from 1967-72, going 43-35-7.

Schmidt was part of the NFL’s All-Time Team revealed in 2019 to celebrate the league’s centennial season. Of course, he’d gone into the Hall of Fame 46 years earlier.

Not bad for an undersized seventh-round draft pick.

“It was a dream of mine to play football,” Schmidt told the Detroit Free Press in 2017. “I had so many people tell me that I was too small. That I couldn’t play. I had so many negative people say negative things about me … that it makes you feel good inside. I said, ‘OK, I’ll prove it to you.’”

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