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Here’s your weekly update with what you need to know about global climate change and the steps B.C. is taking to address the climate and ecological crises for the week of March 21 to March 27, 2022.
Here’s your weekly update with the latest climate change news for the week of March 21 to March 27, 2022.
Here’s your weekly update with what you need to know about global climate change and the steps B.C. is taking to address the climate and ecological crises for the week of March 21 to March 27, 2022.
This week in climate news:
The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has warned for years that wildfires, drought, severe weather, such as B.C.’s deadly heat dome in June, and flooding would become more frequent and more intense because of the climate crisis.
Last August, it issued a “code red” for humanity and last month the panel, made up of hundreds of scientists from around the world, said the window to stop global warming from exceeding 1.5 C was closing.
Check back here every Saturday for a roundup of the latest climate and environmental stories. You can also get up to date B.C.-focussed news delivered to your inbox by 7 a.m. by subscribing to our newsletter here.
(Source: United Nations IPCC, World Meteorological Organization,UNEP, Nasa, climatedata.ca)
Permanent flood repair work on the Coquihalla Highway is expected to begin this summer and will be wrapped up by year end.
The B.C. government said Thursday that it had issued a request for proposals from pre-vetted contractors before selecting one to conduct the repair work later this year. Officials say the contract will be awarded by late April or early May.
“Our crews worked hard to get the Coquihalla reopened after the severe flooding event and were able to do so in short order about a month after the storm,” said Transport Minister Rob Fleming in a statement. “The pace of reconstruction to get the Coquihalla back open to traffic was impressive and beyond anything we could have imagined.”
—Stephanie Ip
Protesters gathered in cities across Canada on Friday to denounce government inaction on fighting climate change as part of a series of worldwide environmental protests.
The events were part of the Fridays for Future movement that is inspired by Swedish activist Greta Thunberg.
In Montreal, activists unfurled a red-and-yellow banner reading, “Land Back,” across the statue at the base of Mount Royal ahead of what was billed as a “teach-in” on decolonization and Indigenous sovereignty.
In Vancouver, a youth-led coalition rallied downtown to call on The Royal Bank of Canada to stop funding fossil fuel projects.
The groups included members from Climate Justice UBC, Stop TMX, Sustainabiliteens, 350Vancouver, Stand.earth, Leadnow, Climate Emergency Unit, Wilderness Committee, Climate Convergence, and the David Suzuki Foundation, Dogwood BC, and SFU350.
About 150 people gathered at Vancouver Art Gallery in the late afternoon for speeches and a march to RBC offices downtown.
The protesters are upset that some banks continue to finance and insure the Coastal Gaslink Pipeline, Trans Mountain Pipeline, and Enbridge’s Line 3 Pipeline on traditional Wet’suwet’en and Tk‘emlúpsemc lands.
“Today, hundreds of groups across the world took to the streets; united in our fight for a better world free from fossil fuels. As RBC’s AGM approaches, we need to hold big banks responsible for funding the climate crisis,” said Naisha Khan, an organizer with Climate Justice UBC and Banking on a Better Future, in a statement.
—The Canadian Press and Tiffany Crawford
The early bird is getting even earlier.
With climate change spurring earlier springs across much of North America, many birds are laying their eggs earlier in the year, according to a new study – adding to mounting evidence that global warming is turning wildlife habits upside down.
Of 72 bird species examined around Chicago, roughly a third lay their eggs about 25 days earlier than they did a century ago, researchers report in the paper published on Friday in the Journal of Animal Ecology.
Fleming said work to be conducted would also fortify the route against climate change and other major weather events in future. The work will be focused on three areas including the Bottletop Bridges about 50 kilometres south of Merritt, Juliet Bridges located three kilometres south of Bottletop and the Jessica Bridges about 48 km south of Juliet.
—Reuters
The chief of a First Nation in British Columbia’s Nicola Valley that was evacuated by both wildfires and floods last year says he wants more land for the community in a safer area.
Chief Arnie Lampreau of the Shackan Indian Band told B.C. Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth and Transportation Minister Rob Fleming during their visit on Thursday that the threat of extreme weather is a constant concern.
“At the end of the day, I don’t want to have to sleep with one eye open or have to be running again,” Lampreau said.
The Shackan Indian Band, based along Highway 8 between Merritt and Spences Bridge, is among several communities facing difficult questions about how best to rebuild after disasters that the government has linked to climate change.
After a summer wildfire destroyed the nearby community of Lytton, a series of heavy rainstorms pummelled the area in November, causing the river to swell and whole sections of the highway to slump off the hillside.
—The Canadian Press
Canada on Thursday will outline plans to increase oil exports to help alleviate the tight global market following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but the hike will not undermine Ottawa’s long-term climate commitments, a government source said.
Federal Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson will detail Canada’s plans at the International Energy Agency (IEA) meeting in Paris, the source said.
Wilkinson told Reuters earlier this month the government is working with industry to find ways increase pipeline utilization and boost crude exports, and pipeline company Enbridge Inc said it is prepared to do “what it can.”
Canada, holder of the world’s third-largest oil reserves, is keen to help shore up long-term energy security as countries that previously relied on Russian oil and gas look for replacements amid sanctions aimed at punishing Russia for its assault on Ukraine. But the government has no plans to compromise its climate goals.
“There’s no real desire to shift away from the focus on emissions reductions and the environment. We’re not throwing out the climate rulebook,” added the source, who declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the information.
—Reuters
An environmental organization is offering cautious support for an announcement by the largest private landowner in British Columbia that will defer logging in 400 square kilometres of old-growth forest for the next 25 years.
Mosaic Forest Management, which oversees the private lands of logging companies TimberWest and Island Timberlands, announced the deferral last week along with intentions to finance the plan through a carbon credit program that is expected to raise several hundred million dollars by 2047.
A statement from the Endangered Ecosystems Alliance says exempting old-growth and older second-growth stands from logging will protect the unique trees that support everything from the climate and endangered species to wild salmon, clean water and tourism.
Ken Wu, executive director of the alliance, says long-term deferrals will buy time to arrange further protection and Mosaic should be commended for its “important step” if the measure “pans out.”
—The Canadian Press
At $14.5 million, Dax Dasilva’s gift is almost four times bigger than the previous record received by the B.C. Parks Foundation.
Dasilva, a Vancouver native who is a Montreal-based tech star and environmental/social activist, was in Vancouver on Tuesday for the announcement, although a float-plane flight planned for over the Pitt River Watershed was a no-go because of limited visibility due to bad weather.
The founder of ecommerce company Lightspeed — he stepped down last month as CEO to focus on environmental projects through an environmental alliance he formed five months ago called Age of Union — Dasilva cut his activist teeth protesting the logging of old-growth forests in Clayoquot Sound as a teen.
The $14.5 million he donated to the foundation is part of a $40 million pledge for environmental work around the planet; in B.C. the initial focus is the Pitt River Watershed, where Dasilva footed the bill to buy-up land earmarked for development, and the French Creek Estuary on Vancouver Island (again, saving it from development).
—Gordon McIntyre
In a rooftop greenhouse near downtown Denver, cash crops are thriving on hydroponic life support. Arugula. Chard. Escarole. Cabbage.
“And basil,” said Altius Farms CEO Sally Herbert, plucking a bright leaf. “Which you really should taste. Because it’s magnificent.”
The vertical farm is one of many Colorado models for coping with increasing water scarcity in the western United States, as climate change makes droughts more frequent and more severe.
Other projects have Coloradans testing water recycling and building barriers against the wildfire runoff that can taint supplies.
Colorado is hardly alone. A major U.N. climate report published recently notes that half the world’s population is already seeing severe water scarcity for at least some part of the year. In the U.S. West, drought and earlier runoff from an increasingly diminished snowpack will increase water scarcity during the summer, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said.
—Reuters
Waters off Australia face more frequent and severe marine heatwaves that threaten the Great Barrier Reef, a report said on Monday, as a United Nations team began a visit to evaluate whether the World Heritage site should be listed as “in danger.”
The reef is at risk of another mass bleaching, following three in the past six years, as sea surface temperatures off the northeast coast of Australia have soared to as much as 2-4 degrees Celsius above average, Australian environmental group Climate Council said in the report.
The government’s Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority last Friday said most of the marine park off the coast of Queensland state had been hit by “significant heat stress” over the summer, which in the Southern Hemisphere falls between the months of December and February.
The marine heatwaves are affecting fisheries, damaging species and hurting tourism.
“It’s getting grim and it’s getting to the point where we can’t even simulate the combination of conditions that the reef is experiencing in a controlled laboratory setting to discern this,” said marine biologist Jodie Rummer at James Cook University in Queensland.
If climate change continues unabated, the reef could face bleaching events annually after 2044, the Climate Council said.
—Reuters
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EDMONTON – RCMP say a second suspect has been arrested in the killing of an Alberta county worker.
Mounties say 28-year-old Elijah Strawberry was taken into custody Friday at a house on O’Chiese First Nation.
Colin Hough, a worker with Rocky View County, was shot and killed while on the job on a rural road east of Calgary on Aug. 6.
Another man who worked for Fortis Alberta was shot and wounded, and RCMP said the suspects fled in a Rocky View County work truck.
Police later arrested Arthur Wayne Penner, 35, and charged him with first-degree murder and attempted murder, and a warrant was issued for Strawberry’s arrest.
RCMP also said there was a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Strawberry, describing him as armed and dangerous.
Chief Supt. Roberta McKale, told a news conference in Edmonton that officers had received tips and information over the last few weeks.
“I don’t know of many members that when were stopped, fuelling up our vehicles, we weren’t keeping an eye out, looking for him,” she said.
But officers had been investigating other cases when they found Strawberry.
“Our investigators were in O’Chiese First Nation at a residence on another matter and the major crimes unit was there working another file and ended up locating him hiding in the residence,” McKale said.
While an investigation is still underway, RCMP say they’re confident both suspects in the case are in police custody.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
RICHMOND, B.C. – The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team says the 26-year-old son of a man found dead on British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast has been charged with his murder.
Police say 58-year-old Henry Doyle was found badly injured on a forest service road in Egmont last September and died of his injuries.
The homicide team took over when the BC Coroners Service said the man’s death was suspicious.
It says in a statement that the BC Prosecution Service has approved one count of first-degree murder against the man’s son, Jackson Doyle.
Police say the accused will remain in custody until at least his next court appearance.
The homicide team says investigators remained committed to solving the case with the help of the community of Egmont, the RCMP on the Sunshine Coast and in Richmond, and the Vancouver Police Department.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
VANCOUVER – Mediated talks between the union representing HandyDART workers in Metro Vancouver and its employer, Transdev, have broken off without an agreement following 15 hours of talks.
Joe McCann, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1724, says they stayed at the bargaining table with help from a mediator until 2 a.m. Friday and made “some progress.”
However, he says the union negotiators didn’t get an offer that they could recommend to the membership.
McCann says that in some ways they are close to an agreement, but in other areas they are “miles apart.”
About 600 employees of the door-to-door transit service for people who can’t navigate the conventional transit system have been on strike since last week, pausing service for all but essential medical trips.
McCann asks HandyDART users to be “patient,” since they are trying to get not only a fair contract for workers but also a better service for customers.
He says it’s unclear when the talks will resume, but he hopes next week at the latest.
The employer, Transdev, didn’t reply to an interview request before publication.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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