BURST
Here’s the latest news concerning climate change and biodiversity loss in B.C. and around the world, from the steps leaders are taking to address the problems, to all the up-to-date science.
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In climate news this week:
• Study finds emissions from world’s largest fossil fuel producers ramping up intensity of heat waves
• B.C. orders some farmers to stop using water to protect endangered chinook salmon
• Study estimates 2023 Canadian wildfire smoke caused more than 80,000 deaths globally
• Languishing ‘in the doldrums’: Conservation groups demand action on B.C.’s old-growth logging review
Human activities like burning fossil fuels and farming livestock are the main drivers of climate change, according to the UN’s intergovernmental panel on climate change. This causes heat-trapping greenhouse gas levels in Earth’s atmosphere, increasing the planet’s surface temperature.
The panel, which is made up of scientists from around the world, including researchers from B.C., has warned for decades that wildfires and severe weather, such as the province’s deadly heat dome and catastrophic flooding in 2021, would become more frequent and intense because of the climate emergency. It has issued a code red for humanity and warns the window to limit warming to 1.5 C above pre-industrial times is closing.
According to NASA climate scientists, human activities have raised the atmosphere’s carbon dioxide content by 50 per cent in less than 200 years, and “there is unequivocal evidence that Earth is warming at an unprecedented rate.”
As of Sept. 5, carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was 425.48 parts per million, down slightly from 427.87 ppm last month, according to NOAA data measured at the Mauna Loa Observatory, a global atmosphere monitoring lab in Hawaii. The NOAA notes there has been a steady rise in CO2 from under 320 ppm in 1960.
Climate change quick facts:
• The Earth is now about 1.3 C warmer than it was in the 1800s.
• 2024 was hottest year on record globally, beating the record in 2023.
• The global average temperature in 2023 reached 1.48 C higher than the pre-industrial average, according to the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service. In 2024, it breached the 1.5 C threshold at 1.55 C.
• The past 10 years (2015-2024) are the 10 warmest on record.
• Human activities have raised atmospheric concentrations of CO2 by nearly 49 per cent above pre-industrial levels starting in 1850.
• The world is not on track to meet the Paris Agreement target to keep global temperature from exceeding 1.5 C above pre-industrial levels, the upper limit to avoid the worst fallout from climate change including sea level rise, and more intense drought, heat waves and wildfires.
• On the current path of carbon dioxide emissions, the temperature could increase by as much 3.6 C this century, according to the IPCC.
• In June 2025, global concentrations of carbon dioxide exceeded 430 parts per million, a record high.
• Emissions must drop 7.6 per cent per year from 2020 to 2030 to keep temperatures from exceeding 1.5 C and 2.7 per cent per year to stay below 2 C.
• There is global scientific consensus that the climate is warming and that humans are the cause.
• Scientific information taken from natural sources (such as ice cores, rocks, and tree rings) and from modern equipment (like satellites and instruments) all show the signs of a changing climate.
(Sources: United Nations IPCC, World Meteorological Organization, UNEP, NASA, climatedata.ca)
Latest News
How much have fossil-fuel giants contributed to heat waves such as B.C.’s heat dome?
Planet-warming emissions from a group of the world’s largest fossil fuel producers have significantly ramped up the intensity of heat waves, a new study suggests, one of the first peer-reviewed papers to link dozens of climate-fuelled weather events to specific companies.
The study led by a group of Swiss-based climate scientists says about one-quarter of the 213 recent heat waves they studied, including the 2021 B.C. heat dome, would have been virtually impossible without human-caused climate change.
It says emissions from some individual companies, including relatively smaller ones and some of Canada’s oil-and-gas producers, would have been enough to make otherwise impossible heat waves statistically possible.
“These results are relevant not only in the scientific community but also for climate policy, litigation and wider efforts concerning corporate accountability,” said the study, led by researchers out of ETH Zurich, a top university for earth sciences.
The researchers linked emissions from the group of cement and fossil-fuel producers to about half the increase in heat wave intensity connected to human-caused climate change.
—The Canadian Press
Study estimates 2023 Canadian wildfire smoke caused more than 80,000 deaths globally
A peer-reviewed study says smoke from record-breaking Canadian wildfires in 2023 caused an estimated 5,400 acute deaths and about 82,100 premature deaths worldwide.
The study published in the journal Nature acknowledges some variation in mortality estimates depending on the methods used, but says its overall conclusion is the smoke led to an “enormous and far-reaching” health burden.
Canadian co-author Michael Brauer says the findings serve as a “wake-up call” for areas that haven’t typically seen repeated or prolonged exposure to wildfire smoke, as the health impacts will only increase with worsening climate change.
The researchers used several computer models and data sources to estimate the number of deaths attributable to the particulate pollution, known as PM2.5, from Canada’s worst-ever wildfire season.
The paper says that of the estimated 82,100 premature deaths due to continuous exposure to the smoke over several months, 64,300 occurred in North America and Europe, including 33,000 deaths in the U.S. and 8,300 in Canada.
—The Canadian Press
Languishing ‘in the doldrums’: Conservation groups demand action on B.C.’s old-growth logging review
Eighty-eight conservation groups and First Nations are calling on the B.C. government to act on five-year-old promises to overhaul the logging industry to protect old growth forests.
In 2019, the NDP government convened an independent panel to travel the province and gather input on old-growth forests and a year later the old-growth strategic review provided 14 recommendations.
Thursday marked five years since those recommendations came out, and critics say although the government has made a few strides such as including talks with First Nations and stepping up logging deferrals, it’s still dragging its heels on some of the key points that protect biodiversity, for example the conservation of endangered caribou herds.
The conservation groups released a letter that was sent earlier this year to Randene Neill, B.C.’s minister of water, land and resource stewardship. It sounds the alarm about the province’s lack of progress on recommendation Number 2: enacting a new law for biodiversity and ecosystem health.
Lawyers with West Coast Environmental Law say B.C.’s recent decision to fast track resource projects goes against this recommendation.
Old-growth forests have accumulated huge amounts of carbon per hectares and clearcutting them releases massive amounts of carbon back into the atmosphere, contributing to climate change, according to Sierra Club B.C.
—Tiffany Crawford
Liberals say climate plan to be ‘updated’ for new ‘economic context’
Canadians can expect an update on the future of Trudeau-era greenhouse gas emissions targets for 2030 and 2035 that will reflect the changing economic situation, according to the office of federal Environment Minister Julie Dabrusin.
“Taking into account the evolving global and economic context, the federal government will provide an update on its emissions reductions plan as we strive towards our 2030 and 2035 targets,” wrote Keean Nembhard, a spokesperson for Dabrusin, in an email to National Post on Monday.
Nembhard didn’t say exactly when this update will come.
The statement comes after Industry Minister Melanie Joly dodged repeated questions about the targets in a televised interview over the weekend, saying this was an issue for Dabrusin to address.
Joly deferred to Dabrusin again on Monday when asked about the targets in Montreal. Prime Minister Mark Carney also deflected when asked at a tariff relief announcement in Newfoundland if he was planning to change the 2030 and 2035 targets.
—Rahim Mohamed
B.C. orders some farmers to stop using water to protect endangered chinook salmon
The British Columbia government has ordered forage-crop farmers in the province’s south to turn off their irrigation taps, because “severe low flows” are threatening endangered chinook salmon.
Randene Neill, B.C.’s minister of water, land and resource stewardship, said “when stream flows drop to critical levels, and vulnerable species are at risk,” government must take regulatory action.
“Temporary protection measures are always issued as a very, very last resort after voluntary measures, because we recognize the huge impact it has on water users, including farmers and their businesses,” Neill said. She added that protection orders like the ones issued Monday are “guided by science, Indigenous knowledge and local knowledge, and economic analysis as well,” she said.
An order issued Monday stops farmers from irrigating forage crops and certain industrial purposes. It applies to 490 users in the Salmon River and Bessette Creek watersheds, including farmers who grow grass, alfalfa and corn.
—The Canadian Press
B.C. rancher wants better oversight of compost facility that takes curbside organics
In early spring, Cheryl Monical’s cattle often graze a swath of meadowland east of Cache Creek, pausing to drink at the edge of a spring-fed marsh.
Recently, the water has had a “grey sludgy look,” causing her to move the cattle on to a higher water source as soon as the ice thaws.
“Put it this way, I wouldn’t drink it ever, and I don’t really want my cattle drinking it either,” she said.
Monical and her husband hold a grazing licence for land near a compost facility operated by Emterra, a waste management company that holds contracts with a number of B.C. municipalities.
In June, B.C. environment officers referred the company for a penalty after inspections dating to 2020 — and as recently as June — found piles of unscreened compost sitting on the ground at the site. Under B.C. law, compost facilities must place material on an asphalt, concrete or other impermeable surface to prevent waste from leaching into the environment.
—Glenda Luymes
Wind and solar power fuel over one-third of Brazil’s electricity for first time
Wind and solar power generated more than a third of Brazil’s electricity in August, the first month on record the two renewable sources have crossed that threshold, according to government data made public on Thursday and analyzed by energy think-tank Ember.
The clean energy sources accounted for 34 per cent of the country’s electricity generation last month, producing a monthly record of 19 terawatt-hours (TWh), enough to power about 119 million average Brazilian homes for a month, Ember told The Associated Press.
That surpassed the previous high of 18.6 TWh set in September 2024. The milestone came as hydroelectric output, Brazil’s dominant power source, fell to a four-year low.
“Brazil shows how a rapidly growing economy can meet its rising need for electricity with solar and wind,” said Raul Miranda, Ember’s global program director based in Rio de Janeiro.
“Solar and wind are a perfect match for Brazil’s hydropower resources, taking the pressure off in drought years. A diversified mix is a fundamental strategy for tackling risks related to climate change,” he said.
—The Associated Press