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The extreme heat smothering much of Mexico has killed dozens of people across multiple states

A red sun rises against a red sky — The sun rises amid high temperatures in Mexico City on Thursday. Extreme heat in Mexico, Central America and parts of the U.S. South has left millions of people in sweltering temperatures, strained energy grids and resulted in iconic howler monkeys in Mexico dropping dead from trees. (Marco Ugarte/The Associated Press)

The extreme heat smothering much of Mexico has already killed dozens of people, but the hottest temperatures are yet to come, officials say.

“In the next 10 to 15 days, the country will experience the highest temperatures ever recorded,” researchers from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) said in a statement earlier this week. They called the heat wave “unprecedented.”

According to the Weather Channel, by early next week, temperatures in Veracruz are expected to soar to 37 C, Tabasco will be 40 C and Mexicali will reach temperatures of 40.5 C.

Temperatures in the capital, Mexico City, could reach a record 35 C in the next two weeks, said Jorge Zavala, director of UNAM’s Institute of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate Change.

Most of the metropolitan area’s 21 million residents — accustomed to more temperate weather — lack air conditioning. Earlier this month, the capital was one of at least 10 cities in Mexico that registered their hottest day on record.

A boy walks alongside the ocean — A boy dives into the sea on a hot spring day in Veracruz, Mexico, on Tuesday, amid a nationwide drought and heat waves that have sent temperatures soaring across much of the country. (Yahir Ceballos/Reuters)

Mexico has been reeling from a high-pressure weather phenomenon known as a “heat dome,” which has trapped hot air over much of the country, creating record-breaking temperatures that have surpassed 45 C in some places.

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Buying and selling water is a reality in Alberta — sometimes for big money

May 17, 2024

Buying and selling water is a reality in Alberta — sometimes for big money

Benchmark prices have been set in the water market, but it remains broadly opaque

Rising demand, dwindling supply: southern Alberta’s water dilemma

As water scarcity intensifies, farmers, cities and businesses in southern Alberta are under pressure to find sustainable water solutions.

Just south of the town of Taber, Alta., known for its potatoes, corn, and rich soil, the crew at North Paddock Farms finish their lunch, slide on their gloves, and get to work.

Russet Burbank seed potatoes drop onto a sizing belt, where they’re sorted and cut. Nearby, massive storage bins are full to the brim of potatoes, due for the nearby McCain Foods and Lamb Weston plants.

The work is underway on April 24 despite the stress that looms over the entire operation this year. This farm, which grows potatoes, canola, Timothy hay, wheat, flax, fava beans and garlic using irrigation, is part of the St. Mary River Irrigation District (SMRID), the biggest of its kind in Canada.

In April, the district said farmers would get eight inches of water — half the allocation they get in a good year — with a dry winter affecting snowpack and reservoir storage.

That’s not enough for Alison Davie, one of the owners of the farm operation. She says they need at least 18 inches to grow their potato crop.

A woman wearing a sweater stands in front of farm equipment. — Alison Davie grew up on North Paddock Farm, located near Taber, Alta., and is a lifelong lover of farm life. Davie and her husband Michael took over operation of the farm from her parents 10 years ago. But they’ve never faced down drought conditions like those facing southern Alberta this year. (Monty Kruger/CBC)

For that reason, North Paddock Farms is looking to buy more water.

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Fear, anxiety as thousands flee their homes in Fort McMurray due to threat of wildfire

May 16, 2024

Fear, anxiety as thousands flee their homes in Fort McMurray due to threat of wildfire

Evacuees directed to Cold Lake, Edmonton for accommodation

Three lanes of a highway show two empty and one packed with vehicles with smoky skies in the distance. — A highway camera photo shows traffic in Fort McMurray jammed in the southbound lane of Highway 63 on the north side of the Athabasca River. The image was captured at 3:11 p.m. MT Tuesday, about an hour after an evacuation order was issued for four neighbourhoods. (511 Alberta)

Thousands of Fort McMurray residents headed south to safety as a large out-of-control wildfire drew closer to their community, but many are worried they won’t have a home to return to.

An evacuation order was issued Tuesday afternoon for the neighbourhoods of Beacon Hill, Abasand, Prairie Creek and Grayling Terrace, as the wildfire southwest of the community continues to grow.

Other areas in Fort McMurray remain on evacuation alert and residents need to be ready to leave on short notice.

Marina Barnes has lived in Fort McMurray for four years and evacuated from her home in Abasand Tuesday.

“I think the worst part right now is the unknown,” Barnes told CBC as she and a friend evacuated to Lac La Biche in the evening.

“Not knowing if we’re going to have a home to go back to.”

The Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo had told residents to head to an evacuation centre in Lac La Biche, but around 7 p.m., the municipality posted on social media that accommodation in Lac La Biche was full and directed evacuees to Cold Lake, about 147 kilometres to a new evacuation centre at the Agriplex.

The City of Edmonton is also accepting evacuees at a reception centre located in the Clareview Community Recreation Centre at 3804 139th Ave.

As of Tuesday night, the wildfire threatening the community has covered nearly 21,000 hectares as shifting winds and rising temperatures continue accelerating its growth and pushing the flames closer to the community.

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El Niño is nearing its end. Does that mean global temperatures will cool down in 2024?

April 27, 2024

El Niño is nearing its end. Does that mean global temperatures will cool down in 2024?

March was the 10th month in a row with record-breaking temperatures

A digital sign shows a temperature of 54 degrees Celsius and 129 degrees Fahrenheit. — A view of a digital sign displaying the high temperature in Death Valley, Calif., on July 15, 2023. Global temperatures hit a record that month, and the year ended up being the hottest on record. (Jorge Garcia/Reuters)

Last year, the planet experienced its hottest year on record. While it wasn’t entirely a surprise that 2023 could top the previous hottest year — 2016 — in light of ongoing greenhouse gas emissions, what did come as a surprise was by how much.

One of the contributing factors to that extreme warmth was El Niño, a natural, cyclical warming in a region of the Pacific Ocean that, coupled with the atmosphere, can cause global temperatures to rise. Last year, it began in June.

Typically, the global atmosphere responds to El Niño in the subsequent year, which begs the question: Could 2024 be even hotter than 2023?

“Basing it on the El Niño at the beginning of the year, and then seeing how things are working out this year, it suggests that 2024 is going to be almost the same as 2023,” said Gavin Schmidt, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York.

A map of the Pacific Ocean showing with red representing warm ocean temperatures and blue representing cooler temperatures. — Animation of maps of sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean compared to the long-term average over five-day periods from February through early April 2024. El Niño’s warm surface is weakening and some regions of cooler-than-average sea surface temperature are appearing. NOAA Climate.gov, based on Coral Reef Watch maps available from NOAA View. ( NOAA Climate.gov)

But there are a lot of other things to take into account, he said.

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No water, no oil: How the parched western provinces could hamper the oilpatch

April 4, 2024

No water, no oil: How the parched western provinces could hamper the oilpatch

Water shortages could have devastating effect on oil and gas sector, says new report

Two black and red oil derricks are pictured in a field with snow. — Pumpjacks pull oil from the ground near Three Hills, Alta. Limited water supply could have significant effects on the production of oil and gas, warns a new report. (Kyle Bakx/CBC)

Persistent and severe drought conditions across Western Canada could have a devastating effect on the oil and natural gas sector, which has drilling operations in some of the driest areas, according to a new report by Deloitte.

Limited water supply could have significant effects on the production of oil and gas, the report warns, and the timing couldn’t be worse for the industry as many companies are wanting to increase production and drilling with new export pipelines and facilities nearing completion.

The past several years have been parched in parts of Western Canada, but there is extra concern this year because of the below average snowpack in the mountains.

“It’s not going to be as simple to just pipe fresh water in. You may need to move it and truck it to different locations,” said Andrew Botterill, an energy analyst with Deloitte Canada, in an interview with CBC News.

A pipeline to send water to southern Alberta? Ideas float to the surface in times of drought

In B.C., the provincial energy regulator has warned snowpack levels were only 72 per cent of the historical average.

Trucking in water and recycling water will both result in more “expensive and complicated” operations for companies, he said.

Water is shown with a skyline in the background. — The Bow River flows through downtown Calgary. Alberta is poised to start negotiations with major water licence holders to strike sharing agreements in three key provincial river basins, including the Bow. (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press)

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Logging industry targeted B.C. old-growth forests for more than a century, SFU study finds

October 6, 2022

Logging industry targeted B.C. old-growth forests for more than a century, SFU study finds

Ken Lertzman’s paper shows between 1860 and 2016, 87 per cent of logging took place in old-growth forests

A man in a raincoat walks past a giant tree in a forest. — A man walks past an old growth tree in Avatar Grove near Port Renfrew, B.C. A new paper published by Simon Fraser University professor Ken Lertzman shows that decades of logging on the province’s Central Coast targeted the highest-value forests first. (Jonathan Hayward/The Canadian Press)

The worsening effects of climate change are compounding the historical loss of British Columbia’s old-growth forests, says the co-author of a new paper that shows decades of logging on the province’s Central Coast targeted the highest-value forests first.

“History tells us that we have really depleted these high-value elements of the landscape and that we can’t keep going,” said Ken Lertzman, professor emeritus at Simon Fraser University’s school of resource and environmental management.

“At the same time, [forests] have never been under greater threat from natural disturbances that are driven by a changing climate.”

Some forests have been set aside for logging because of their ecological and cultural value, only to be scorched by increasingly severe wildfires, he added.

That’s the reality today’s policy-making must reflect when it comes to determining how B.C.’s forests will be valued and used in years to come, Lertzman said.

Vital old growth first to be cut

The paper published Monday in the peer-reviewed journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences examined more than 150 years of logging across 8,550 square kilometres of forests around Bella Bella on B.C.’s Central Coast.

Of nearly 570 square kilometres logged in the area between 1860 and 2016, 87 per cent of that logging took place in old-growth forests starting in 1970, it shows.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Speaking Freely

January 4, 2022

Speaking Freely

Why I resigned from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

Photo by Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images

For months now, I’ve been getting complaints about the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, where I’ve worked as a TV and radio producer, and occasional on-air columnist, for much of the past decade.

People want to know why, for example, non-binary Filipinos concerned about a lack of LGBT terms in Tagalog is an editorial priority for the CBC, when local issues of broad concern go unreported. Or why our pop culture radio show’s coverage of the Dave Chappelle Netflix special failed to include any of the legions of fans, or comics, that did not find it offensive. Or why, exactly, taxpayers should be funding articles that scold Canadians for using words such as “brainstorm” and “lame.”

Everyone asks the same thing: What is going on at the CBC?

When I started at the national public broadcaster in 2013, the network produced some of the best journalism in the country. By the time I resigned last month, it embodied some of the worst trends in mainstream media. In a short period of time, the CBC went from being a trusted source of news to churning out clickbait that reads like a parody of the student press.

Those of us on the inside know just how swiftly — and how dramatically — the politics of the public broadcaster have shifted.

It used to be that I was the one furthest to the left in any newsroom, occasionally causing strain in story meetings with my views on issues like the housing crisis. I am now easily the most conservative, frequently sparking tension by questioning identity politics. This happened in the span of about 18 months. My own politics did not change.

To work at the CBC in the current climate is to embrace cognitive dissonance and to abandon journalistic integrity.

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Buying our way out of pandemic malaise is hurting the planet, experts say

August 16, 2021

Buying our way out of pandemic malaise is hurting the planet, experts say

Some say the emphasis should be on well-being rather than economic growth

People line up to shop in Toronto. As COVID-19 cases eased in recent months, provinces have relaxed restrictions and encouraged people to spend again. But the emphasis on economic growth can come at the expense of environmental health. (Sam Nar/CBC)

Back in the spring, Canadian politicians spoke optimistically of a “two-dose summer,” signalling that a robust COVID-19 vaccination rollout would enable people to fully enjoy the warmer weather.

As COVID-19 infection numbers eased in recent months, provinces have relaxed restrictions and encouraged people to spend again.

While this was meant to provide a collective boost in the middle of a stubborn pandemic, this summer has put on another horror show of extreme weather — including a deadly heat dome and rampant wildfires in British Columbia and northwestern Ontario and drought in the Prairies.

Earlier this week, the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued a dire report that stated unequivocally that climate change was human-made and that some of its catastrophic effects were already on view.

The destruction we’re seeing now is fuelled by decades of environmental harm, but it is also coming at a time when politicians and marketers alike are prompting us to spend — whether it’s at the mall, at the car dealership or on so-called revenge travel.

Mass consumption inevitably adds stress to the natural world, in the form of resource extraction and carbon emissions.

“There is always discussion that we should as consumers spend money to fuel up businesses,” said Bengi Akbulut, assistant professor of geography, planning and environment at Concordia University in Montreal.

“But I think the broader tension [right now] is whether we can grow our way out of the ecological breakdown.”

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What’s really behind the Ford government’s push to pave protected wetland in Pickering

March 10, 2021

What’s really behind the Ford government’s push to pave protected wetland in Pickering

Rival developers competing to host Canada’s biggest retail warehouse, which sources say is for Amazon

Roughly half of this property in Pickering, owned by Triple Group, is classed as a protected wetland. If approved for development, commercial real estate analysts say it would skyrocket in value, potentially to more than $100 million. This view looks northwest from the corner of Bayly Street and Squires Beach Road. (Patrick Morrell/CBC)

Moves by Premier Doug Ford’s government to grant special permission to pave over a protected wetland in Pickering have generated headlines, but behind the controversy, there’s an untold story.

That story involves a battle between rival developers and rival municipalities to get the chance to build what would become the largest retail warehouse in Canada, a project worth hundreds of millions of dollars that multiple sources say is for Amazon.

The battle is playing out just east of Toronto near Highway 401, on two pieces of property less than one kilometre apart: one in the city of Pickering on a provincially designated wetland, the other in the town of Ajax on a golf course.

Whichever site clears all of its legal and zoning hurdles first will be in the driver’s seat. The landowner’s property value will skyrocket and the project will bring at least $50 million in new tax and development revenue to one of the municipalities.

While the Toronto Region Conservation Authority (TRCA) has vigorously objected to plans to build on the wetland in Pickering, it is not opposed to the plan for the golf course in Ajax.

However the Ford government has gone to great lengths to smooth the way for the warehouse to go on the Pickering wetland. That property belongs to the Triple Group of Companies, owned by the Apostolopoulos family, backers of the nearby Durham Live casino complex.

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Pandemic ‘poses particular challenges’ for food processing plants: Freeland

April 17, 2020

Pandemic ‘poses particular challenges’ for food processing plants: Freeland

Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau warns labour shortages could affect the food supply

The federal government says it’s looking at proposals to support food processors during the COVID-19 pandemic. (Jeff McIntosh/Canadian Press)

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland says the government is working on ways to support Canada’s food processing plants during the COVID-19 pandemic in response to concerns about labour shortages.

“I am so grateful to all of our farmers and ranchers and food processors, but you’re right that the coronavirus poses particular challenges to food processing facilities because of the dangers of contagion there,” Freeland said during her briefing with reporters today.

“That is something that our government has been working on, that I’ve been personally focused on over the past few days.”

Cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed at three Alberta meat packing plants, according to the union that represents plant workers.

United Food and Commercial Workers Canada Union local 401 president Thomas Hesse said three cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed at the JBS plant in Brooks, Alta.

At the Cargill plant in High River, there are 38 COVID-19 cases, and in March one worker at Harmony Beef in Balzac tested positive, he said.

Hesse said the union has reached out to those plants, and to the Olymel pork plant in Red Deer, to ask them to proactively shut down to keep their workers safe.

“They’ve all said no. But Cargill has in some ways done what we’ve asked because of pressure,” Hesse said, noting that the plant has reduced its operations.

Meanwhile, the Olymel hog slaughter and cutting plant in Yamachiche, Que., reopened Tuesday after shutting down for two weeks following an outbreak among employees there.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

‘This will not be contained’: Experts cast doubt that spread of COVID-19 can be stopped

March 2, 2020

‘This will not be contained’: Experts cast doubt that spread of COVID-19 can be stopped

Outside China, there have been more than 7,000 cases in 60 countries and more than 100 deaths

Amid fear and uncertainty caused by the spread of COVID-19, Iranians are taking extra caution to avoid getting infected. The World Health Organization says that 97 cases have been exported from Iran to 11 countries. Outside China, there have been 4,351 cases in 49 countries and 67 deaths. (Vahid Salemi/Associated Press)

While the World Health Organization has said the risk of COVID-19 spreading worldwide is now “very high”, officials have suggested that efforts to combat the coronavirus are still in the containment phase.

But some medical experts believe that the containment stage has long since passed, that the spread of the COVID-19 is inevitable, and that living with the coronavirus could become a reality. COVID-19 is the respiratory illness caused by the new coronavirus.

“This will not be contained, this has not been contained,” said Isaac Bogoch, an infectious disease physician at Toronto General Hospital.

Massive public health efforts have been helpful in slowing down the spread of the infection and reducing the pace and frequency of exported cases from China to the rest of the world, but containment has not worked, Bogoch said.

‘Will continue to spread’

“This is spreading throughout the world and it will continue to spread throughout the world,” he said.

On Friday, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a news conference that the Geneva-based health agency has “increased our assessment of the risk of spread and the risk of impact of COVID-19 to very high at a global level.”

China has seen more than 80,000 confirmed cases and almost 3,000 deaths. Outside China, there have been more than 7,000 cases in 60 countries, with more than 100 deaths.

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‘Clean’ natural gas is actually the new coal, report says: Don Pittis

July 2, 2019

‘Clean’ natural gas is actually the new coal, report says: Don Pittis

Global investment of more than $1 trillion in planned LNG plants at risk

Employees work next to tanks for liquefied natural gas at a factory in Xian, China in June. China is a prime customer in a worldwide LNG expansion. (Reuters)

There’s no question that when you burn it, methane, the main component of natural gas, is much cleaner than coal.

With that in mind, you might think a newly released report titled The New Gas Boom should be cause for celebration.

Instead, the fresh analysis from Global Energy Monitor, a group well known in energy circles for keeping track of coal plant construction in Asia, sounds a warning, not just for the climate but for investors in what it calculates as a risky $1.3 trillion US worth of global gas infrastructure.

Effectively, the report warns that rather than being an environment-friendly product that can help solve our climate problems, gas is the new coal.

The explosion in spending on planned new liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities — the vast majority in the U.S. and Canada — combined with new calculations for leakage from the LNG supply chain called fugitive gas — means the world may soon turn against gas in the same way it turned against its solid fuel relative.

“New studies have shown there is significantly more fugitive gas than studies showed five years ago, and the gas is also a bigger contributor to climate change than was understood,” said James Browning, one of the report’s authors.

A 34,000-ton heavy lift vessel carries barges for LNG Canada completing pre-construction work at Kitimat, B.C., last fall to prepare the port for larger vessels once the new $40-billion natural gas export facility is constructed.(YouTube/LNG Canada)

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Two Pipelines Shut Down After 43 Barrels of Crude Leak into Missouri Soil

February 8, 2019

Two Pipelines Shut Down After 43 Barrels of Crude Leak into Missouri Soil

Parts of two pipelines owned by controversial Canadian pipeline companies remained shut down Thursday following the discovery of a leak near St. Louis, Missouri on Wednesday, CBC News reported.

Both TransCanada‘s Keystone pipeline and Enbridge‘s Platte pipeline run parallel to each other through the area. The Keystone pipeline, which carries 590,000 barrels of crude oil a day from Alberta, has faced opposition from environmental activists in the area because it transports from Alberta’s tar sands.

“[Leaks] are one more reason on top of climate change to show that tar sands are dangerous and should not be running through our state,” Missouri Sierra Club Director John Hickey told St. Louis Public Radio. Residents are also worried the poor quality of the pipeline’s steel makes leaks more likely, Hickey said.

The leak was discovered by a TransCanada technician 7:14 a.m. Wednesday. The technician found crude oil covering some 4,000 square feet around the pipeline in St. Charles County, Missouri. TransCanada said it was not sure how much oil had leaked, but thought it was around 43 barrels. The company said it was not yet possible to tell if the leak came from the Keystone or neighboring Enbridge pipeline.

“Until you can excavate and see the top of the pipes, you can’t really determine which pipeline the release occurred from,” TransCanada Public Information Officer Matthew John told St. Louis Public Radio.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Toronto gas stations running low on fuel thanks to nasty winter weather

February 3, 2019

Toronto gas stations running low on fuel thanks to nasty winter weather

Road conditions and extreme cold making it hard for trucks to deliver gas

Drivers in Toronto are having a hard time finding gas this week thanks to a stretch of heavy snow and bitterly cold temperatures. (The Associated Press)7 comments

After a week of snow, wind and bitter cold, Old Man Winter is now making life hard for Torontonians at the gas pumps.

Dozens of stations around the city have been out of fuel for days, leaving drivers confused and in the lurch.

Suppliers say the bad weather has made it hard to deliver fuel to the empty stations, though none have said when the stations will be up and running as usual.

“Poor weather conditions in the GTA has impacted our delivery schedule. We are working to replenish the sites as quickly as we can, while ensuring the safety of our people,” wrote Nicole Fisher, a spokesperson for Suncor Energy.

“This is an industry issue caused by poor road conditions and extreme cold,” said Kristen Schmidt of Shell Canada.

Dan McTeague, a senior petroleum analyst with GasBuddy, is advising drivers to avoid filling up unless they have to. He also thinks the crunch will be over soon.

“You’re likely to see by midpoint next week, this really won’t be much of an issue,” he told CBC Toronto.

“There’s no shortage at refineries, there’s no shortage at the terminal, the pipelines are working quite well. It’s the truck transportation and the logistics around that,” he added.

What slowdown? Vancouver and Toronto real estate markets still hot and unaffordable for many

August 8, 2017

What slowdown? Vancouver and Toronto real estate markets still hot and unaffordable for many

Housing prices are once again climbing in Vancouver and Toronto may soon follow

Emelia Symington Fedy with her partner, Christie Watson, and two children in Vancouver — the city the family is leaving because they can’t afford to live there. (Emelia Symington Fedy)

With recent price declines in Canada’s hot real estate markets, there’s been talk of a slowdown. But, so far, it’s hardly something for prospective buyers to get excited about.

While prices did drop after the introduction of a foreign homebuyers tax in Vancouver last year, they’re once again surging to new highs.

In Toronto, both prices and sales have taken a dive since the same type of tax came into effect in April.

Some had hoped a combination of recent government rule changes making it harder to get a mortgage, higher mortgage rates and the foreign buyers tax might have a lasting effect in cooling the market.

However, Toronto home prices are still up compared to last year and some industry experts predict that, as in Vancouver, the city’s recent dip will simply be a blip.

And as long as Toronto and Vancouver’s real estate markets continue to sizzle, many people will continue to find home ownership out of reach in these cities.

‘I just don’t get to live here,” says Emelia Symington Fedy, who’s moving her family from Vancouver to Halifax because she can’t afford the high cost of housing in her beloved city. “It feels like my lover has jilted me. I’m heartbroken.”

Vancouver downturn dashed

In August 2016, the B.C. government implemented a 15 per cent tax on foreign nationals buying property in Metro Vancouver to help cool skyrocketing house prices. For a time, the tax appeared to be working.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

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