B.C. Tech star donates $14.5million to save B.C.| Birds are laying eggs earlier as climate change shifts springs | Tech star donates $14.5 million to save B.C. parkland

Article content

Here’s your weekly update with what you need to know about global climate change and the steps B.C. This week’s update includes information about the climate and ecological crisis in the week of March 21 – March 27, 2022.

Article content

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.

For the most recent news on climate and environment, check back here every Saturday. By subscribing, you can also receive up-to-date B.C.-focused news delivered to your email by 7 a.m. here.

Article content

A glance at B.C.’s carbon numbers:

• B.C.’s gross greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 2019 (latest available data:) 68.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (MtCO2e.) This is a 3.0 MtCO2e increase, or 5.1% since 2007.
• B.C.’s net emissions in 2019: 67.2 MtCO2e, an increase of 1.5 MtCO2e, or two per cent, since 2007.
• B.C.’s 2030 target: 40 per cent reduction in net emissions below 2007 levels.
• B.C.’s 2040 target: 60 per cent reduction.
• B.C.’s 2050 target: 80 per cent reduction.
• Canada’s 2030 emissions target: Between 40 and 45 per cent reduction.
• Canada’s 2050 emissions target: Net-zero.

Article content

Climate change quick facts:

Article content

This summer, Coquihalla Highway will receive permanent flood repairs

Flood repair work on Coquihalla Highway is expected this summer. It will be finished by year end.

The B.C. Thursday’s announcement from the B.C. Officials claim that the contract will likely be awarded in April or 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.”

You can read the entire story here.

—Stephanie Ip

Protests are held across Canada to demand more climate action

Friday’s protests were held in Canada by protestors who wanted to condemn the government’s inaction on climate change. This was part of a series worldwide environmental protests.

The Fridays for Future movement was inspired by 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.

Article content

A youth-led coalition gathered in Vancouver to call on the Royal Bank of Canada not to fund fossil fuel projects.

These groups were made up of members from Climate Justice UBC and Stop TMX as well as 350Vancouver, 350Vancouver and 350Vancouver.

Around 150 people gathered at Vancouver Art Gallery late in the afternoon for speeches and a march towards 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.

Article content

“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

Climate change has caused birds to lay eggs earlier than usual.

The early bird is always the best.

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.

In a paper published in the Journal of Animal Ecology on Friday, researchers found that approximately a third of 72 bird species around Chicago laid their eggs more than a century ago.

Article content

Fleming stated that the work would also strengthen the route against climate change, and other major weather events in the future. Three areas will be the focus of the work: the Bottletop Bridges, located 50 km south of Merritt; the Juliet Bridges, located three kilometres South of Bottletop; and the Jessica Bridges, which are 48 km south-east of Juliet.

You can read the entire story here.

—Reuters

Article content

Environmental group gives guarded support for company’s B.C. old-growth forest plan

An environmental group is supporting the announcement of the largest private landowner in British Columbia, which will delay logging for 400 kilometres of old growth forest for the next 25-years.

Mosaic Forest Management oversees private logging lands owned by TimberWest and Island Timberlands. It announced the deferral last Wednesday, along with plans to finance the plan via a carbon credit program. This program is expected to raise several hundred millions of dollars by 2047.

The Endangered Ecosystems Coalition stated that exempting older-growth and older secondary stands from logging will help protect the unique trees that sustain everything, from the climate and endangered species to 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.”

You can read the entire story here.

—The Canadian Press

Vancouver tech star and native Vancouver donates $14.5million to save B.C. Parkland is being protected from development

At $14.5 million, Dax Dasilva’s gift is almost four times bigger than the previous record received by the B.C. Parks Foundation

Vancouver native Dasilva is a tech star and environmental/social activist based in Montreal. He was present in Vancouver for the announcement. A float-plane flight to the Pitt River Watershed was cancelled because of poor 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.

He donated $14.5 million to the foundation as part of a $40million pledge for environmental work on the planet. The Pitt River Watershed is where Dasilva paid the bill to purchase land that was earmarked for development and the French Creek Estuary, which is on Vancouver Island (again saving it from development).

You can read the entire story here.

—Gordon McIntyre

Climate-driven water woes spark Colorado rush to conserve ‘liquid gold’

Cash crops are flourishing on hydroponic life support in a rooftop greenhouse located near Denver. 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 Colorado model of the vertical farm is one of many that are used to cope with increasing water scarcity in western America, as climate change makes droughts more severe.

Coloradans have also been involved in other projects, such as testing water recycling and building barriers to prevent wildfire runoff from contaminating supplies.

Colorado is not the only one. 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. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change stated that drought and earlier runoff caused by a declining snowpack in the U.S. West will increase water scarcity this summer.

You can read the entire story here.

—Reuters

Ocean warming may lead to greater bleaching of Great Barrier Reef.

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 in danger of another mass bleaching after three occurred in the last six years. Sea surface temperatures off Australia’s northeast coast have risen to as high as 2-4 degrees Celsius higher than average, according to an Australian environmental group Climate Council.

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 threatening fisheries and causing damage to species.

“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.

The Climate Council stated that if climate change continues, the reef could experience bleaching events every year after 2044.

You can read the entire story here.

—Reuters
 

RELATED SOCIAL MEDIA

Article content

Article content

GUIDES AND LINKS

B.C. Flood: See all our coverage of the Fraser Valley and beyond

NASA answers frequently asked questions about climate change

Climate change made B.C. The study concludes that heat waves are 150 times more likely because of climate change

B.C.’s heat wave: Intense weather event is linked to climate crisis, say scientists

Expert: Climate change will lead to longer wildfire seasons, and more area being burned, according to experts

Vancouver outlines its Climate Emergency Action Plan

COVID-19 may have stopped protests massively, but youth are taking their fight to the courts for their future.

Climate displacement in B.C. is a growing concern As extreme weather forces residents from their homes

[email protected]