Here’s your weekly update with the latest climate change news for the week of Jan. 10 to Jan. 16.

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Here’s your weekly update with what you need to know about climate change and the steps B.C. The week of January 10-16, 2022 is the week B.C. is taking to address climate and ecological crises.

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This week in climate news, Australia set a new heat record and a Human Rights Watch report says Canada is failing to address  climate change, noting Canada is a top G7 greenhouse gas emitter, and the world’s top financier of fossil fuel producers.

And, a new NASA report this week said 2021 was the world’s sixth warmest on record.

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.

Every Saturday, we will bring you the latest news about climate and environmental issues. By subscribing, you can also receive up-to-date B.C.-focused news delivered to your email by 7 a.m. here.

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A glance at B.C.’s carbon numbers:

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Climate change quick facts:

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GUIDES AND LINKS

B.C. Flood: Check out all our coverage about the Fraser Valley, and beyond

NASA answers frequently asked questions about climate change

Climate change made B.C. Study concludes that heat wave is 150 times more likely due to 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

Port Moody joins other cities in Metro Vancouver to declare a climate emergency

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

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

LATEST CLIMATE NEWS

Australia records the highest temperature in 62 Years

Another day, another heat mark.

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Authorities in Australia advised people to stay inside on Friday due to severe heatwave that swept the northwestern coast. Temperatures reached a blistering 50.7° Celsius (123° Fahrenheit) and reached a record high of 62 years ago.

Climate activists and scientists have raised alarm bells about the danger of global warming from human-driven greenhouse gas emissions, particularly from fossil fuels.

The planet’s hottest years on record have all been within the last decade, with 2021 being the sixth-hottest.

Continue reading HERE.

—Reuters

Last year was the world’s sixth-warmest on record -U.S. scientists

According to a Thursday analysis by two U.S. government agencies, last year was the sixth-warmest on record. This caused extreme weather events all over the world and added evidence that the planet is in a long-term warming trend.

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Officials stated that data compiled jointly by NASA and U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), revealed that the eight most recent years were the hottest and the tenth was the warmest since 1880.

“It’s certainly warmer now than at any time in at least the past 2,000 years, and probably much longer,” Russell Vose, chief of the analysis and synthesis branch of NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information, said on a call with reporters.

He said that 2022 would likely rank among the 10 most warm years ever recorded. Despite the presence of La Nina, an eastern Pacific Ocean cooling trend that generally lowers global temperature, the warming in 2021 was still evident.

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Last year’s extreme heat wave in the U.S. Pacific Northwest, intense rains from Hurricane Ida and flooding in Germany and China were linked to global warming, the agencies said.

Continue reading HERE.

—Reuters

Ryan Reynolds lends voice, levity to new Nature of Things’ take on curbing carbon

CBC’s  The Nature of Things  is using a bit of levity and Ryan Reynolds’ voice to remind viewers that when it comes to climate change, we all need to do our part.

The new episode entitled “The Next Episode” will air Jan. 14 at 9 p.m. CBC Gem.  Carbon Reduction  reveals simple, straightforward and most importantly doable ways in which we all can lessen our carbon footprint. And yes, that patented Reynolds sense of humour comes through loud and clear during the Hollywood heavyweight’s narration of the show.

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Vancouver native and long-time environmental advocate, he was happy to lend a hand or his voice to the show.  David Suzuki  .

“I want my kids to experience some of the things that I got to experience when I was kid,” says Reynolds, the father of three young daughters in a recent release. “I was lucky enough to grow up in British Columbia.  That’s an environmental playground: Mountains, streams, rivers, lakes, skiing, ocean, you name it. So I want my kids to have as much of that as possible.”

Continue reading HERE.

—Dana Gee

Human Rights Watch report condemns Canada on Indigenous and climate issues

In a new report, an international watchdog has taken Canada to task over its “serious domestic and foreign policy challenges” in relation to human rights.

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According to the annual report of Human Rights Watch, New York, the Trudeau government failed to address Indigenous inequality, tackle climate change, or assist Canadians in Syria.

The report notes Canada is a top G7 greenhouse gas emitter, and says it is the world’s top financier of fossil fuel producers.

“Canada is contributing to the climate crisis taking a growing toll on human rights around the globe,” the report says.

“World governments’ failure to tackle climate change is already taking a growing toll on marginalized populations in Canada. Warming temperatures and increasingly unpredictable weather are reducing the availability of First Nations’ traditional food sources, and increasing the difficulty and danger associated with harvesting food from the land.”

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Continue reading HERE.

—The Canadian Press

Banks are being notified about climate change policies

We’re only two weeks in, but it feels like 2022 could be the year Canada’s business and political leaders finally get serious about climate change.

Getting serious this late in the game isn’t something to applaud, necessarily, but as the saying goes: The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The best time to plant a tree is now.

The federal banking regulator has issued a notice to all institutions it supervises to show that they can be trusted to adjust for climate change. If they don’t, the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions will do it for them by requiring them to keep more capital in their rainy day funds.

“The focus … is around building risk-management infrastructure,” Ben Gully, assistant superintendent at OSFI, told reporters at a virtual press conference on Jan. 14. “We view that as appropriate and important because capital is no substitute for risk management, and we need to have risk management in place.”

Continue reading HERE.

—Financial Post

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