Our planet is changing. So is our journalism. Keep up with the latest news on our Climate and Environment page. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox every Thursday. This week: Can an image of frozen penguin chicks spark climate action? The Big Picture: Think it was a quiet year for wildfires? Think again A therapist … Read more
When Joelle Fraser-McGaghey had to evacuate her home during the 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire, she only had a few minutes to pack before her family had to get out the door. Trying to pull outdoor furniture away from her house was not at the top of her list. “Honestly, I’m not thinking ‘Should I remove … Read more
American history is repeating itself in a most macabre way. If everything unfolds as expected, Donald Trump will deliver a triumphant speech in Milwaukee next Thursday night to accept the Republican presidential nomination. Adrenaline will be coursing through that crowd for another reason: His admirers will celebrate his very survival from an apparent campaign-stop assassination attempt. Literally one … Read more
A team of McMaster University students in Hamilton will soon head to Iceland, where they’ll camp out by a series of underground lava tubes they plan to map with a drone. The drone uses hardware and software designed by the undergraduate students, who hope their tech will one day be used in space exploration to specially map underground areas in … Read more
Hurricane Beryl strengthened to Category 5 status late Monday after it ripped doors, windows and roofs off homes across the southeastern Caribbean with devastating winds and storm surge fuelled by the Atlantic’s record warmth. Beryl made landfall on the island of Carriacou in Grenada as the earliest Category 4 storm in the Atlantic, then late … Read more
When Jacques Juneau and Chantal Germain bought their home in Saint-Adolphe-D’Howard, Que., it seemed like the perfect spot. Nestled among the trees and surrounded by mountains, it felt safe. “[I thought] there’s no chance of any kind of storm, tornado or anything here,” said Germain. But a year after moving to the Laurentians, they were … Read more
The Biden administration has weighed in for the first time on a major cross-border legal dispute that could shut down portions of Enbridge’s Line 5 Canada-U.S. oil pipeline. The opinion came in an amicus brief that, although nuanced, argued against shutting down the pipeline, partly in order to preserve diplomatic relations with Canada. The more than 1,000-kilometre long … Read more
Canada’s ambassador to the United Nations says the world must act as the situation in Haiti continues to deteriorate, ahead of major meetings of Caribbean nations and partners in Jamaica. Bob Rae will travel to Kingston to meet with other leaders at a gathering of CARICOM, the Caribbean intergovernmental organization, to discuss the chaos in Haiti. In … Read more
For the ninth straight month, Earth has obliterated global heat records — with February, the winter as a whole and the world’s oceans setting new high-temperature marks, according to the European Union climate agency Copernicus. The latest record-breaking in this climate change-fuelled global hot streak includes sea surface temperatures that weren’t just the hottest for … Read more
A sprawling international study of humpback whales in the northern Pacific has found their population has shrunk significantly since 2012 — despite the once-endangered species’ remarkable comeback from the brink of extinction. The new research, published in Royal Society Open Science journal on Wednesday, estimated a roughly 20 per cent drop in the cetacean species’ numbers … Read more
