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
Before I left the city for the prairie, I never thought that I might be a pyromaniac. I’d never started a fire outside a hearth, or thrilled at seeing one burning on the landscape. Then I stood in Nebraska, at dusk, with a crew of wildland firefighters, land managers, and biologists charged with setting fires. … Read more
The fire, which started on Monday on the slopes above Hangklip, spread towards the coastal towns of Pringle Bay and Betty’s Bay in the Overstrand district. Photo: Pieter Malan ALSO READ: UPDATED: Simon’s Town fire: Teams battle blaze on the front lines [pics] The fires were fuelled by hot temperatures and fanned by strong winds. … Read more
Some small business owners in Canada are asking for the federal government to reckon with the challenges they face as they confront a looming deadline to repay a portion of emergency government loans issued during the pandemic. Businesses face a Jan. 18 deadline to pay back up to $60,000 in loans received through the Canada Emergency Business … Read more
After a year of record-breaking wildfires across Canada and the hottest temperature ever recorded on Earth, it likely comes as no surprise that 2023 was the hottest year on record. According to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), 2023 was 1.48 C warmer than the pre-industrial average from 1850–1900, beating out 2016’s record … Read more
The memo sent to staff in the Prime Minister’s Office to announce the hiring of Max Valiquette as the government’s new executive director of communications said the former marketing executive would be focused on, among other things, “aligning the entire team under a clear narrative.” In politics, a clear narrative isn’t everything, but it’s a … Read more
With the books closed on 2023 it’s fair to say it was a year filled with turmoil both domestically and internationally. The nation began the year with egg prices sitting at historic highs, struggling to overcome the lingering impacts of inflation, and dealing with increased energy prices driven by COVID-19 recovery and a war in … Read more
On a warm, blustery December afternoon outside the De Laurentis olive oil-producing co-op in the white hilltop town of Ostuni, Puglia, Luigi D’Amico holds out his palm, revealing an olive picked earlier in the day. Instead of resembling the plump, gleaming green and black fruit overflowing in bins around him, this one is half-consumed, dry … Read more
Every year, Environment and Climate Change Canada ranks the top 10 Canadian weather stories. Senior climatologist David Phillips compiles the list and this year, there was no doubt about what would take the number one position: the record-setting wildfires. “There’s no drum roll here,” Phillips said. “The fires dominated everything…. In 28 years of putting … Read more
