Globe Climate: Summer’s first heat wave, but not the last

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Good afternoon, and welcome to Globe Climate, a newsletter about climate change, environment and resources in Canada.

Charred forest landscapes are not new to Canada’s artists, even Tom Thomson has pieces depicting a burnt-over Algonquin Park landscape.

Liz Toohey-Wiese and her colleague Amory Abbott, both members of Emily Carr University’s visual arts faculty, are helping organize an exhibition at the Legacy Art Gallery in downtown Victoria called Fire Season. They believe art is one way for people to better understand the complicated story of wildfires and help make sense of Canada’s new climate reality

The Forest Sighed On Either Side by painter Kyle Scheurmann appears in the anthology. Many of the paintings in the show were inspired by his time protesting at Fairy Creek and other old-growth anti-logging blockades, and easy metaphors for the slow creeping danger of climate change.

Now, let’s catch you up on other news.

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Noteworthy reporting this week:

1. The Globe in Tunisia: Protecting Tunisia’s charfia — A centuries-old way of fishing is being eradicated by illegal bottom trawlers
2. Carbon offsets: Mosaic Forest Management’s BigCoast carbon credit project under scrutiny
3. Education: Professors say Canadian universities are falling behind in training students on energy storage technologies
4. Real estate: One Yonge teardown proposal fires up carbon cost debate
5. Listen to The Decibel: Climate change, migration and Menaka’s epic birding day
6. From The Narwhal: A mine proposed in B.C. would supply the fracking industry — by way of 55,000 truck trips per year

A deeper dive

Well... that was a really hot week

Sierra Bein is the author of Globe Climate. For this week’s deeper dive, she talks about last week’s heat.

The first day of summer was June 20, and she did not wait to bring the heat.

It felt as high as 45 degrees in some areas, mix in pollution warnings, and you’ve got some unpleasant outdoor conditions. Millions of Canadians in Central Canada and the Atlantic provinces were under heat warnings, prompting local officials to urge residents to take precautions to protect themselves.

In cities such as Toronto, where the Toronto District School Board has only 177 out of 582 schools with central air conditioning, even going to class can feel miserable.

The same weather system has been causing record-setting temperatures in the central and eastern United States, with roughly 80 million people from Indiana to New England under heat advisories or excessive heat warnings.

In fact, it wasn’t just Canada and the U.S.

Deadly heat waves are scorching cities on four continents as the Northern Hemisphere marked the first day of summer, a sign that climate change may again help to fuel record-breaking heat that could surpass last summer as the warmest in 2,000 years. Climate change is a major driver of these heat waves across the globe.

Are you prepared for the next bout of extreme heat? Here are some tips from The Globe

• Don’t have air conditioning at home? Keep curtains, awnings and blinds closed during the day. Keep the air circulating in the house, especially at night, but avoid letting in hot air during the day. Avoid using the oven, and use your city’s nearest cooling centre if you are still struggling. With deadly heat, air conditioning is no longer a luxury – it’s a necessity, writes Marsha Lederman.
• Some are more at risk than others for heat-related illness. People with high blood pressure or respiratory issues, should be careful to watch for signs of illness. Some medications and heat waves don’t mix, including certain heart medications. The elderly and people experiencing homelessness or who are lower income may need extra access to cool spaces. Heat exhaustion is caused by excessive loss of water and salt, and can cause heavy sweating, weakness, dizziness, nausea, headache, diarrhea and muscle cramps.
• Don’t forget your pets. Walk your dog in the early morning or evening, when asphalt is less hot. Consider purchasing a cooling pad, or you can also stroke your cat with a damp cloth or paper towel, which can help cool them down. Watch for signs of heat stroke, which can include heavy panting, excessive thirst, dizziness, lack of co-ordination, vomiting and a rapid heartbeat.

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What else you missed

• Emissions cap not possible without oil, gas production cuts, Deloitte report says
• Parliamentary budget officer says government not muzzling him over carbon price data
• Alberta’s oil and gas sector exceeded flaring limit for first time in 2023, data show
• B.C.’s ‘war in the woods’ battlegrounds to be permanently protected
• Minister wants B.C. to be model for aquaculture as it moves to containment
• Iberian lynx back from brink of extinction, thanks to conservation efforts
• Landmark EU nature restoration plan gets green light despite months of protests by farmers
• U.S. Senate passes bill to support advanced nuclear energy deployment
• Climate-proofing India’s daily bread: The race for resilient wheat

Opinion and analysis

Tony Keller: The Trudeau government needs to come up with a 2-per-cent solution, fast

Kelly Cryderman: The Liberals will be forced to act on EV tariffs, even if it slows down their climate goals

Julien Beaulieu and Wren Montgomery: Canada’s anti-greenwashing rules are good business. Critics exaggerate the dangers

Kevin Krausert: Ottawa’s anti-greenwashing bill will cripple cleantech innovation

Lidiia Karpenko: Nature is the forgotten victim of Russia’s war in Ukraine

Green Investing

Ottawa’s move to fine companies over deceptive green claims triggers wave of website disclaimers in energy sector

Several Canadian oil companies and lobby groups have added disclaimers to their websites and social-media feeds – in one case, scrubbing all content – in response to new federal legislation that aims to stamp out false or exaggerated environmental claims.

A contentious provision within the government’s Bill C-59 makes changes to the Competition Act to combat greenwashing, and puts companies at legal risk for making environmental or social assertions in public communications that do not stand up to scrutiny. Individuals and companies could face sizable fines if found liable. Pathways Alliance, a coalition of oil sands producers proposing a multibillion-dollar carbon capture and storage project, replaced its website and social-media content with a disclaimer it said is in response to the C-59 anti-greenwashing measure.

• Oil and gas industry making risky play in response to greenwashing law, experts say
• Environmental activists win landmark ruling over U.K. oil well plan
• Dilemma on Wall Street: short-term gain or climate benefit?

The Climate Exchange

Check out our new digital hub where you can ask your most pressing questions about climate change. It’s a place where we hope to help by answering your questions, big and small, about the continuing changes and challenges around climate change. Along the way, we’ll aim to highlight the people, communities and companies who are working toward climate solutions and innovations. For the record: while RBC supports the initiative financially, the company has no say in what questions get asked or how The Globe answers them.

Photo of the week

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Guides and Explainers

• Want to learn to invest sustainably? We have a class for that: Green Investing 101 newsletter course for the climate-conscious investor. Not sure you need help? Take our quiz to challenge your knowledge.
• We’ve rounded up our reporters’ content to help you learn about what a carbon tax is, what happened at COP28 and just generally how Canada will change because of climate change.
• We have ways to make your travelling more sustainable and if you like to read, here are books to help the environmentalist in you grow, as well as a downloadable e-book of Micro Skills - Little Steps to Big Change.

Catch up on Globe Climate

• Nisga’a Nation approves pipeline construction on its territory
• We want your questions about climate change
• At the water cooler of Canadian sustainable finance
• Indigenous impact fund champions outcomes-based finance

We want to hear from you. Email us: GlobeClimate@globeandmail.com. Do you know someone who needs this newsletter? Send them to our Newsletters page.