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Good afternoon, and welcome to Globe Climate, a newsletter about climate change, environment and resources in Canada. Let’s start with a news highlight.
On a cold, dark night, Constable Matthew Muirhead pulled over on the side of Route 18 in the PEI fishing village of Murray Harbour. He flipped on his flashing lights and a young grey seal stared back. George, as the officer would later come to call the animal, was three kilometres from the coastline.
Grey seals used to breed on the ice in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, but over the past few decades they adapted to giving birth on islands and beaches in Nova Scotia and PEI because of the gradual loss of sea ice. Many of the young get confused about what direction to go in and head inland.
George was one of the lucky ones – although you wouldn’t think it by the seal’s reaction to being rescued. “We rolled him into a burrito to keep him from biting and slapping us,” Constable Muirhead said.
Now, let’s catch you up on other news.
George, a yearling gray seal, who may be confused about his whereabouts due to the lack of sea ice.contributed by RCMP Const. Matthew Muirhead/Handout
Noteworthy reporting this week:
- Wildlife: Unprecedented video reveals polar bears’ struggle to survive during ice-free periods
- Politics: Bill focused on ‘powerful oil lobby’ amounts to needed debate, NDP MP says in response to criticism
- Agriculture: Farm income hits record high despite extreme weather, report shows
- Hydrogen: B.C. backs hydrogen despite concerns about electricity supply shortage
- Electricity: Ottawa weighs changes to draft Clean Electricity Regulations after provincial backlash
- Policy: With new low-income energy program, Ottawa will try to prove it can tackle climate change and affordability crisis at once
- Infrastructure: Environment Minister tries to clarify remark that Ottawa will ‘stop investing in new road infrastructure’
- Carbon tax: Ontario to require referendum on any future ‘carbon tax’ plan
- Pollution: First Nations urge Environment Minister not to green light Chalk River nuclear waste dump
- From The Narwhal: ‘Greenest’ mine of its kind won’t be built in Manitoba
A deeper dive
Meet Captain Hook
Wendy Stueck is The Globe’s environment reporter. For this week’s deeper dive, she talks about a good news story for wildlife in Canada.
It started with bats.
In late 2023, as I was reporting on best practices for bat houses, I told bat expert Cori Lausen I was looking for good news wildlife stories.
Lausen put me in touch with her husband, Dr. Michael Proctor, a grizzly bear researcher. He told me he and colleagues had essentially recovered a threatened subpopulation over about 15 years, documenting the problem, coming up with solutions and then monitoring how they worked – “the whole enchilada,” as he put it.
When I learned that one of the study’s subjects was nicknamed Captain Hook – brown hair, chunky, walks with a limp – I was, sorry, hooked.
Then I filed the story, and a sharp-eyed editor noted Captain Hook – he of the J.M. Barrie play and Peter Pan renown – didn’t have a peg leg, but rather a hook for a hand. (Peter Pan cut it off and fed it to a crocodile.)
I wasn’t willing to lose the detail of the big bear being named for a pirate. I called Dr. Proctor to confirm the nickname came about because the bear limped, “possibly because he’d been shot?”
No doubt about it, he replied: When they tranquilized and radio-collared the bear, they found the bullet hole.
My editor and I wrangled the wording and the detail stayed in the story.
Dr. Proctor says his study is important not just for grizzly bears, but for other species that could benefit from connected corridors, which are the focus of Kootenay Connect, a spinoff project.
In the Creston Valley, there are worries that the big bears are getting too accustomed to abundant, easy food sources. Local farmers have reported seeing grizzly families – a mother and cubs – feasting on corn fields. Finding a balance that keeps grizzlies alive – and humans safe – is a work in progress.
Read the success story of Captain Hook today.
- Wendy
What else you missed
- Group says Lululemon is ‘greenwashing’ as its emissions rise, wants competition probe
- COP28 president urges countries to set plans for fossil fuel transition
- Warm weather forces city in Quebec to cancel ice-fishing villages for first time
- More upgrades to improve flood resilience in Abbotsford, B.C., after 2021 disaster
- NDP to introduce bill calling for ban of coal exports as Canadian output booms
- Wine from B.C.’s 2024 vintage faces wipeout as province faces ‘catastrophic crop losses’ from cold
- Ottawa promised Canadians two billion new trees, Quebec wants to cut some down
- Greenpeace activists storm Chrystia Freeland’s Toronto office demanding climate laws for banks
- Polish farmers plan ‘complete blockade’ of border with Ukraine on Feb. 20
Opinion and analysis
Andrew Cohen: With the warming of the Rideau Canal, we are at risk of losing another cherished winter tradition
Green Investing
Canadian institutional investors banking on impact funds related to climate-change solutions
Four in 10 large Canadian institutional investors plan to launch impact funds this year, according to a survey that suggests money managers are again banking on financial rewards from climate-change solutions.
The positive outlook from the environmental, social and governance field is among findings in a report by the sustainability consultancy Millani. The trick for investors and regulators will be keeping up with increasingly sophisticated disclosure standards that are taking their place alongside financial reporting.
- Risks loom as sustainability reporting timeline lags, CSA told
- Canadian Tire profit falls nearly 68%, blaming mild winter weather, high interest rates
- Why Wall Street giants are pulling out of climate-action group
Making waves
Do you follow us on Tiktok? Check out a recent climate video we posted about my Roman empire: why our winters aren’t what they used to be. Hint: If you read this newsletter, you may already know the answer!
Do you know an engaged individual? Someone who represents the real engines pursuing change in the country? Email us at GlobeClimate@globeandmail.com to tell us about them.
Photo of the week
A worker picks coffee berries from a robusta coffee shrub in the southern state of Karnataka, India, on Jan. 29, 2024. Rising temperatures and erratic weather patterns are forcing the country's coffee growers to change the way they farm. The result is reduced crop yields, quality concerns, less area suitable for cultivation, increased vulnerability to pests and diseases, and frequent interactions with wildlife. These factors will continue to threaten India’s small landholding planters, who account for 81 per cent of coffee growers in the country, unless mitigation measures are put in place to improve crop, soil and water management.Abhishek Chinnappa/Getty Images
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
- Studying winter air pollution from the top of the CN Tower
- Canadian scientists seek the future of batteries
- Why does winter look different than it used to?
- Sustainable ideas for your 2024 travel plans
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