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Kris Cu/Handout
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If you’re reading this on the web or someone forwarded this e-mail newsletter to you, you can sign up for Globe Climate and all Globe newsletters here.
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Good afternoon, and welcome to Globe Climate, a newsletter about climate change, environment and resources in Canada.
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Now, let’s catch you up on other news.
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People join a public cleanup operation on Earth Day at Muizenberg Beach in Cape Town, South Africa, on April 22, 2024.
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Nardus Engelbrecht/The Associated Press
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Noteworthy reporting this week:
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- Plastics: What’s at stake as UN plastics treaty talks set to begin in Canada
- Trapped baby whale: Baby orca, trapped where its ‘Big Mama’ died, brings together B.C. researchers and locals in efforts to reunite it with family
- Research: Scientists discover a bee’s surprising superpower after a science experiment gone awry
- Opinion: Reckless use of social media threatens wild species and landscapes
- Urbanization: Ontario reaches deal with Ottawa on Highway 413, clearing way for controversial project to proceed
- Health and fitness: Climate change is a growing threat to our love of sports. But can we adapt?
- Opinion from The Narwhal: Earth Day first aimed to save species. To do that, we need to think about more than one
- Visual arts: With a giant sculpture made of single-use plastic, artist Benjamin Von Wong wants to send a hopeful message
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Benjamin Von Wong fixes his installation on the Highline in Manhattan, on April 5, 2024.
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Jeenah Moon/The Globe and Mail
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Canada’s bird watchers have a front-row seat to climate change
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The Canada jay, also known by the Cree name wîskicahk and previously called the gray jay, earned its place as the country’s unofficial national bird through both its ubiquity and its pluck. Milder winters, however, mean that its unique survival system no longer works as well as it once did.
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The Canada jay, however, is far from the only bird affected by climate change. From familiar backyard visitors such as the American robin and blue jay to iconic species such as the snowy owl and common loon, the changing climate is affecting the migration habits and breeding areas of birds in myriad ways.
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A rose-breasted grosbeak: The bird is having difficulty adapting to climate change.
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Yousif Attia/Handout
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Warming winters have allowed some species such as the turkey vulture, northern mockingbird and red-bellied woodpecker to return to Canada earlier each year and expand into new territories.
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While shorter-distance migrants may be adapting relatively well, it’s a different story for those travelling farther from Central and South America, who rely on a precisely timed arrival to take advantage of insect hatches and flower blooms, explains Jody Allair, the director of community engagement for Birds Canada. “The long-distance migrants that all the birders get excited about in spring, like Canada warblers, Baltimore orioles and rose-breasted grosbeaks, do not know that there has been an early spring, and they do not appear to be adapting very well to climate change,” he says.
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“We’re seeing declines in species, both in terms of birds that breed here in Canada and migrants passing through,” says Yousif Attia, a birding guide with B.C.-based Eagle Eye Tours. Changing weather patterns, he explains, make it harder to predict which species will be passing through a given area at a given time – a challenge for birders and birding guides alike.
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“We time our trips to maximize bird diversity and abundance, so the second week of May used to be the traditional window that you would capture the warbler migration in Southwestern Ontario, for example,” he says. “That has now changed to the first week of May or even the last week of April.”
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For every disheartening statistic about the decline of bird populations, however, there are actions birders and non-birders alike can take to mitigate the effects of climate change and benefit Canadian biodiversity in all its forms. Birds Canada provides resources for how to plant and maintain a bird-friendly habitat in your backyard and put up window treatments to prevent bird strikes at home.
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Jody Allair, director of community engagement for Birds Canada, records some birdsong.
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Birds Canada/Handout
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Kelly Cryderman: To build a new resource project, Indigenous participation is now essential
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Clayton Page Aldern: Climate change won’t just make the world a hotter place – it will make it a more violent one, too
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Kent Elson: Why is Ontario taking from homeowners to subsidize gas companies?
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Taras Grescoe: Ending agriculture isn’t the climate-crisis solution some think it is
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The coffee business can be a nasty one. For Adam Pesce, the only solution is sustainability
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“I say this half-jokingly, but I want there to be an industry in 20 or 30 years for my daughter to be the third generation of. And I’m sorry, but lab-created coffee beverages are not the solution. I’m not ready to give up on fixing the problem. Instinct tells me it’s time to roll my sleeves up further. And at this point, my sleeves are almost off – I’m basically wearing a tank top.”
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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.
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People take part in a rally against plastics on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on April 21, 2024. The fourth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee is set to take place in the country's capital. Delegates from 176 countries will work to negotiate a treaty to eliminate plastic waste in less than 20 years.
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Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press
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Catch up on Globe Climate
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