Tag Archives: predictions about Climate Change

Environment

Unchecked climate change puts Canada’s West Coast in hot water

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Last year was the hottest on record for the ocean, an upward trend only expected to continue as it wreaks havoc on coastal communities and spurs irreversible losses to marine ecosystems. 

Ocean warming has cascading effects, melting polar ice and causing sea-level rise, marine heat waves and ocean acidification, the United Nations’ panel of climate experts made clear on Monday.

Sea-level rise has doubled in the last three decades, reaching a record high in 2021, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reported. Rising seas, coupled with more extreme weather, are setting the stage for a perfect storm of flooding for coastal communities. 

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Environment, Rivers & Oceans

Why do oceans matter for climate change?

National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

As the climate crisis gets worse, oceans — the planet’s greatest carbon sink — can no longer be overlooked. 

Spanning 70 per cent of the globe, oceans have absorbed nearly a third of the planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions caused by humans and 90 per cent of the excess heat those gases create. 

The heat stored in the Earth’s entire atmosphere is equal to what’s stored in the top few metres of our oceans. If that wasn’t enough, oceans produce more than 50 per cent of the planet’s oxygen and regulate our climate and weather patterns. 

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Environment

Environment minister says Canada must prepare for “unavoidable” climate risks detailed in new IPCC report

By Natasha Bulowski, Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Canada must do its part to bring down planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions, but the country also needs to prepare for harsher consequences from climate change, the federal environment minister said Monday in the wake of a new United Nations report.

“We need to reduce our emissions [but] we’ve entered the era of climate change. We know there will be more catastrophes, we know they will be more severe. So, we need to better prepare,” Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault told Canada’s National Observer in an interview.

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Environment, Rivers & Oceans

Canada must deeply invest in oceans to combat climate change

National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Canada must exploit the advantages its three coasts provide and stop sidelining oceans and the critical role they can play in tackling the climate crisis, marine ecologist Julia Baum says.

“We need to quit treating the ocean as a niche issue,” said Baum, President’s Chair at the University of Victoria, whose research examines the impacts of global warming on oceans and what they can contribute to climate change solutions. 

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