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Good afternoon, and welcome to Globe Climate, a newsletter about climate change, environment and resources in Canada.
A B.C. wildfire that came within metres of homes and triggered a local state of emergency in Squamish is now being held. The human-caused fire is believed to have started on a bike trail.
Last week, officials were warning that prolonged heat waves and lower-than-normal precipitation could worsen fires in the coming months.
Now, let’s catch you up on other news.
Noteworthy reporting this week:
- Policy: Ottawa’s climate adaptation, ocean protection strategies plagued with issues, report says
- Pipelines: Project backed by Nisga’a Nation seeks to win over other Indigenous groups
- Land: B.C. First Nations’ closings of Joffre Lakes Park adds to growing public demand for nature
- Politics: Ford government condemned for deleted Greenbelt emails, use of codewords
- Ask a doctor: How wildfire smoke and poor air quality can affect your health, and how to protect yourself
- Noise pollution: Canada, Panama lead push to quiet ocean from shipping noise
- Art: The Bentway’s summer exhibition explores the role of shade in a warming world
- Auto: Ottawa should scrap restrictive electric-vehicle regulations, GM Canada’s CEO says
- Forestry: In Washington’s forests, Trump’s timber mandate looks shaky
A deeper dive
A sign for the G7 Leaders Summit in Kananaskis, outside the media center in Banff on June 15.Chris Helgren/Reuters
A special security challenge
For this week’s deeper dive, a closer look at Nathan VanderKlippe’s reporting from the G7 summit in Alberta’s Kananaskis Country.
Canada is playing host to more than a dozen world leaders at the G7 Leaders’ Summit, taking place in Kananaskis, Alta. The three-day event follows meetings in May between finance ministers and central bank governors belonging to G7 countries in Banff.
Hosting some of the most powerful world leaders means security details are key.
But when international correspondent Nathan VanderKlippe spoke to what measures are being taken by those charged with keeping world leaders safe in the Canadian Rockies, he was met with more questions than answers.
One stands out: what is the exact dimensions of the fence erected to keep the bears at bay?
Just how much bear fence has been installed for the G7 summit is, police told him, information too sensitive to disclose.
The summit location in Alberta’s Kananaskis Country offers obvious defensive advantages. Potential threats from the mountain landscape would find difficult to penetrate. A single highway bisects much of Kananaskis Country, making it simple to block the arrival of anyone unwanted.
Not the grizzlies, though.
Fencing has been erected at the fringe of the forest in Kananaskis on June 15.Nathan VanderKlippe/The Globe and Mail
An estimated 65 grizzly bears live in Kananaskis. More roam the wooded slopes of nearby Banff National Park. Their ability to slip across natural barriers that would thwart a human has made them one of the risks that are top of mind for the G7.
Sheena Campbell, a spokesperson for Alberta’s Ministry of Public Safety and Emergency Service, says there is a “comprehensive wildlife mitigation strategy.” Back up to the fences, thermal-imaging cameras and specially trained bear dogs will keep watch over the trees. In the skies, RCMP drones will ”monitor wildlife activity in real time.”
June is a delicate month for many species. Bears are in mating season. Ungulates such as elk and moose are calving. Snow has melted in the valleys but not yet high on the slopes which means most animals are in the same lower elevations where the G7 meetings will take place.
The noise of the visiting fighter jets and helicopters alone may prove the greatest wildlife deterrent at the G7.
Read Nathan’s full story today
What else you missed
- Israel detains Greta Thunberg, other activists on Gaza aid boat
- Two First Nations involved in Ontario’s Ring of Fire project speak out against new mining law
- Ottawa’s climate change adaptation strategy falling short, environment commissioner says
- Alberta’s cleanup rules for renewable projects are onerously expensive, report says
- May was world’s second-hottest on record, scientists say
- Rotting fish-sauce plant whose stench torments Newfoundland town will be cleaned up
- MEG Energy’s Christina Lake project in Alberta returns to full operations after wildfires
- Alberta Premier grilled on province’s coal policy at rowdy, angry town hall
- Trump signs measure to block California’s ban on new sales of gas-powered cars by 2035
Opinion and analysis
Tanya Talaga: As northern Canada burns, southern Canada makes climate change worse
Arno Kopecky: Massive fires burning across Alberta have helped put climate change back on the G7 agenda
Alexander MacDonald: Does Canada have the national will to own our future in the cosmos?
Green Investing
Demand for energy to soar 24 per cent from now to 2050, OPEC head says
There is no oil demand peak on the horizon, the head of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries says, taking aim at a “flip-flop” in policy from the International Energy Agency, which he says has undercut crucial investments in the oil and gas sector. Haitham al-Ghais, the secretary-general of OPEC, said meeting that goal will only be possible with necessary investments in the oil industry, while saying OPEC recognizes the importance of investing in clean technologies.
- Yukon aims to link its power grid to B.C. in push for North American energy security
- Number cruncher: Twenty Canadian mutual funds and ETFs with low ESG risk
- $30-billion in investment needed by 2040 to meet Canada’s critical mineral demand, report finds
The Climate Exchange
We’ve launched the next chapter of The Climate Exchange, an interactive, digital hub where The Globe answers your most pressing questions about climate change. More than 300 questions were submitted as of September. The first batch of answers tackles 30 of them. They can be found with the help of a search tool developed by The Globe that makes use of artificial intelligence to match readers’ questions with the closest answer drafted. We plan to answer a total of 75 questions.
Photo of the week
Tony Illenden, left, and Tim Marshall measure a large hail shaped like a rose between the front seats of Northern Illinois University's Husky Hail Hunter vehicle during a Project ICECHIP operation on Friday, June 6, in Morton, Texas.Carolyn Kaster/The Associated Press
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 COP29 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
- B.C. cedes provincial park to Nuchatlaht First Nation
- Wildfire season is upon us
- How to fix instead of waste
- Drill, baby, drill ... that ice
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