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.
Good afternoon, and welcome to Globe Climate, a newsletter about climate change, environment and resources in Canada.
Court records show that some Canadians residents unknowingly drank contaminated water for years while Ottawa sat on test results. Now, they’re demanding to know how long they were exposed and when their tap water will be safe to drink again.
Now, let’s catch you up on other news.
Noteworthy reporting this week:
- Living Planet Index: New WWF data put Canadian wildlife population declines in focus
- National survey: British Columbians are now as likely as Albertans to prioritize jobs over the environment, poll shows
- Policy: Canada to fall far short of 2030 emissions targets, think tank says in annual estimate
- Carbon pricing: Alberta rejigs industrial carbon pricing to allow technology investments
- Economy: B.C.’s deficit to rise to $11.6-billion after dropping carbon tax
- Oil and gas: Nisga’a Nation leader touts reconciliation after Ksi Lisims LNG project gains government approvals
- Food: As IKEA’s iconic meatball turns 40, the company looks to its plant-based future
- Entangled series: Adoption of whale-safe fishing gear lags in race to save endangered animals
- Film: Documenting a world on fire with director Paul Greengrass
- Wine: A famed Bordeaux chateau breaks with tradition to combat climate change
A deeper dive
The view of Torbay Bight from the northside meadows in Newfoundland in late July.Greg Locke/The Globe and Mail
Communities fear ‘forever chemicals’ in tap water
For this week’s deeper dive, a look at the communities seeking answers on contaminated drinking water.
In Torbay, N.L., Judy Moss has no way of knowing how long she and her neighbours were drinking the contaminated water or what it may have done to their bodies.
But numbers tell a story of how toxic the water is: Every litre of her tap water contained 140.9 nanograms of PFAS (short for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) – more than four times the recommended safety limit Health Canada established last year. PFAS, also known as “forever chemicals,” are linked to cancer, developmental delays and immune disorders.
The reason for these elevated numbers? Her home is half a kilometre from St. John’s International Airport, where decades of routine fire drills had caused PFAS-laced firefighting foams to seep into the soil.
Judy Moss, pictured in September, cares for her American miniature horses in Torbay.Greg Locke/The Globe and Mail
Ottawa’s Treasury Board publicly lists 87 federal sites where the compounds have contaminated groundwater, many at or near airports and military bases.
However, the data doesn’t show where drinking water has been affected.
The Globe and Mail’s water reporter, Patrick White, and our Atlantic reporter based in Halifax, Lindsay Jones, spent 10 months researching and reviewing hundreds of pages of court documents and interviewing residents.
The Globe confirmed the 11 communities with three government departments, but could not get answers on where all those communities are. There are people like Moss across Canada living in a toxic limbo, unsure how deep the damage runs and uncertain whether anyone will fix it.
The Globe and Mail
Wendy Cox, a deputy national editor at The Globe, worked with our reporters on this tainted water feature. She wrote for the Morning Update newsletter that the Department of Defence and National Research Council have confirmed it is delivering bottled water to households. But Transport Canada will not release the list of the eight locations where it is delivering water. Court records show Torbay, N.L., Yarmouth, N.S., and Abbotsford, B.C., are among them.
Another problem is that drinking water regulations are largely up to the provinces.
As Patrick White writes in a more recent story that focuses on North Bay, Ont., it’s a vexing problem and the only remedy in place isn’t expected to yield results for another decade, still leaving locals to wonder whether their water is safe and who will pay to fix it.
What else you missed
- First-ever treaty to protect marine life in the high seas ratified
- Progressive groups plan protests to challenge parts of Carney agenda
Opinion and analysis
Joanna Chiu: After enduring smoke-choked Beijing, I’m reliving the experience in Canada.
Green Investing
Extreme weather is forcing investors to rethink how to manage physical climate risks
Major investors are wrestling with increasing climate-related physical risks within their vast portfolios, forcing them to rethink how to evaluate and manage the impact of storms, floods, wildfires, heat domes and droughts – now and in the future.
Now, increasingly destructive weather is taking a bigger profile as sovereign wealth funds, pension funds and other institutions seek to protect assets and avoid long-term damage to the value of their holdings.
- Haisla-led Cedar LNG seeks to boost future capacity by 25% in B.C.
- On Money: Are renewable energy stocks bigger than Trump? The answer may surprise you
- Christopher Worswick: Want a pipeline? Let’s use nuclear power to reduce oil sands emissions
The Climate Exchange
We’ve launched the The Climate Exchange, an interactive, digital hub where The Globe answers your most pressing questions about climate change. We have been collecting hundreds of questions and posing them to experts. The answers 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. You can ask a question using this form.
Photo of the week
David Suzuki speaks before marching to protest policies under Prime Minister Mark Carney's government, including on climate and public service cuts, on Saturday.Carlos Osorio/Reuters
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
- Wildfire ash speeds up glacier melt
- Strategizing the fight against wildfires
- The keepers of the coast
- Reporting from turtle rehab
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.