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Good afternoon, and welcome to Globe Climate, a newsletter about climate change, environment and resources in Canada.
War is never environmentally sustainable. The bombing of oil refineries, the disruption of energy production and the emissions created by militaries are just some of the havoc wreaked on the earth.
But today, we’re looking at another life-giving resource severely affected by fighting in the Middle East: water.
Now, let’s catch you up on other news.
Noteworthy reporting this week:
- Geology: Powerful Yukon earthquake sheds light on changing seismic risk
- Science: Genetic sequence promises new window into beloved ‘camp robber’ Canada jay
- Oil and gas: South Bow approaches Saskatchewan landowners in bid to revive Keystone XL pipeline
- Sustainable finance: Calgary startup joins the hunt for natural hydrogen
- Agriculture: French snail farmers weather unpredictability to preserve the tradition of escargot
A deeper dive
Plumes of smoke rise over oil depot tanks hit by joint Israel-U.S. strikes overnight northwest of Tehran, Iran, on March 8.Hossein Esmaeili/The Globe and Mail
The resource most at risk
For this week’s deeper dive, how war affects the environment and why access to drinking water is a concern across the Middle East.
The conflict engulfing the Middle East should serve as a dose of old-world reality, writes investment reporter Tim Shufelt.
“Evidence of our hopeless oil dependency is there in the financial markets’ latest disturbance,” he writes, drawing comparison to the oil-crisis days of the 1970s. “But how much has really changed? In 1973, fossil fuels accounted for about 87 per cent of total global energy supply. That number today: 81 per cent.”
After half a century of technological progress, climate commitments, emissions reductions and the buildout of renewable energy sources, this can be frustrating.
The aftermath of missiles and drones strikes have been affecting energy production across the Middle East. Here, smoke spreads in Iran earlier this month.Hossein Esmaeili/The Globe and Mail
Other numbers that matter in the current context? In 1973, the Persian Gulf was responsible for supplying 34 per cent of global crude oil. Today, it’s 31 per cent.
But as missiles and drones affect energy production across the region, analysts warn that water, not oil, may be the resource most at risk.
Hundreds of desalination plants sit along the Persian Gulf coast, putting individual systems that supply water to millions within range of missile or drone strikes. And many Gulf desalination plants are physically integrated with power stations as co‑generation facilities, meaning attacks on electrical infrastructure could also hinder water production.
Desalination technology removes salt from seawater – most commonly by pushing it through ultrafine membranes in a process known as reverse osmosis – to produce the freshwater that sustains cities, industry and some agriculture across one of the world’s driest regions.
In Kuwait, about 90 per cent of drinking water comes from desalination. In Oman, that number is roughly 86 per cent; in Saudi Arabia it’s about 70 per cent. The war that began on Feb. 28 with U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran has already brought fighting close to key desalination infrastructure.
As climate change intensifies droughts, disrupts rainfall patterns and fuels wildfires, desalination is expected to expand in many parts of the world.
A residential building destroyed in a missile strike in a housing complex in southeast Tehran on March 5.Hossein Esmaeili/The Globe and Mail
What else you missed
- Ottawa’s deal with Musqueam First Nation raises alarm about property rights in Vancouver area
- Canada and Alberta reach prospective deal to streamline major project approvals
- Ontario says it will complete construction on roads to the Ring of Fire by 2031
- Sea levels are higher than originally believed, putting millions more people at risk, study says
- B.C. pulp mill puts green hydrogen to the test
Opinion and analysis
As Canada rushes megaprojects, a mental-health crisis in the oil sands remains largely hidden
There’s a collective sense of urgency in developing the country’s natural resources to achieve sovereignty from the United States. But with this urgency comes social and environmental risks, including a hidden mental-health crisis that experts say is likely to get worse.
— Trina Moyles, author of Black Bear: A Story of Siblinghood and Survival
Business and investing
The $100-million club
Electricity push in Western Canada: The federal government is committing more than $100-million to three electricity transmission projects in Western Canada, in a bid to boost access to potential resource projects. It’s a somewhat unusual foray for Ottawa, which has been more reluctant to directly fund transmission lines within individual provinces.
Carbon removal coalition: Leaders in Canada’s nascent carbon-removal industry have joined with several corporate and financial backers as well as the federal government in a bid to attract $100-million in project investments by 2030. The effort, called the Advance Carbon Removal Coalition, seeks to position the country as a top global player in such technologies as direct air capture, biomass carbon removal and direct ocean capture.
Photo of the week
Kenyan innovator and 'ecopreneur' Sheryl Mboya, 26, has created edible plates and cups, ideas born of her dislike of plastic pollution in Nairobi.TONY KARUMBA/AFP/Getty Images
Guides and Explainers
- We’ve rounded up our reporters’ content to help you learn about what a carbon tax is, what happened at COP30 and just generally how Canada will change because of climate change.
- We have ideas to make your travelling more sustainable, your lifestyle at home more ecofriendly, and how to talk to your kids about climate change.
- In a series of essays from Globe writers exploring the role it has played in Canada’s history, A Nation’s Paper also highlights the journey of the newspaper’s green evolution.