Deadly floods in Pakistan, record-breaking heat waves in China, famine-causing droughts in parts of Africa, and unusually hot temperatures in the U.S., Europe and Australia: The impact of human-induced climate change is being felt across the world, with experts warning that extreme weather events are no longer the exception but rather becoming the new norm.
“In an unrelenting cascade of heat waves, forest fires, flash floods, multiple glacial lake outbursts, flood events and now the monster monsoon of the decade are wreaking nonstop havoc throughout the country,” Pakistan’s Federal Minister for Climate Change Sen. Sherry Rehman said Saturday as Islamabad declared a state of emergency in response to the “serious climate catastrophe” affecting the South Asian country.
Unable to view this article?
This could be due to a conflict with your ad-blocking or security software.
Please add japantimes.co.jp and piano.io to your list of allowed sites.
If this does not resolve the issue or you are unable to add the domains to your allowlist, please see this support page.
We humbly apologize for the inconvenience.
In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever. By subscribing, you can help us get the story right.
Increasingly chaotic weather around the world can be attributed to climate change, a top NIWA scientist says.
Dr Sam Dean, NIWA’s principal climate scientist, told Q + A’s Jack Tame on Sunday that extreme weather events have been intensified by the changing climate.
“The risk is double what it would’ve been without climate change and the intensity is about 10% more.”
In recent weeks, parts of Europe and North Africa have seen record-breaking heatwaves, which have caused devastating wildfires and even melted airport runways in London.
Dr Dean says some of the heatwaves were “very unlikely, if not impossible” to have occurred if it hadn’t been for climate change.
Back in New Zealand, there are concerns that rising temperatures will create fire conditions similar to those in Australia, where bushfires caused widespread damage.
2021 was the hottest year in New Zealand on record, according to NIWA.
“I think for all of us, fire is a scary thing that can be truly destructive and terrifying,” Dr Dean said.
He says areas on the east of the South Island and Central Otago are particularly vulnerable.
“The risk of the kind of fire in places that we live is going to increase if we don’t mitigate.”
Dr Dean says the cost of the impacts from climate change far outweigh the costs of implementing mitigation strategies.
“We’re looking at how those costs are going to increase in the future.
“That provides motivation for spending money now to mitigate against potential damages… social and financial costs.”
Marketing Series: Creating Engaging and Value-Added Content
Current small business owners in all industries are invited to attend this virtual workshop where we’ll dive into how to create engaging content that adds value while also selling. Speaker: Nicole Cooper, marketing adviser, Roanoke Regional Small Business Development Center. Go to the website to register and find more workshops.
LeadHERship: Diversity, Equity and Inclusion: Creating a Sense of Belonging
Registration required! The Salem-Roanoke County Chamber of Commerce and the Virginia Western College of Career and Corporate Training have developed a 10-month Women’s LeadHERship Series for women across all industries. The series emphasizes the unique gifts and strengths of women and provides tools for empowerment and success. The series launched in March and runs through December with a new topic each month. Lunch is provided. Register on the website: https://s-rcchamber.org.
People are also reading…
When: 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Cost: $35 chamber members, $45 nonmembers
Power Hour is designed to help expand your network and brainstorm the future of the industry with some of the best and brightest. This social event is designed for all women (and allies) in the technology community. It’s a safe space to share your experiences, meet others in similar roles, and expand your reach in the Roanoke-Blacksburg technology community. All job levels are welcome.
This event provides a structured and supportive networking environment for chamber members. Each month a guest speaker presents vital info regarding the Franklin County business community. Attendees receive chamber updates, meet and network with other members and have an opportunity to share information about their business. Meeting ID and password available at business.visitsmithmountainlake.com/events.
We will walk through the many benefits of chamber membership, how to access the many tools to help your business grow, along with hands-on help on promoting your business or organization through the chamber while you’re here. The Hot Dog Stand food truck will be on-site for you to purchase lunch, or bring your own. You do not have to be a current Smith Mountain Lake Chamber member to attend.
Amy Adams, executive director of the Institute for Biohealth Innovation at George Mason University, will virtually showcase Mason’s cutting-edge biomedical and health research initiatives between students and the broader community. Hear how the commonwealth is leveraging its communities to commercialize biotech and drive momentum across Virginia’s economy. Beer & Biotech is an ecosystem-building series that brings together investors, physicians, academics, inventors, startups and state and regional leaders who are influential in the biotechnology industry. Each event in the yearlong series will feature a local, regional or national speaker and include plenty of time for networking at the host brewery.
Where: Big Lick Brewing Co., 409 Salem Ave. SW, Roanoke
The 2022 Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce Women’s Leadership Conference will take place Aug. 1. Art historian and lawyer Amy Herman will once again be our keynote speaker, and will present her paradigm-shattering twist on problem-solving that helps us find solutions to the problems we face every day. Seating is limited and reservations are required. Payment is required prior to admission. Go to https://www.montgomerycc.org for more info, or to register online.
Where: The Inn at Virginia Tech & Skelton Conference Center, 901 Prices Fork Road, Blacksburg
When: Register by July 22! Event is Aug. 1, 8:45 a.m. to 4:15 p.m.
Roanoke Regional Small Business Development Center is pleased to announce the first annual Foodiepreneur Symposium. This one-of-a-kind day is built for existing and soon-to-be food entrepreneurs to be inspired and to take it to the next level. It’s an all-day affair with resources, vendors, workshops, industry experts and networking (and of course, food!). Tickets are on sale now. To learn more about sponsorship opportunities or to purchase tickets, please visit https://www.roanokesmallbusiness.org/foodie.
Where: Vinton War Memorial, 814 E. Washington Ave., Vinton
Join us for coffee and refreshments courtesy of our host, Smith Mountain Lake Association. This event provides a structured and supportive networking environment for chamber members.
Information on public events of interest to businesspeople can be emailed to upcoming@roanoke.com. Deadline for submissions is two weeks before the event.
Get the latest local business news delivered FREE to your inbox weekly.
A year after the heat dome event that killed billions of plants and animals in British Columbia, scientists say ecosystems are recovering, but could be transformed forever if such events become more frequent.
Cold-water marine species could be replaced by warm-water organisms, triggering cascading effects through the environment, said Christopher Harley, a zoology professor at the University of British Columbia.
“If we had another heat wave this summer, it would be a problem,” he said. “An ecosystem might be able to handle a big heat wave once every few decades — there’s enough time for recovery — but if it starts hitting every four or five years, the species that we’re used to just can no longer persist.”
Lessons learned from last year’s heat dome
Lessons learned from last year’s heat dome
Dozens of temperature records were set during the heat dome. The high-pressure system settled over Western Canada, acting as a lid to trap a layer of hot air that got progressively hotter for about a week. Three successive Canadian records were set in the town of Lytton, where the temperature topped out at 49.6 C on June 30, the day before a fire destroyed most of the village.
Story continues below advertisement
The heat caused more than 600 human deaths, the BC Coroners Service reported. It also led to mass mortalities of marine life, reduced crop yields and contributed to wildfires, which later caused devastating landslides last fall.
Diane Srivastava, director of the Canadian Institute for Ecology and Evolution, organized a group of scientists now working to understand the heat dome’s impact on species and ecosystems. She said some were “immediate and obvious” but several years of data is required to “get a full picture of the longer-term effects.”
Harley, a member of the group, said the heat wave caught researchers off guard and they are now “scrambling to understand” what it will mean for the oceanic ecosystem.
“I’m a bit embarrassed to say we don’t know (the ecological consequences) because it hadn’t occurred to us to ask what would happen if it got hot enough to kill billions of marine animals,” he said. “That heat dome was so far outside of what anyone expected.”
Rebuilding Lytton for a much hotter, more dangerous future
Rebuilding Lytton for a much hotter, more dangerous future
Scientists initially estimated more than a billion marine animals died along the Pacific coast. Harley, who has studied shorelines on the West Coast since 1995, said this was an underestimation.
Story continues below advertisement
“Easily many billions of animals died,” he said. “It was a perfect storm of a few different things. It was obviously much, much hotter than usual and those high temperatures coincided with very low tides.”
Species with mobility had a higher survival rate than those that anchor to rocks in shallow waters, he explained.
“Mussels aren’t back yet and some of the common seaweeds are not, but baby barnacles are having the time of their lives. They’re all over the place and the first step in recovery is (when) they come in,” he said. “The foundation has now been laid.”
Adam Ford, an assistant professor and Canada Research Chair in Wildlife Restoration Ecology at the University of British Columbia, said the large mammals he studies were far less impacted by the heat than oceanic life.
“We’ve got a couple of years of data under our belt and there wasn’t a bump in mortality or anything during that time.”
He said this is because large mammals are homeothermic, meaning they can regulate their body temperatures, and were able to move to cooler areas to avoid direct heat.
Karen Hodges, a professor of conservation ecology at the University of British Columbia, said most mobile animals and those that burrow into the soil likely fared better during the wildfires that followed the heat dome than those unable to flee quickly. She said it’s difficult to estimate total deaths because it would require “many assumptions about animal densities” before the fires.
Story continues below advertisement
How fast an area’s ecosystem recovers depends on environmental aspects like soil moisture, but hinges on fire management practices and climate change response, Hodges said.
“The answer to what comes back becomes a question of what humans do to these landscapes in the next decade, two decades if you want to be generous, because we could either set up the conditions for low levels of frequent, small fires or we could set up conditions that enable repeats of these massive fires,” she said. “It’s a pivotal time.”
Ford echoed the call for better wildfire practices to mitigate the impacts of intense heat.
“We already know that climate change and poor management practices, like fire suppression, for the last 50 to 70 years has really degraded the health of our forests. So you put those two things together, we’ve got a recipe for catastrophic failures that trickled through all sorts of areas of society, including biodiversity,” he said.
“We need to figure out how we put fire back on the landscape in an amount and intensity that restores habitat for wildlife and people.”
Wildland fires are a natural part of the forest ecosystem and important for maintaining the health and diversity of the forest, Natural Resources Canada says on its website.
Story continues below advertisement
“Prescribed fires offer a valuable resource management tool for enhancing ecological conditions and eliminating excessive fuel buildup,” the website says.
Proactive wildfire risk management
For decades, scientists in B.C. have been calling for the use of low-severity fires to “maintain” forest health by creating fire breaks. Hodges said fire suppression efforts made to protect communities eliminated many of those natural breaks, allowing fires to spread more easily.
She said the provincial report following B.C.’s historic 2003 wildfires, which forced the evacuation of over 45,000 people from the province’s interior, was a turning point.
“That report is full of advice about letting some fires burn, about FireSmart communities and about prescribed fire and all sorts of things that the province basically didn’t do, but that advice has been in government hands since at least that report,” she said.
Story continues below advertisement
Hodges said large fires can also compound climate change-related weather events, like the catastrophic floods that took place in B.C. last fall. She said fires that kill thousands of trees affect soil composition and can make it hydrophobic, meaning it repels water. Then, when heavy rains occur, water isn’t absorbed into the soil, causing landslides.
“Things like this are way more common after these big, hot lethal fires than after the small run-of-the-mill fires we’ve had in our history,” she said.
The Ministry of Forests said in a statement that it uses prescribed burning as “one of several fuel management tools and techniques to help reduce the intensity of naturally occurring wildfires while returning an integral process to the ecosystem.”
Rachel White, the lead author of a report on the widespread ecological impacts of the 2021 heat wave, currently under peer review, said the lack of synthesized data has been a major barrier for scientists.
“We’re going to have more frequent and hotter heat waves, and this is going to have an impact on all of the ecology. In order to monitor that, we need data,” she said.
“We need that data in order to actually understand what the impacts are and, once we know how systems are responding now, that gives us more information to say how they’ll respond in the future if the climate continues to warm through human actions.”
Story continues below advertisement
Harley, the zoology professor, and his team is working to better understand what makes an ecosystem more or less sensitive to heat waves.
“There may be small changes that we can make so ecosystems are more resistant to something like a big heat wave or a big drought,” he said.
With better home security, Metro Vancouver thieves turn to new targets outside homes
With better home security, Metro Vancouver thieves turn to new targets outside homes
Srivastava said the Institute for Ecology and Evolution has been advocating for a provincial biodiversity monitoring network.
“Events like this sort of point out the need to have such a monitoring network for biodiversity already in place, which would allow us to have a long-term monitoring of many populations,” she said. “Instead, what we’re having to do is pull together data from many different sources to try to see the immediate effects and then the long-term effects.”
She said the development of a network is “a recent and ongoing subject of conversation” with provincial and federal governments.
Story continues below advertisement
B.C.’s Environment Ministry confirmed it is working to synthesize ecology research and data on climate change as part of its new Climate Preparedness and Adaptation Strategy.
“Understanding how climatic disruption will affect ecosystems is essential to responding to climate change,” it said in a statement. “The province is supporting the establishment of an Ecosystem Forecast Centre within the Ministry of Forests to build expertise and resources to translate technical climate change projections into forecasts of ecosystem change in B.C.”
“It was a grind,” she said, “because we created virtual Jane and virtual Jane could do Zooms and Zoom interviews and attend conferences every day.”
Goodall, 88, said she keeps telling her story both online and in person to try to inspire others to find their own way to deal with threats such as climate change and the loss of biodiversity.
“If we don’t have hope, then we become apathetic and do nothing. So, if we all become apathetic and do nothing, we’re doomed,” she said.
“We are at a critical juncture and it’s desperately important that people get together and actually take action.”
Climate change is altering the water cycle and has led to floods, droughts and wildfires. It has also driven biodiversity loss, with research suggesting that a million plant and animal species are at risk of extinction around the world.
Both have happened, Goodall said, because of a lack of respect for the natural world.
“We need to remember that we are part of the natural world and, in fact, we depend on it,” she said. “We depend on it for clean air, water, food, everything.”
Goodall said that means having a healthy ecosystem.
“I see an ecosystem as a beautiful tapestry and, within that tapestry, each species of plant and animal has a role to play,” she said. “As they become extinct from that ecosystem, it’s like pulling threads from the tapestry until it hangs in tatters and then the ecosystem will collapse.”
She said people need to learn to live with species such as wolves, which are an important part of the ecosystem, and people also need to do their part to help restore nature.
“I think we’ve somehow got to reach into people’s hearts,” she said.
“You’ve got to find stories to help them realize that this is a crisis, but I actually can do something.”
Some, she said, may feel as though they are just one person who picks up plastic trash each day and isn’t making much of a difference. “But, when you think that there are millions of people picking up bits of trash, you realize it is making a difference. Collectively, a big difference.”
Goodall said Roots and Shoots, a youth leadership program that’s part of the Jane Goodall Institute, helps young people figure out how they can help.
“If our young people lose hope, we’ve had it,” she said. “It’s not true that nothing can be done.
“We’ve got this window of time — I have no idea how big that window is, I know it’s still closing — and so Roots and Shoots is about giving young people hope by empowering them to take action, to choose themselves projects to make the world a better place.”
She said the program has members from kindergarten to university, and adult groups are also forming.
“This is my greatest hope for the future,” said Goodall.
“That, and our brain that is beginning to turn to finding ways to heal the harm we’ve inflicted and the resilience of nature — that places we have destroyed can once again support nature and animals on the brink of extinction have been rescued.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on June 24, 2022.
CALGARY – Jane Goodall says she’s sharing a message of hope and a cry to action as she returns to the stage for live events.
The scientist, who’s best known for her work with wild chimpanzees in Africa, was in Calgary on Wednesday and was scheduled to give another talk in Victoria on Friday night.
“It’s my first trip to Canada in three years, because of the pandemic, and it’s my third trip anywhere,” Goodall said in an interview Wednesday before her Calgary event.
Like many, she spent the past two-and-a-half years of the pandemic working from home and delivering her message online.
“It was a grind,” she said, “because we created virtual Jane and virtual Jane could do Zooms and Zoom interviews and attend conferences every day.”
Goodall, 88, said she keeps telling her story both online and in person to try to inspire others to find their own way to deal with threats such as climate change and the loss of biodiversity.
“If we don’t have hope, then we become apathetic and do nothing. So, if we all become apathetic and do nothing, we’re doomed,” she said.
“We are at a critical juncture and it’s desperately important that people get together and actually take action.”
Climate change is altering the water cycle and has led to floods, droughts and wildfires. It has also driven biodiversity loss, with research suggesting that a million plant and animal species are at risk of extinction around the world.
Both have happened, Goodall said, because of a lack of respect for the natural world.
“We need to remember that we are part of the natural world and, in fact, we depend on it,” she said. “We depend on it for clean air, water, food, everything.”
Goodall said that means having a healthy ecosystem.
“I see an ecosystem as a beautiful tapestry and, within that tapestry, each species of plant and animal has a role to play,” she said. “As they become extinct from that ecosystem, it’s like pulling threads from the tapestry until it hangs in tatters and then the ecosystem will collapse.”
She said people need to learn to live with species such as wolves, which are an important part of the ecosystem, and people also need to do their part to help restore nature.
“I think we’ve somehow got to reach into people’s hearts,” she said.
“You’ve got to find stories to help them realize that this is a crisis, but I actually can do something.”
Some, she said, may feel as though they are just one person who picks up plastic trash each day and isn’t making much of a difference. “But, when you think that there are millions of people picking up bits of trash, you realize it is making a difference. Collectively, a big difference.”
Goodall said Roots and Shoots, a youth leadership program that’s part of the Jane Goodall Institute, helps young people figure out how they can help.
The Free Press | Newsletter
Shelley Cook | Uplift
A weekly review of funny, uplifting news in Winnipeg and around the globe that is delivered to your inbox each Wednesday.
“If our young people lose hope, we’ve had it,” she said. “It’s not true that nothing can be done.
“We’ve got this window of time — I have no idea how big that window is, I know it’s still closing — and so Roots and Shoots is about giving young people hope by empowering them to take action, to choose themselves projects to make the world a better place.”
She said the program has members from kindergarten to university, and adult groups are also forming.
“This is my greatest hope for the future,” said Goodall.
“That, and our brain that is beginning to turn to finding ways to heal the harm we’ve inflicted and the resilience of nature — that places we have destroyed can once again support nature and animals on the brink of extinction have been rescued.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on June 24, 2022.
ANN ARBOR – Birds, bees, butterflies and bats work hard to keep Tree Town green by carrying pollen between flowing area plants.
On Saturday, June 25, the City of Ann Arbor Natural Area Preservation will help local pollinators by clearing weeds and invasive plant species at two parks.
Between 9 a.m. and noon, volunteers will gather at the Dolph Bioswale and remove aggressive non-native plants so as to create a bountiful ecosystem. According to a release, community members can meet NAP workday helpers at the trailhead off Parklake Avenue.
Starting at 1 p.m., volunteers can meet at Lakewood Nature Area to clear invasive weeds so that Lakewood pollinators have better access to the nature area’s unique Kentucky coffeetree plants. Volunteers will meet at the park entrance on Sunnywood Drive and will work until 4 p.m.
The two Ann Arbor events are planned as part of National Pollinator Week, a nationwide effort by the nonprofit Pollinator Partnership.
Tools will be provided but participants should plan to wear long pants, gloves and close-toed shoes, says a release.
Online preregister for NAP events is encouraged. Register to help at Dolph Bioswale here, and at Lakewood Nature Area here.
Some concerned Calgarians are urging people to think twice before firing up the lights around their homes each night.
Reducing the use of those lights would help those studying the stars and also improve life here on Earth.
“As the light pollution grows, that background light gets brighter and brighter, and begins to hide all the very faint and interesting things we’re trying to study,” University of Calgary astronomy professor Phil Langill said.
Langill and several of his students are spreading the word on an event that begins Friday, April 22: International Dark Sky Week.
“To remind people about the light that they use at night and the ill effects that it can have,” Langill said.
Story continues below advertisement
“If there’s a big bright street light across the street shining into your window, that interrupts the quality of your sleep. When I get behind on my sleep, I’m a sitting duck for getting a cold and I get cranky.”
Jasper Dark Sky Festival gets underway
Jasper Dark Sky Festival gets underway – Oct 16, 2021
Using an abundance of lights can also cause problems for wildlife.
“Where there are lots of tall buildings, the birds get confused. They think that maybe they’re flying through a forest and the light is the space between the trees,” Langill said.
“They crash into the buildings and die. It’s very sad.”
University of Alberta dark sky preserve observatory a first for Western Canada
University of Alberta dark sky preserve observatory a first for Western Canada – Jan 16, 2021
People promoting International Dark Sky Week are encouraging others to take steps to cut back on their use of lights.
Story continues below advertisement
“It’s always good to be a little bit more mindful when you’re using lights and take a moment to turn them off when you don’t need them,” U of C student Avmeet Kaur said.
Earth Week kicks off with several events around Chicago
Earth Week has kicked off with many events around the Chicago area leading up to Earth Day April 22.
CHICAGO – Earth Week has kicked off with many events around the Chicago area leading up to Earth Day on April 22.
With raging wildfires, rising floodwaters and destructive storms, the world keeps seeing worsening effects of the climate crisis.
But instead of getting overwhelmed, this week is about getting to work.
“We need to get beyond gloom and doom into things that are very simple. Sometimes that can make a difference,” said David Husemoller, Sustainability Manager, College of Lake County.
At the College of Lake County, they brought in a rap activist to kick off Earth Week as one of many new ways to talk about issues such as plastic use.
“Not everybody wants to hear a chemist talk about that and some people are more artistically inclined, so we’re reaching vastly different audiences,” said Husemoller.
At the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, one Earth Week event brings home an alum who is now a Harvard law professor, and has argued several climate change cases in front of the Supreme Court.
“If you want to really find the source of the problem. I don’t think it’s fair to blame the Supreme Court. I think the real source of the problem is Congress,” said Professor Richard Lazarus, Harvard Law School.
Lazarus says the high court wants Congress to change laws, but that deadlocked body hasn’t passed an air pollution law since 1990.
The theme of Earth Day this year is “Invest In Our Planet” and Lazarus says many businesses are doing that by moving away from coal and gas because it’s good business.
“Why were the companies doing it? Because they’re a big environmentalist? No, they were doing it because it was where the bottom line was.”
Friday is Earth Day, but there are events all week from spring-cleaning in Waukegan to a seed give away at Pullman National Monument.
Plus, there are many clean-ups for communities, parks and forest preserves.