GM Canada president Kristian Aquilina stopped in Metro Vancouver to promote his company's push to grow in B.C.'s booming electric vehicle market. His visit comes amid ongoing debates about B.C.'s ambitious EV sales targets, which some automakers say are tough to meet under current conditions. Why it matters:
There’s a noticeable gap between automakers’ goals and the government’s climate policies as issues like charging infrastructure and the cost of EVs continue to slow down the shift to greener transportation. |
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In climate news this week |
• GM exec challenges B.C. to double down on charging stations
• Debate continues about role of mountain pine beetle in Jasper wildfire
• Ottawa woman celebrates court victory for youth on climate change
• Google backs buildout of small nuclear reactors to run AI data centres |
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Climate change quick facts |
• The Earth is now about 1.2 C warmer than it was in the 1800s.
• Scientists have confirmed 2023 was the hottest year on record, smashing the 2016 record. It's expected 2024 will beat last year's record.
• Human activities have raised atmospheric concentrations of CO2 by nearly 49 per cent above pre-industrial levels starting in 1850.
• The world is not on track to meet the Paris Agreement target to keep global temperature from exceeding 1.5 C above pre-industrial levels, the upper limit to avoid the worst fallout from climate change.
• On the current path of carbon dioxide emissions, the temperature could increase by as much as 4.4 C by the end of the century.
• In April, 2022 greenhouse gas concentrations reached record new highs and show no sign of slowing. • Emissions must drop 7.6 per cent per year from 2020 to 2030 to keep temperatures from exceeding 1.5 C. • 97 per cent of climate scientists agree that the climate is warming and that human beings are the cause.
(Source: United Nations IPCC, World Meteorological Organization, UNEP, Nasa, climatedata.ca)
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GM exec challenges B.C. to double down on charging stations |
GM Canada president Kristian Aquilina made a stop in Metro Vancouver last week to boost his company’s sales pitch to become a bigger force in B.C.’s evolving zero-emission vehicle market.
With the province boasting some 250,000 EVs on the road and sales still on the rise, Aquilina said drivers here have built a history of ownership, which GM hopes to appeal to with a new roster of vehicles.
“We have fairly lofty and ambitious goals to drive that EV adoption nationally,” Aquilina said from behind the wheel of a sleek new Chevy Equinox EV. “B.C. becomes important because there is an educated consumer base here.” |
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Debate continues about role of mountain pine beetle in Jasper wildfire |
As Jasper recovers from the wildfire that destroyed nearly a third of the town, some critics blame mountain pine beetle for turning the iconic national park into a tinderbox.
Antonia Musso, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Alberta who has been working with mountain pine beetle in Alberta since 2016, is one of many experts who isn’t convinced the infestation played a role.
“I think it’s really unlikely that the kill from the pine beetle had an impact on the wildfire in Jasper,” Musso said.
While older scientific literature suggests that beetle-killed trees would increase the severity of wildfires, more recent literature indicates that it depends on how long it has been since the outbreak. |
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Montreal winters not as snowy, McGill study finds |
At the turn of the millennium, Montreal received one-third less snow in the winter compared with the 19th century, reveals an analysis of decades of meteorological data compiled by McGill University.
“We realize we’re more obsessed with snow today than we were previously, even though there was more snow in the past, because there used to be more of it,” said professor Frédéric Fabry, director of McGill’s Bieler School of Environment.
“However, flooding is equally as catastrophic.”
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Ottawa woman celebrates court victory for youth on climate change |
Ottawa’s Alexandra Neufeldt was 23 years old when she decided to join an unusual bid to win provincial action on climate change.
Neufeldt put herself forward five years ago as one of seven young plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the provincial government, alleging its greenhouse gas emissions policy violated the constitutional rights of Ontario’s youth.
They said the government’s decision to claw back emissions targets in 2018 violated the Charter’s guarantee of their rights to equality, life and security of the person. |
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Google backs buildout of small nuclear reactors to run AI data centres |
Alphabet Inc.’s Google is investing in the development of the next generation of nuclear power, backing a company that’s building small modular reactors and agreeing to purchase energy once the sites start supplying US grids.
Google signed an agreement with Kairos Power to construct a series of so-called SMRs that use molten-salt cooling technology. The move is part of an effort to bring online new carbon-free electricity as the company builds out data centers in the next decade, said Michael Terrell, senior director of energy and climate at Google. Power supplies are expected to start between 2030 and 2035.
The deal, which will back 500 megawatts of power, includes Kairos’s 50-megawatt demonstration Hermes project in Tennessee, followed by commercial scale reactors sized at 75 megawatts, the companies said. |
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Climate change matters to seniors, and we're taking action |
Three weeks ago, On Oct. 1, older adults in more than 70 cities and towns across Canada chose to brand the underwhelmingly celebrated National Seniors Day as the first National Seniors for Climate Day. Events included rallies, parades, rocking-chair “sit-ins,” panel discussions, participatory roundtables and more.
All this emerged from an idea hatched just a few months ago. It was beautifully orchestrated with a minimal budget and a very inclusive touch by a handful of organizations and people, and by whoever put their hand up in each of the participating communities. It had a “time has come” feel to it. |
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