This Week's Environmental Wrap Up
- Dylan Evans
- Feb 16, 2024
- 3 min read
Updated: Feb 26, 2024
Monday: According to Sponges We’re Warming
A new study suggests that the Earth has warmed almost half a degree more than suspected. Scientists measured average temperatures from the past 300 years using organisms called sclerosponges. They concluded that human activity before 1900 may have played a larger role in warming than original consensus would suggest. This has led them to believe that the period of warming caused by industrialization started in the 1860s, earlier than previously thought. Although it will take more evidence to prove definitely, it raises the question: are pre 1900s temperatures correctly accounted for?
Tuesday: Garry Oaks Gone?
In November Bill 44 was passed in the B.C. legislature. The bill aimed to aid the ongoing housing crisis but its side effects could prove dire for urban trees, especially Garry Oaks. Allowing developers to rezone and build multifamily houses on once single family plots the legislation eliminates the ability for municipalities to fight for their trees. In Victoria this could result in the loss of much of the precious few remaining Garry Oaks in and around the city. Currently, there is no legislation that protects urban trees in B.C., in fact, there isn’t even a standalone law to protect ecosystems at risk of extinction. With potentially irreversible effects to the environment it is up to us to call on MLAs in British Columbia to fight for us to establish protection for our urban nature.
Wednesday: Trees Make the Clouds
A new study points out that climate models don’t accurately account for cloud formation from forests. As the air quality across Earth trends upwards from strengthening air regulations it is becoming apparent that the natural particles from trees play an important role in cloud formation. Trees naturally release organic gases into the air which help to form rain under the right conditions. It is predicted that as climate change raises the global temperature forests will produce more of these organic gases thus creating more rain. The effects of this effect are yet to be seen but it’s easy to wonder if increased precipitation will help certain regions while robbing others of their water.
Thursday: Going to Court for the Orcas
Did the Feds disregard an endangered species law for profit? That is the question the courts will answer soon enough. Ecojustice representing a slew of environmental groups will battle in court later this year over whether the federal government disregarded the Species at Risk Act to build a new port in Metro Vancouver. If built, it would double the size of Canada's largest port but put vulnerable orca and salmon populations at risk. The Fraser River which the port would sit in is the largest sockeye producing river in the world, not to mention the fact that the Fraser River estuary is a biodiversity hotspot. Millions of birds migrate from Peru to Alaska each year stopping in the estuary along the way, the new development could threaten that as well. It will be interesting to see how the court views the situation and even more so how the situation will play out in the long run. We can only hope that the project, if allowed by law, will not decimate another invaluable ecosystem.
Friday: Clean or Green(washing)
As sustainability and environmental consciousness creep into everybody's minds, have corporations been taking advantage of our bids to help save the climate? The federal Competition Bureau thinks so. Greenwashing, when companies make misleading statements about their environmental friendliness, is technically fraud. The bureau calls it “eco-fraud” and it is becoming more prevalent than ever. As corporations stand to gain large profits from advertising themselves as sustainable or carbon-neutral the Competition Bureau has started to crackdown on misleading, false, and unsubstantiated environmental claims. While greenwashing is being prosecuted after the fact, there is apparently little that can be done to stop it in the first place. For this reason, it is essential for everyone as a consumer to be mindful of claims of environmental friendliness made by companies and for us to conduct our own research into their business practices.
SOURCES:
The Narwhal.
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