Science & Climate

Researchers say some glaciers in Western Canada and the United States lost 12 per cent of their mass from 2021 to 2024, doubling melt rates compared to the previous decade.  Researcher says loss is equivalent to a billion pickup trucks worth of water annually. Researchers say some glaciers in Western …

Dalhousie University researchers analyzed data collected over more than half a century to assess how two types of phytoplankton are responding to climate change. Phytoplankton are the base of the ocean food web and help remove carbon dioxide from air. Two main types of phytoplankton have been decreasing in biomass …

Southern resident killer whales are using kelp for what scientists suspect are both hygienic and social purposes.  Other mammals use tools and groom each other, but the whales’ situation is distinct, says researcher. In pricey spas, kelp facials and body wraps can set the esthetically inclined human back hundreds of …

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory, which houses a telescope with the largest digital camera ever built, has revealed its first images.  Telescope in Chile also detected more than 2,000 new asteroids. The Vera C. Rubin Observatory, which houses a telescope with the largest digital camera ever built, has revealed its …

Earth lives in a shooting gallery, with small and large rocky bodies in abundance in our solar system. Are we in danger of being hit by something big? The last significant event was over Chelyabinsk, Russia, in 2013. A week ago, the new Vera C. Rubin Observatory released its first …

It sounds like something from a futuristic film: Technology that allows users to control their environment with mere thoughts. But for kids with disabilities in Ontario, it’s an emerging reality that’s helping them connect with the world around them in unprecedented ways.  ‘It’s giving them a tool that they didn’t …

Indigenous and riverine communities in the Loreto region of the Peruvian Amazon have “chronic exposure” to mercury, according to a new study — and experts say the biggest culprit is gold mining in the region.  Illegal gold mining operations dumping mercury into the Amazon River is a central factor, experts …

The massive fluctuations in Lake Superior’s water levels have caught the eye of scientists, who think they’re the result of a type of tsunami wave called a meteotsunami. Meteotsunamis are driven by air-pressure disturbances often tied to fast-moving weather events such as severe thunderstorms and squalls.  Experts still trying to …

In this issue of our environmental newsletter, we see how and why grassy sidewalk strips and medians are being transformed in Boston, map what neighbourhoods are buying EVs in B.C. and Ontario, and hear from companies about why some of them have stopped talking about their climate goals.  Also: Where …

Inactive and abandoned oil and gas wells in Canada are a much bigger climate problem than previously thought, emitting seven times more methane than the official estimates, according to a new study from researchers at McGill University.  New McGill study is the largest effort ever to measure non-producing oil and …