Canada Letter: The Great Miss on Climate Change

The Times’s recent Canada-related coverage with back stories and analysis from our reporters along with opinions from our readers. View in [Browser]( | Add nytdirect@nytimes.com to your address book. [The New York Times]( [The New York Times]( Friday, August 3, 2018 [NYTimes.com/Canada »]( [The Great Miss on Climate Change]( By IAN AUSTEN Canada has a lot of fresh water. Every year [its rivers spill out]( about 7 percent of the world’s renewable water supply into oceans. [A wildfire burned last month on a mountain in the distance east of Cache Creek, British Columbia.] A wildfire burned last month on a mountain in the distance east of Cache Creek, British Columbia. Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press, via Associated Press But in the era of climate change, that doesn’t mean Canada is without water worries. As heat waves continued to bake the coastlines of British Columbia and Vancouver Island, this week the province moved the area’s drought rating to its second-highest level, urging coastal residents to cut back on water use. Tina Neale, who [keeps tabs on water levels]( for the province’s Environment Ministry, told me that her group was particularly concerned that the flow of three rivers on lower Vancouver Island might fall to dangerously low levels that could endanger fish and which might force the province to limit how much water communities, householders and industries could draw. Drying up rivers aren’t the only problem linked to B.C.’s heat. Last year was one of the worst seasons on record for forest fires in B.C. This year is shaping up to be not much better. As of Friday morning, there were [741 wildfires active]( in the province. Of course, B.C. isn’t the only place in Canada or the world that’s heating up and drying out this summer. Earlier this week, I changed planes in England after reporting at the Tour de France, and was stunned to see the grounds of Windsor Castle as brown and desiccated as the landscape I’d just witnessed in southern France. [Read: U.K. [‘Heat Wave’? Irish ‘Drought’? Unfamiliar Words for Unfamiliar Times]( In Japan, where record temperatures have made some outdoor pools too hot for swimmers, the consequences have been severe. Temperatures over 40 degrees Celsius (that’s 104 degrees Fahrenheit for American readers) have sent 57,534 people to hospital for heat-related reasons and killed 125 others over the past three months. [Read: [In Japan, Deadly Heat Wave Tests Endurance of Even the Most Stoic]( And of course, Canada had its own grim toll of heat-related deaths in Montreal last month as my colleague Dan Bilefsky reported. [Read: [Record-Smashing Heat Wave Kills 33 in Quebec]( [Smoke from forest fires blanketed an area near Killarney, Ontario, last month as firefighters worked on a boat.] Smoke from forest fires blanketed an area near Killarney, Ontario, last month as firefighters worked on a boat. Fred Thornhill/The Canadian Press, via Associated Press But here’s the thing: The world had an opportunity to prevent all this. We fumbled it. Nathaniel Rich spend a year and a half reporting a [two-part article for The New York Times Magazine]( where he is a writer at large, looking at the period between 1979 and 1989 when the causes and consequences of climate change first became well known. What he discovered is as fascinating as it is frustrating. “We had an excellent opportunity to solve the climate crisis,” Nathaniel wrote. “The world’s major powers came within several signatures of endorsing a binding, global framework to reduce carbon emissions — far closer than we’ve come since. During those years, the conditions for success could not have been more favorable. The obstacles we blame for our current inaction had yet to emerge. Almost nothing stood in our way — nothing except ourselves.” The article comes shortly after Doug Ford, the relatively new premier of Ontario, said that [he was joining Saskatchewan]( in a court challenge of the carbon tax the federal government will impose on the two provinces. While Mr. Ford’s government has promised to come up with an alternative way to reduce emissions, it has offered virtually no details. And this week in Washington, the Trump administration [eased pollution restrictions]( and fuel economy standards for cars. Take time this summer weekend to read Nathaniel’s article about one of history’s greatest near misses and its consequences. [Read: [Losing Earth: The Decade We Almost Stopped Climate Change]( A Potomac-Rideau Gathering [Three Times reporters are coming to Ottawa to discuss the implications of the midterm elections in the United States.] Three Times reporters are coming to Ottawa to discuss the implications of the midterm elections in the United States. Erin Schaff for The New York Times I’m delighted to announce that we will be holding our first New York Times subscriber event [in Ottawa on Sept. 5](. Julie Davis, a White House correspondent, will take time off from the United States’ midterm election campaign trail to discuss the vote’s significance for Canada. She’ll be joined by Jonathan Martin and Astead Herndon, two political reporters. The vote could have implications for President Trump as well as areas vital to Canada’s interests, such as trade. It’s all happening at the National Gallery of Canada, and I’ll be moderating. [Buy Tickets: [Canada and the U.S. Midterm Elections]( Tune In A new month means a new list of recommendations from Watching, our guide to screens big and small, for Netflix viewers in Canada. They include “Touch of Evil,” one of my favorite films (despite several flaws), directed by Orson Welles and in which he also plays a supremely corrupt police captain. Matt Groening, the cartoonist who created “The Simpsons” and “Futurama,” is now back with a new series, “Disenchantment.” It is set in a “medieval realm,” and Watching reports that it features Abbi Jacobson of “Broad City” as the voice of Princess Bean, “an alcoholic royal whose chief companions including a tiny elf (Nat Faxon) and her own ‘personal demon’ (Eric Andre).” [Read: [The Best Movies and TV Shows New to Netflix Canada in August]( Trans Canada Montreal Dispatch [Where Churches Have Become Temples of Cheese, Fitness and Eroticism]( I had been eagerly awaiting Dan Bilefsky’s article about new uses for old churches in Quebec. It appeared this week and it doesn’t disappoint. Dan found that at least one former church in Montreal hosts fetish parties. Another serves as a restaurant for the socially disadvantaged as well as down-on-their-luck artists. [The Azmi Sisters Go Hard in Ball Hockey. Don’t Act So Surprised.]( Curtis Rush, a regular hockey contributor to The Times, has a very different sort of article about the sport this week. It introduces the six Azmi sisters who, wearing hijabs under their helmets, have become a force in the Toronto Women’s Ball Hockey Association. [The Freshest Ideas Are in Small Grocery Stores]( After decades during which grocery stores grew to factorylike proportions, small is the new thing. Kim Severson, who reports about food for The Times, visited several shops. Among them: Nada in Vancouver, where everything, including toothpaste, is sold without packaging. [Cellphones and Crosswalks: A Hazardous Mix]( It’s perhaps not surprising that researchers at the University of British Columbia found that pedestrians talking or texting on their phones are slowpokes when crossing the street. But they also concluded that distracted walkers might be more vulnerable to being hit by cars and trucks. Around The Times [Jacques Wirtz, Innovative Landscape Designer, Dies at 93]( Jacques Wirtz, a Belgian who started with a flower nursery in 1946 and later reshaped gardens worldwide as a landscape architect, has died at the age of 93. [Lassie Got Help, Would Your Dog?]( Lassie always got help when Timmy was in trouble. Scientists have now looked into how helpful your dog would be. [Jeff Bezos, Style Icon]( Apparently not content with merely being the richest man in the world, Jeff Bezos of Amazon is transforming himself into a style leader. [Apple’s $1 Trillion Milestone Reflects Rise of Powerful Megacompanies]( Apple became the first company with a value of $1 trillion this week, making it the king of a small group of megacompanies that grab a disproportionate share of corporate profits. (By comparison, Canada’s gross domestic product — the value of all we make — was about $1.6 trillion last year.) Economists are exploring the power and influence wielded by these huge entities. For workers and consumers, their findings are discouraging. HOW ARE WE DOING? We’re eager to have your thoughts about this newsletter and events in Canada in general. Please send them to [nytcanada@nytimes.com](mailto:nytcanada@nytimes.com? subject=Canada%20Letter%20Newsletter%20Feedback). A native of Windsor, Ontario, Ian Austen was educated in Toronto, lives in Ottawa and has reported about Canada for The New York Times for over a decade. Follow him on Twitter at @ianrausten. LIKE THIS EMAIL? Forward it to your friends, and let them know they can sign up [here](. ADVERTISEMENT FOLLOW NYTIMES [Facebook] [FACEBOOK]( [Twitter] [@nytimes]( Get more [NYTimes.com newsletters »]( | Get unlimited access to NYTimes.com and our NYTimes apps. [Subscribe »]( ABOUT THIS EMAIL You received this message because you signed up for NYTimes.com's Canada Letter newsletter. 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