El-Ni-o

A sprawling international study of humpback whales in the northern Pacific has found their population has shrunk significantly since 2012 — despite the once-endangered species' remarkable comeback from the brink of extinction. The new research, published in Royal Society Open Science journal on Wednesday, estimated a roughly 20 per cent drop in the cetacean species' numbers over a decade.But despite that, one of the study's nearly 75 listed authors said the findings are not yet cause for alarm.Thomas Doniol-Valcroze is…

For the ninth straight month, Earth has obliterated global heat records — with February, the winter as a whole and the world's oceans setting new high-temperature marks, according to the European Union climate agency Copernicus.The latest record-breaking in this climate change-fuelled global hot streak includes sea surface temperatures that weren't just the hottest for February, but eclipsed any month on record, soaring past August 2023's mark and still rising at the end of the month.And February, as well the previous two…

Our planet is changing. So is our journalism. This weekly newsletter is part of a CBC News initiative entitled "Our Changing Planet" to show and explain the effects of climate change. Keep up with the latest news on our Climate and Environment page.Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox every Thursday.This week: From fashion to burials: How fungi can help fight climate change 2024 has barely started and is already threatening to set temperature records World's globetrotting animals at risk due to habitat…

The 27th annual Great Backyard Bird Count started Friday morning, and throughout the weekend, bird enthusiasts across Canada will be looking to help biologists track bird movements this winter.While the effort put in by any individual can be minimal, as little as 15 minutes, the overall contribution of the event to science is huge, says Samantha Knight, Atlantic stewardship manager with Nature Conservancy of Canada."It takes a big community effort to gather the data needed to understand those population trends," said…

The world just experienced its hottest January on record, but that wasn't the only new record it set, the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said on Thursday.For the first time, the global temperature pushed past the internationally agreed upon warming threshold for an entire 12-month period, with February 2023 to January 2024, running 1.52 C, according to C3S.Last month surpassed the previous warmest January, which occurred in 2020, in C3S's records going back to 1950.Every month since June has been…

By now, most people are well aware that 2023 was the hottest year on record, coming in at 1.48 C warmer than the pre-industrial average from 1850-1900. This beat out 2016's record of 1.25 C.  In climate terms, an increase in warming by 0.23 C is considerable and climate scientists are still trying to figure out why it happened.Was 2023 just a big blip on the upward trend of global warming? Perhaps. Scientists are trying to tease out all the potential contributors.But one of the things that is inarguably a contributor is…

After a year of record-breaking wildfires across Canada and the hottest temperature ever recorded on Earth, it likely comes as no surprise that 2023 was the hottest year on record.According to the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), 2023 was 1.48 C warmer than the pre-industrial average from 1850-1900, beating out 2016's record of 1.25 C. Do you have a question about climate change and what is being done about it? Send an email to [email protected] As we continue to burn fossil fuels and pump greenhouse…

Our planet is changing. So is our journalism. This weekly newsletter is part of a CBC News initiative entitled "Our Changing Planet" to show and explain the effects of climate change. Keep up with the latest news on our Climate and Environment page.Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox every Thursday.This week: Electric garbage trucks clean up in a variety of ways Hot enough for ya? 2023 shattered planetary heat records Carbon offsets are helping protect B.C.'s Great Bear Rainforest. Is that sustainable?…

Every year, Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) ranks the top 10 Canadian weather stories. Senior climatologist David Phillips compiles the list and this year, there was no doubt about what would take the number one position: the record-setting wildfires."There's no drum roll here," Phillips said. "The fires dominated everything.... In 28 years of putting together , it's never been a more obvious number one."Wildfire season got an early start due, in part, to the persistent drought conditions across B.C. and in…

This story is part of CBC Health's Second Opinion, a weekly analysis of health and medical science news emailed to subscribers on Saturday mornings. If you haven't subscribed yet, you can do that by clicking here.In Bangladesh, roughly 300,000 people have been infected with dengue this year during the country's worst-ever outbreak of the mosquito-transmitted disease. By mid-November, the death toll hit close to 1,500, as hospitals in the densely populated South Asian country struggled to cope with the surge in…