{"id":20321,"date":"2026-05-30T21:53:39","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T21:53:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/05\/30\/roundup-of-climate-and-environmental-news-to-may-31-2026-vancouver-sun\/"},"modified":"2026-05-30T21:53:39","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T21:53:39","slug":"roundup-of-climate-and-environmental-news-to-may-31-2026-vancouver-sun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/05\/30\/roundup-of-climate-and-environmental-news-to-may-31-2026-vancouver-sun\/","title":{"rendered":"Roundup of climate and environmental news to May 31, 2026 – Vancouver Sun"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here’s all the latest local and international news concerning climate change for the week of May 25 to May 31, 2026
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Here\u2019s the latest news concerning climate change and biodiversity loss in B.C. and around the world, from the steps leaders are taking to address the problems, to all the up-to-date science.
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Check back every Saturday for more climate and environmental news or sign up for our\u00a0Sunrise\u00a0newsletter\u00a0HERE.<\/a><\/strong><\/em>
\u2022 How sustainable are Vancouver\u2019s AI data centres going to be?
\u2022 Alberta wants to build a second oil pipeline to B.C.\u2018s coast
\u2022 Spring heat dome scorches parts of UK, Europe
Human activities like burning fossil fuels and farming livestock are the main drivers of climate change, according to the UN\u2019s intergovernmental panel on climate change. This causes heat-trapping greenhouse gas levels in Earth\u2019s atmosphere, increasing the planet\u2019s surface and ocean temperature.
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Interested in more newsletters? the latest available data\u00a0<\/a>from the NOAA measured at the Mauna Loa Observatory, a global atmosphere monitoring lab in Hawaii. The NOAA notes there has been a steady rise in CO2 from under 320 ppm in 1960.
\u2022 The global average temperature in 2023 reached 1.48 C higher than the pre-industrial average, according to the EU\u2019s Copernicus Climate Change Service. In 2024, it breached the 1.5 C threshold at 1.55 C.
\u2022 2025 was the third warmest on record after 2024 and 2023, capping the 11th consecutive warmest years.
\u2022 Human activities have raised atmospheric concentrations of CO2 by nearly 49 per cent above pre-industrial levels starting in 1850.
\u2022 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 including sea level rise, and more intense drought, heat waves and wildfires.
\u2022 UNEP\u2019s 2025 Emissions Gap Report, released in early December, shows that even if countries meet emissions targets, global temperatures could still rise by 2.3 C to 2.5 C this century.
\u2022 In June 2025, global concentrations of carbon dioxide exceeded 430 parts per million, a record high.
\u2022 There is global scientific consensus that the climate is warming and that humans are the cause.
(Sources:\u00a0United Nations IPCC<\/a>,\u00a0World Meteorological Organization<\/a>,\u00a0UNEP\u2019s 2025 emissions gap report<\/a>,\u00a0NASA<\/a>,\u00a0Copernicus Climate Change Service<\/a>,\u00a0climatedata.ca<\/a>)
Plans by Telus to build artificial intelligence data centres in Vancouver look modest when compared to massive AI infrastructure in the U.S. that suck up enough electricity to power major cities.
The centres, one under construction in Mount Pleasant and one to be built downtown, along with an existing data centre in Kamloops, are part of Telus\u2019 $1 billion AI Factory project to provide sovereign, Canadian-owned computing power for the burgeoning industry.
But the project finds itself at the centre of a global backlash against AI over the environmental impacts of data centres, and the threat the technology poses to jobs and creative industries.
A group calling itself No AI Data Centres in Vancouver led a protest on May 23 that took over part of downtown for a couple of hours. Some 750 protesters chanted \u201cUse Your Brain\u201d as a rallying cry to encapsulate frustration over the industry\u2019s negative implications.
Westbank, the developer building the facilities for Telus, promises the centres will \u201cset a new standard\u201d for sustainability.
Read the full story here.<\/a>
\u2014Derrick Penner<\/em>
Some First Nations are not immediately saying no to Alberta\u2019s push to build another oil pipeline to the B.C. coast. But the First Nations are clear, before they make any decision, there must be meaningful consultation.
\u201cAs a matter of principle, Nak\u2019azdli Whut\u2019en is not opposed to development in our territory. We have a long history of working with proponents and government where projects are properly assessed,\u201d Maddison Sam, a councillor with the Nak\u2019azdli Whut\u2019en in north-central B.C., said in a statement to Postmedia.
Factors the First Nation considers include impacts on its rights, title, lands and waters, and the lives of its members, families and future generations. It also looks at what benefits are on offer and what proponents suggest to accommodate its concerns.
\u201cWhat we expect, and what the law requires, is meaningful consultation with rights and titleholders before decisions are made; not after,\u201d said Sam.
The Nak\u2019azdli said no route has been made public\u00a0on the Alberta proposal\u00a0and no information has been brought to them with any specifics that would allow them to understand its location or its impacts, and no consultation has been initiated by government.
Read the full story here.<\/a>
\u2014Gordon Hoekstra<\/em>
Tourists visiting some of B.C.\u2019s hottest destinations this summer, including Vancouver Island and the Okanagan, should prepare for\u00a0potential drought\u00a0conditions and\u00a0water conservation measures, say officials.
Some regions, like the Gulf Islands, even recommend travellers bring their own drinking water for their vacation.
Low snowpack, early snowmelt and hot-and-dry weather forecasts are elevating drought hazards, particularly for B.C.\u2019s South Coast and southern Interior, according to the latest snow and water\u00a0bulletin.
Vancouver Island \u2014 home to vacation hot spots such as Tofino, Parksville and Victoria \u2014 has a below-normal snowpack, just 11 per cent of normal as of May 15 while the rest of the South Coast is 33 per cent of normal.
Another tourist favourite, the Okanagan with its vast vineyards and lakeside resorts, also faces drought and elevated wildfire risk with a snowpack at just 16 per cent of normal.
\u201cWithout a doubt the area that\u2019s most concerning and is a record low this year is the Okanagan,\u201d said Jonathan Boyd, a hydrologist with B.C.\u2019s River Forecast Centre. \u201cThe Okanagan was in a deficit for precipitation for the whole fall and winter, and that\u2019s the area where I think the most critical focus is for the potential impact for drought.\u201d
Read the full story here.<\/a>
\u2014Tiffany Crawford<\/em>
For a lot of Londoners trying to work from home a day or two a week, the latest heat wave is turning into a major headache.
On Monday, Britain had its earliest ever tropical night of the season, defined as a temperature above 20 C. On Tuesday, the daytime temperature soared above 35 C, a record for the time of year. Both extremes were registered in the country\u2019s capital.
Gary Woodward, managing director of Airconco, an air conditioning installer based in north London, says his company is now booked out until the end of the summer.
\u201cEven if people are only working two or three days a week from home, they\u2019re still sitting in a converted bedroom, spare room,\u201d Woodward said. It only takes \u201ctwo or three days of extremely hot weather in which people start to become uncomfortable and unable to work, unable to sleep\u201d for demand to shoot up, he said.
With the U.K. experiencing a faster pace of warming than the global average, having access to effective cooling systems is increasingly turning into a necessity.
\u2014Bloomberg News<\/em>
British and European news outlets are reporting an unusual spring heat dome is scorching parts of the continent.
Euronews is reporting<\/a> that experts are calling the heat dome unprecedented and historic. The report says temperatures reached 35 C near London, 39 C in some areas of France and that Britain is\u00a0facing the warmest May on record.
France 24 reports<\/a> that a red alert warning was issued Thursday for Rome because of the heat wave. The media outlet is also reporting a spike in hospitalizations as temperatures hit over 40 C in the central town of Mora on Wednesday.
According to the BBC<\/a>, hundreds of heat records have been broken in France while the U.K.\u2019s Met Office called temperatures over 35 C on Tuesday exceptional for the country even in the middle of summer.
Germany, Spain and Switzerland are also experiencing an unusually hot spring, according to the reports.
The reports are all calling this heat wave a heat dome, which is where an area of high pressure gets stuck, trapping warm air underneath. B.C. experienced a deadly heat dome in 2021, when temperatures soared over 40 C in many areas, including Lytton which hit a record 49.6 C.
In a statement, United Nations climate chief Simon Stiell said the heat dome was a brutal reminder of the spiralling impacts of the climate crisis.
\u201cThe science is clear that human-induced climate change is making these heatwaves more frequent and extreme,\u201d Stiell said.
\u2014Tiffany Crawford<\/em>
A damp towel hangs from a barred window, a fan churns the muggy air: Inmates at the overcrowded Villepinte prison outside Paris say enduring a heatwave that has stifled France in recent days in cramped cells is \u201cinhumane.\u201d
French MP Clementine Autain witnessed the conditions during an unannounced visit on Friday afternoon to the penitentiary in the Seine-Saint-Denis Paris suburb, accompanied by AFP.
\u201cAt night, it\u2019s hot, and mosquitoes get in even though I try to make a sort of mosquito net with my laundry bag,\u201d said one teenaged detainee, adding that \u201ctensions rise more quickly in the heat.\u201d
As Autain visited, another young prisoner was taken back to his cell in a wheelchair after collapsing in the yard. Minors have individual cells, but in the rest of the building it is increasingly common for three detainees to share.
The Villepinte prison has an official capacity of 703, but at the time of Autain\u2019s visit it held 1,332 inmates.
\u2014AFP<\/em>
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