Original Broadcaster Captioning (Enhanced). Treat it as a searchable index of what was broadcast, not a quotation record.
00:00:28Hey, I'm Johanna Wagstaff, a meteorologist and part of the
00:00:30CBC News team covering stories on climate change. And we are
00:00:33starting to feel the impacts of those changes in our daily
00:00:36lives and see them in the world around us. In this episode,
00:00:39we'll help make sense of it all, both what's already happening
00:00:42and what could be coming in the future. Let's start by looking
00:00:46at the effects of rising temperatures.
00:07:31Just days before the Winter Olympics in Italy,
00:07:32organizers were quietly panicking because of this green
00:07:36slopes on the Dolomites, slopes that were supposed to
00:07:39host the best skiers and snowboarders. But then,
00:07:42right on cue, a series of storms moved
00:07:44through, blanketing the venues just in
00:07:46time. So officially, that crisis is over. But about
00:07:49two Empire State Buildings worth of snow are part of the
00:07:53backup plan. And this is how modern Winter Olympics operate
00:07:56now. Not will it snow, but will technology come
00:07:59through if it doesn't?
00:08:01Because Italy is not an outlier. In Beijing 2020, two,
00:08:04100% of the snow was artificial. And of course,
00:08:06in Vancouver 2010, snow was trucked in from the
00:08:09interior for the local mountains. At the time,
00:08:12the lack of snow felt like bad luck,
00:08:14but in the end it was more of a preview for winters to come,
00:08:17thanks to climate change. So what does that mean for the
00:08:21future of Winter Olympics? For places that have built
00:08:24their identities around winter, the International Ski and
00:08:27Snowboard Federation has floated the idea of rotating
00:08:30the games
00:08:32between a small number of quote UN quote climate stable venues.
00:08:35New research suggests that by the 20 fifties,
00:08:38more than 70% of past and potential Olympic sites won't
00:08:42be climate reliable. So does Whistler qualify? Well, for now,
00:08:45yes, but it will mean some changes.
00:08:48Whistler Blackcomb is still seen as safer than many
00:08:51European resorts because of its elevation and sheer scale. But
00:08:55even here the cracks are showing. Some are skiing on the
00:08:59Horseman Glacier was suspended indefinitely
00:09:01in 2025, and by mid century climate
00:09:04models suggest that Whistler base could see about half of
00:09:07its winter precipitation fall as rain. Keeping Whistler
00:09:10Olympics ready would mean pushing finishing lines higher
00:09:14up the mountain and leaning heavily on snow making. And the
00:09:17village won't exactly feel like winter Wonderland with mainly
00:09:21rain forecast at 600 meters 25 years on,
00:09:23because snow making only works when temperatures are at or
00:09:27just slightly above 0 and that window is shrinking by the 20
00:09:31fifties. The winter is
00:09:32they currently think of as bad are expected to become average
00:09:36lower elevation hills will have to adapt to year round resorts.
00:09:40The true winter experience moves higher,
00:09:43colder and farther inland. So Whistler and a few others like
00:09:47Calgary, Salt Lake City, UT, and Sapporo, Japan,
00:09:50may indeed be one of the last few places where Winter
00:09:54Olympics still depend on winter, not just engineering.
00:10:03Recent summers have been so hot in Japan,
00:10:06they've invented a new word to describe it. For heat that tops
00:10:1040°C, the new word is Coco shobi. It
00:10:12roughly translates to cruelly hot day. It's a move that makes
00:10:45is different. It's a sobering, modern addition to the lexicon
00:10:49by the Japan Meteorological Agency. It reflect not just the
00:10:54temperature, but how the heat feels in their
00:10:57daily life, like exhausting, overwhelming or even dangerous.
00:11:01The word was chosen by the public via a national poll of
00:11:05nearly half a million people. The reason? It's top of mind?
00:11:092025 was the hottest summer in Japan since records began in
00:11:131898. In fact, more than 1/3 of all the 40°
00:11:17days ever recorded in the last 150 years have happened in just
00:11:21the last three years.
00:11:23The outlook for summer 2026 is also above normal. The IPCC and
00:11:27local meteorologists are warning that the combined
00:11:30effects of rising temps and humidity are increasingly
00:11:33posing a severe risk of mortality. They need people to
00:11:37take action. I think it's especially important for
00:11:40elderly, which would be one in three
00:11:42people over 65 years old in Japan,
00:11:44and they really need to take heed in terms of caring for
00:11:47their bodies and themselves. Parts of Canada can certainly
00:11:51relate to this. Think of the sweltering,
00:11:53heavy days in southern Ontario.
00:11:55In Quebec, where the humidity makes it
00:11:58nearly impossible for the body to cool itself through sweat.
00:12:02These are the most dangerous days of the year. In Japan,
00:12:06that humidity is relentless and months long,
00:12:09amplified by the heat island effect of these massive urban
00:12:13centres. Gradually, yearly, the temperature is rising up.
00:12:17So maybe it's better to name the extreme hot day. It's a
00:12:21it's kind of a warning. Japan is trying to ensure its
00:12:25citizens know exactly what they're up against.
00:12:28By the way, the word that came in second
00:12:30place in that poll? Chomo shobi, which means super,
00:12:33extremely hot day. But it seems extreme just doesn't cut it
00:12:37anymore.
00:14:52Welcome back. Our oceans and waterways are feeling the
00:14:54impacts of climate change. Let's look at what those
00:14:57changes could look like and the consequences they could have.
00:15:03Imagine sea levels were up here instead of down there. This
00:15:06isn't theoretical, it's happening. OK,
00:15:09so not in a couple years, but over a couple centuries.
00:15:12Which means now is exactly what we need to start planning. How
00:15:17we build our cities, how we adapt our coastlines,
00:15:20zoning laws, flood maps, sea walls,
00:15:22wetlands. This is an abstract. It's about staying ahead of the
00:15:27water. Because even if we cap warming at 1.5°C,
00:15:30the oceans aren't done rising.
00:15:32Scientists just rewound the numbers,
00:15:35drawing on ancient coral sediment, fossil shorelines,
00:15:38and found that the last time Earth was this warm, about 125,
00:15:42000 years ago, sea levels were four to 10
00:15:44meters higher. That's because ice takes time to melt,
00:15:48but once it starts, it's hard to stop. Greenland
00:15:51and Antarctica that ice won't collapse overnight,
00:15:54but once they go, they don't quit. It's like
00:15:57tipping a jug of water. You can't freeze it mid poor. Even
00:16:01conservative projections show a 1m
00:16:03sea level rise in 75 years, but it keeps going from there.
00:16:07Right now, about 230 million people live
00:16:10on land less than 1m above sea level,
00:16:12about 1 billion within 10 meters. That's one in eight
00:16:16people on Earth. So no, your entire city isn't going
00:16:20underwater tomorrow. But this is coming,
00:16:22and we've still got time to get ready.
00:19:56Vancouver is one of the wettest cities on earth. Yet when it
00:19:59comes to drinking water,
00:20:03there is a crisis on the horizon. And the proposed
00:20:06solutions are kind of wild. Like a giant straw pipes you
00:20:10can drive through. Maybe even a new source lake. Stick with me.
00:20:14Let's start by understanding the existing drinking water
00:20:17system. I'm standing in front of one of them. This is
00:20:21Capilano Lake, one of three reservoirs on the
00:20:23North Shore Mountains that catch the runoff from 60,
00:20:27000 hectares of protected land. That means no hiking,
00:20:30no camping, no human footprints. We lock
00:20:32down these watersheds a century
00:20:34ago to act as pristine catchment basins for Capilano,
00:20:38Seymour and Coquitlam reservoirs. These giant holdy
00:20:42lakes, if you will, provide the water to 3 million
00:20:46people. That's about half of BC's entire population. The
00:20:50genius of this system is the altitude.
00:20:55The mountains do the heavy lifting using gravity as the
00:20:59primary delivery method. So massive pumping stations and
00:21:02massive amounts of electricity are not needed,
00:21:05just pipes guiding the flow down to your glass. It's a
00:21:08perfect passive system for now. We're very lucky with the
00:21:12system we have. But the system has its limitations. And when
00:21:15the reservoirs are full and they're full and they need to
00:21:19last us throughout the summer, which brings us to conflict
00:21:23number one, climate change. This whole
00:21:25system works because the snow we get in the mountains
00:21:28in the winter slowly melts through the spring and summer,
00:21:32keeping our reservoirs full when demand is the highest.
00:21:35I've looked at the projections for Metro Vancouver snow. By
00:21:39the 20 fifties, the average winter snowpack is
00:21:42expected to decrease by almost 60%. By the twenty 80s,
00:21:45that number is closer to 80%. We're already losing winter
00:21:49snow as the season shifts, getting more of our snow as
00:21:52rain, and we're seeing glimpses of
00:21:55what that looks like when we get to the bottom of our lakes.
00:21:58Too early, Tighter restrictions.
00:22:022026 is the earliest. Metro Vancouver has introduced stage
00:22:052 water restrictions on record. Basically no lawn watering
00:22:09until the fall. And so we know we provide a billion liters in
00:22:13winter, so 1 billion liters. It's the
00:22:16size of BC Place. If you fill it up every day in winter,
00:22:20but in summer that increases by 50%.
00:22:23So how do we get more water when we need it?
00:22:26The first wild plan is the giant straw by the mid twenty
00:22:2930s, Metro Vancouver is launching a
00:22:31second water intake at Coquitlam Lake to double its
00:22:35water withdrawal. The water is already there,
00:22:38it's just physically out of reach of our current pipes.
00:22:41We're tunneling a brand new lower intake to grab that cold,
00:22:45high quality water from the depths. Think of it like
00:22:48sticking a longer straw in your bubble tea to get the last few
00:22:52curls at the bottom of the cup. So they currently
00:22:55provides drinking water to about 1/3 of the region. And
00:22:59with the upgrade, eventually it's going to be
00:23:01able to provide more than half of the region. It's a very Big
00:23:05Lake. It's also very deep. The deepest part is actually below
00:23:09sea level. But even if we have all the water we need,
00:23:12we have to move it. And we live in a major seismic zone
00:23:15conflict #2 our water has to travel under massive bodies of
00:23:19water like the Burrard Inlet to get to your tap. I've done a
00:23:22deep dive into the liquification hazard maps. And
00:23:25the big concern here is that during a large earthquake,
00:23:29the ground, especially near the riverbanks,
00:23:31turned to jello. So if a main pipe snaps 30 meters below the
00:23:34water, you can't just send a scuba
00:23:36diver down to patch it. We could be dry for weeks.
00:23:40About 75% of our primary pipes have been upgraded to seismic
00:23:44resilient joints designed to bend and stretch like this one
00:23:47rather than snap if the earth cracks,
00:23:49correct. This pipe here is 3.2 meters in diameter. So yes,
00:23:52you could drive a small car through there. It's challenging
00:23:56in the sense that, you know, we do have to make sure that
00:23:59the pipes are the right size, right material. And it's going
00:24:02to be able to withstand these large earthquakes that you know,
00:24:06we're one day you're going to see unfortunately, right?
00:24:09But engineering can't solve everything if our habits don't
00:24:12change. That
00:24:13leads us to conflict #3 rising demand. We're adding 35,
00:24:16000 new neighbors every year. Based on forecasted demand and
00:24:20population growth, the region will likely need
00:24:23additional water storage by the mid twenty 30s if relying
00:24:27solely on the current systems capabilities. But it turns out
00:24:31Vancouver also just straight up uses a lot of water. The
00:24:34Vancouver region are the highest per capita water users
00:24:38in in the country. So, you know, it's not a it's not a table we
00:24:42want to be first on, I think. So it's definitely a
00:24:45A2 pronged
00:24:47approach. It's let's all use less and let's plan for the
00:24:50second intake at Coquitlam so we can access more of the the
00:24:53high quality water source water that we have in this region.
00:24:57Even with the longer straw and the bendy pipes,
00:25:00the math still doesn't quite add up for the next century.
00:25:04Metro Vancouver is evaluating 7 mega projects to get us through
00:25:08to 2120. We're talking about entirely new source lakes
00:25:11outside our current map, like Harrison Lake or Pit Lake
00:25:15lakes, by the way, that haven't already been
00:25:18earmarked for BC Hydro use in the future. We're also talking about
00:25:22raising the Seymour Falls Dam by 53 meters. And these are
00:25:25engineering hurdles on unseated territories. Altering these
00:25:29waterways requires decades of engagement with local First
00:25:32Nations. Our 100 year survival equation is a race move. Water
00:25:36from mountains that are losing snow across an earthquake fault
00:25:39line to a sprawling city with a growing number of taps. The
00:25:43Metro Vancouver has planned for 100 years before,
00:25:46so they're betting billions that we can out engineer the clock.
00:25:56Coming up, we're taking a look at stories
00:25:58focused on climate change. Stay with us.
00:28:10And we're back. So how do these changing temperatures impact
00:28:13wildlife? Well, just like humans, animals,
00:28:15plants, insects are forced to adapt to
00:28:17our changing world. For some it means shrinking habitats,
00:28:21but for others new opportunities.
00:28:27A colony of Penguins on an Antarctic island,
00:28:29dramatically shifting their behaviour in the face of
00:28:32climate change. We don't know whether to be
00:28:35a happy or or very sad yet, but for now we're alarmed. The
00:28:39big change? The birds are breeding earlier,
00:28:42a shift that's happening at record speed. Ignacio Martinez
00:28:46led a decade long study on three species of Antarctic
00:28:50Penguins. The sweeping survey relied on time lapse cameras
00:28:54monitoring 37 colonies of Penguins in a region warming
00:28:58three times faster than the rest of the world. All three,
00:29:02Gentoo, Chinstrap and Adelie, moved up their breeding seasons.
00:29:06Gentoos had the biggest change 13 days earlier on average,
00:29:10and up to 24 days for some colonies. When we looked at the
00:29:14time series of 10 years one after the other,
00:29:17we realized like oh damn, this is the fastest change in
00:29:21any vertebrate ever.
00:29:23Shifting breeding patterns could help some species adapt
00:29:26to climate change and has been seen in other plants and
00:29:30animals, but it's not good news for all.
00:29:33And that could pit Penguin species against each other over
00:29:36scarce food and land. Like we only have one species. The
00:29:40chances that species survives is very scarce.
00:29:44Martinez says the findings suggest there could be winners
00:29:48and losers of climate change, but overall it paints A
00:29:51concerning picture for the future of Antarctic Penguins.
00:29:55In Ayat Singh, CBC News, Toronto.
00:29:59Scientists have confirmed something that shouldn't have
00:30:01happened. The first sighting of a mosquito in Iceland. The news
00:30:05sent a buzz around the world. It was a surprise because it
00:30:08was the only country in the world that was mosquito free.
00:30:11But the story isn't really about Iceland,
00:30:14it's about what it means for Canada. Canadian scientists are
00:30:17already modeling what our mosquito future might look like
00:30:20as the climate warms. There are roughly 80 different mosquito
00:30:24species in Canada. Some have been here for centuries and
00:30:27others are newcomers chasing the heat.
00:30:29But Canada's north is warming four times faster than the rest
00:30:33of the world, meaning some parts of the
00:30:36country are entering into the perfect breeding temperature
00:30:39range for mosquitoes. And many of the newcomers carry disease.
00:30:43It is Kulick PNS, which is the vector for West
00:30:46Nile virus, so it has spread geographically
00:30:49from the east of Canada all the way out to the West,
00:30:52most recently seeing it in Edmonton and in Calgary in 2022.
00:30:56These are, this is a species of mosquito
00:30:59that we have never seen previously in these parts of Canada. A species once limited by cold is