A sweltering heat wave in much of Western Canada in the last week of June had cascading effects on sea life, experts say. Scott Hinch, director of the Pacific salmon ecology and conservation laboratory at the University of British Columbia, said juvenile salmon such as sockeye, coho and chinook in fresh water would have been most affected by recent heat waves. “They’re going to be living in fresh water for one to two years and it’s that life history stage, that this particular heat wave and just climate change in fresh water in particular, is going to have some of its greatest effects,” he said in an interview.
Water shortages and yearly floods: Canada won’t escape climate crisis, UN report says
Damage to Earth’s oceans and glaciers from climate change is outpacing the ability of governments to protect them, a new report from an international scientific panel concludes. “The capacity of governance systems in polar and ocean regions to respond to climate change impacts has strengthened recently,” says the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. “But this development is not sufficiently rapid or robust to adequately address the scale of increasing projected risks.”