B.C. climate news: Scientists warn that greenhouse gas accumulation is accelerating | Wildfires are affecting water quality in Fraser River | Heat wave grips parts of U.S., U.K.

Here's all the latest local and international news concerning climate change for the week of June 16 to June 22, 2025.

This photo, taken by Sunshine Coast resident John Preissl, shows 'pollen bombs,' a term that describes high pollen counts in the air, often triggered by a sudden increase in temperature. Scientists say the pollen season is getting worse because of climate change. Photo by John Preissl

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Here’s 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 Climate Connected newsletter HERE.

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In climate news this week:

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• Wildfires affecting water quality in Fraser River, say UBC researchers
• Scientists warn that greenhouse gas accumulation is accelerating and more extreme weather will come
• B.C.’s biggest wildfire classified as ’being held’ thanks to recent rain
• Heat wave hits parts of U.S., U.K. on first day of summer
• Eyes of the Beast brings Lytton wildfire and other B.C. climate crises to life

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Human activities like burning fossil fuels and farming livestock are the main drivers of climate change, according to the UN’s intergovernmental panel on climate change. This causes heat-trapping greenhouse gas levels in Earth’s atmosphere, increasing the planet’s surface temperature.

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The panel, which is made up of scientists from around the world, including researchers from B.C., has warned for decades that wildfires and severe weather, such as the province’s deadly heat dome and catastrophic flooding in 2021, would become more frequent and intense because of the climate emergency. It has issued a code red for humanity and warns the window to limit warming to 1.5 C above pre-industrial times is closing.

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According to NASA climate scientists, human activities have raised the atmosphere’s carbon dioxide content by 50 per cent in less than 200 years, and “there is unequivocal evidence that Earth is warming at an unprecedented rate.”

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And it continues to rise. As of June 5, carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has risen to 430.51 parts per million, up from 429.64 ppm last month and 427.09 ppm in March, according to NOAA data 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.

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Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere warms the planet, causing climate change. Human activities have raised the atmosphere’s carbon dioxide content by 50% in less than 200 years, according to NASA.

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Climate change quick facts:

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• The Earth is now about 1.3 C warmer than it was in the 1800s.
• 2024 was hottest year on record globally, beating the record in 2023.
• The global average temperature in 2023 reached 1.48 C higher than the pre-industrial average, according to the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service. In 2024, it breached the 1.5 C threshold at 1.55 C.
• The past 10 years (2015-2024) are the 10 warmest on record.
• Human activities have raised atmospheric concentrations of CO2 by nearly 49 per cent above pre-industrial levels starting in 1850.
• 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.
• On the current path of carbon dioxide emissions, the temperature could increase by as much 3.6 C this century, according to the IPCC.
• In June 2025, global concentrations of carbon dioxide exceeded 430 parts per million, a record high.
• Emissions must drop 7.6 per cent per year from 2020 to 2030 to keep temperatures from exceeding 1.5 C and 2.7 per cent per year to stay below 2 C.
• There is global scientific consensus that the climate is warming and that humans are the cause.

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Latest News

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Getty stock photo of emissions pollution. Photo by river34 /Getty Images/iStockphoto

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Humans are on track to release so much greenhouse gas in less than three years that a key threshold for limiting global warming will be nearly unavoidable, according to a study to be released Thursday.

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The report predicts that society will have emitted enough carbon dioxide by early 2028 that crossing an important long-term temperature boundary will be more likely than not. The scientists calculate that by that point there will be enough of the heat-trapping gas in the atmosphere to create a 50-50 chance or greater that the world will be locked in to 1.5 C of long-term warming since pre-industrial times.

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That level of gas accumulation, which comes from the burning of fuels like gasoline, oil and coal, is sooner than the same group of 60 international scientists calculated in a study last year.

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“Things aren’t just getting worse. They’re getting worse faster,” said study co-author Zeke Hausfather of the tech firm Stripe and the climate monitoring group Berkeley Earth. “We’re actively moving in the wrong direction in a critical period of time that we would need to meet our most ambitious climate goals. Some reports, there’s a silver lining. I don’t think there really is one in this one.”

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That 1.5 goal, first set in the 2015 Paris agreement, has been a cornerstone of international efforts to curb worsening climate change. Scientists say crossing that limit would mean worse heat waves and droughts, bigger storms and sea-level rise that could imperil small island nations.

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—The Associated Press

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In the summer of 2021, a wildfire destroyed much of Lytton. The town of 250 was evacuated. There were two fatalities.

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Eyes of the Beast, a new piece of docu-theatre, gives voice to some of the survivors of that and other local climate disasters.

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“We think we imagine right what climate change is like,” said Sean Holman, a University of Victoria professor of environmental journalism and creator of the Climate Disaster Project.

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“But oftentimes, the actual experience of a disaster, the actual experience of climate change, looks very different from what we imagined it to be. The powerful thing about this performance is that it brings into this very intimate space what that experience is like.”

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A teaching newsroom that works with climate disaster survivors, the CDP provided the eyewitness testimonials that make up the first part of Eyes of the Beast. Student actors from SFU’s Theatre & Performance program portray the witnesses, telling their stories in scenes adapted from first-person accounts by co-creators Sebastien Archibald, Gavan Cheema and Kelsey Kanatan Wavey. Neworld Theatre artistic director Chelsea Haberlin directs.

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—Shawn Connor

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Ash and chemicals from some of B.C.’s largest wildfires are winding up in the Fraser River, which could eventually lead to low oxygen levels and harm marine life, say UBC researchers.

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In a peer-reviewed study, published in the journal Science of The Total Environment, scientists linked increases in the concentrations of compounds like arsenic and lead, and nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus, to wildfires that had burned near the 1,375 kilometre long river.

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These are all compounds that are found naturally in the water. However, researchers tracked a significant increase in compounds as wildfires were happening near the river. The researchers studied fires within 500 metres, 1,000 metres and 1,500 metres.

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Fires burning close to major waterways had immediate influence on water quality, said Emily Brown, a research scientist at UBC’s institute for the oceans and fisheries. The more distant wildfires had delayed influence on water quality.

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“For these closer fires, the impacts were generally the strongest within the first couple of months, within the first zero to three months,” said Brown. “And then for the farther-away fires, the impacts were strongest nine to 10 months after the fire burned.”

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Scientists say more research is needed to know whether this amount could cause damage to the marine life, but what they are concerned about is climate change causing more wildfires that burn hotter and torch more land area. Brown said research shows that an increase in wildfires could hurt downstream marine ecosystems.

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—Tiffany Crawford

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The B.C. Wildfire Service says the Pocket Knife Creek wildfire northwest of Fort. St. John is now classified as “being held” Photo by B.C. Wildfire Service

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Drenching rain has helped fire crews in British Columbia’s northeast get a grip on the largest wildfire burning in the province.

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The B.C. Wildfire Service says the Pocket Knife Creek wildfire northwest of Fort. St. John is now classified as being held and is not expected to grow outside its current Perimeter.

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The service says about 100 millimetres of rain in recent days has hampered the fire’s growth, and more wet weather is in the forecast this week.

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The wildfire merged with another fire earlier this month, becoming the largest in the province at more than 1,500 square kilometres.

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The remaining evacuation alerts related to the wildfire were rescinded Monday, but the Peace River Regional District said new orders or alerts may be issued if the situation changes.

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To the south, the Cariboo Regional District issued an evacuation alert for properties near a wildfire that is burning out of control in the central Interior. The Martin Lake fire was discovered Sunday and is burning about 220 kilometres west of Williams Lake.

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—The Canadian Press

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An evacuation order has been issued for two properties near a wildfire in Squamish.

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The B.C. Wildfire Service has classified the Dryden Creek wildfire as being held and said it expects the fire to remain within its current boundaries.

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However, the District of Squamish issued an evacuation order for two properties located east of the fire Monday afternoon because of the risk posed by trees and rockfall.

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The order covered 1796 Depot Road and Block D SECTION 23 Township 50 and took effect Monday at 3 p.m.

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An evacuation alert remains in place for 4000 Highway 99 and properties in the 1700-block Depot Road. An alert issued last week for properties on Tantalus Road north of Dowad Drive and the Skyridge subdivision was rescinded Sunday.

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—Cheryl Chan

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These photos taken by Sunshine Coast resident John Preissl show ‘pollen bombs,’ a term that describes high pollen counts in the air, often triggered by a sudden increase in temperature. Photo by John Preissl

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It’s not all in your (stuffed-up, sneezing) head. Experts say B.C.’s pollen season is getting worse, and the number of people developing allergies to pollen is climbing.

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In Metro Vancouver, June is typically peak grass pollen season, but it may feel worse lately because of a spike in pollen levels during the recent heat wave.

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Dr. Amin Kanani, head of allergy and clinical immunology at Providence Health Care and the University of B.C.’s faculty of medicine, said grass pollen is high in Metro Vancouver at this time of year.

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“With our pollen seasons, there’s always slight variations. But if you look at the larger trend over the past couple of decades, we are seeing that the pollen season is longer, and that’s attributed to climate change,” he said.

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Warming temperatures are causing the pollen season to start earlier, last longer and be more intense because heat causes plants to produce more pollen.

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It’s now well-established by researchers that climate change contributes to a deterioration of air quality, including substances in the air, like pollen, that can cause allergic reactions, according to Environment and Climate Change Canada.

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As well, higher carbon dioxide levels can increase plant growth and pollen production, the agency said.

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—Tiffany Crawford

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The mayor of Northern B.C.’s busiest port says he’s following Premier David Eby’s lead in taking a wait-and-see approach to any reboot of the cancelled Northern Gateway Pipeline project.

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Prince Rupert Mayor Herb Pond said Friday that he’s reserving judgment until he sees a proposal on the table.

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Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has pushed hard for a revival of the shelved pipeline, which would have shipped up to 525,000 barrels of Alberta oil a day through Kitimat, and ultimately to markets in the Asia-Pacific region by tanker.

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Pond says he agrees with Smith that Prince Rupert is the most logical destination for a new pipeline carrying Alberta oil to the Pacific Ocean.

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“If (technical dimensions) were the only thing you were scoring it on. … Rupert would score the highest,” said Pond. “Prince Rupert is a very deep natural harbour, doesn’t need to be dredged (and) we’re not moving through a congested traffic area (like) Vancouver.”

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But he added that a new oil pipeline wouldn’t make or break Prince Rupert economically, and may not be worth the risk of an oil spill in the sensitive marine ecosystem.

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Pond said that, like Eby, he supports the federal moratorium on oil tanker traffic along B.C.’s Northern coast.

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“There are values around the Great Bear Rainforest and the environment on the North Coast being as pristine as it is,” said Pond.

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—Postmedia

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The first big heat wave of 2025 has arrived in the U.S. and U.K., coinciding with the official start of summer.

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More than 40 million people in the U.S. were under heat alerts Friday, according to the National Weather Service.

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Temperatures in the Midwest are expected to crest well into the 30s C this weekend. Triple-digit highs could pop up in New York, Philadelphia, Washington and Denver. The peak will likely hit the East Coast early next week.

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Meanwhile, British health officials are also issuing heat warnings for the U.K.

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Climate change has been exacerbating heat waves, and the problem isn’t going away any time soon. An increasingly hot planet — due largely to burning fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas — means already hot regions are getting worse.

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Heat doesn’t just mean cancelled events. It also poses a health risk, especially for children, older people and those with certain health conditions.

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—The Associated Press

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