Air quality advisories issued in 5 provinces, 1 territory
Air quality advisories are in effect across Western Canada as smoky conditions plague some areas, according to the latest forecasts. Here's where.
The world's coral reefs are under attack by climate change and more will disappear if oceans keep warming, according to a report released Tuesday.
The study by the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network (GCRMN), a UN-supported global data network, showed that 14 per cent of the world's coral on reefs was already lost between 2009 and 2018, equal to about 11,700 square kilometres, an area 2.5 times the size of Grand Canyon National Park.
Corals face an "existential crisis," scientists said, as sea surface temperatures rise. The report spanned data for 40 years, 73 countries and 12,000 sites.
Sharp spikes in warming are particularly damaging, a phenomenon scientists say is linked to human-caused climate change.
The study looked at 10 coral reef-bearing regions around the world and found that loss was mainly attributed to coral bleaching, which happens when corals, under stress from warmer water, expel the colorful algae living in their tissues, making them turn white.
One severe bleaching event in 1998 alone killed 8 per cent of the world's corals, the study said.
The hardest hit areas are South Asia, Australia, the Pacific, East Asia, the Western Indian Ocean, the Gulf and Gulf of Oman.
Overfishing, unsustainable coastal development and declining water quality are other factors battering the reefs.
"There are clearly unsettling trends toward coral loss, and we can expect these to continue as warming persists," said Paul Hardisty, chief executive of the Australian Institute of Marine Science, in a statement shared by the United Nations.
The global ocean has warmed faster over the past century than since the end of the last deglacial transition, around 11,000 years ago, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said in a landmark report in August.
While coral reefs cover less than 1 per cent of the ocean floor, they support more than 25 per cent of marine biodiversity, including turtles, fish and lobsters, which fuel global fishing industries.
The reefs are responsible for an estimated US$2.7 trillion annually in goods and services, including tourism, the report said.
Scientists did find, however, there was about a 2 per cent regain among coral reefs 2019, showing they can be resilient when given respite from the siege of factors working against them.
If pressure is relieved on the coral reefs, they could flourish again within a decade to pre-1998 levels, the report said.
Recent efforts to support coral reefs include a mitigation project off the coast of Caribbean nation Antigua and Barbuda called Ocean-Shot, which uses technology that mimics the design and shape of natural reefs to provide opportunities for colonization by corals and other marine life.
Air quality advisories are in effect across Western Canada as smoky conditions plague some areas, according to the latest forecasts. Here's where.
Many foods fall under the category of ultraprocessed foods, depending on their exact ingredients. This type of food has been studied a lot lately, and the results aren’t great.
Four years on, the controversy over whether airlines owed refunds to passengers after cancelling hundreds of thousands of flights during the pandemic continues to simmer, aggravated by a sluggish, opaque complaints process.
For her latest column on CTVNews.ca, royal commentator Afua Hagan writes about Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's recent visit to Nigeria, calling it a 'deeply meaningful campaign' that was about aligning their ongoing efforts to foster mental-health awareness and promoting the Invictus Games.
Ontario will need 33,200 more nurses and 50,853 more personal support workers by 2032, the government projects — figures it tried to keep secret but were obtained by The Canadian Press.
After receiving a DNA kit one Christmas from his son-in-law, Hugh McCormick soon discovered that he had six unknown siblings, with whom he shared the same birth parents.
Thousands have been forced to flee a wildfire burning near Fort Nelson. Meanwhile, some experienced volunteers are staying behind to fight the fire.
A new study projecting declining rates of cancer cases and deaths in Canada demonstrates the success of prevention and early detection programs, but also highlights areas where more work is needed to save and prolong lives, researchers say.
Kansas could soon offer up to US$5 million in grants for schools to outfit surveillance cameras with artificial intelligence systems that can spot people carrying guns. But the governor needs to approve the expenditures and the schools must meet some very specific criteria.
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YES Theatre Young Company opened its acclaimed kids’ show, One Small Step, at Sudbury Theatre Centre on Saturday.
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A Listowel, Ont. man, drafted by the Hamilton Tigercats last week, is also getting looks from the NFL, despite only playing 27 games of football in his life.
The threat of zebra mussels has prompted the federal government to temporarily ban watercraft from a Manitoba lake popular with tourists.
A small Ajax dessert shop that recently received a glowing review from celebrity food critic Keith Lee is being forced to move after a zoning complaint was made following the social media influencer’s visit last month.
The Canada Science and Technology Museum is inviting visitors to explore their poop. A new exhibition opens at the Ottawa museum on Friday called, 'Oh Crap! Rethinking human waste.'