Western Canada Sees Record-high Winter Temperature

This handout photo courtesy of BC Wildfire Service shows a wildfire southwest of Deka Lake, British Columbia, on July 2, 2021 - BC Wildfire Service/AFP
This handout photo courtesy of BC Wildfire Service shows a wildfire southwest of Deka Lake, British Columbia, on July 2, 2021 - BC Wildfire Service/AFP
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Western Canada Sees Record-high Winter Temperature

This handout photo courtesy of BC Wildfire Service shows a wildfire southwest of Deka Lake, British Columbia, on July 2, 2021 - BC Wildfire Service/AFP
This handout photo courtesy of BC Wildfire Service shows a wildfire southwest of Deka Lake, British Columbia, on July 2, 2021 - BC Wildfire Service/AFP

A region in western Canada has notched up a record-high winter temperature, just months after the country sweltered under a historic global heat dome in the summer, boosting global concern about climate change.

Penticton, a city in central British Columbia, recorded a high temperature of 72.5 degrees Fahrenheit (22.5 degrees Celsius) on Wednesday.

"It is a record, or it equals a record, to be very precise," Environment Canada meteorologist Armel Castellan told AFP.

Winter temperatures in Canada had previously hit 72.5 degrees on December 3, 1982 in the southeastern town of Hamilton, Ontario, Castellan said.

Penticton is a few hundred kilometers southeast of Lytton.

Lytton, which itself is located 250 kilometers (155 miles) northeast of Vancouver, gained international attention over the summer for setting a new Canadian heat record of 49.6 degrees Celsius (121.3 Fahrenheit) before being ravaged days later by a fire that killed at least two residents.

The province of British Columbia also suffered over the summer from the historic heat dome linked to climate change that saw hot air trapped by high pressure fronts over western Canada and the western United States. The heat wave exacerbated wildfires and claimed hundreds of lives.

"Since September, we've had a lot of heat coming in from the subtropics," Castellan explained.

For the past week or so, an "atmospheric river" has been raging across southwestern British Columbia, the third so far, he said.

Heavy rainfall has caused catastrophic flooding in the province since mid-November, which authorities have also linked to the effects of climate change.

The winter heat has also spread across the northwestern United States, where the states of Washington, Montana, Wyoming and North Dakota either equaled previous record-highs or hit new ones on Wednesday.

Temperatures were up to 35 degrees Fahrenheit above normal.

The warm front moved towards Omaha, Nebraska on Thursday, reaching a new record temperature of 68 degrees.

Authorities in California are considering implementing a heat wave warning system next year that would classify each wave according to the number of potential deaths, in order to encourage preventative measures.

Recent studies show that climate change is directly responsible for some of the heat waves. The one that hit Canada in June would have been "virtually impossible" without human-caused global warming, the World Weather Attribution science consortium said.



Greece to Create New Marine Reserves to Protect Underwater Wildlife

Greece banned bottom trawling in the waters of the Fournoi Korseon island chain in the Aegean to protect recently discovered coral reefs. Handout / Under the Pole/AFP
Greece banned bottom trawling in the waters of the Fournoi Korseon island chain in the Aegean to protect recently discovered coral reefs. Handout / Under the Pole/AFP
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Greece to Create New Marine Reserves to Protect Underwater Wildlife

Greece banned bottom trawling in the waters of the Fournoi Korseon island chain in the Aegean to protect recently discovered coral reefs. Handout / Under the Pole/AFP
Greece banned bottom trawling in the waters of the Fournoi Korseon island chain in the Aegean to protect recently discovered coral reefs. Handout / Under the Pole/AFP

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Monday said that his government was creating two new protected marine areas, fulfilling a promise he made at a United Nations conference on the oceans in June.

The new protected areas -- in the Ionian Sea and in the Southern Cyclades in the Aegean Sea -- would be "among the largest marine protected areas in the entire Mediterranean", he said in a video message in English.

The prime minister said that the "hugely damaging practice of bottom trawling" by commercial fishing boats would be banned within the new marine reserves and in all Greece's marine protected areas by 2030, making it the first country in Europe to take such a significant step in preservation, reported AFP.

Fishing is generally allowed in protected marine areas worldwide, even by trawlers which scrape the seabed with a huge funnel-shaped net, to devastating effect.

Mitsotakis said that he had "made a promise to honor (Greece's) unique marine heritage" at last month's UN Oceans Conference in southern France, "and to protect it for generations to come".

"Today I am delivering on that promise with the establishment of two new marine national parks... because when we protect our ocean, we protect our own future."

Greece is located in the eastern Mediterranean and has around 13,600 kilometers (8,450 miles) of coastline and thousands of islands.

Greece, Brazil and Spain all used the UN conference in Nice, to announce new protected marine reserves and measures to ban bottom trawling, in order to better protect marine wildlife.

Mitsotakis said that the size of the new Greek marine reserves "will enable us to achieve the goal of protecting 30 percent of our territorial waters by 2030".

He said that the government would work with "local communities, local fishermen, scientists (and) global partners (to) make these parks examples of what is possible".

The oceans are 'life itself'

In May, Athens banned bottom trawling in the waters of the Fournoi Korseon island chain in the Aegean to protect recently discovered coral reefs that are exceptionally rich in marine wildlife.

Neighboring Türkiye, whose western coast is close to the Aegean islands, responded to Monday's announcement by criticizing such "unilateral action".

"International maritime law encourages cooperation between the coastal states of these seas, including on environmental issues," the foreign ministry in Ankara said.

It said that Türkiye was willing to cooperate with Greece and would soon announce its own plans to protect maritime areas.

Greece and Türkiye, both members of NATO, have historical disputes over maritime boundaries in the Aegean Sea.

They signed an agreement in 2023 aimed at easing tensions.

Mitsotakis said that "Ocean", a new documentary by British natural history broadcaster Sir David Attenborough, had inspired Greece to accelerate efforts to protect life below the waves.

"Ocean", which features spectacular footage of undersea habitats and marine life, emphasizes the importance of healthy seas for tackling climate change and the current sweeping loss of wild species across the planet.

Mitsotakis said "Ocean" showed that the sea was "not just beautiful scenery".

"It is life itself. Delicate. Powerful. And under threat."