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This week:
Glennis Harwig has noticed that summers are getting hotter where she lives in Lanark County, Ont. But electricity is expensive, so she tries to keep her portable air conditioner off.
Instead, she’s found another way to keep the heat down in her 200-year-old log cabin: removable window blinds made from silver emergency blankets from a camping store.
She cuts them to fit her windows and tapes them to wooden dowels. Hooks in the top of the dowels, hooks in the tops of her window frames, and voilà — she hangs the blinds to reflect the heat away. When evening comes, she can take them down and roll them up.
“If you tear them or damage them, you can just tape them up. You don’t have to rush out and buy new ones,” she told CBC Radio’s climate solutions show, What On Earth. “They give me a nice cool area to live in. And they cost very, very little.”
As summer approaches, Adam Lynes-Ford says everyone needs to find affordable tricks like Harwig’s to help with heat, smoke and wildfire risks.
“There are really tangible things that we can do that don’t cost a lot of money and that really do help us be prepared,” said Lynes-Ford, co-founder of the non-profit group My Climate Plan.
First, he says, assess the climate risks in your area. For many Canadians, it will be extreme heat — which can be dangerous, especially for older people.
Lynes-Ford says inexpensive blackout curtains, or reflective blinds like Harwig’s, can block out a quarter of the heat coming into your home.
If you’re older or you live alone, he recommends finding a “heat buddy.” Exchange numbers with a neighbour and agree to check on each other during heat waves. Or, go a step further and start a neighbourhood “resiliency group.” Let your neighbours know you want to sign people up to help check on each other during extreme weather events.
“Those end up being really great social connections for people,” he said. “And it starts to feel like, yes, OK, there’s something I can … do to keep myself and others safe.”
If you own a single family home, Lynes-Ford says consider some inexpensive fixes. He says about eight in 10 homes in Canada need better insulation, which can keep your home cooler and your energy bills down.
“If you’ve got an exposed attic, take a look up there. If your joists are showing, that means you need more insulation,” he said. “If you can do it yourself, great. But it doesn’t cost a lot to get somebody to come in and do it for you.”
Many Canadians could be facing wildfire smoke again this summer. Lynes-Ford says a cheap DIY fix for both renters and homeowners is replacing worn out weatherstripping on doors and windows. It will help keep smoke out and shave money off your monthly energy bills.
Now is also a good time to buy an air purifier. Lynes-Ford says a good one costs around $300, or you can make one for less than that with a box fan, air filter, cardboard and duct tape.
Shiven Taneja explains the Corsi-Rosenthal box
If you’ve already got an air cleaner, check now to see if the filter needs changing. While you’re at it, stock up on high-quality masks to protect your health outside on smoky days.
Anabela Bonada, managing director of climate science at the Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation at the University of Waterloo, says those on a budget can check for used air purifiers online.
Bonada agrees that it’s vital that people prepare themselves for climate impacts.
There’s so much that we can do as residents, as homeowners, to prepare our homes and keep our homes and lives healthy.”
A more expensive upgrade that helps with both heat and air quality is a heat pump — though those can cost $10,000 or more. Bonada suggests people look into government subsidies to offset some costs.
For many Canadians, it’s not just smoke — wildfires are a direct threat. If you live in a wildfire-prone area, now’s a good time to pack an emergency go bag with the basics of what you’ll need in case of an evacuation.
If you live in a house, the Intact Centre website has infographics with tips for cost-effective fireproofing.
They include cleaning out eavestroughs, keeping lawns mowed, and removing combustible material from a 1.5-metre perimeter around your home. Cut back tree branches and move woodpiles, propane tanks and wooden patio furniture as far away as possible. (Some insurance companies may do this for you, or offer subsidies or discounts on insurance if you do this yourself.)
More expensive upgrades include non-combusible fencing and Class A fire-resistant roofs because most homes that burn during wildfires tend to ignite because of embers landing on the roof.
Bonada acknowledges that renters can’t make these kinds of upgrades to the places they live, but suggests tenants could share the Intact Centre’s infographics with their landlords.
“Show them … that it can be quite cheap and easy to do these upgrades. And it means comfortable living conditions and safe living conditions,” she said.
Both Bonada and Lynes-Ford recommend something else most everyone can do to stay safe: download Environment and Climate Change Canada’s free WeatherCAN app and sign up for extreme weather alerts.
Bonada says everyone needs to do more to protect communities as climate impacts accelerate. But she’s hopeful that individuals and governments at all levels are recognizing that there’s work to do.
“Unfortunately, all of our scenarios indicate that it’s not going to get better anytime soon,” she said. “So preparedness is as important as ever.”
— Rachel Sanders
Old issues of What on Earth? are here. The CBC News climate page is here.
Check out our podcast and radio show. In our newest episode: When West Sacramento was saved from wildfire in 2022, goats were hailed as heroes. No, they didn’t wield hoses or jump out of helicopters. They just did what goats do: eat everything in sight, including the dry grass and weeds that can fuel wildfires. We head to Northern California where governments are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on goats to create firebreaks. Then, we ask, could they help in Canada, too?
What On Earth drops new podcast episodes every Wednesday and Saturday. You can find them on your favourite podcast app or on demand at CBC Listen. The radio show airs Sundays at 11 a.m., 11:30 a.m. in Newfoundland and Labrador.
Have a compelling personal story about climate change you want to share with CBC News? Pitch a First Person column here.
Last week, Hayley Reid-Ginis wrote about a group protesting the environmental impacts of fast fashion by mending clothing.
Doris Ouellet, writing from Quebec, called the article “very inspiring.” She added, “This brings freshness and reality, in this so-industrial world of plastic and planned obsolescence, including fashion.”
Mike Sorci of Guelph, Ont., said the message from one of the volunteers reflects his own experience. “Keep what you already own is a good motto. As a youngster at home it seemed to me that my mother spent much of her day mending and repairing clothes. After leaving home, it was natural for me to follow that example and make simple repairs, replacing buttons or mending seams with needle and thread, rather than replacing items of clothing or paying for repairs — an activity that persisted to this day. [My] recent upgrade to the handheld needle and thread is a sewing machine. This has opened up new horizons of quality, neatness and variety of repairs (example: zippers).”
Editor’s note: We did want to make a small correction to last week’s article, which said Sarah Jay was the executive director of Fashion Revolution Canada. In fact, she is now the executive director of Fashion Revolution, the global entity based in the U.K.
Write us at [email protected]. (And feel free to send photos, too!)
You’ve likely heard of PFAS, toxic chemicals mostly known for their use in Teflon cookware and waterproof clothing.
But did you know there are PFAS-contaminated sites across Canada?
We’ve mapped 80 of them across the country. There are likely hundreds more, and we plan to continue updating this map as we get more information.
At many of the sites on this map, places like airports and military bases, the chemicals are leaching into the environment and could be contaminating nearby rivers, fish, wildlife and even residential wells.
You could live near a PFAS hotspot without knowing it. That’s why we built this map, to make sure all Canadians had access to this information.
Find out if there’s a PFAS hotspot near you and what you can do about it.
— Jaela Bernstien
Ontario has a ban on offshore wind in the Great Lakes. Meanwhile, the Netherlands built the largest freshwater wind farm in the world despite local opposition. Here’s a closer look at how they did it, and the impact it’s had on local communities.
Whapmagoostui, a Cree community, and Kuujjuarapik, an Inuit community, are working together on a first-of-its-kind collaborative wind project to bring sustainable energy to both communities. (You need a free CBC Gem account to watch — scroll down to May 18 episode called “Sustainable Energy”)
A century ago, zeppelin passengers soared across the Atlantic Ocean in luxurious gondolas hanging from humongous hydrogen-filled balloons. Now, a handful of start-ups want to revive the airship as a greener alternative for some cargo and passenger flights.
Honda says it’s scaling back investments in EVs due to lacklustre consumer demand. For Electrek, which covers the EV market, this does not compute.
More than one in four cars sold worldwide in 2025 will be electric, according to the latest projections from the International Energy Agency, and will reach 40 per cent of all new cars by 2030.
Among major markets, the undisputed leader is China, whose new EV sales increased 40 per cent year-over-year in 2024. About half of all new cars sold in the country last year were electric, accounting for 11 million out of the 17 million new EVs sold worldwide. Meanwhile, sales growth was flat in Europe and just 10 per cent in the U.S.
Behind the numbers, the IEA’s annual Global EV Outlook shows how China’s decades of investment have paid off, while also making electric cars more affordable for buyers in developing countries around the world. In Europe and the U.S., EV sales faced challenges because of significantly more expensive cars and scaled-back EV rebates, but remain on a long-term upward trajectory.
“We’re not going back, no matter what some people might say or think. We are moving in the transition to EVs,” said Daniel Breton, president of Electric Mobility Canada, an industry association.
Relatively affordable Chinese EVs also drove up sales by 60 per cent in emerging economies in Asia, Latin America and Africa.
In Canada, EVs grew their market share, rising to 17 per cent of all new cars sold in 2024, up from 13 per cent in 2023. Last year, 252,000 fully electric or plug-in hybrid electric cars were sold in Canada.
But EV manufacturing remains small here, at just 25,000 cars annually.
How China dominates
China’s success in EVs has been decades in the making, according to James Jackson, research fellow at the University of Manchester who has an upcoming book on the political economy of the EV transition.
And to understand China’s reasoning for its heavy investment in the industry, he says, one must take into account the symbolic value of domestic car manufacturing, in addition to the economic benefits.
“If you go and buy a BYD, you are then testament to superior Chinese manufacturing, and you will therefore by extension be symbolizing Chinese development, that it is not this import-dependent, predominantly agriculture-based economy,” he said, referring to the popular Chinese EV brand.
“They are the ascendant power now.”
Because the car sector is so tied into a country’s self-image as an industrial power, Jackson said, Beijing went all-in on EVs, entering an industry that was otherwise dominated by companies in Europe, North America and Japan.
By the early 2000s, China’s central and state governments were pouring subsidies into EV companies, many of which failed initially. But this also led to heavy competition between the startups, Jackson says, driving down EV prices and eventually creating a company like BYD, the world’s largest EV maker, which is busy expanding abroad even as it faces steep tariffs in the U.S. and Canada. In 2024, two-thirds of the new EVs sold in China were actually cheaper than their equivalent gas-powered cars, according to the report.
Part of BYD’s — and China’s — success is the vertically integrated business model. The country also dominates in making the batteries, sourcing their minerals and financing for car buyers. According to the IEA report, China accounts for 70 per cent of global EV production.
BYD even has its own ships for exporting its cars.
The result: Today, BYD has electric cars priced as low as $11,000.
Where does that leave Canada?
The report warned of the impacts of the U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade and tariff threats on the EV market. In response, Canada slapped 25 per cent tariffs on certain vehicles and parts imported from the U.S.
But Electric Mobility Canada has put out a new report showing that most electric cars are not subject to these counter-tariffs, as most EVs sold in Canada come from Europe and South Korea, not the U.S.
The association recommends that Canada should maintain its EV Availability Standard, which eventually requires companies to sell only electric cars in the country by 2035.
Hongyu Xiao, a transportation analyst at the Pembina Institute, a Canadian clean energy think-tank, says widespread adoption of EVs is crucial for Canada to meet its climate goals. Transportation is the second-largest emitting sector in the country, after oil and gas.
“The climate benefits of the EV are in fact even more pronounced [in Canada] because we are not burning coal or a lot of gas to power the EV. We are using a lot of nuclear, hydro, renewable energy,” he said.
Apart from sales targets, Xiao said, the government should restore its EV incentive program, which provided up to $5,000 toward an EV purchase. Ottawa ended that program earlier this year, although some provinces have continued their rebates.
On the manufacturing front, Xiao suggested that Canada has an advantage in terms of critical minerals for batteries, and could attract carmakers as the U.S. pulls back. But the government would need to pave the way for companies by designing regulations making it easier for them to invest in Canada
But ultimately, the EV industry — and carmaking as a whole — will likely be largely led by China into the future, Jackson says. Legacy car companies will have to figure out where they fit into China’s supply chain, Jackson said, or explore niches in the car market where companies like BYD don’t dominate.
“There will still be Volkswagen and Ford and Peugeot in the next 20, 30, maybe 50 years. But I think they’ll be operating at a completely different scale in terms of how much cars they’re producing.”
— Inayat Singh
Thanks for reading. If you have questions, criticisms or story tips, please send them to [email protected].
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Editors: Emily Chung and Hannah Hoag | Logo design: Sködt McNalty
