Here’s all the latest local and international news concerning climate change for the week of Dec. 30-Jan. 5, 2025.Published Jan 04, 2025 • Last updated 18 hours ago • 9 minute readFile photo of trees at Whyte Lake in West Vancouver. Photo: Francis Georgian/PNG. Photo by Francis Georgian /PNGHere’s the latest news concerning climate change and biodiversity loss in British Columbia and around the world, from the steps leaders are taking to address the problems to all the up-to-date science. This year, expect more stories about environmental issues linked to climate change. For example, how threatened plant and animal species—such as B.C.’s spotted owl or the endangered southern resident orcas— reflect an ecosystem in crisis.Advertisement 2Story continues belowThis advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. View more offersArticle contentArticle contentArticle contentCheck back every Saturday for more climate and environmental news or sign up for our Climate Connected newsletter HERE.In climate news this week:• Canada primed for more severe wildfire days, driven by dry forest fuel: study• Ottawa’s ice fishing season shrinking due to climate change• Drought, fires and deforestation battered Amazon rainforest in 2024• High levels of road salt killing Metro Vancouver’s fertilized salmon eggs, say UBC researchersHuman 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.The panel, which is made up of scientists from around the world, has warned for decades that wildfires and severe weather, such as B.C.’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.Advertisement 3Story continues belowThis advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.Article contentAccording 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.”As of Jan. 1, carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has risen to 425.94 parts per million (ppm) from just over 421 ppm one year ago and under 320 ppm in 1960, according to NOAA data measured at the Mauna Loa Observatory, a global atmosphere monitoring lab in Hawaii.Climate change quick facts:• The Earth is now about 1.3 C warmer than it was in the 1800s.• 2023 was hottest on record globally, beating the last record in 2016. However scientists say 2024 will likely beat the 2023 record.• Human activities have raised atmospheric concentrations of CO2 by nearly 49 per cen