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Good afternoon, and welcome to Globe Climate, a newsletter about climate change, environment and resources in Canada.
 
 

Electric vehicles are the future of the auto industry. But who will make them?

 
 

A team of students from Ontario’s McMaster University and Mohawk College recently defeated rival teams from Canada and the United States to win an EV battery building competition, which the students hope will position them well to create cars of the future.
 
 

Now, let’s catch you up on other news.
 
 
 

 
 
 
  1. Weather: Heat warnings in effect for Ontario, Quebec, Atlantic provinces and parts of B.C.
  2. Policy: Canada seeks to restore Indigenous rights language in UN plastics treaty
  3. Bill C-5: Métis leaders optimistic government will respect Indigenous rights as Ottawa moves forward with major projects
  4. Good news: How three Canadian women helped save the rare Tibetan blue poppy
  5. Water: Stratford’s iconic Avon River has dried up, stunning locals and tourists
  6. Explore: Hiking this Vancouver Island park was my chance to step back into history
  7. Food: Mexico City’s Baldio restaurant blends zero waste and ancient agriculture
 
 

 
 
 
 
Forest fires have closed roads and caused mandatory evacuations from several Avalon Peninsula communities along Conception Bay North, N.L., on Aug. 5. Paul Daly/The Canadian Press
 
 
 
 

For this week’s deeper dive, a round up of news relating to fires, evacuations and smoke across the country, as the wildfire season persists.
 
 

Wildfires are burning across the country.

 
 

In her story this weekend, Halifax-based reporter Dakshana Bascaramurty writes that in the last few days, heatwaves in Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia have brought temperatures as high as 37 C. In the Maritimes, the risk for wildfires remains high because of persistent dry conditions. Nova Scotia has imposed a sweeping ban on activities in wooded areas, and provincewide burn bans are in effect in Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick, the latter of which has two out-of-control fires.
 
 

Right now, eyes have shifted from the Prairie provinces to Atlantic Canada, where homes have been lost in the four wildfires blazing across the Newfoundland and Labrador. The largest fire originated in Kingston in the Conception Bay North area and had grown to nearly 50 square kilometres by Sunday. Almost 3,000 people are under an evacuation order.
 
 

Amidst unusually little Maritime rainfall this season, Nova Scotia took extreme action and has announced a ban on most summertime activities in wooded areas to prevent wildfires. For many Canadians on the East Coast, the new restrictions mean summer as they know it is over and out.
 
 
 
A helicopter refills a bucket of water at Cameron Lake off Highway 4 where the Wesley Ridge wildfire burned out-of-control near Coombs, B.C., on August 3. CHAD HIPOLITO/The Canadian Press
 
 

There is also currently an out-of-control fire outside of Kelowna where evacuations are underway on the West Coast, including on Vancouver Island. In Ontario, waterbombers are fighting fires in the Kawartha Lakes region. Two of those waterbombers were initially promised to help Newfoundland, but were needed in Ontario.
 
 

Starting earlier last week, several provinces were already forcing thousands of people from their homes and air-quality warnings were sent in cities thousands of kilometres away. The deteriorating conditions have added up to a wildfire season that is on track to be one of Canada’s worst on record in terms of area burned, second only to 2023.
 
 

Canadian officials have said it is not possible for wildfire fighters to lessen the impact of smoke drifting across vast swathes of the country and blanketing some American states, after several U.S. lawmakers complained that Canada is not doing enough to combat the smokey conditions. The U.S. politicians have called for an investigation of Canada’s wildfire management practices and for potential remedies under international law.