Prince Charles (now King Charles III) visits Shane Fitzgerald’s Kil Mige Mogue farm near Waterford in southeast Ireland on March 24, 2022. (Photo: Reuters/Phil Noble/Pool)

What will King Charles’s reign mean for climate action?

Some projects may be handed to other family members

London | Thomson Reuters Foundation — As Britain’s King Charles III begins his reign after the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, environmental campaigners will be watching closely to see if he continues to advocate for climate action and is able to help drive change as monarch. In his first speech to the nation […] Read more

(Dave Bedard photo)

White House not ruling out a U.S. carbon tax

Option 'not off the table' despite Manchin comment

Washington | Reuters –– The White House on Tuesday said it has not ruled out a carbon tax as a possible option for fighting climate change, even though U.S. Senator Joe Manchin, a critical holdout in the closely divided Senate, said he was not discussing the topic in talks about U.S. spending and infrastructure bills. […] Read more



(Flaman Group video screengrab via YouTube)

Clean ag tech adoption fund open for applications

Intake open and ongoing for Agricultural Clean Technology Program

A federal program farmers can use to invest in “cleaner” on-farm equipment — including money specifically for more efficient grain dryers — is now taking applications. Federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau on Wednesday announced the $165.7 million Agricultural Clean Technology Program is “now open to applicants.” First launched in 2018 and earmarked for expansion under […] Read more


File photo of domestic hogs on a German farm. (FooTToo/iStock/Getty Images)

EU farmers could get cash to curb emissions from belching livestock

Brussels | Reuters — Farmers should get European Union funding to reduce methane emissions from livestock or increase organic farmland, the European Commission said on Thursday, under plans to make agriculture greener. The EU is nearing the end of a two-year battle to overhaul its massive farming subsidies scheme, to attempt to align the agriculture […] Read more

Average sea surface temperature anomalies over the equatorial Pacific Ocean for the week centred on Oct. 28, 2020 compared to 1981-2010 base period. (CPC.ncep.noaa.gov)

WMO officially calls a La Nina winter

MarketsFarm — A La Nina weather event has officially developed in the Pacific Ocean and is expected to continue into 2021, affecting temperatures, precipitation and storm patterns around the world, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The global declaration of the La Nina event by the United Nations’ agency will be used by governments […] Read more


Les Henry: Weather and climate – more actual data

Les Henry: Weather and climate – more actual data

Climate data questions current frenzy about global warming crisis

Regular readers will recall my earlier column that provided annual and monthly temperature for Swift Current, Sask., from a complete record back to 1886. The data was compliments of a long line of dedicated scientists at the Swift Current Federal Ag Research Station. In this piece, we will expand the data to two other sites […] Read more

Les Henry: Weather, climate and actual data

Les Henry: Weather, climate and actual data

A look at changes in the 30-year average annual temperatures in Swift Current

In recent months there has been much press anxiety about the “Climate Crisis.” The general gist is that planet Earth is warming to the point where we will be scorching to death. Crops will be unable to survive the heat and drought. Climate Change (warming) is the top priority in the minds of many, but […] Read more


D3: The digital dumbing down

Not all information is better in the digital age. Especially data about the weather

We are now in “the information age.” Information, mostly good but sometimes sketchy, is literally at our fingertips. As I wrote this piece if a spelling error occurred, my software program underlined it in red. Then I quickly opened a web browser and put my spelling of the word into Google and up popped the […] Read more

canola flowers

Cooler July, thanks to farmers and canola

Swift Current temperature data shows different long-term trends in January versus July

This piece is a result of the Canola Discovery Forum at Canola Days in Saskatoon in December, 2017. Jay Whetter, former editor of Grainews and now communications manager with the Canola Council of Canada, invited me to address the issue of precision agriculture with specific reference to the role soil maps might play. My contribution […] Read more