The turn of the year is an occasion to look back and ahead and to note patterns, changes and opportunities.
Beginning each November, these pages, online sites and other news and opinion outlets publish stories and lists of the best/worst/most/least expensive/popular (fill in the blank) of the past year.
Such retrospectives and list articles ensure copy, content and clicks for a time of year when news staff who lack seniority or draw short straws are left to keep the lights on and everyone else hits the slopes or the eggnog.
These types of stories remind readers of recent events and issues and allow them to reminisce, sigh in regret, reconsider their paths, or give silent thanks. Some such musings might include the following:
• “Maybe we could afford a four-bedroom house with a backyard if we left 91原创/Victoria/Kelowna and moved to Saskatoon” (third most livable city in Canada for young professionals, according to the Globe and Mail’s 2024 Most Livable Cities ranking) “or Edmonton” (ranked fifth in the world for affordable middle-income housing in the Demographia International Housing Affordability report for 2024) “or Thetford Mines, Quebec” (determined by mortgage brokers at nesto.ca to have been Canada’s cheapest city for renting or owning a home in 2024).
• “I so wish I’d been able to score Taylor Swift tickets.” Last year, five of Swift’s albums placed among the Greater Victoria Public Library’s 10 most-borrowed CDs, she was the most-streamed artist on Spotify, and Destination B.C. estimates her three shows in 91原创 contributed about $157 million to the city’s economy.
• “Dude, that storm rocked,” regarding the atmospheric rivers that contributed to dangerous flooding, deadly landslides, and road washouts across southwestern B.C. in January and October — ranked fourth in Environment Canada’s list of Canada’s 10 worst weather events in 2024.
Also common at this time of year are a predictable passel of new-year predictions.
Most tend to focus on economics or finances. For example, TransUnion’s 2024 fourth-quarter Consumer Pulse study indicates 22 per cent of 91原创s expect to increase their debt in 2025, and CIBC’s annual Financial Priorities poll shows that paying down debt is 91原创s’ top financial priority for 2025.
Dalhousie University’s 2025 Food Price report forecasts food prices increasing by three to five per cent overall, with the average 91原创 family of four spending $800 more for food than they did last year.
Not surprisingly, given current affordability issues, as well as rhetoric from October’s provincial election, Ottawa and south of the border, climate change has bumped down 91原创s’ lists of priorities.
An Abacus Data survey of 1,700 91原创s in late 2024 found that concern about climate change had decreased 14 points to 62 per cent since October 2023.
Instead, more immediate concerns about the cost of living — inflation, interest rates, housing and food affordability, the effects of tariffs and other permutations on the theme — and public safety have taken precedence.
With multiple events of the last decade showing climate change is already causing wildfires, floods, heat waves and long-term drought that disrupts industries, food production and supply chains, drives living costs up, and puts all of us at risk financially, physically and socially, the shift uncovers a disconcerting disconnect.
The way forward under the refocused priorities could well set everyone even further back in the long run.
Those who deal directly with the consequences of those floods, droughts and fires continue to connect climate change to productivity, finances and health.
When market researcher Leger and the Farmers for Climate Solutions asked 91原创 farmers and ranchers to identify the top challenge facing the agricultural sector during the next decade, respondents cited climate change and severe weather most often.
The Bank of Canada also identifies climate-change-fuelled extreme weather as “one factor driving up food prices in Canada,” and Health Canada notes that “climate change is already affecting the health of 91原创s and, without taking concerted action, will continue to result in injury, illness, and death.”
Oddly enough, B.C.’s most popular baby names mirror the broader population’s reduced ranking of climate change as a concern.
In 2024, stage musical-inspired “Oliver” overtook Old Testament “Noah” as the most popular boys’ name in the province.
The need to satisfy current basic needs —“Please, sir, I want some more” — trumps saving vertebrate species, including humans, one pair at a time from near-certain but less immediate environmental doom.
