Latest news with #JonathanBoyd
Global News
10-05-2025
- Climate
- Global News
Low snowpack heading into summer, concerns about drought in Okanagan
Creeks are strong now, but after a warm April, the Okanagan's early snowmelt could lead to problems come summer. Smaller creeks might be at risk of running dry this summer, experts predict. 'Looking at natural systems, smaller creeks, there is going to be the potential that they'll get into the lower flow or lower than the critical environmental flow needs for rivers and even some of the smaller creeks have the potential to run dry,' said Jonathan Boyd, a hydrologist with the River Forecast Centre. According to the May snowpack bulletin, provincially, the snowpack has dropped from 79 per cent to 71 per cent of normal since April, with the Southern Interior seeing the sharpest declines. Snowpack levels in the Okanagan, in particular, have dropped from 82 per cent to just 67 per cent of normal. Get breaking National news For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen. Sign up for breaking National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy While no major heat waves are expected in the coming weeks, experts are holding out hope that the remaining snow will hold up. Story continues below advertisement 'The ideal situation moving forward is cooler, wetter conditions in May and June,' Boyd said. In Mission Creek, the Casorso Road underpass was closed this week due to high waters, a fairly routine closure caused by the region's fluctuating water levels. 'It's just due to the freeboard available there,' said Brittany Seibert, a regional emergency manager. As water concerns continue, emergency officials are already shifting their focus to the upcoming wildfire season. With the potential for drought, Seibert warns that the region could face another intense fire season. 'It all depends on what happens in the next few weeks with rain, snowpack and prolonged dry periods,' she said. For residents, now is the time to prepare. 'It's important to do FireSmart work in your yard and have emergency plans in place, including a grab-and-go bag,' Seibert advised.
CBC
09-05-2025
- Climate
- CBC
Low snowpack, early snowmelt, warm weather in forecast point to higher B.C. drought risk, says forecaster
Social Sharing The B.C. River Forecast Centre says a combination of a low snowpack, early snowmelt and forecasts of warm weather are pointing toward elevated drought hazards in the province. The province's snowpack sits at 71 per cent of normal levels as of May 1, the centre wrote in its latest monthly report, down from 79 per cent on April 1. The centre notes levels were "extremely low" last May, with the average across B.C. at 66 per cent of normal. Snowmelt is happening earlier than usual, the reports says, with 15 per cent of the peak total snowpack at automated stations melting by May 1. In a typical year, five per cent of the snowpack has melted by early May. Jonathan Boyd, a hydrologist for the river forecast centre, says there are drought concerns due in part to long-term precipitation deficits that date back to 2022. He says spring weather will be a factor in summer drought conditions. "April wasn't great, but more important is what happens in May and June, and it's still a little bit too early to know for sure," he said, adding that seasonal forecasts from Environment Canada indicate warmer-than-normal temperatures from May to July. The snowpack in most regions of B.C. ranges from 60 to 80 per cent of normal, the report says, while a snowpack below 60 per cent was measured for the Upper Fraser West, Lower Thompson, Nicola, Bridge, Skagit, Central Coast, Similkameen, and Skeena-Nass regions. The report noted that temperatures in B.C. ranged from 0.5 C to 2.5 C warmer than usual last month, while precipitation was below normal or slightly below normal. The centre says there isn't an elevated risk of floods given current snowpack levels, but higher flows are possible if there is heavy spring rainfall. The B.C. Wildfire Service's summer forecast expects higher than usual temperatures into spring, with the possibility of above-average precipitation over coastal and central B.C. The service said precipitation in May and June, typically the rainiest months in B.C.'s Interior, "will influence the length and intensity of the core wildfire season." Boyd said that while there are concerns about the amount of snowmelt, it's still early in the season, and conditions can change.
The Guardian
17-03-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Israelis moving to live in Europe ‘rejuvenating' Jewish communities
Israelis making a new home in Europe have become vital to previously declining Jewish communities on the continent, boosting numbers, bringing a range of cultural influences and marking a fundamental change in the relationship between the diaspora and the Jewish state, research has revealed. A report released on Wednesday by the London-based Institute for Jewish Policy Research will detail for the first time a dramatic reversal of decades of net outflow to Israel from Jewish communities in Europe. 'We can say that culturally and demographically there is a real turning point. Possibly the end of an era,' said Dr Daniel Staetsky, the report's author. 'The founders of the state of Israel would never have imagined that it would be Israel that would be rejuvenating European Jewish communities, not the other way around.' Recent Israeli government statistics show accelerating emigration from Israel, driven by factors including political polarisation, the high cost of living, the impact of wars in Gaza and Lebanon, and security concerns after the bloody Hamas raid into Israel of October 2023 and Iranian attacks. The biggest destination remains the US but many of Europe's Jewish communities have also received a significant demographic boost, with some that have been shrinking for decades due to an elderly population and a low birthrate now growing again. Researchers at the IJPR found about 630,000 Jewish people born in Israel or who had lived there for a significant time are now living elsewhere in the world. There are also about 330,000 people born overseas to one or two parents who are Israeli nationals whom the report described as 'Israel-connected'. The researchers used new government statistics to establish a definitive figure for Germany's Israeli and Israeli-connected Jewish population after decades of only rough estimates. At 24,000 this was higher than previously thought, making the Israeli-connected community in Germany the biggest in Europe. Nearly half of the Jewish population in Norway was Israel-connected, the report said, as well as 41% in Finland, and more than 20% of Jewish communities in Bulgaria, Ireland, Spain, the Netherlands and Denmark. Jonathan Boyd, the JPR's director, said the new arrivals were having a big impact. 'In the UK there are about 23,000 Israel-born people. That's close to twice as many as 20 years ago but among a total Jewish population of an estimated 313,000. In the smaller countries such as the Netherlands the influx can have a much bigger impact. In Norway or Finland it only takes a few to settle to make a big difference.' 'Wherever they go Israelis bring something with them. They bring aspects of day-to-day Israeli culture into these countries.' The use of Hebrew and Israeli names for children has become more widespread in many Jewish communities in Europe and cuisine based on eastern European traditions is being replaced by contemporary Israeli cooking in some places. Close to 12,000 people from Israel and their children now live in the Netherlands. 'There are a lot of Israelis here now and that is changing the composition of the Jewish community,' said Asjer Waterman, a strategic adviser at JMW, the national welfare organisation for the Dutch Jewish community. 'Of course they have a different identity and history to Dutch Jews.' Itay Garmy, a councillor in Amsterdam born in the Netherlands whose father was Israeli, said the Israeli community in the city was often more secular than the historic Jewish community, which 'was already pretty secular'. 'Our connection with Israel is more based on culture than faith. It's more about music, food and love of Israel as a second home for Jewish people than religion,' said Garmy, 31. Other Israeli immigrants have found a new interest in religion after moving overseas. 'Until a year ago I regarded myself as Israeli but recently I am feeling more my Jewish identity,' said Avisar Lev, who moved to Berlin from Tel Aviv in 2012. Lev said he had not personally experienced any antisemitism, which EU data suggests has risen sharply in recent years, and is widely reported in Israel. Many of the arrivals from Israel are well educated, relatively young and have children in their new homes. Official statistics in Israel show that emigration from Israel was nearly 83,000 in 2024, more than double the number between 2009 and 2021, and higher than 2022. Population growth was down from 1.6% to 1.1%, even though about 33,000 people arrived from other countries and 23,000 Israelis returned. A parliamentary committee last month attributed the decline to 'a significant increase in negative migration amid the complex security situation', and called for a reform of lengthy and bureaucratic immigration processes. The emigration hasprompted concern in the Israeli media. A recent editorial in the Yedioth Ahronoth daily newspaper was entitled 'It's no wonder people are leaving Israel'. Others have warned of a 'brain drain'. Last year, Prof Aaron Ciechanover, one of Israel's leading scientists, blamed efforts by the current government to introduce controversial judicial changes for the rise in departures. Those leaving 'want to live in a free, liberal-democratic country, and not in a country where the government is forcibly taking power,' Ciechanover said. The IJPR report was about the impact on Jewish communities of the new migration and therefore focused on Jewish Israelis, not Palestinian Israelis.
The Guardian
27-01-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Rise in antisemitic abuse means UK Jews more likely to consider move to Israel, experts say
A rise in antisemitic incidents in the UK since the 7 October Hamas attacks and the Gaza war has shifted attitudes among British Jews towards emigrating to Israel, experts say. Demographers at the Institute for Jewish Policy Research (JPR) thinktank said British Jews considering settling in Israel – known as making aliyah – were now more likely to 'take the next step'. Antisemitic incidents reached the highest level ever recorded, monitoring and community safety organisation the Community Security Trust (CST) said. In the 12 months after the 7 October attacks there were 5,583 incidents in the UK – including abusive behaviour, threats, assaults, damage and desecration – a 204% year-on-year increase. The CST said it was hopeful the Israel-Hamas ceasefire would improve matters, but added 'it is too early for us to assume that antisemitism, or the broader threats facing our community, will diminish'. JPR's executive director, Jonathan Boyd, said antisemitism was influencing decisions about migration, but said claims of a UK 'Jewish exodus' were 'alarmist'. In 2022, when asked 'how likely is it that you will emigrate to Israel in the next five years?', 73% of respondents to JPR's Jewish current affairs survey said they were 'very unlikely' to emigrate, but that percentage fell to 65% in 2024. Those who felt themselves 'very likely' increased from 5% to 6%. 'It looks as if wherever people were on that question, they have moved up one notch from where they were,' Boyd told the Guardian. 'There's a sense people feel more uneasy about their place in British society. 'All of these things that have been going on since 7 October contribute to people saying, is this where I want to spend my life? I think often it's sensationalised, but there is something going on, there is a shift.' The comments come as 50 survivors of the Auschwitz concentration camp join world leaders at the site of the former concentration camp in southern Poland to mark the 80th anniversary of its liberation. A new report by equality thinktank Runnymede Foundation said current approaches to tackling antisemitism were not working, warning of a 'growing feeling of insecurity among many Jewish people'. Meanwhile, Marc Levy, the CEO of Jewish Representative Council of Greater Manchester, said many in the region's tight-knit community, which experienced the highest number of incidents outside the capital, were so 'rattled' they 'don't see a future in the UK'. Nonetheless, Boyd said the numbers of people moving to Israel from the UK remained 'stable', but could increase in the event of a serious economic downturn or social unrest. Figures from Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics show 520 people migrated from the UK to Israel between January and November 2024, a year-on-year increase of 46%. But this came after what the JPR describes as an 'unusually low' number of UK emigrants to Israel in 2023, amid political and security crises. The JPR projects, based on monthly averages, that the final number for 2024, with December's official figures not yet available, will be 'about 570', above the historical yearly average by about 15%, but below 2009's high of 708, and 'counter-balanced' by people migrating in the other direction. 'Clearly Britain is physically a safer place for Jews than Israel, but if you feel the vibrancy of Jewish communal life is in some way compromised here, in Israel you have the only place that puts Jewishness front and centre,' Boyd said. 'If that matters to you, you are willing to take those risks about security.' Official figures show the largest number of migrants to Israel from January to November 2024 came from 'former USSR countries' combined at 20,509, followed by the US at 2,597, France at 1,864, then the UK. Calling antisemitism a 'stain on British society', Prof David Feldman, co-author of the Runnymede Trust's antisemitism report, called for 'alliances between Jewish people and other racialised minorities,' adding: 'Antiracism must inform what we do, not only when confronting antisemitism in the UK, but also when we address the status and treatment of Palestinians.' Levy said Jewish community life 'behind gates and security guards' had become 'normalised' in the UK, adding: 'As a Jewish person [post-October 7] a lot of the time you were looking around for solidarity and there wasn't any. I'm hoping with the ceasefire things will calm down and we can start rebuilding our friendships.'
