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

I’m Kate, the agriculture and food policy reporter for The Globe and Mail. You’ll be in my hands this week while Sierra eats a mountain of tacos in Mexico City.

Speaking of tacos, we’ll be talking about beef, the beleaguered cattle rancher and why some of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s major projects might be more than Canada can stomach.

Giddy up.

1. Fact check: These are Carney’s new major projects, and some of them won’t be easy to finish.
2. Tarnished gold: Once a war zone, this region of Ethiopia became a ‘Wild West’ of illegal mining and unsafe labour. Sites licensed by Canadian firms were at the heart of it.
3. Photo essay: How a failed voyage through the Northwest Passage aboard a century-old tall ship serves as a reminder that there is still much to learn from the Arctic and its Indigenous Peoples.
4. Wildlife: Jonathan the 192-year-old tortoise could outlive me and you. His species deserves respect.

What’s the beef?

This fall, U.S. President Donald Trump launched a crusade against ranchers and meat packers as he fights to deliver on his campaign promises and get food prices down. (Beef is the No. 1 culprit of food inflation in the U.S. and Canada. Prices are 23 per cent above the five-year average).

But the White House is misinformed. There are few villains in this story. Pricey beef is not a matter of greedy ranchers or consolidated slaughterhouses. It is a matter of climate change.

Back-to-back droughts from 2021 to 2023 rivalled the dust bowls of the 1930s, parching the pastureland and sending the price of hay skyrocketing. Ranchers had no choice but to take their cows to market. This year consumers are facing the consequences.

In this story published Thursday, I introduce you to three stakeholders: the butcher, the burger flipper and the rancher. Together, they explain what is happening and what is at stake in this increasingly tense moment for North American beef.

• Rio Tinto and Alcoa develop a low-polluting method for aluminum production
• Enbridge confirms $1.4-billion pipeline investment to boost flows to U.S. refiners
• Legault warns 30,000 Quebec forestry jobs could be lost as trade war continues
• Japan eager for more energy, critical minerals from Canada
• Protesters force their way into COP30 venue as security barricades entrance

Carney’s major projects patchwork leaves holes in our economic growth

A muted COP30 belies declining Western fortunes in a changing world