One of our challenges in Canada is that we are in a large group of countries that contribute almost 16% of global emissions and our country, in the North is warming at twice the rate of other countries…
CO2 and Global Temperature
Jackie Hong reports that the Canadian North is feeling the impacts of climate change more acutely than the rest of the country, with a portion of the Yukon seeing one of the largest temperature increases nationwide, according to a newly-released federal report on climate change.
Entitled Canada’s Changing Climate Report, the eight-chapter document, released April 1, is essentially a summary of decades of data showing how Canada’s climate has changed as well as explanations of what’s causing the changes and their impacts… It’s the first of several to be released as part of a larger project led by Natural Resources Canada called Canada in a Changing Climate: Advancing our Knowledge for Action… Canada, overall, is warming twice as fast as the rest of the world on average, according to Canada’s Changing Climate Report, with the country’s average annual temperature having risen 1.7 C between 1948 and 2016. However, the North has been warming faster than the south, with the territories seeing a 2.3 C increase — three times the global average — during that time frame… “Historical warming has led to changes in rain and snow, rivers and lakes, ice, and coastal zones, and these changes are challenging our sense of what a ‘normal’ climate is,” the report concludes.1
Our west is suffering from a longer and more intense wildfire season, in the east (and Winnipeg and Calgary), concern mounts with the increasing severity and frequency of floods, the sea level rise is eroding our coasts at an increased rate, and some species of fish are abandoning our waters where the ocean reefs deal with higher temperatures and acidity, even as hurricanes are more frequent and powerful…
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| Sea level rise |
Matt McGrath of the BBC writes that researchers say the biggest and most damaging hurricanes are now three times more frequent than they were 100 years ago.
The new study says the increase in damage caused by these big cyclones is linked by global warming… The authors found that the frequency of the most damaging hurricanes had increased by a rate of 330% per century. And they believe that is mainly due to rising temperatures.
"Our data reveal an emergent positive trend in damage which we attribute to a detectable change in extreme storms due to global warming," they write.
The scientists involved believe their new method is solid and gives a more accurate picture of what is happening with the worst storms.
"The new method of looking at the frequencies is really robust," said Aslak Grinsted, from the University of Copenhagen, who carried out the study.
"The increase in frequency is not only in my own dataset but is also present in other datasets, so it is extremely robust, and I think that will help it become more accepted."
The study has been published in the journal PNAS.2
The climate emergency impacts our country more that our 1.6 % should... Per capita Canada emits GHG in the top ten of industrialized nations…
Climate Transparency says Canada, South Korea and Australia are the farthest from meeting targets to cut emissions in line with their Paris Agreement commitments, but those commitments are nowhere close to enough, the report says.
Canada, South Korea and Australia are the farthest from meeting targets to cut emissions in line with their Paris Agreement commitments, but those commitments are nowhere close to enough, the report says. Canada's per-capita emissions, the greenhouse gases it releases divided by the number of people who live here, are the second-highest in the G20, behind only Australia ..The report applauded Canada for introducing a national price on carbon earlier this year, and for implementing tougher environmental reviews for major projects like pipelines and mines. But it slammed the Liberal government for approving the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion a second time in June, just days after Parliament voted in favour of a Liberal motion declaring a climate emergency.
The report says Canada is among global leaders in getting rid of coal power but is a laggard on a number of fronts, including energy use and emissions from cars and buildings..3
We need other countries to decide to meet IPCC targets so that we don't suffer consequences "above our 1.6% weight". I think we need to strive to meet or exceed our IPCC targets if we can have any credibility in convincing the other countries to follow suit. Our well educated and trained population is likely to be a resource to the rest of the world in the necessary mitigation and transition work on the whole planet…
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| Work for the planet |
We certainly can "punch above our weight" in providing solutions to the world... It is necessary NOW to exceed other countries in our 16% group in GHG emission reduction. Canada is too rich a country to sit on the sidelines while less developed countries suffer. It is the Canadian way to do all we can when people are in trouble!
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