The F’s have had a lot of influence on our Maritime quality of life while racking up enormous bills for recovery. Anne Shibata Casselman, writing in McLeans, identifies our time as a weird century of fire, biblical floods, dying forests, retreating coasts, economic turmoil, and political unrest.
Armel Castellan’s job to know the weather 24/7, Environment and Climate Change Canada’s disaster preparedness meteorologist for B.C. and Yukon, hydrated between speaking to the New York Times and Reuters. At night, he set up a tent in his backyard so his three young children’s bodies could cool down. When Victoria set a record high of 39.8 degrees, he tried not to think too hard about what that meant for the future his kids would inherit.
In other words, more heat domes are inevitable—as are many more extreme events and disasters that were once unimaginable. By the time we reach two degrees, our Great White North will look like the Great Wet North, as precipitation increases and winter’s edge is blunted. The summertime flow of rivers that bring water to prairie cities will decline. Rain, heat and hail will be biblical in scale, with no god to blame. Wildfires will burn hotter, larger and longer, poisoning the air for millions and potentially hastening the decline of our vast northern forests, which will already be stressed by rising temperatures. These disasters will lead in turn to declines in prosperity, productivity, well-being, social cohesion and physical health. Even the unborn won’t escape: in-utero exposure to wildfire smoke, for example, will leave an indelible, lifelong mark on babies’ health. (Casselman & Dyck, n.d.)
Ian Fairclough, a multimedia journalist, with SaltWire, interviewed Kate Ervine, a professor in the global development studies department at Saint Mary’s University, who says many impacts of climate change have an effect on the fire season.
“Looking at these things globally, whether it’s the wildfires, or the extreme heatwaves, or the droughts, or the flooding and record ocean temperatures, we’re seeing all these cascading events that are intensifying year on year,”
“Fossil fuels are the primary source of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and stay there for hundreds to thousands of years, so the CO2 that was emitted during the industrial age, there’s a good chance it’s with us today, and what we’re burning in our coal-fired power plant today is going to be around for hundreds of years,” “It’s a cumulative problem.”
“As it accumulates in the atmosphere, we’re now starting to see the much more intense repercussions in terms of all the events we’re (experiencing).” (Fairclough, 2023)
Ervine notes that when she’s out in the community she’s hearing more conversations about climate, and “it seems like the mainstream discussion of climate change is here now because people are seeing it and they’re feeling it.”
Jagmeet Singh in an Opinion Piece for the National Observer, proposes action for the people of Canada.
There is a lot of work ahead of us, and we will not achieve it with half-measures or attempts to divide Canadians. The federal government must work with all levels of government and community leaders to ensure that when climate disasters strike, communities have the resources they need to protect themselves.
We must work together to address the climate crisis — both to reduce our emissions and increase renewable energy. It will not be enough to set ambitious targets. We must also have a plan to meet them and the investments that it takes to prevent even more catastrophic climate disasters.
We must ramp up efforts to make our homes and communities as safe as possible from the climate emergency that is threatening all of us. There is no more time to waste arguing over the science of climate change when the results are right in front of us. (Singh & Fawcett, 2023)
Max Fawcett shares his opinion in the National Observer, that Pierre Poilievre’s version of the CPC has made its indifference to climate change a key selling feature to its base.
That sales job seems to be working, too. According to an Aug. 9 EKOS poll, just 24 per cent of CPC voters assign a “high extent” of responsibility for the surge in wildfires to climate change compared to 91 per cent for people who vote NDP, 88 per cent for Liberal supporters and 81 per cent for the BQ. (Fawcett & Saxifrage, 2023)
As we struggle to cope with the disastrous climate events of the past year, we can not longer delay development of mitigation and adaptation strategies to reduce destruction of our environment and our quality of life.
References
Casselman, A. S., & Dyck, D. (n.d.). Canada in the Year 2060. Macleans.ca. Retrieved August 23, 2023, from https://macleans.ca/society/environment/canada-in-the-year-2060/
Fairclough, I. (2023, August 21). Wildfires have always happened, but climate change is making them worse. SaltWire. Retrieved August 23, 2023, from https://www.saltwire.com/atlantic-canada/news/wildfires-have-always-happened-but-climate-change-is-making-them-worse-100884746/
Fawcett, M., & Saxifrage, B. (2023, August 22). Conservatives tweet while Canada burns | Canada's National Observer: News & Analysis. National Observer. Retrieved August 23, 2023, from https://www.nationalobserver.com/2023/08/22/opinion/pierre-poilievre-conservatives-tweet-while-canada-burns?
Singh, J., & Fawcett, M. (2023, August 22). The climate crisis is here. It's time to act like it: Jagmeet Singh. National Observer. Retrieved August 23, 2023, from https://www.nationalobserver.com/2023/08/22/opinion/climate-crisis-here-its-time-act-it
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