Harvey gives world lesson in adaptation

Every time there’s a major weather event like Hurricane Harvey, a debate follows about whether it was due to “climate change.” It’s the wrong debate.

No single weather event can credibly be attributed solely to climate change — itself a misnomer since the climate has been changing naturally for billions of years, long before humanity started burning fossil fuels for energy.

What can be said about “man-made” climate change, meaning an abnormal warming of the Earth’s atmosphere caused by the industrial burning of fossil fuels beginning in the latter half of the 20th century, is that it increases the likelihood of hurricanes like Harvey.

The problem occurs when our politicians and governments — and we have plenty in Canada — use hurricanes and other extreme weather events as arguments about why we must all pay billions of dollars more every year through their various carbon pricing schemes, to lower our industrial greenhouse gas emissions linked to climate change.

This approach to climate change, known as “mitigation,” is a long-term strategy, the environmental benefits of which will not be seen for decades, if not centuries, because of how the Earth’s climate system works.

That doesn’t mean we should stop efforts to reduce our emissions through technology.

It does mean the debate over mitigation overshadows more practical measures to deal with extreme weather events in the here and now — regardless of whether they are caused by natural or “man-made” climate change.

That’s called “adaptation.” This means pursuing such sensible policies as not building (or rebuilding) housing, offices, factories, rail lines, power plants and water treatment facilities on flood plains, or along coastal areas.

It means ensuring municipal infrastructure — water and sewage treatment plants, water mains, sanitary sewers, roads, bridges, public transit — are kept in a state of good repair and thus are more resilient to weather extremes.

It means adopting planning policies that preserve green space in cities, so excessive rainfall can be absorbed by the earth, rather than causing flooding due to runoff from cement, concrete and asphalt surfaces.

Weather extremes are always going to occur, regardless of whether their cause is natural or man-made climate change.

We can at least reduce their impact through sensible planning policies and by properly maintaining public infrastructure.