Climate crisis
The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has hit the alarm button and the world should take heed.
For anyone still skeptical about the effects of greenhouse gas emissions, the IPCC report lays out the stark evidence. And we are not immune in Atlantic Canada, where many people depend on fishing, farming and tourism for their livelihoods.
Climate change is happening and affects every aspect of our lives, from our physical and mental health to the health of the land, oceans, animals and fish.
The panel warns that unless we take action now to curb global warming, the dangers posed will intensify quickly by the middle of this century — less than 30 years’ time — when it will be a massive problem for our children and grandchildren.
Some of the highlights:
Changes in climate and extreme weather events are thwarting access to subsistence hunting and fishing for communities that depend on it — think thinning sea ice off the Labrador coast.
Higher marine temperatures put lucrative fisheries at risk, such as crab, shrimp and lobster, with some of those species on the move to escape warming waters.
Off the coast of Nova Scotia, kelp — an important habitat for some marine species — has decreased by 85 to 99 per cent in the past half-century, replaced by invasive species such as turf algae.
Extreme weather has had a detrimental impact on agriculture — think of blueberry farmers in P.E.I. losing whole fields to drier-than-usual weather.
Our cities and towns have seen infrastructure like roads and culverts fail and residential properties flood during intense storms. Expect that to happen more often, driving up the cost of our insurance and the cost of towns’ emergency preparedness measures.
They say a rising tide lifts all boats, but it also contributes to coastal erosion, threatening properties, homes and other buildings and infrastructure.
Warmer temperatures have led birds and animals to relocate and have turned trees into tinderboxes, as we saw with the wildfires that plagued the west coast last year.
Higher temperatures and earlier snow melt can also pose a challenge for winter tourism activities like skiing, snowboarding and snowmobiling.
The report also acknowledges that climate science has been politicized and undermined in some quarters, and misinformation has been spread, creating division and leading to a lack of concrete action.
Is it all bad news? Not quite.
Our provincial and federal governments can still take action to cut carbon emissions and slow warming, and we, as individuals can make better choices.
Perhaps most importantly, the report suggests that we look to Indigenous peoples for guidance and leadership, since Indigenous peoples’ traditional ways of life have always been heavily dependent on the integrity of the land, ice and water.
Indigenous people have long understood, the report notes, that humans have to live with and respect the land, and not the other way around.
It’s a lesson that’s not too late to learn.