Coping with climate change and its extreme weather
Province’s expert on environment to speak in Hamilton
Ontario’s environmental commissioner Dianne Saxe will make a presentation Monday in Hamilton about climate change and the challenges of trying to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Saxe — who as environmental commissioner is an independent officer of the provincial legislature who reports on government progress on climate change, energy and other environmental issues — will speak at the Climate Action Fair at the Hamilton Public Library central branch downtown.
Saxe says climate change is definitely here. She believes extreme weather and high water levels of recent months are a symptom of that.
The Spectator spoke with Saxe last week. Here is an abbreviated and edited summary of her remarks:
Q. What is the focus of your talk about climate change?
A. I have found that most people underestimate how much climate change is already here. That’s the first thing I tell audiences. I run through the science with them. I think it is very important to start with a basic sense of knowledge so they understand the scope of the challenge that we are facing. I also try to give people some hope talking about the things that we all can do.
Q. What are some examples of things that can be done?
A. For example, soil. We can put carbon back into soil. In Ontario we’ve lost about 30 per cent of the organic matter in soil over the last generation or so and that has a number of consequences, all of them bad. It increases greenhouse gases in the atmosphere that exacerbates climate change. It reduces the water-holding capacity of soils. The French have proposed if we increased organic matter in soil we could not only improve food security, but we could also help to reduce climate change ... Q. What is your assessment of the provincial government’s response
to climate change?
A. I think Ontario has done a lot of things right. Closing the coal plants was huge. Putting a price on carbon was absolutely essential. We are finally joining a lot of the rest of the world by putting a price on carbon. It’s not so important how we do it — whether it’s cap and trade or a carbon tax — the important thing is to have a price on carbon ... When I looked at the province’s action plan, I would give some of the actions pretty good marks and some … terrible marks.
Q. Do you think the extreme weather and high water levels we have been experiencing is explained by climate change?
A. Absolutely. There is no doubt about it ... Here is my best metaphor for this: You know there can be car crashes without alcohol. But when you add alcohol, car crashes are much more likely ... When someone is in a crash and they have been drinking, we can’t say 100 per cent certain that they would not have had a crash if they hadn’t been drinking. But we do know the alcohol greatly increases the likelihood of the crash and very often the severity. That’s what climate change does. It increases the frequency and severity of extreme events.