Climate change is going to hit Canada harder than most other parts of the world and Canadians have little choice but to adapt to the impacts.
That was the sombre message here yesterday from Canadian climate scientists in a briefing organized by the agency that pays for most of the non-government climate change research in the country.
"Our climate is changing and it will continue to change for decades. Canadians need to think about what that means to them," said Gordon McBean, a University of Western Ontario professor who heads the Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Sciences.
"The choices we make today can influence what we see by the end of the century, although not over the next two decades," added John Fyfe.
A climate modeller with the federal environment department, Fyfe said computer projections show that a half-degree Celsius rise in average temperature is locked in for the world until at least 2025 because of man-made greenhouse gases already in circulation.
"We really have very little control over this. We're more or less stuck with it," he said.
Renéé Laprise, who specializes in regional climate modelling at the University of Quebec in Montreal, said the locked-in temperature increase would be even higher in North America, possibly 1C in northern Canada.
"We need to be looking at adaptation to climate change," said Laprise, who pointed out melting permafrost will mean costly rebuilding in the North.
Granted every decent climate change skeptic should have moments where he/she worries about being a tad cavalier with the future of Bangladesh and Sub-Sahara Africa, but what is this nonsense? Canada? Quelques arpents de neige? The country that spends four to six months in a deep freeze that everyone who can afford to escapes by fleeing to Florida and Hawaii? There is probably no country in the world that would benefit more economically, medically, socially and psychologically from climate change. Agriculture would thrive (Mmm...peaches!), resources would be more accessible, the cost of living would decrease, we’d get outdoors more, etc. But all our gloomily-correct beautiful people can think of is the cost of rebuilding a few thousand rickety pre-fabs in the Arctic. The horror! Are these people trying to play some game of moral one-upmanship with starving Africans threatened with creeping deserts? Shame.
Note also how this article repeats a theme one sees a lot of late. The time for action is NOW, but no results will be seen for at least a generation, if then. Which of course means no one can credibly challenge the wisdom of the climate change sages or call them to account until most of them have retired or died. Nice work if you can get it.
4 comments:
People build houses on permafrost? How many people are we talking about? And who are these anti-social types who insist on living so far away from civilization?
This must be a coordinated world-wide media campaign to get everyone into high dudgeon. The local news types were complaining on what this would mean to Minnesota. Gee, by 2025 there will only be one month when the ice cover is safe enough to walk on. How can we ice fish without ice? How about puting a boat in the water and fish from that.
It will impact winter sports enthusiasms, but I've never come down with that virus, so I couldn't care less.
Love the headline and like all the other Personality Disorders, there's no treatment and no cure. The afflicted will just die off and rid the planet of themselves. Works for me.
Investment tip: Buy some waterfront property on Hudson Bay and sit back to await the tropical breezes wafting your way.
If you really want to drive them nuts, tell them that economists have determined that warmer weather will be a net gain until the increase hits 2 degrees F, which likely won't be until next century.
How soon until they start extending I-75 northward from the Soo?
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