Canada and global warming: a state of denial

Actually, the consequences for continuing on the same old fossil fuel-based economic path is what will lead to economic suicide as the 2018 report from the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate outlines. This report describes the economic opportunities associated with shifting quickly to a green energy economy, as well as the risks associated with attempting to maintain a fossil fuel based economy. The Commission was established in 2013 by the governments of Colombia, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Norway, South Korea, Sweden, and the United Kingdom and already has released reports in 2014, 2015, and 2016.  It consists of 28 former heads of government and finance ministers, as well as leaders in the fields of economics, business and finance. It operates as an independent body and, while benefiting from the support of the partner governments, has been given full freedom to reach its own conclusions. 

The 2018 report concludes that shifting investments to a green energy economy could add $26 trillion to the global economy by 2030, create many more jobs than similar dollar investments in fossil fuels, and help avoid $600 trillion of negative impacts by 2100 that are estimated to occur if we continue with the same old fossil fuel economy.

Unfortunately, our current Trudeau federal government continues to invest in the same old less economically productive  fossil fuel industry that is producing the exponential growth in environmental catastrophes which visibly increases with each passing year. 

• In 2014, the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate concluded that ambitious climate action does not need to cost much more than business-as-usual growth. The evidence today shows that climate action is even more attractive than we imagined then. This remarkable new growth opportunity is now hiding in plain sight.

• Yet we are not making progress anywhere near fast enough. While many private sector players are stepping-up, policy-makers in most countries still have the hand-brake on. We are now at a fork in the road.

• The next 10–15 years are a unique ‘use it or lose it’ moment in economic history. We expect to invest about US$90 trillion in infrastructure to 2030, more than the total current stock. Ensuring that this infrastructure is sustainable will be a critical determinant of future growth and prosperity. The next 10–15 years are also essential in terms of climate: unless we make a decisive shift, by 2030 we will pass the point by which we can keep global average temperature rise to well below two degrees Celsius.  ...

• While recognising the shortcomings of current economic models, analysis produced for this Report found that bold action could yield a direct economic gain of US$26 trillion through to 2030 compared with business-as-usual. And this is likely to be a conservative estimate.

• Making such a shift would also limit dangerous climate change. With each passing year, the risks of unabated climate change mount. The last 19 years included 18 of the warmest years on record, worsening food and water security risks and increasing the frequency and severity of hazards such as wildfires. Disasters triggered by weather- and climate-related hazards were responsible for thousands of deaths and US$320 billion in losses in 2017. Climate change will lead to more frequent and more extreme events like these, including floods, droughts, and heat waves. It is increasingly our ‘new normal’.  ...

The next 2—3 years are a critical window when many of the policy and investment decisions that shape the next 10—15 years will be taken.

https://newclimateeconomy.report/2018/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2018/09...

If you are not worried about the catastrophic impacts of climate change across the rest of the world, here is what we can expect in Canada. 

Climate change could impact dramatically on British Columbia and the Yukon:

• Higher air temperatures could result in droughts in southern coastal and interior zones; cause landslides by melting glaciers and permafrost in northern and mountainous areas; reduce the flow of rivers and streams; make forests drier and more defenceless against pests, diseases, and fire; and imperil wildlife on land and in water.
• Warmer ocean temperatures could result in shifts in the ranges, spawning time, and food supplies of marine species, like Pacific salmon, thereby depriving terrestrial species, like bears and bald eagles of nourishment.
• Rising sea levels could threaten such coastal zones as the Fraser River delta with floods and erosion.
• Increasing rain and snow could cause flooding throughout the interior.

Western Mountain Region

The Rockies’ extremes of climate and altitude make them particularly prone to the effects of climate change:

• As temperatures rise, low-elevation glaciers are rapidly melting and may disappear or cause landslides that put wildlife habitat at risk; plant and animal species are shifting upward, for example, sagebrush is replacing glacial meadows, and life forms restricted to the highest peaks are being displaced by others moving up from below.
• Increasing precipitation means deeper snow, which could make it more difficult for animals like deer and elk to forage for food and drive them into valleys where they are more vulnerable to car and train collisions and predator attacks.

Prairie Region

The consequences of climate change in Canada’s Prairies could be severe:

• Rising temperatures, decreasing rainfall, greater rates of evaporation, and drier soils will mean habitat loss both on land and in water.
• Warmer weather may prolong the growing season and expand agriculture further north. It could also cause longer, more frequent droughts, diminished crop yields, and the spread of desert-like conditions over part of the southern Prairies.
• Widespread fires in the boreal forest region may cause the northward expansion of grasslands and shrink the habitat of the woodland caribou and many other species.
• More than 50 percent of Prairie potholes could disappear.

Boreal Forest Region

Scientists predict that this northern region – comprising one-third of the planet’s forests – will be one of the areas most affected by climate change:

• Dry, warm weather could alter the ecosystem, making the forest fire season weeks longer, sparking more frequent and sever “monster blazes,” and doubling the area burned each year. Rising temperatures could also result in more frequent and deadly attacks by forest pests, including spruce budworm and pine beetle.
• The species composition of the forest could change as conditions suitable for the growth and regeneration of pine, spruce, fir, and other temperature-sensitive trees continue to shift.
• The timberline could move hundreds of kilometres further north, pushing the tundra back to the Arctic Islands and reducing it to one- to two-thirds its current size.
• As evergreen trees lose ground to hardwoods in the region’s lower latitudes, losses from the southern margin of the forest will likely exceed the gains in the north.
• More than half of the boreal forest could vanish in the next hundred years due to climate change.

Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Region

Climate change models predict major impacts on this region’s lands and waters:

• Average temperatures could rise by 2 to 5°C while precipitation could increase by up to 25 percent by the end of this century.
• More days when heat stress and air pollution threaten the health of wildlife and humans, changes in forest composition due to shifting vegetation zones, increases in the frequency and severity of forest fires, the northward extension of agriculture, and a longer growing season are among the changes expected on land. Significant declines in the populations of neotropical migratory birds, including many wood-warbler species, could result.
• As the region warms up, the temperatures of lakes, streams, and rivers will rise and much more water will evaporate. The levels of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River could fall by a metre in 30 years, reducing the volume of water that flows through the system and circulates oxygen to biologically productive zones.
• These changes will benefit some aquatic species and spell disaster for others. Cold-water fish, like salmon and trout, could suffer substantial loss of both habitats and populations. Such species at risk as the spotted turtle and swamp rose-mallow could see their habitats dry up while the nesting sites of waterfowl become more accessible to predators in Great Lakes marshes.

Atlantic Region

This region will be particularly vulnerable to rising sea levels and increased storm activity.

• Increased coastal erosion, sedimentation, flooding of low-lying habitats, shrinking of tidal flats and nesting beaches needed by shorebirds, and submersion of barrier islands vital to breeding raptors and colonial birds are among the effects of sea level rise.
• Most at risk are salt-marshes. These coastal wetlands have adapted to a unique mix of fresh and salt water. Too much salinity could throw them off balance and harm the habitat of a wide range of species, particularly fish and waterfowl.
• Heavier rainfall would increase the volume of run-off polluting bays and estuaries that provide key stopovers for migratory bird sand nourish and feed countless species of molluscs, crustaceans, and fish.
• Changes in sea temperature would affect the range, distribution, and food supplies of sea-bird and marine-mammal populations.
• Heightened storm intensity, frequent fires, and other ecological pressures would increase the die back of coniferous trees and promote a transition from boreal to mixed and temperate forests.

Arctic Ocean Region

The far- reaching impacts of climate change will be felt nowhere greater than in Canada’s Arctic, one of the fastest-warming regions on Earth:

• As temperatures rise, climatologists anticipate not only the shrinking of the Arctic tundra but also the shrinking of the Arctic sea ice . This frozen platform is integral to the lives of a huge array of species, such as walruses , seals, and polar bears, that feed, travel, and breed on its vast expanses. Algae living under the sea ice are the foundation of an ocean food chain that supports plankton, copepods, fish, sea birds, and mammals. The average thickness of the sea ice has shrunk by 40 per cent in the past three decades, jeopardizing the future of this web of life.
• Among the species affected most is the black guillemot, a sea bird whose populations have plummeted since 1990 as the melting of sea ice increases the distances it must fly to forage for food.

http://cwf-fcf.org/en/about-cwf/contact-us/faq/faqs/how-will-climate-cha...

Here's a list of March 15th Fridays For Future climate change protests in 99 countries around the world. 

https://fridaysforfuture.org/events/list

Here's a description of the single autistic girl who started a gigantic student-led global warming movement. 

Greta Thunberg cut a frail and lonely figure when she started a school strike for the climate outside the Swedish parliament building last August. Her parents tried to dissuade her. Classmates declined to join. Passersby expressed pity and bemusement at the sight of the then unknown 15-year-old sitting on the cobblestones with a hand-painted banner.

Eight months on, the picture could not be more different. The pigtailed teenager is feted across the world as a model of determination, inspiration and positive action. National presidents and corporate executives line up to be criticised by her, face to face. Her skolstrejk för klimatet (school strike for climate) banner has been translated into dozens of languages. And, most striking of all, the loner is now anything but alone.

On 15 March, when she returns to the cobblestones (as she has done almost every Friday in rain, sun, ice and snow), it will be as a figurehead for a vast and growing movement. The global climate strike this Friday is gearing up to be one of the biggest environmental protests the world has ever seen.  ...

A year ago, this was unimaginable. Back then, Thunberg was a painfully introverted, slightly built nobody, waking at 6am to prepare for school and heading back home at 3pm. ...

She was never quite like the other kids. ... Four years ago, she was diagnosed with Asperger’s.

“I overthink. Some people can just let things go, but I can’t, especially if there’s something that worries me or makes me sad. I remember when I was younger, and in school, our teachers showed us films of plastic in the ocean, starving polar bears and so on. I cried through all the movies. My classmates were concerned when they watched the film, but when it stopped, they started thinking about other things. I couldn’t do that. Those pictures were stuck in my head.”

She has come to accept this as part of who she is – and made it a motivating force instead of a source of paralysing depression, which it once was. At about the age of eight, when she first learned about climate change, she was shocked that adults did not appear to be taking the issue seriously. It was not the only reason she became depressed a few years later, but it was a significant factor. ...

“I kept thinking about it and I just wondered if I am going to have a future. And I kept that to myself because I’m not very much of a talker, and that wasn’t healthy. I became very depressed and stopped going to school. When I was home, my parents took care of me, and we started talking because we had nothing else to do. And then I told them about my worries and concerns about the climate crisis and the environment. And it felt good to just get that off my chest.

“They just told me everything will be all right. That didn’t help, of course, but it was good to talk. And then I kept on going, talking about this all the time and showing my parents pictures, graphs and films, articles and reports. And, after a while, they started listening to what I actually said. That’s when I kind of realised I could make a difference. And how I got out of that depression was that I thought: it is just a waste of time feeling this way because I can do so much good with my life. I am trying to do that still now.”

Her parents were the guinea pigs. She discovered she had remarkable powers of persuasion, and her mother gave up flying, which had a severe impact on her career. Her father became a vegetarian. As well as feeling relieved by the transformation of their formerly quiet and morose daughter, they say they were persuaded by her reasoning. “Over the years, I ran out of arguments,” says her father. ...

The climate strike was inspired by students from the Parkland school in Florida, who walked out of classes in protest against the US gun laws that enabled the massacre on their campus. Greta was part of a group that wanted to do something similar to raise awareness about climate change, but they couldn’t agree what. Last summer, after a record heatwave in northern Europe and forest fires that ravaged swathes of Swedish land up to the Arctic, Thunberg decided to go it alone. Day one was 20 August 2018.

“I painted the sign on a piece of wood and, for the flyers, wrote down some facts I thought everyone should know. And then I took my bike to the parliament and just sat there,” she recalls. “The first day, I sat alone from about 8.30am to 3pm – the regular schoolday. And then on the second day, people started joining me. After that, there were people there all the time.”

She kept her promise to strike every day until the Swedish national elections. Afterwards, she agreed to make a speech in front of thousands of people at a People’s Climate March rally. Her parents were reluctant. Knowing Thunberg had been so reticent that she had previously been diagnosed with selective mutism, they tried to talk her out of it. But the teenager was determined. ... Despite her family’s concerns, she delivered the address in nearly flawless English, and invited the crowd to film her on their mobile phones and spread the message through social media.  ...

People with selective mutism have a tendency to worry more than others. Thunberg has since weaponised this in meetings with political leaders, and with billionaire entrepreneurs in Davos. “I don’t want you to be hopeful. I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day. And then I want you to act,” she told them.

Such tongue-lashings have gone down well. Many politicians laud her candidness. In return, she listens to their claims that stronger climate policies are unrealistic unless the public make the issue more of a priority. She is unconvinced. “They are still not doing anything. So I don’t know really why they are supporting us because we are criticising them. It’s kind of weird.” She has also been withering about leaders in the US, UK and Australia who either ignore the strikers or admonish them for skipping classes. “They are desperately trying to change the subject whenever the school strikes come up. They know they can’t win this fight because they haven’t done anything.” ...

The girl who once slipped into despair is now a beacon of hope. One after another, veteran campaigners and grizzled scientists have described her as the best news for the climate movement in decades. ...

In this regard, her family see her Asperger’s as a blessing. She is someone who strips away social distractions and focuses with black-and-white clarity on the issues. “It’s nothing that I want to change about me,” she says. “It’s just who I am. If I had been just like everyone else and been social, then I would have just tried to start an organisation. But I couldn’t do that. I’m not very good with people, so I did something myself instead.” ...

She seems incapable of the cognitive dissonance that allows other people to lament what is happening to the climate one minute, then tuck into a steak, buy a car or fly off for a weekend break the next. Although Thunberg believes political action far outweighs individual changes to consumer habits, she lives her values. She is a vegan, and only travels abroad by train. ...

This Friday, when she takes her usual spot outside the Swedish parliament, she will be joined by classmates and students from other schools. “It’s going to be very, very big internationally, with hundreds of thousands of children going to strike from school to say that we aren’t going to accept this any more,” she says. “I think we are only seeing the beginning. I think that change is on the horizon and the people will stand up for their future.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/11/greta-thunberg-schoolgirl-...

While Trudeau continues to proclaim himself the climate change warrior, the IEA says American and Canadian oil production are pushing climate change goals out of reach, while the developing world is now using more renewables than the developed world, thereby giving lie to another of the climate change deniers, who say we cannot possibly compete if don't continue using fossil fuels in a major way. 

A surge in US and Canadian oil production over the last decade has added the equivalent of “one Russia or one Saudi Arabia” to the markets—pushing the planet farther away from ever getting a grip on the pollution that is driving climate change.

Fatih Birol, the executive director of the International Energy Agency, revealed this fact Feb. 26 while discussing what he saw as a “growing disconnect” between the countless scientific studies calling for a decline in heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions—each more urgent than the last—and the fact that pollution continues to rise, hitting a record high last year.

In order to avoid the extreme flooding, drought, heat waves, rainfall, disease outbreaks and other dangers to human health that climate change will provoke, nations must stop burning fossil fuels in sufficient amounts to limit the rise in average surface temperature to below two degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels.

The problem, said Birol, is that there is already no more room to increase the amount of pollution that humans add each year to the atmosphere. All of the cars, trucks, power plants, factories and other facilities that have already been built around the world, he said, will eat up the rest of the planet’s so-called “carbon budget”—an expression used to describe the maximum amount of pollution that could be generated if the planet wants to limit the rise of average global temperatures—by 2045.

Canada has committed to investing billions of dollars over the next several years in clean technology that Birol said can take a big bite out of oil demand. ...

But the government also spent billions of dollars to buy the Trans Mountain oil pipeline and expansion project, and Natural Resources Minister Amarjeet Sohi recently announced $1.6 billion in support for the oil and gas sector to expand into new markets. Even Ottawa’s electric-car charging fund is also supporting natural gas refueling stations.

Those waiting in the wings to take power in Canada promise even more fossil fuel exploitation. Official Opposition Conservative leader Andrew Scheer has referred to Canada’s oil as the “cleanest” energy in the world, and continues to do so despite petroleum needing to be kept in the ground to keep global warming in check. ...

The Liberal government does not see a contradiction in all its efforts. It says decarbonization won’t happen overnight, and needs to be encouraged over several years, with the energy sector continuing to receive support in the interim. It sees lower-carbon shifts, such as from diesel to natural gas, as better than doing nothing.

Even so, a report from the International Institute for Sustainable Development describes how clean tech companies in Canada are facing challenges competing on a level playing field with the financially powerful oil and gas sector. ...

Birol laid out a stark assessment of the planet’s energy picture, and the uphill battle facing nations in cutting their carbon emissions.

Oil production in North America has more than doubled since 2009, despite Canada promising to cut its carbon emissions since the 1990s. A decade ago, Birol said, US and Canada together produced roughly 10 million barrels per day of oil, and today that number is roughly 22 million. The increase in production alone is equal to “one Russia or one Saudi Arabia” in additional output, he said, and an increase in natural gas is a “similar story.” “I believe the full impact of the North American oil and gas surge has not been felt yet” in terms of energy markets and petro-politics, said Birol. ...

Most of the world’s nations, including Canada, have committed to the Paris Agreement goal of keeping the global average temperature increase to well below two degrees Celsius. ...

Canada, for example, will fall short of its target unless it can close a gap of 79 million tons of carbon pollution. ...

Last year, solar was the largest growing power sector source in the world. Costs have plummeted and many governments are encouraging solar energy adoption. The developing world, in fact, is now deploying more renewables than developed nations. “We are going to see a big role for solar in the years to come,” Birol predicted. ...

“Emerging firms are struggling to operate in the low-carbon economy, where prices for the commodities they replace—including energy derived from oil and gas—are volatile and where prices for the pollution they address—such as carbon—remain low and are also subject to volatility.”

In January, National Observer reported that 45 per cent of the funding in a program that had been described as a boon for electric vehicles, was actually going towards natural gas refueling stations. Electric vehicle advocates said at the time that they felt slighted that the program wasn’t advancing the cause of electrification as much as it could. Under the program, the electric vehicle charging stations have cost about $50,000 to install, making them much cheaper than natural gas stations which cost around $1 million each.

https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2019/03/us-and-canadian-oil-prod...

Today there were 2,052 events in 123 countries as part of the student led and Greta Thunberg inspired Fridays for Future school strikes to protest the lack of action on climate change. 

https://www.dw.com/en/fridays-for-future-students-hold-international-cli...

In Vancouver,

Thousands of students marched in downtown Vancouver Friday, calling for action on climate change.

The School Strike for Climate, or #climatestrike, is part of an international movement to have young people’s voices heard about climate change.

Today’s protest garnered impressive numbers as herds of college and university students joined in as well.

The group marched downtown chanting “For our future, for our life,” and “Hey Hey Ho Ho, climate change has got to go,” before converging at the north side of the Vancouver Art Gallery.

https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/student-climate-change-protest-vancouver...

Unfortunately, the world got another warning yesterday from the United Nations on how fast global warming is changing our environment and lives: the Arctic is facing unavoidable catastrophic impacts from climate change even if the world reaches its Paris Agreement targets that we are currently well on the way to surpassing. These changes will have global impacts beyond the Arctic. 

Winter temperatures in the Arctic are set to rise by 3 to 5 C by 2050 even if the world succeeds in cutting emissions in line with the Paris Agreement, according to a new report by the United Nations. These temperatures are set rise even higher – up to 9 C –  by 2080, bringing devastating changes to the region and triggering sea level rises worldwide, the report by UN Environment finds.

Further warming may also surpass tipping points for the stability of the Greenland ice sheet, as well as the rapidly melting permafrost, which could release large amounts of carbon into the atmosphere and derail efforts to meet global greenhouse gas emission goals. Other possible tipping points are related to increased fresh water input or ocean acidification, with direct impacts on ocean circulation and ecosystems, warns the report titled Global Linkages – A graphic look at the changing Arctic.

“What happens in the Arctic does not stay in the Arctic,” said in a statement Joyce Msuya, UN Environment’s Acting Executive Director. “We have the science; now more urgent climate action is needed to steer away from tipping points that could be even worse for our planet than we first thought.”

Even if all carbon emissions were to be halted immediately, winter temperatures in the Arctic would still increase 4 to 5 C by the end of the 21st century compared to the late 20th century, the study finds. That’s because of greenhouse gases already emitted and stored in the world oceans. ...

But it’s not just about reducing carbon emissions. “Longer-term efforts to transition to low-carbon economies, both in the Arctic and globally, must be complemented by instant measures to reduce Short-Lived Climate Pollutants (SLCP), including methane, tropospheric ozone and black carbon,” the study says. “Immediately controlling SLCPs across the world could cut the rate of warming in the Arctic by up to two-thirds by mid-century.”

The report warns that Arctic societies, especially Indigenous Peoples who already face increased food insecurity, must prepare for what’s coming with suitable adaptation actions. By mid-century nearly four million people, and about two-thirds of today’s Arctic infrastructure, will be threatened by thawing permafrost, the report warns. ...

Global impacts

Source: UN Environment

The Arctic region has a significant impact on the global climate and there are strong feedback mechanisms between the Arctic and the rest of the world, the study says.

From 1979 to the present, Arctic sea ice is estimated to have declined by 40 per cent. Climate models predict that, at the current rate of carbon dioxide emissions, Arctic summers will be ice-free by the 2030s, according to the report. “Global emissions drive the melting of ice caps and glaciers, significantly contributing to rising sea levels, which will affect coastal and island communities throughout the world,” the report says. The melting of the Greenland ice cap and Arctic glaciers contribute to one third of sea level rise worldwide.

The slightest change in temperature can have a substantial effect on the fragile ecosystems in the Arctic, which is home to over 21,000 species of plants, fungi, mammals, birds, fish, insects and invertebrates, the report says. “This makes climate change the most serious threat to biodiversity in the Arctic.”

Ocean acidification is another threat

Growing ocean acidification is another factor impacting Arctic marine species. “The increase in ocean CO2 has caused average ocean surface acidity to increase by 30 per cent since the beginning of the industrial revolution,” the report said. “Lower pH levels can affect life in the ocean: for example, sea creatures like corals, molluscs, sea urchins and plankton build their shells and skeletons from aragonite, a carbonate mineral. This mineral becomes less available when pH levels of seawater fall, meaning these creatures need more energy to build their shells.” ...

The report also warns of other threats such as plastic pollution, invasive species and new diseases appearing in the region.

http://www.rcinet.ca/eye-on-the-arctic/2019/03/14/the-arctic-locked-in-f...

We as a society have not done a good job of dealing with the rapidly increasing financial costs of climate change, including in where and how we build homes. 

The impacts of floods, wildfires and other catastrophic events are on the rise in Canada. They’re already costing the country billions of dollars in losses, which only stand to grow in the coming years.

The Canadian insurance industry defines a catastrophic event as one that exceeds a threshold of $25 million in insured losses — the portion covered by private insurance. Insurance claims due to extreme weather reached $1.9 billion in 2018, including the late December wind storm on British Columbia’s south coast that downed trees and powerlines, and damaged more than 3,000 homes. ...

These costs have come close to, or exceeded, $1 billion in most years since 2009. They surpassed $1.5 billion in 2011, $3 billion in 2013 and $4.9 billion in 2016. In the past decade, the sum of all severe weather-related catastrophic events in Canada topped $17 billion. These numbers, however, are only the tip of the iceberg. ...

In many western industrialized countries, only about 40 per cent of disaster damages are insured. This means that citizens absorb the lion’s share of damage costs in the form of insurance deductibles, costs not covered by insurance such as lost work days and higher prices passed on by businesses.

Taxpayers also fund government disaster assistance, which topped $1.02 billion in 2013-2014. Between 2009 and 2015, the federal government provided $3.3 billion in recovery funding, more in those six years than in the first 39 fiscal years of the program combined. As people place more assets in harm’s way, existing public infrastructure ages and climate change impacts increase in the decades ahead, these large losses will only worsen. ...

The solution to the challenge of building societal resilience involves fostering a “whole of society” approach that includes academia, private industry, all levels of government and property owners to mitigate the impacts of natural disasters on society.

One of the weakest links in the chain is the lack of resiliency built into homes. Building codes represent the minimum legal requirements for house construction and do not take extremes into consideration. ...

Current and future damages are unacceptable when weighed against small changes in construction practices such as extra fasteners that secure roofs in high winds, $150 backwater valves that keep sewage out of basements during extreme rainfall events and fire resilient siding that is often close to the same price as more flammable options. ...

Builders now face another challenge: adding resiliency to homes so that they withstand severe weather. In many cases, we know what needs to be done to make homes more resilient, but face objections from some groups who need to be onside to make this happen. The challenge is amplified by homeowners and voters who don’t seem aware of riskand who are not giving clear direction on climate change to politicians and builders.

https://globalnews.ca/news/5060791/commentary-climate-change-construction/

Hurricane Idai that hit Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbawe on the weekend will be quite possibly the worst cyclone to ever hit the southern hemisphere once all the damage is fully assessed. Interestingly, the Guardian was the only newspaper to lead with this story reflecting the similar low level of coverage generally given climate change, which was also the case with the global student strikes for action on climate change of 1.4 million students in 123 countries last week and many other global warming events.

It also raises the question of when governments around the world, including Canada, are going to start effectively tackle this problem with action, not just words. 

 

A general view shows destruction after Cyclone Idai in Beira.

The devastating cyclone that hit south-eastern Africa may be the worst ever disaster to strike the southern hemisphere, according to the UN.

Cyclone Idai has swept through Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe over the past few days, destroying almost everything in its path, causing devastating floods, killing and injuring thousands of people and ruining crops. More than 2.6 million people could be affected across the three countries, and the port city of Beira, which was hit on Friday and is home to 500,000 people, is now an “island in the ocean”, almost completely cut off. ...

Houses, roads and telegraph poles are completely submerged. The Mozambican and South African military and other organisations are working to rescue people from the air, though many are struggling to get supplies and teams to the region because roads and bridges have been ripped up or have huge sinkholes in them. Some people are stranded clinging to trees; others are on houses or “new islands” that have formed, and have no food, according to rescue workers. ...

Health is a major worry and the risk of outbreaks of cholera and typhoid is high, especially as there are reports that water pipelines to the city have been cut. ...

Residents of Beira said there were reports of dams 70km from the city bursting, possibly Chicamba dam above Chimoio, north-west of Beira, or perhaps the Mavuzi dam, a smaller reservoir. Other dams are thought to be full to the brim and will have to open their floodgates soon. The colossal Kariba and Cahora Bassa dams on the Zambezi river are not thought to be under threat, but both were built about 50 years ago and the Kariba needs urgent maintenance.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/19/cyclone-idai-worst-weather...

The disaster to hit Mozambique is reported as one of the worst tropical cyclones to visit the southern hemisphere, with hundreds dead and hundreds of thousands more needing urgent assistance. I note the Guardian was the only major newspaper to lead with this story on Wednesday (Race to find survivors after deadly cyclone, 20 March).

People suffering in Mozambique and neighbouring countries didn’t create the climate crisis, but they are dying from more intense weather events like Cyclone Idai. ...

Climate scientists are clear: storms, cyclones and floods will worsen as the planet warms. ...

Something can be done to make disasters of this scale less likely. The question is: will political leaders do it?

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/mar/20/storms-cyclones-and-...

Pondering wrote:

jerrym wrote:

Could it be that they will save humanity when we adults could not?

https://www.thestar.com/opinion/letters_to_the_editors/2019/03/07/studen...

Not unless they figure out that "adults" are not the problem. Neoliberalism and corporate power stand in the way of climate change action. 

Of course. But adults are not totally off the hook. The failure of so many of them to protest or place the environment at the top of their priorities helps the corporations and neoliberals to continue as usual. 

If you say adults have no power to change anything on global warming, then you are arguing the world is doomed. We are in deep trouble but I do not think we are doomed yet.

The following article discusses how global warming is already having a major impact on Tuktoyaktuk in the Northwest Territories. The article also discusses the impact of global warming in cottage country and coastal Nova Scotia. 

Wishing to stay by the water, each homeowner plans to accede to its unrelenting march by uprooting their house and towing it over the ice to a new location

Waves from an August 2018 storm that caused four metres of land to erode in Tuktoyaktuk, N.W.T. ...

This past fall, when the temperature chilled and Tuktoyaktuk’s 900 residents steeled for the long annual freeze, Cockney, 51, measured the gap between the water and her front door — a distance once large enough to accommodate a truck, shrunken to the point where it can’t fit a Ski-Doo. The gap, she found, was two feet. “It’s because of the erosion,” Cockney said. ...

Tuktoyaktuk, Cockney’s home for most of her life, is simultaneously booming and drowning, oppositional states of affairs brought on by a new road that in 2017 connected the remote town to the rest of Canada for the first time — and by climate change, a crisis arriving from the other direction. ...

Across the Arctic, powerful storms and thawing permafrost are causing the coastline to erode at speed, overrunning uninhabited islands and prompting people in seaside Alaskan villages to vote to relocate their entire community to safer ground inland: Newtok in 2003, Shishmaref more recently in 2016.

Tuktoyaktuk, known locally as Tuk, is not quite at that stage. For now, the threat of imminent consumption by the sea is mostly limited to the four remaining addresses on a street called Beaufort Drive. ...

The last remaining homes on Beaufort Drive in Tuktoyaktuk, N.W.T., can be seen in the centre of this photo of the Beaufort Sea coastline. ...

Tuktoyaktuk isn’t the only Canadian community where encroaching seas are swamping buildings and forcing people to consider moving, Whalen said: it’s commonplace in cottage country and problematic in parts of Nova Scotia, where he works for most of the year. But he can attest firsthand to the accelerating rate at which storms are targeting Tuk — and to the damage those storms are causing, epitomized by a blustery few days he spent hunkered inside a rented house a couple of hundred metres from the shore last August.

https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/eroding-tuktoyaktuk-every-day-homes...

ETA: However, the Lennox Island Reserve in PEI is not the only Prince Edward Island community under threat from global warming says Lab director Adam Fenech of the UPEI Climate Research Lab. He says sea level rise around the world is occurring three times faster than previously thought making the need for at risk communities to adapt much faster. Some global warming problems that weren't expected until the next century are happening now.

Lab director Adam Fenech and other researchers are travelling across Prince Edward Island over the next few weeks to speak to communities about sea-level rise. Eight communities across PEI will be visited. Lennox Island was the first stop in the tour. ...

Mr Fenech said new reports are indicating that sea-level rise is going to increase three times as much than originally thought by scientists, adding oceans are getting warmer and are expanding while ice around the world continues to disappear faster than scientists anticipated, rising sea levels.

“Those two things that scientists didn’t think were going to happen until at least the next century are happening now,” said Mr Fenech during his portion of the presentation entitled Our Incredible Shrinking Island, “That’s why we are getting a little concerned about this idea of sea-level rise.”

With PEI’s sandstone not very resistant to erosion, it’s estimated the Island has lost an overall 5,000 acres of land from 1968-2010 as a result of coastal erosion. ...

As a First Nations member, Natalie Knockwood said she feels it’s her responsibility to care for the whole of PEI, not just Lennox Island and asked why Island reserves were being treated as separate entities.

Mr Jardine explained the climate lab does conduct studies for the rest of PEI as well, but admitted there isn’t a whole lot of funding available for since research. The Mi’kmaq Confederacy applied for the funding for these projects through INAC, which provides funding specifically for Canadian reserves.

“This work that we are describing is not being done for all of PEI, it’s just being done for the reserves. You’re getting special treatment in a sense because you’re getting special focus on your territories,” said  Mr Fenech’s colleague Don Jardine.

[Lennox Island First Nations residents Natalie] Knockwood agreed with Mr Labobe then that politicians need to be attending these meetings.

“This isn’t just a Lennox Island problem, it’s not just a Rocky Point problem, Scotchfort problem, a Morell problem, it’s a whole Prince Edward Island problem and we all need to get on the same bandwagon in order for things to change here,” she said, “We can do things here in our First Nations community, but what about all of PEI? What all of PEI does affects us in our First Nations communities... We’re at risk. Is the government of PEI going to allocate us land somewhere else for our community... Those are the questions we have that need to be answered.”

http://www.peicanada.com/west_prince_graphic/article_3bc68786-1672-11e8-...

Considering the history of Meech Lake and the Charlottetown Accord, as much as I would like to see a envirnomental constitutional right, I just don't see any government going down this route in the near or even middle future. Getting all  or even most of the provinces onside at the same time is highly unlikely and by the time the vast majority of the population is demanding it because of environmental extreme devastation is hitting them personally in the face, it will be too late for the planet.

A string of legal challenges now face Exxon over its climate change denials.

A wave of legal challenges that is washing over the oil and gas industry, demanding accountability for climate change, started as a ripple after revelations that ExxonMobil had long recognized the threat fossil fuels pose to the world.

Over the past few years: Two states launched fraud investigations into Exxon over climate change, and one has followed with a lawsuit. Nine cities and counties, from New York to San Francisco, have sued major fossil fuel companies, seeking compensation for climate change damages. And determined children have filed lawsuits against the federal government and various state governments, claiming the governments have an obligation to safeguard the environment.

The litigation, reinforced by science, has the potential to reshape the way the world thinks about energy production and the consequences of global warming. It advocates a shift from fossil fuels to sustainable energy and draws attention to the vulnerability of coastal communities and infrastructure to extreme weather and sea level rise.

From a trove of internal Exxon documents, a narrative emerged in 2015 that put a spotlight on the conduct of the fossil fuel industry. An investigative series of stories by InsideClimate News, and later the Los Angeles Times, disclosed that the oil company understood the science of global warming, predicted its catastrophic consequences, and then spent millions to promote misinformation.

That evidence ignited a legal clamor that included calls for a federal criminal investigation of Exxon. The challenges gained momentum when attorneys general in New York and Massachusetts subpoenaed the oil giant for internal climate change-related documents. Then some of the country's largest cities entered the fray, seeking billions of dollars to fortify against climate change.  

The storm of litigation could have a broad impact if it succeeds in holding fossil fuel companies accountable for the kinds of damages they foresaw decades ago, said Harold Koh, a professor of international law at Yale Law School who served as senior legal adviser to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

"The industry has profited from the manufacture of fossil fuels but has not had to absorb the economic costs of the consequences," Koh said. "The industry had the science 30 years ago and knew what was going to happen but made no warning so that preemptive steps could have been taken.  "The taxpayers have been bearing the cost for what they should have been warned of 30 years ago," Koh added. "The companies are now being called to account for their conduct and the damages from that conduct."

The attorneys general of New York, Massachusetts and the U.S. Virgin Islands launched investigations of Exxon in 2015 and 2016. Prosecutors want to see if the company lied to the public about the risks of climate change or to investors about how such risks might hurt the oil business.

The investigations drew a quick, fierce response from Exxon. The company went on the legal offensive to try to shut down the probes, employing an army of aggressive, high-priced lawyers and a strategy of massive resistance. The attorney general of the Virgin Islands capitulated and ended his investigation just three months after issuing subpoenas.

Since then, Exxon has been waging a relentless fight though state and federal courts to impede the continuing investigations by New York and Massachusetts. It sued Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey and then-Attorney General of New York Eric Schneiderman in federal court to block the investigations, but the judge rejected Exxon's claims that the investigations are politically motivated. Legal battles also spilled into the courts of both states; all the way up to the supreme courts of New York and Massachusetts.

In October 2018, New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood sued Exxon, stating in the lawsuit that the oil giant engaged in "a longstanding fraudulent scheme" to deceive investors by providing false and misleading assurances that it was effectively managing the economic risks posed by policies and regulations it anticipated being adopted to address climate change. The lawsuit said the alleged fraud reached the highest levels of Exxon, including former Chairman and CEO Rex Tillerson, who it said had known about the misrepresentations for years. 

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/04042018/climate-change-fossil-fuel-c...

A jobs report released this month in the United States puts the lie to the argument that a green energy strategy means economic hardship for workers. Renewable energy jobs now outnumber fossil fuel energy ones by a 3:1 ratio and are growing in number quickly.

Meanwhile the Trudeau Liberals subsidize with taxpayers' money our fossil fuel industry to the tune of $13.8 billion consisting of $4.7 billion purchase and $9.8 in estimated construction costs (https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/kinder-morgan-trans-mountain-pipe...) with a misleading

" claim of 15,000 jobs during the construction phase of the pipeline ... [when Kinder Morgan's] own submission to the National Energy Board stated that the total number of construction jobs for the project would be 2,500 per year for two years." (https://www.corporatemapping.ca/lets-share-actual-facts-about-the-trans-...)

"As for permanent jobs, Kinder Morgan’s application notes that the existing Trans Mountain pipeline supports 100 jobs in Alberta and 100 jobs in BC. Kinder Morgan projects an additional 90 workers as a result of the expansion, 50 of which would be in BC." (https://www.policynote.ca/kinder-morgan-costs-and-benefits-unbalanced-no...)

But even with Trump's pro fossil fuel policies renewables are forming a major part of the American economy.

Overall, clean energy jobs totaled more than 3.26 million at the end of 2018, growing despite the impact of the Trump administration’s tariffs on solar panels and market uncertainty from the administration’s inaction and planned rollbacks of energy efficiency and clean vehicles policies. Clean jobs outnumber fossil fuels jobs nearly three to one (3.26M to 1.17M) and clean energy employers said they anticipate 6 percent job growth for 2019.

INDUSTRY JOB TOPLINES

• Energy Efficiency – 2,324,865 jobs
• Renewable Energy – 508,484 jobs
• Solar Energy – 334,992 jobs
• Wind Energy – 111,166 jobs
• Clean Vehicle – 253,599 jobs
• Clean Storage – 74,569 jobs
• Grid Modernization – 64,377 jobs
• ALL US Clean Energy Sectors – 3,264,383 jobs

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS

• Solar alone employs more than twice the number of coal workers
• Wind and solar account for nearly 2 out of every 5 construction jobs in the electric generation sector
• Not included in the clean vehicles sector are 486,000 employees in the motor vehicle industry who work with parts making vehicles more fuel efficient
• Jobs in grid modernization grew 3.3 percent in 2018, adding more than 2,000 jobs
• More Americans work in energy efficiency (2.3 million) than there are waiters and waitresses in America’s bars and restaurants (2.25 million)
• All but two of America’s 3,007 counties are home to jobs in clean energy
• More than one out of every three employees working in the energy sector (from traditional energy to motor vehicles) are involved in energy efficiency
• After two years of losses, solar energy employers predict 8 percent job growth for 2019
• Two-thirds of U.S. clean energy jobs (67%) are involved in construction and manufacturing
• There are now more Americans working in clean energy than there are school teachers

https://www.e2.org/reports/clean-jobs-america-2019/

The future is now when it comes to global warming. 

Beira, Mozambique “will go down in history as having been the first city to be completely devastated by climate change,” said Graça Machel, the country’s former first lady.

UN: This is the worst weather disaster in history in the Southern Hemisphere.

Copernicus / European Space Agency

https://twitter.com/EricHolthaus/status/1110293529085906945

Mozambique floods cover more ground than NYC, Chicago, D.C., and Boston — combined

Post-flood satellite images of Mozambique show that Cyclone Idai submerged about 835 square miles of homes and fields — an area larger than New York City, Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Boston combined. Aid workers in Mozambique describe the floodwaters as “inland oceans extending for miles and miles.”

Idai’s official death toll in Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and Malawi reached 761 on Monday, but that total will surely rise. There are reports of hundreds of bodies alongside a single road as floodwaters began to recede.

Beira, Mozambique, reportedly the hardest hit city, “will go down in history as having been the first city to be completely devastated by climate change,” said Graça Machel, the country’s former first lady and a prominent humanitarian in an interview with the Mozambique newspaper Verdade on Monday.

The United Nations has characterized the storm and its aftermath as one of the worst weather-related disasters ever recorded in the Southern Hemisphere. As a result, the UN World Food Program now considers it one of its top concerns globally— on par with the wars in Syria, Yemen, and South Sudan — estimating that some 3 million people have been affected, nearly half of them children. ...

Mozambique received nearly a year’s worth of rainfall in the days following Cyclone Idai, consistent with findings that rainstorms are becoming stronger and more common as Earth’s atmosphere warms up. After centuries of colonial rule by Portugal and decades of war after independence (in which the U.S. played an active role), Mozambique is one of the poorest countries in the world — a stark reminder of the inherent injustice of climate change, that those least responsible for greenhouse gas emissions are bearing its worst consequences.

An estimated 128,000 survivors have made their way to temporary camps near Beira, with an escalating risk of cholera and other waterborne diseases. The Red Cross announced plans to provide humanitarian support to 200,000 people for up to two years. “The scale and scope of suffering and damage is breathtaking,” saidRed Cross secretary general, Elhadj As Sy, after touring the region around Beira.

https://grist.org/article/mozambique-floods-are-larger-than-nyc-chicago-...

The Ontario environmental commissioner calls the Ford government's climate policies "frightening".

 Ontario’s environmental commissioner issued dire warnings Wednesday about the “frightening” state of climate policy in the province as she delivered her office’s last report. The Progressive Conservative government announced last fall that it was eliminating the office of the environmental commissioner and merging its functions with the auditor general. In delivering a report on energy conservation, Dianne Saxe said Ontario is heading in the wrong direction on the environment.

 Ontario’s environmental commissioner issued dire warnings Wednesday about the “frightening” state of climate policy in the province as she delivered her office’s last report. The Progressive Conservative government announced last fall that it was eliminating the office of the environmental commissioner and merging its functions with the auditor general. In delivering a report on energy conservation, Dianne Saxe said Ontario is heading in the wrong direction on the environment.

“On the big things that will reduce our climate pollution, allow Canada to fulfil its role under the Paris agreement and show the poorer countries of the world that are suffering the greater damage that we are going to do our part, we are causing great damage.”

Saxe is critical of the government’s cancellation of a cap-and-trade system to reduce greenhouse gases, as well as the cancellation of electricity conservation programs and a growth plan that she says increases urban sprawl and therefore reliance on transportation fuels.

“I think that what we’re doing in Ontario and what we may do in Canada this year puts the entire Paris Agreement at risk,” she said, referring to the federal Conservatives’ opposition to the upcoming carbon tax. If the world can’t hold together on the Paris Agreement we are toasted, roasted and grilled.” ...

Saxe was critical of the government’s recent cancellation of a slew of electricity conservation programs, including rebates for energy-efficient heating and cooling equipment, discounts for buying energy-efficient products such as LED light bulbs, incentives for builders to improve energy performance in new residences, and refrigeration equipment upgrade incentives. ...

The government’s environment plan doesn’t even mention electricity conservation, Saxe said, and abandoning it would increase greenhouse gas emissions from electricity by about two megatonnes. ...

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said reports and comments like the ones Wednesday from the environmental commissioner are why the government got rid of Saxe’s office. “They don’t want to hear what it takes and what’s necessary to meet greenhouse gas emission reduction targets,” she said. “Instead, they just want to continue along their merry way and not take seriously our responsibilities when it comes to climate change.”

https://globalnews.ca/news/5101825/ontarios-climate-policy-frightening-w...
 

We need more politicians like Alexandria Octavio Cortez in Canada. She defended her Green New Deal while linking the harmful effects of climate change to those who suffer the most from it, the poor, after a Republican criticized it as an elitist plan of California and New York "rich liberals". The url below includes a video of her fiery full response. 

“This is not an elitist issue, this is a quality of life issue,” Ocasio-Cortez responded, her voice rising in exasperation. “You want to tell people that their concern and their desire for clean air and clean water is elitist? Tell that to the kids in the south Bronx which are suffering from the highest rates of childhood asthma in the country. Tell that to the families in Flint.”

The fiery exchange came as the Senate blocked a measure to advance the Green New Deal. Republicans, who have so far offered no plans to combat climate change, repeatedly mocked the Democratic plan as unserious and “socialist” during Tuesday’s debate. Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) made a splash of his own by relying on various charts that included images of babies, Ronald Reagan, and cartoon sea creatures for his criticism.

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/03/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-gr...