Back

“While the planet has warmed 1.2 degrees since the 19th century, when humans first started burning #FossilFuels at an industrial scale, Canada has warmed at twice that rate, and the Arctic at four times. ..An Earth that’s two degrees hotter translates to a #Canada at least four degrees hotter, on average. .“A hot, dry summer ..in the Canadian context that means forest fires, that means #CropFailures, that means urban #droughts .”

“In 2005, Australian philosopher Glenn Albrecht first coined the term #solastalgia to describe the feeling of being homesick while still at home. It’s that feeling of loss and melancholia that kicks in as your home #environment changes before your eyes, and it will come to define the deep emotional and psychological distress that more #Canadians will confront as global warming drives their #climate past recognition.”

“scientists at the #CanadianForestService and the #UniversityOfAlberta projected that the annual footprint of #charred land in #Canada will more than double by 2050 and increase four-fold before century’s end. Some of the steepest increases will be in already hard-hit #WesternCanada, but also in swathes of northern #Ontario and #Quebec.

And those #fires will be fundamentally different—more beastly and less controllable”

“A study of #wildfire seasons conducted by scientists working with #HealthCanada and other federal departments estimated up to 240 deaths from short-term exposure, and up to 2,500 #PrematureDeaths in the long run, from fire events in 2017 alone. In parts of #BC hardest hit by that year’s wildfires, the smoke was estimated to reduce average #LifeExpectancy by a full year.”

“in #Canada, some 30,000 #children who were in utero during B.C.’s 2017 #wildfire season were later studied by #PublicHealth scientists. Those whose mothers lived in areas with the worst #smoke exposure were likelier to be born smaller and #preterm; they were also sicker, developing #croup, #laryngitis and #bronchitis at higher rates than other children.”

“John Pomeroy, #Canada Research Chair in #WaterResources and #ClimateChange at the #UniversityOfSaskatchewan, says faster-than-expected melting in the past few years makes it likely that all the #glaciers of the #Rockies—including the famed #ColumbiaIcefield, upon which a thriving tourism industry depends—will all be gone by the end of the century, save for a few remnants. That means reduced flows to rivers that millions of people depend on”

“A widely publicized study published last year by researchers at the University of Northern Arizona analyzed satellite images taken between 1985 and 2019. They show that large parts of the #BorealForest have “browned” (i.e., died) in the south and greened with trees and shrubs in the north. If this shift, long hypothesized as a future outcome of #warming, is already underway, the effects will be profound, transforming natural habitats, animal migration and human settlements.”

“#ClimateMigration will be one of the defining forces of the 21st century—but record numbers of #Canadians will be #displaced on the home front by #disasters both sudden (fire, flood, storms) and slow (drought, coastal erosion, sea-level rise). A permanent class of the #InternallyDisplaced will require care, shelter and other resources “

A survey of 3,000 #HighSchoolStudents evacuated from wildfire-ravaged #FortMcMurray, Alberta, in 2016 found that, even 18 months later, almost half met the criteria for diagnoses of #PTSD, #depression, #anxiety or #substanceabuse.”

“Accounting for increased health costs, supply-chain problems, falling crop yields, reduced exports and more, it estimated that the #costs of #ClimateChange will knock more than five per cent from the national #GDP by 2095, compared to what it would be in a world with a stable #climate. ..At that point, the #AnnualCost of dealing with disaster after disaster, and the hits to health, productivity and more will add up to $100 billion annually.”

“It doesn’t take a lot of auditing to see how the bill will get so steep, so fast. The total cost of the 2016 #FortMcMurray fire: $9 billion. The all-in price tag of B.C.’s 2021 #HeatDome, #wildfires, #floods and #landslide, all linked to warming: up to $17 billion. Cleanup and repair after #HurricaneFiona, which bulldozed #AtlanticCanada last year: $3 billion.”

“The cost of upgrading the #dikes that protect the low-lying #IsthmusOfChignecto and prevent Nova Scotia from becoming a defacto island: $300 million. The bill for #Richmond—the fourth-largest city in metropolitan #Vancouver, which includes the #VancouverInternationalAirport—to raise its own dikes against rising seas: $1 billion.”

“#NovaScotiaPower is spending millions to install more resilient #ElectricalPoles, after several years of increasingly powerful storms and hurricanes. In its last application to the provincial government to increase power rates on consumers, it cited #ClimateChange as a reason.”

“A #HotterCanada will be a #PoorerCanada—particularly in #Alberta, projected by the CCI to be hardest hit by weather-related disasters, primarily floods and fires.”

[Side note: which makes #Daniellezebub’s recent pronouncements even more ridiculous #abpoli ]

“the U.S. has cut #emissions by seven per cent since 1990, the EU by 34 per cent. #Canada’s emissions, however, have increased 11 per cent over the same time, largely due to our #FossilFuel sector.”

“The cost of stranding our fossil-fuel assets is tremendous—well over $100 billion. But the cost of doubling down on them as the world moves toward renewables and demand plummets is greater. The #InternationalEnergyAgency reports that, for every U.S. dollar invested in fossil fuels, $1.70 now goes toward clean energy. Investments in #solar will soon overtake investments in oil for the first time. Our #FossilFuel assets will risk being stranded, sooner or later, as the global economy moves on.”

“We know that #Canada’s federal and provincial #governments continue to stumble on the #ClimateFile. Few countries are on track to meet the #EmissionsReduction commitments made in the #ParisAgreement, but Canada is the worst-performing among the #G7.

“In a recent survey of 1,000 #Canadians between 16 and 25, more than three-quarters reported that #ClimateChange is detrimental to their #MentalHealth; one-third said it impeded their day-to-day functioning. This is a rational response. Someone in Gen Z easily has 60 years ahead of them—they’ll live through the worst of Canada’s forecasted climate tolls. The average Canadian oil and gas executive, meanwhile, is 58; the average federal MP, 50.”

“another study examining #ClimateChangeAnxiety in young adults found that countries with stronger climate action had lower rates of related anxiety. This suggests that political failures may exacerbate young Canadians’ malaise—but positive measures could cure it. Climate action doesn’t just stave off the worse outcomes of #PlanetaryWarming. It can be a mechanism by which we safeguard the mental and emotional well-being of those who will one day lead this country”

“#Renewable energy of all kinds is becoming the cheapest energy on the planet, and though the incumbent #FossilFuelIndustry is politically powerful, the #EnergyTransition has picked up too much momentum to be stopped: global fossil fuel use is expected to peak this decade. We can still choose how much the #ClimateChanges, especially beyond mid-century. But that depends not just on when fossil fuel use hits its apex, but how fast it declines.”

“The world’s second-largest steelmaker, ArcelorMittal, successfully used green #hydrogen to reduce the #CarbonFootprint of #steelmaking at a plant in Quebec last year. And oil-friendly Alberta is quickly becoming the country’s #solar-power capital, with hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of solar investments flowing into our sunniest province. “

[Well… until two weeks ago #Daniellezebub”]

“#RBC has estimated the cost to fully #transition #Canada off of #FossilFuels to be about $2 trillion.”

“It’s too late to stop all of the beasts #ClimateChange will unleash. They’re at the gates; we can hear and feel them out there, in the unknown to come. But if we work together to build our walls higher and stronger, we can keep them at bay.”

@CodieneC Just some of the nasty numbers I’ve quoted somewhere else in the thread.

@cazabon Europe
1990: 721,497,282
2022: 743,555,765

Emission reduction 34%

USA
1990: 248,083,732
2022: 338,289,857
Emission reduction 7%

Emissions 1990-2021. Per Capita and Total.