weather

We Ignore the Voices from Canada’s Rapidly Changing Arctic At Our Peril

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Yesterday the documentary Arctic Re-Imagined aired on CBC Radio’s “The Current”. In it, journalist Chris Wodskou explores what it means for Canada to be an Arctic nation in a time of dramatic climate changes in the far north.

One of the voices featured in the half-hour documentary is that of  Zacharias Kunuk, award-winning director whose films include Atarnarjuat: The Fast Runner. Kunuk was born in Kapuivik in Nunavut, 200 miles north of the Arctic Circle. Here are some of his reflections, from Arctic Re-Imagined, on the changes that are happening in real-time for the Inuit who inhabit the far north:

“The ice used to be so thick in springtime when we were hunting for seals. Now, it’s like everything is a month early and a month later in fall before freeze-up.”

“We used to have a lot of multi-year ice. Now we only have first year ice; the heat – what we’re noticing – most of the hunters think it’s coming from the sea. What the elders are noticing the most is the sun doesn’t rise where it used to.”

This change in the appearance of the sun is an unexpected aspect of climate change. When air that is warmer than before blankets a still-cold landscape there are changes in the refraction of the sun’s rays, bending the sun’s light in different ways.  Keep in mind that the high Arctic is plunged into darkness when the sun disappears in December and only starts to reappear weeks later in the middle of January. With only an hour or so of “day glow” each day, the Inuit are keenly appreciative and aware of the sun when it does appear.

“…In the second week of January the sun starts to arrive over the horizon . And the elders noticed, because they are always observing the environment, they’ve noticed  that it had shifted to the right from where it used to rise. They are saying the sun is a lot higher in the summertime…”

“Even in the high Arctic one of the hunters was telling me in the 1950s they used to have one hour of day glow in the winter. Now they have two hours. So you think the world really tilted.”

“We still use the old techniques [of predicting weather], and add new ones. Climate change…well, you notice it. We have to adapt to it, have to change our routes, our travel routes.”

“We are already noticing this last summer due to climate change there’s more fresh water on top of the salt water. Because in the summertime when we shoot seals they float and we just pick them up.  For the past two years, we’ve been noticing seals that we shoot have been sinking when they’re not supposed to…”

To listen to the entire documentary, click here and scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on “Listen to Part 3”.  Click here for Canadian Inuit activist Sheila Watt-Cloutier’s message on 350.org, and here to read the Inuit Call to Global Leaders: Act Now on Climate Change (give the pdf a few minutes to load).

Click here for actions you can take to make a difference on climate change.

Inuksuk Point (Inuksugalait, “where there are many Inuksuit“), Foxe Peninsula (Baffin Island), Nunavut, Canada. Photo by Ansgar Walk



Norway Outlines Its Climate Cure, Climate Change Response Plan for Ontario Urged, Meanwhile Alberta Tar Sands Growth Unchecked

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In the news this week, those progressive Scandinavians are at it again! Norway has announced one of the world’s toughest climate goals, with a target of 30 – 40% reduced CO2 emissions from 1990 levels by 2020. Unlike recent announcements of a progressive new Canadian environmental policy, which turned out to be a Yes Men hoax (click here or here for more), Norway is serious about pursuing this strategy.  The “Climate Cure” plan that has just been released is a 300-page document prepared by Norwegian state agencies to guide deep cuts in the country’s greenhouse gas emissions. This policy is in line with the reductions that the best science say are necessary to avert global climate destabilization from greenhouse gas pollution.  The economic cost is considered in the plan as well, with Norwegian Environment Minister Erik Solheim saying the modest impact on economic growth predicted will mean that Norway will be as rich by Easter in 2020 than the country otherwise would be at Christmas in 2019. Seems a small price to pay to keep the planet habitable for future generations! To read more about Norway’s announcement, click here.

Meanwhile, closer to home, a blue ribbon panel of experts has produced a 96 page report entitled “Adapting to Climate Change in Ontario” which makes 59 comprehensive recommendations on how to deal with coming climate change-related effects. By this spring, the report states, Ontario should produce a “climate change adaptation action plan,” to guide policy creation in everything from physical infrastructure – such as building better roads and bridges – to agriculture, water, at risk species, and human health. Click here for more.

No announcements from the Canadian government on an environmental plan that will ensure a safe and healthy future for Canadians, though. The federal and Alberta governments’ support for the oil sands, the dirtiest oil in the world, continues unabated. However, there are signs from outside the country that campaigns that target the tar sands and the companies associated with them are having an effect. As discussed earlier on this blog, two Fortune 500 companies – Whole Foods and Bed Bath & Beyond – recently announced they were going to remove the oil sands from their supply chains. Meanwhile in Britain, campaigners are encouraging people to lobby their pension plans if they hold shares in BP or Shell, two major oil sands investors. And in the U.S. a “Love Winter Hate the Oil Sands” campaign is just getting started. It seems these companies will only listen when their bottom line is threatened – sanity, science and long-term planetary security don’t seem to make a difference. A campaign that targets Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) for its bankrolling of the tar sands is also underway – and is having an effect. This week, RBC Chief Operating Officer Barbara Stymiest (yes, that really is her name) and Rainforest Action Network met – click here to read “Getting to Maybe with RBC” or here for a Macleans article about this issue. To send a letter to Royal Bank of Canada CEO Gordon Nixon telling him to stop investing in the tar sands, click here. To join the Facebook group “Ending Investment in Tar Sands” click here.

President Obama Explains the Science Behind Climate Change

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Yesterday at a Nevada town hall meeting, President Obama took on Senator Inhofe and friends and their climate-change-denying ways. Obama  obviously “gets it” but it remains to be seen if this can be translated into legislation, with the some Democratics  afraid of taking a stand. Indeed, some of them seem afraid of their own shadows.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPwHnU5ObPY]

For more on this, click here.

“Olympic-Gate”: Winter Athletes Part of Climate Conspiracy

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Olympic athletes joined with the Sierra Club and other environmental organizations to call on Canada to save the winter Olympics and end the oil sands destruction.  Amid unusually warm weather and lack of snow, the Vancouver Olympics are quickly becoming an international embarrassment; a headline on The Guardian website this week blared “Vancouver Games Continue Downhill Slide From Disaster to Calamity“. Reuters reported that:

Vancouver’s Olympic smile is slipping. The beautiful city’s “Sea to Sky” Games seem to be sinking into a sea of meltwater, mud and straw while organizers scramble to get the extravaganza back on track.

This week prominent winter Olympians went public about their concerns over the connection between climate change and Canada’s production of  “the dirtiest oil on earth”.

Jeremy Jones, a mountain snowboarding legend and founder of Protect our Winters had this to say:

“Canada has some of the best snowboarding in the world, but the oil sands industry is going to blow it. This is the dirtiest oil on earth. If we want to save our snow, we have to stop it.”

Mike Richter, Olympic hockey goalie and silver medalist said:

“We can’t seriously combat global warming while getting fuel from the world’s dirtiest source. Unless we act now to combat climate change, it could put an end to the winters we know and love.”

World champion freeskier and founder of the Save Our Snow Foundation Alison Gannett said she had already witnessed glaciers melting and ski areas closing around the world because of climate change.  She went on to say:

“The global warming emissions from the oil sands are a threat to the future of skiing and the health of our kids.”

Increasing concern over the impact of global warming on the future of snow sports is putting a spotlight on Canada’s oil sands industry, the country’s fastest growing source of global warming pollution and the dirtiest form of oil in the world.

Yesterday, Sierra Club launched a U.S.-based “Love Winter, Hate the Oil Sands” campaign that includes ads targeting winter sports enthusiasts, a new website, a sticker giveaway, and tens of thousands of emails asking Americans to sign a petition to President Obama. Their press release stated:

Oil sands production emits three times the global warming pollution as conventional oil and requires clear cutting ancient forests, wasting and polluting water, and leaving behind massive toxic lakes. By accelerating climate change, the oil sands threaten to bring more drought, receding glaciers, and early snowmelt, creating a bleak future for Olympic sports like skiing and snowboarding.

The industry has proposed expanding into the U.S. via a sprawling network of pipelines and refineries that would crisscross Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Minnesota and Illinois, in many cases using substandard pipe and threatening drinking water and farmland.

“If we allow the oil sands to expand into America, it will undermine all we’ve done to create good, clean, homegrown American energy. By denying permits for these pipelines, we can signal to the rest of the world that our nation is serious about becoming a global leader in the clean energy economy,” said Sierra Club executive director Carl Pope.

Opposition to the oil sands is growing as people learn more about the industry. Just last week, two Fortune 500 companies, Whole Foods and Bed Bath and Beyond, announced they were going to remove the oil sands from their supply chains. On an interesting side note,  Whole Foods shares jumped 8% this week.

BC-based environmental watchdog Dogwood Initiative is participating in spreading the “Save Winter” campaign. They guided  “Team Polar Bear” through the city of Vancouver in an effort to rescue the Winter Olympics from the oil sands industry. According to their website:

With record temperatures threatening the Vancouver 2010 Olympic games, an unexpected team from the north has appeared to rescue the Olympics, only by saving winter itself.

Meet Team Polar Bear, a family of three furry giants, that has traveled South to get to the bottom of the disappearing snow in their arctic home, only to discover that Canada, the country that prides itself on its frosty fortitude, is itself one of the worst climate culprits.

If you, too, want to protect winter and save our snow, you can send a message to President Obama to stop America’s dependence on the tar sand’s dirty oil by clicking here.  To send a message to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, click here for contact information. You can visit Save Our Snow’s Facebook page here. After you’ve taken action, get out for a walk or a cross country ski and enjoy the winter that we have right now!

Snow People

Bill Nye “The Science Guy”: Climate Skeptics Unpatriotic

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Science Educator Bill Nye recently appeared on MSNBC to talk about the claims by contrarians that the snow storms hitting the east coast of the U.S. prove that climate changes isn’t happening. It’s a great interview with Rachel Maddow (hang in there through the first minute of basketball shots).

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYvk1OtI0H0]

Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert had some fun this week poking fun at the wild assertions as well. For those of us in Canada, who can’t access The Daily Show or Colbert Report anywhere but the Comedy Network, click here for Part I of the Daily Show and here for the first part of the Colbert Report, both from February 10.  For the rest of you, click here to go to  “Colbert Rips Fox News For Using Snowstorm to Deny Global Warming” and watch the video.

For more information on the link between climate change and severe weather, go to RepowerAmerica.org.

More “It’s Snowing So Global Warming Must Be a Hoax” Headlines

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Last month when the U.S. and Europe were brought to a standstill by brutal winter weather, there was a proliferation of posts on the blogosphere of contrarians shouting “It’s cold! It’s cold!  Whatever happened to global warming??”.  The eastern U.S. has just been slammed with snow again, and it seems these same people are at it again,too.  As I wrote then:

Some of these denialists really don’t get it!  Well, some of them do know better and just want to obscure the issue (check out the DeSmogBlog for more info on this); but a lot of them just haven’t done the research that is required to become better informed on this issue.  This is what scares me about their nonsense – these “it’s unusually cold therefore climate change isn’t happening” people are simply trying to out-shout the scientists who have studied this topic in depth.  It’s the Fox “News” approach to the most important issue humanity has ever faced – don’t do your homework, just shout louder than your opponent.

What is important to remember is that as more and more climate change-inducing emissions accumulate in our atmosphere (such as carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide) and form a warming “blanket” on the earth, our climate will become more and more unstable and unpredictable. The result will be more and more instances of extreme winter weather like parts of the world are now experiencing.  There will also be more droughts, hurricanes, etc.  That is one of the reasons that Former World Bank chief economist Lord Stern, recently revised his initial estimate that failure to act urgently on climate change would cost between 5 to 20 percent of global GDP, up to 50 percent or higher (a third of the world’s wealth).

Meanwhile, in the Arctic, The National Snow and Ice Data Center recently reported that “Arctic sea ice extent at end of December 2009 remained below normal, primarily in the Atlantic sector of the Arctic. Average air temperatures over the Arctic Ocean were much higher than normal for the month, reflecting unusual atmospheric conditions”.

Click here to read the full post from January 7th,  “Cold Snap “Proof” that Climate Change Not Happening?”.

  • But in the “good news” column, amidst the snow storm, the Obama adminstration has announced that it will be forming a new agency to monitor climate change. The announcement was made jointly by Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and the head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Jane Lubchenco.  NOAA will set up the new Climate Service to operate in cooperation with NOAA’s National Weather Service and National Ocean Service. Locke said at a news conference this week:

“Whether we like it or not, climate change represents a real threat. Climate change is real,  it’s happening now.”

Locke went on to say that  climate information is vital to the wind power industry, coastal community planning, fishermen and fishery managers, farmers and public health officials.

Click here to read more on Huffington Post.com

  • Another piece of good news is that the British Columbia government has rejected pressure from mining companies and announced this week that no mining, oil or gas development or coal-bed gas extraction will be allowed in the Flathead Valley in southern British Columbia.  The pristine area borders on a World Heritage Site, B.C.’s Waterton Park and Glacier park in Montana.  The government has said it will, instead, build a new “creative economy” around clean technology, innovative forestry industries and tourism.

Click here to read more.

Here’s a neat time lapse video of the recent snowfall in Washington D.C . posted by YouTube user “amandareckonwith“. Although for those of us on the Canadian prairie a snow storm is not as much as a novelty as it is, perhaps, for those folks in D.C.!

Not Just Your Grandparent’s Weather Anymore

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Yesterday, it rained.  In Winnipeg.  In the middle of the Canadian Prairies. In January.  That’s more than just weird – it’s down right unnatural.

Unfortunately, climate change will be causing more and more weird and unnatural weather.  A better word for climate change or global warming is “Global Climate Destabilization”.

That would explain rain on the prairies in January.

Check out Can Climate Change Explain the Odd Weather?, a 2007 interview with Kevin Trenberth, senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, on NPR. Trenberth states:

…of course one of the things which definitely alters things and makes you suspect that there’s just no good analog, which is what you’re really talking about here, is global warming. You know, and this has really kicked in in the last 25 to 30 years. It’s rearing its head more and more, and it just means that conditions nowadays can never be quite like what they used to be in the past. The oceans are warming up. The oceans have warmed up about a degree Fahrenheit as a whole. There’s more water vapor over the oceans. That invigorates storms. It changes the character of hurricanes, makes them more intense typically, these heavier rainfall events that we’re experiencing across North America.

And so the – you know, this is not – this is not your grandfather’s weather anymore.

For more discussion on this topic, check out the CBC science show Quirks and Quarks discussion on the difference between climate and weather.