What’s Canada doing about climate change? Writing reports as the world burns

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 17/05/2022 (856 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In just one week in the life of a warming planet, Canada has witnessed a giant pile of reports.

On Wednesday alone, the World Meteorological Organization told us that the Earth has just come through the seven warmest years on record. Greenhouse gas concentrations, sea level rise, ocean heat and ocean acidification all set new records last year.

Death, destruction, hunger and hundreds of billions in damages were the result.

In Canada, the House of Commons public accounts committee told us that emissions are on the rise — as are sea levels, extinctions and extreme weather events. The committee listed all of the climate agreements Canada had signed on to over the years and concluded we were having a great deal of trouble implementing them.

On Monday, Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault issued a discussion paper on how to go about setting up a national strategy on climate adaptation, replete with infographics and links to hundreds of pages of consultations and input from dozens and dozens of contributors.

Late last week saw the Canadian Climate Institute issue recommendations on how to incorporate international best practices into Canada’s approach to confronting climate change.

And Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson issued a tally of how much forest had burned and how much the federal government had been spending in disaster relief lately.

The sheer number of words is overwhelming, let alone the devastation and inaction they describe. We know a lot about what climate change is doing to us, and we are learning more and more every day, thanks to the world’s scientists, researchers and public servants.

But what are we actually doing about all of the findings and recommendations? We’re talking about them some more, agonizing as Rome burns. We know so many alarming things about the encroaching effects of climate change, but our propensity to repeatedly document it all is slowing us down.

Meanwhile, the Manitoba town of Minnedosa has just declared a state of emergency because of flooding in the midst of more downpours. In the Northwest Territories, the residents of Hay River have just been told they can return to their homes after floods. And Ontario and Quebec just emerged from a weekend heat wave that broke records for May.

Forest fire season is just around the corner, and it’s worth recalling that last summer, British Columbia’s heat dome took almost 600 lives.

To be sure, we need to study, consult, report and plan in the face of climate change that can’t be reversed. It’s essential for us to understand the effects a warming climate will have on our health, our economy, our wildlife and our infrastructure.

But we also need to confront the fact that the effects are here right now, they’re getting worse and worse, and we can’t really wait for the next report to tell us what to do. In fact, many of those same reports decry repeatedly the lack of urgency governments, businesses and individuals have in bracing for climate catastrophes in our midst.

Blair Feltmate, who heads up the University of Waterloo’s Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation, has some tips that can at least get us started.

Governments can move right now to set disaster-resistant building codes and finish mapping flood plains across the country to make them available to builders, planners and homebuyers alike, he says.

At an individual level, homeowners can take some basic steps to make their homes flood- and fire-resistant.

Feltmate points out that about 60,000 homes are flooded every year because of extreme weather, at an average repair cost of $20,000 per home — or $1.2 billion a year. But by making sure your sump pump works and has battery backup, installing covers over your basement window wells, and installing backwater valves to prevent sewer water from flowing in through your pipes, homeowners can cut their losses dramatically, he says.

Homes near forests can prepare for fires by keeping wood piles away from the house, making sure shrubs are planted at least a couple of metres away, and installing nonignitable shingles on your roof.

As for heat waves, local authorities are well aware they need to ensure the most vulnerable — seniors who live by themselves, homeless people and those with underlying health conditions — don’t get trapped in scorching apartments. But knowing well in advance where those people live and having solid plans to usher them to cooler spots could save lives, Feltmate says.

Despite all of the planning and reports, “we have a system of management by disaster,” he adds.

There was lots of hype this week around the discussion paper for an eventual national climate adaptation strategy, and it was somewhat warranted for the paper’s aspirations to halt the harms of a warmer climate by 2030 and reverse them by 2050.

But in the meantime, let’s do what we can to ensure this summer isn’t like last summer, with its billions of dollars in damages to roads, infrastructure and homes and its hundreds of excess deaths. We already know how.

Correction — May 19, 2022: This column was edited to correct the name of the House of Commons public accounts committee.

Heather Scoffield is the Star’s Ottawa bureau chief and an economics columnist. Follow her on Twitter: @hscoffield