Here's what climate change could look like in Canada

Climate change is here, experts say, and Canada can expect to suffer the consequences.

The effects of a warming planet are going to be felt from coast to coast to coast. And, if we stick to a "business-as-usual" scenario — no change to our emissions — it's going to happen a lot sooner than scientists initially thought, according to a recently released Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report.

In July 2018, Montreal experienced 70 heat-related deaths as the city dealt with unusually hot temperatures into the 30s with stifling humidity that made it feel closer to 40 C. This summer, British Columbia experienced its worst fire season on record. In August, two brief thunderstorms caused widespread flooding in Toronto, bringing the downtown core to a standstill.

With a warming planet, we can expect to see more events like these, experts say.

"People say, well gee, the world's warmed up by 1 C in the last 135 years, but there are parts of Canada that have warmed in some seasons by four, four-and-half degrees in a 70-year period," Environment Canada's senior climatologist, David Phillips says. "So twice as much in half the time."

The greatest differences are seen in the north and the interior of continental coast in the west. The region with the greatest warming in 70 years is in the Mackenzie area of the Northwest Territories where temperatures have risen by between 4 C and 5 C in some parts.

Nationally, the summers have warmed by more than 1 C, with winters warming closer to 1.4 C. 

"There are communities on the coast where people are experiencing sea-level rise, erosion and flooding," says Catherine Abreu, executive director of the Climate Action Network, an umbrella group of environmental organizations. Indigenous communities "are experiencing a loss of their way of life because of climate change. So, the impacts are real globally, and they're real here in Canada."

While it may seem like eastern Canada isn't seeing much of a change, it is, and it's catching up to the rest of the country. Rather than the change occurring during the past 70 years, it has occurred over the past 10 or 15, Phillips says.

"There's no region of Canada that's been left out in the cold." 

To continue reading: https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/climate-change-canada-1.4878263