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| Flooded Calgary Stampede Grounds |
Today I have a lecture on extreme flooding in my
Hydroclimatology class, which seems appropriate with all the extreme weather
we’ve seen this year. But to me, “extreme” means that it rarely occurs and
flooding doesn’t exactly seem rare right now. Crews are still working to clean
up Calgary from the extreme flooding they’ve had and Toronto saw flash flooding
on Monday after 123mm of rain fell within a few hours, breaking the previous
rainfall record set by Hurricane Hazel in 1954, and many people in Toronto
still remain without hydro today.
On the other side of the world,
western China has also experienced extreme flooding, affecting more than 360,000 people,
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| Floods in Western China |
but most of those areas are even less equipped to deal with flooding than Canada due to lack of infrastructure regulations. The heavy rainfall in China has also resulted in multiple landslides in areas with heavy deforestation, which erodes the soil, and 30-40 people were buried in one landslide.
Dr. Blair Feltmate, Program
Director of Sustainability Practice at the University of Waterloo, argues that
the extreme rain we’ve been seeing lately will no longer be rare; it is the new
norm. He says we need to predict where the most affected areas will be and
adapt to prevent disasters, rather than dealing with them as they occur.
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| Flooded GO Train, Toronto |
Toronto Mayor Rob Ford says “It’s
mother nature, right? All we can do is cope with it.” Yet I disagree. We need
to take action to prevent damage from these types of weather events, especially
since they’ll be occurring more frequently. As awful as floods have been this
year, I hope that they can help people realize that climate change is an issue
and one that is not only going to affect the Global South; it is affecting us
in Canada too. Do you think that these flooding events will help to bring
climate change closer to home and force people to change their behaviour, or
will people continue their lives as normal with the attitude that there’s
nothing we can do anyways?
Great post Darrelle! I agree with you wholeheartedly, we do need to take action to prevent the impact of climate change, however, with events like this flooding occurring now, it seems too late for solely prevention. It is often said that even if we stopped emitting GHG today, there would still be global warming for many years to come. I think we need a mix of prevention and mitigation to deal with climate change. Of course mitigation doesn't get to the root of the problem, but it can help deal with the irreversible impacts of climate change we see today. I think it's going to take major events such as the ones you mentioned to make us change our ways, but we're not at that point yet unfortunately.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Michelle. We can't just focus on one specific aspect of prevention, mitigation or adaptation. A combination of solutions must be attempted to figure out the best ways to enforce prevention, mitigation and adaptation.
DeleteCanada, so far, is luckier than most of the world, as majority of our cities are inland with a few exception. Although, this also contributes to our lack of knowledge and awareness as well.
I agree Michelle. When I said prevent damage, I actually meant more the prevention of damage caused by the events that we know will occur. I mean we need to do things such as using GIS to figure out the most vulnerable areas to flooding and make sure we don't build there to prevent damage to humans and property. I do agree that it's out of the question to entirely prevent climate change in general.
DeleteI think the majority of people will continue living how they have been as normal. I totally agree, these flooding events should be sparking some peoples thoughts on the effects of Climate Change here in Canada. I also agree that we need to take some sort of action to prepare ourselves for more events like this one. Unfortunately.. I don't think individuals will change their attitudes - or not enough will anyway.
ReplyDeleteYeah it's very true. Even if climate change did become a topic of discussion from the flood events, people have very short-term memories and will move on to the next hot topic without really thinking about it.
DeleteIt's hard to know whether people will make the link to climate change from the flooding events close to home that have happened. I was talking to a middle-aged woman from Toronto today and she was voicing her frustration of being without electricity for three days, and then made a comment that she was more concerned about her electricity than the flooding. It made me think that maybe people are still more concerned about their comforts and Western privileges than looking at the deeper issues from these events.
ReplyDeleteI'd definitely have to agree with Bailey. While people often say "it's going to take a big disaster for people to wake up and realize the impacts" (see Michelle's comment), I think the situations you've mentioned in Toronto, Calgary, and China are perfectly fitting, so why aren't people waking up? It's not about the long term effects, people want access to their luxuries and anything that gets in the way is just an inconvenience, not an actual issue.
DeleteYeah that's the theme I seem to be getting from people, that people just don't care enough. It's sad though that even when people are directly involved in the impacts, they still don't care at all. I guess people are willing to let these events become the norm.
DeleteI think that on the whole, society is becoming more aware of climate change issues and the need to take action, particularly as our generation gains more influence. However, the government seems to be moving at sloth-speed in regards to this. Your point about using GIS to plan where we ought to build or not build is something that I think is going to be an issue in my hometown in the near future. One more recent section of Elmira is built on land that tends to flood and the construction of these homes is not the best, so many of the residents of that area experience basement flooding nearly yearly. They are expanding the subdivision across the road into a lower plain - and the planned houses will be built right up to about 150 metres away from the local river. The river has a walking trail beside it, and the boundary lines of the subdivision are visible from there, and reach into the low areas that I have seen flooded in past years. Long-time Elmira residents, in talking to one another, say that they would never purchase in that area due to the risk of flooding.
ReplyDeleteThat's a good example of where plans are needed on a more local level. With GIS becoming more advanced, cheaper, and more people learn to use it, I'm hoping it will be used more in this kind of planning.
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