Extreme weather « Transition Brockville

Transition Brockville archive

Tag : Extreme weather (135)

Weather pushes Ontario farmers to brink of disaster

Global News / Jeanne Pengelly / 13 July 2017

After last year’s dry, hot summer — one of the driest and hottest on record — farmers were hoping for a reprieve. The stunted crops last year led to a shortage of feed. Many local farmers, [beef farmer David] Whittington included, had to cull up to half their herds of cattle because they couldn’t feed them.

Now this year, the weather is dealing up the opposite — so much rain that the hay is soggy.

“No matter how old you are, we haven’t seen weather like this,” Whittington added. “Last year, we had the driest summer in a hundred years and now we have the wettest in 150 years.”

[ FULL ARTICLE ]

Freaked out by the New York magazine climate story? Good.

Vox / David Roberts / 11 July 2017

David Wallace-Wells has a cover story on climate change in New York magazine that has kicked up quite a discussion.

It’s about worst-case scenarios, i.e., what is likely to happen if we do nothing to change our current greenhouse-gas emissions trajectory. It answers the question: How bad could it get?

Turns out, it could get pretty bad. The dystopian future the piece describes is much worse, and forecast to happen much sooner, than most people — even people fairly well-versed in climate change — understand.

I won’t rehearse the parade of horribles, which range from exotic new (or old) diseases to starvation, dehydration, forced migration, and armed conflict. Instead, I want to address some of the critical reaction to the piece, which I have found … irksome.

[ FULL ARTICLE ]

Maize, rice, wheat: alarm at rising climate risk to vital crops

The Guardian / Robin McKie / 15 July 2017

The particular risk outlined by the study envisaged simultaneous catastrophic disruptions in China and the US. In 2014 total world production of maize was around 1 billion tonnes, with the US producing 360 million tonnes and China growing 215 million. If production in these two countries were hit by simultaneous extreme weather events, most likely droughts, more than 60% of global maize production would be hit.

A double whammy like this has never happened in the past, but the work by the Met Office indicates that there is now a real risk. In addition, there may be risks of similar events affecting rice, wheat or soya harvests. These are now being studied by the Met Office, which is also working with researchers in China in a bid to understand climate risks that might affect agricultural production.

[ FULL ARTICLE ]

The approaching crisis: Is the world running out of water?

news.com.au / Nick Whigham / 17 June 2017

Water is absolutely fundamental to life, which makes the increasingly loud warnings about water scarcity and an impending global water crisis so concerning for world leaders.

If current patterns of consumption continue unabated, two-thirds of the world’s population will be facing water shortages as a daily reality by 2025 and global policy makers are scrambling to avoid catastrophe.

“What’s happening bit by bit is that water scarcity is becoming increasingly common all around the world, no matter where you look as country after country hits the limit of what it can use,” says Professor Mike Young.

“Whether that’s in Australia, California, China, India, Pakistan, or right throughout Africa.”

[ FULL ARTICLE ]

Action on urban flooding

Green Communities Canada / GCNews May 2017

Climate Adaptation Intern Anastasia Kaschenko outlined a practical and collaborative approach to addressing urban flooding at the 2017 Grey to Green Conference based on GCC’s report Urban flooding in Ontario: Toward Collective Impact Solutions. Thanks to the Ontario Trillium Foundation and Natural Resources Canada for supporting this work.

The report is the first phase of a larger Collective Impact project. Phase 2, pending funding, will engage a wide range of stakeholders to develop an urban flooding action plan. In the final phase participants will collaborate on implementing the action plan.

CRCA screening maps for permits under Ontario Reg. 148/06

Cataraqui Region Conservation Authority

Each municipality has its own screening map. The maps show the areas where our Regulation of Development, Interference with Wetlands and Alterations to Shorelines and Watercourses apply. Because of the scale of these maps, we recommend that you consult with municipal and/or CRCA staff before beginning any projects near the regulated areas.

[ WEBSITE ]
[ See also: Floodplain Mapping ]

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