Flooding « Transition Brockville

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Tag : Flooding (34)

A ‘new abnormal’ — megafires explode with off-the-charts fury

National Observer / Barry Saxifrage / 29 November 29 2018

Author’s note: The size and destruction of the Camp Fire grew significantly since this article was originally published. Now that this record-breaking fire has been fully contained, I’ve updated the charts and article to show its shocking “off-the-charts” scale.

California is on the burning edge of climate breakdown. Record-breaking drought and heat have turned the Golden State into a tinderbox. The megafires have followed. In the last two years a string of off-the-chart wildfires have exploded with stunning speed and ferocity across forests, grasslands, rural areas and city neighborhoods. California Governor Jerry Brown has called it “the new abnormal.”

[ FULL ARTICLE ]

Municipalities must improve climate change adaptation planning

Waterloo Region Record / James Jackson / 13 November 2018

Mitigation may no longer be enough to prevent climate change impacts from occurring. A UN report released last month found global emissions must drop by 45 per cent before 2030 and reach net zero emissions by 2075 to avoid surpassing the 1.5 C threshold in global temperatures.

Adaptation to climate change varies, but it can include: building flood defences and raising dykes; placing a moratorium on new construction in flood-prone areas; and choosing tree or plant species that are more drought-resistant.

“The gap in adaptation planning is concerning, because cities are more exposed to climate change risk than other levels of government due to high concentrations of people, property, and infrastructure,” [researcher Dave] Guyadeen’s study found.

His analysis also says implementation, monitoring and evaluation is relatively weak in Canada, and that many municipalities haven’t put enough emphasis on stakeholder engagement. Only one province — Nova Scotia — has mandated municipalities to create climate change plans.

[ FULL ARTICLE ]

How should we face the challenge of climate change?

Al Jazeera News / 14 September 2018

Much of the world’s attention this week has been focused on two powerful storms: Hurricane Florence in the United States and Super Typhoon Mangkhut in the Philippines.

The signs of climate change are everywhere, and what were once rare forces of nature are becoming almost regular events.

The Atlantic hurricane season lasts longer, and the storms are more powerful than they were a generation ago.

Across the continent, wildfires in California have burned one million acres (404,685 hectares) of land this year. Experts say the US wildfire season is 87 days longer than it was 30 years ago.

Europe has just come through a summer of record heat that saw wildfires break out above the Arctic circle.

Record rainfall in Japan triggered landslides that smashed homes and forced evacuations. That was followed by two weeks of severe heat.

But what can we do to tackle climate change?

Extreme temperatures ‘especially likely for next four years’

The Guardian / Jonathan Watts / 14 August 2018

The world is likely to see more extreme temperatures in the coming four years as natural warming reinforces manmade climate change, according to a new global forecasting system.

Following a summer of heatwaves and forest fires in the northern hemisphere, the study in the journal Nature Communications suggests there will be little respite for the planet until at least 2022, and possibly not even then.

Rising greenhouse gas emissions are steadily adding to the upward pressure on temperatures, but humans do not feel the change as a straight line because the effects are diminished or amplified by phases of natural variation.

From 1998 to 2010, global temperatures were in a “hiatus” as natural cooling (from ocean circulation and weather systems) offset anthropogenic global warming. But the planet has now entered almost the opposite phase, when natural trends are boosting man-made effects.

[ FULL ARTICLE ]

The world is hot, on fire, and flooding. Climate change is here.

Grist / Eric Holthaus / 24 July 2018

The worst ravages of climate change are on display around the world.

Wildfires have ripped through towns in Greece, floods have submerged parts of Laos, and heat waves have overwhelmed Japan. These are striking examples of climate change playing out in its deadliest forms, and they’re making the term “natural disaster” an outdated concept.

[ FULL ARTICLE ]

Changes in global water supply hint at future conflicts, crises

Globe and Mail / Ivan Semeniuk / 16 May 2018

By combining 14 years’ worth of satellite data, scientists have captured a startling portrait of the world’s water supply undergoing rapid transformation. The new analysis points to areas where there is increasing potential for conflict as a growing demand for water collides with the impacts of climate change. In Canada, the maps shows shifting water supplies that include wetter, more flood-prone regions in many areas of the country but a general drying out in the western sub-Arctic.

“This is an eye-opener,” said Roy Brouwer, an economist and executive director of the University of Waterloo’s Water Institute who was not involved in the analysis. “It raises awareness that things are changing and that in some areas something has to happen to counter and anticipate some of the catastrophes that may be waiting for us in the not-so-far future.”

[ FULL ARTICLE ]

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