Climate Change: The Consequences Grow

A recent Times Colonist article notes

The spectre of rising sea levels and ecological change from climate disruption show land-use plans for Vancouver Island and the B.C. coast will need to be revisited and recalibrated to account for rapid and unabated climate change.

British Columbia has time to plan, Inuit, who are at the epicenter of Canadian climate change have not had that luxury. The effects of rapid climate change are already upon us, and have been for some time.

In the community of Salluit in Nunavik (Northern Quebec) mudslides caused by melting permafrost have forced the relocation of homes, and the foundations of others are cracking as the land warms and shifts under them.

In the Inuvialuit region of the Northwest Territories 100 meters of shoreline has been lost to erosion in Tuktoyaktuk, and a community school and a recreation facility have been lost as a result.

Last year in Pangnirtung, Nunavut, a bridge joining two the halves of that community collapsed as the banks of the river it was built on, weakened by melting permafrost, collapsed during a flash flood.

We have spoken of the effects of climate change to other Canadians many times, we have called for the Canadian government to take steps both at home and within the international community to mitigate these changes, and we have used what is happening in our lands as warnings of what could happen elsewhere if action is not taken. To date these calls have gone unheeded, indeed, Canadian greenhouse gas emissions have increased by more than 20% since 1990.

As the consequences of not reversing that trend grow let us hope that the greater awareness they bring motivates all Canadians to demand that the political rhetoric that surrounds this issue be replaced with significant action to mitigate the potential crisis that will affect us all.

Technorati Tags: Salluit Nunavik Inuvialuit Tuktoyaktuk Pangirtung Nunavut climate change