https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/canada-biggest-climate-risks-report-1.5199497
Canadian buildings, coastlines, northern communities face biggest
climate risks: report
'[Most] think it's someone else's problem to solve,' co-author says
The Canadian Press · Posted: Jul 04, 2019
New research for the federal Treasury Board has concluded that
buildings, coastlines and northern communities face the biggest risks
from climate change in Canada.
In a report released Thursday, the Council of Canadian Academies has
narrowed down a myriad of threats posed by climate change into the most
pressing dozen — a list co-author John Leggat hopes will wake people up
to the urgent need to prepare for them.
"[Most] think it's someone else's problem to solve," he said. "It kind
of goes to the root of the problem."
The council is comprised of Canada's leading academics and researchers.
The report, done at the Treasury Board's request, was conducted by
experts from industry, insurance firms, engineers, sociologists and
economists.
Climate change is such a broad issue that it can be difficult to figure
out what to do first, Leggat said, adding that the report is an attempt
to do that.
"It puts it into a context of what are the top risks."
The research narrowed down a list of 57 potential environmental effects
to six, and ranked them not only by magnitude of the threat, but by the
availability of remedies.
Right at the very top was infrastructure.
Heavy rains, floods or high winds are growing threats to buildings from
homes to hospitals. The same extreme weather increases the chance of
power outages and grid failures — even what the report calls "cascading
infrastructure failures."
Coastal communities come next. Climate change is slowly raising sea
levels, making floods more common and surges heavier and more powerful.
Northerners are third on the list. Not only do their homes and
shorelines face unique challenges, such as permafrost melting away
underneath them, climate change also threatens their way of life.
"They really rely on and are closely connected to the land," said
co-author Bronwyn Hancock. "The way the culture is set up — governance,
spirituality, the way language is passed — all really pivot around that
connection to land."
The next three on the list are human health, ecosystems and fisheries.
The top 12 are rounded out with agriculture and food, forestry,
geopolitical unrest, governance, Indigenous traditions and water.
Getting people to pay is the challenge
Solutions are available to mitigate many of the environmental effects
from those top six threats. Building codes can be revised to ensure more
resilient homes, offices, electrical pylons or airport runways. Coastal
communities can prepare in advance for storm-driven flooding.
Information networks can provide northerners with up-to-date conditions
for travel on the land or sea ice.
Leggat noted damage to roads and buildings is a lot easier to prevent or
fix than damage to sensitive and poorly understood natural ecosystems.
"We have to start thinking about ways we can protect the natural systems
so the human systems can survive," he said.
The challenge, Leggat said, is getting Canadians to pony up for ways to
reduce the threat.
He pointed to a recent poll that found while most understood climate
change presented a risk, few were willing to pay anything to reduce it.
"The majority of Canadians weren't prepared to pay any amount of money
for mitigation," he said.
But Leggat said the council's report should reduce some of the
uncertainty about where to start.
"We know what to do. We understand what the risks are and we can invest
with confidence."
[More climate change headlines and links at the 10n10.ca blog
https://www.10n10.ca/e/CCC-Blog.shtml ;]
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