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March 2009 NCCN Listserv

  
McGregor Russia project.
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Northern Climate Change Network Listserv, Mar/09 – Issue 15
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The NCCN newsletter focuses on climate change stories that foster greater awareness of community level climate change impacts and adaptation, and which have relevance to north-central British Columbia. Contributions from readers for future issues are welcome.

IN THE BC NEWS...

Earth Hour results in BC

According to the World Wildlife Fund Canada, almost one billion people around the globe participated in Earth Hour, 2009.  Almost 4,000 cities and towns in 88 countries signed on to dim their lights.  An article in the March 29, 2009 Victoria Times-Colonist paper observed that “British Columbians saved 72.67 megawatts of electricity from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m., the equivalent of turning off 1.5 million lights.  Vancouver Island communities had some of the highest drops in consumption. Colwood, Langford and Parksville dropped 4.1 per cent.  View Royal dropped 3.9 per cent, followed by Saanich at 3.7, Oak Bay at 3.3 and Victoria at 3.1 per cent.  Last year, Victoria reduced consumption on Earth Hour by 2.6 per cent.  The highest drop in consumption for an individual community – 4.6 per cent – was recorded in Pemberton.  Eighty four communities throughout the province participated in Earth Hour this year.”  The City of Prince George realized a 1.5 per cent drop in electrical usage during Earth Hour.

Dr. Lori Daniels’ research on climate change-related tree mortality

Dr. Lori Daniels, a bio-geographer from the University of British Columbia, along with a team of research colleagues, has discovered that the mortality rate for trees of all ages in old growth forests in various locations in western North America has doubled in the last several decades.  They think that climate warming is responsible, which has led to water stress in these trees.  They believe that the increased mortality of old growth trees will dramatically change these ancient forests.  In the future, the trees in these forests may be thinner and younger, and these forests will be more vulnerable to disease, insects and mass die-offs.  Details.
Quirks & Quarks interview link:  http://www.cbc.ca/quirks/archives/08-09/qq-2009-01-24.html (scroll down to “Old Growth, New Death”)

David Suzuki Foundation publishes “On Thin Ice” report

The David Suzuki Foundation has released a new report titled “On Thin Ice” which states that the future of winter sports, including the winter Olympics, is at risk due to global warming.  The report’s author and Foundation climate change specialist, Ian Bruce, states that “by 2050, if we fail to take immediate action on climate change, a whole range of winter activities across Canada, from Olympic sports like skiing and snowboarding to iconic Canadian pastimes such as ice fishing and pond hockey, will be jeopardized.”  Download the report

BC Environment report anticipates rising sea level impacts on coastal BC

A recently released summary report by BC Environment, DFO and NRCAN titled “Projected Sea Level Changes for British Columbia in the 21st Century” examines the rates of sea level rise and the compounding effects of extreme weather events that are likely to affect coastal communities in BC.  The report observes that “climate-induced sea level rise is of particular importance as it threatens large and growing coastal populations around the globe.”  This is among a series of reports and other information released by BC Environment which highlight potential impacts of climate change on communities and regions of the province.  BC Environment notes that “the rate of global warming projected for the 21st century is much faster than observed changes during the 20th century, and likely faster than at any time during the past 10,000 years.  The actual rate of warming will depend on how fast greenhouse gases continue to accumulate in the atmosphere, and how the climate system responds.”  Download the report

NEWS FROM CANADA AND ABROAD

Lord Stern warns that impacts of global warming will be “worse than previously thought”

Lord Stern, a professor at the London School of Economics, and the economist who produced the single most influential political document on climate change, is reported to have said that he underestimated the risks of global warming and the damage that could result from it.  The situation was worse than he had thought when he completed his initial review two-and-a-half years ago, he told scientists at a climate congress in Copenhagen in March (see below), but he is gravely concerned that politicians do not yet grasp the scale of the dangers now becoming apparent. “Do politicians understand just how difficult it could be, just how devastating rises of 4C, 5C or 6C could be? I think, not yet," Lord Stern warned.  Story.

Key messages from Copenhagen climate congress, March 10-12, released

Key messages distilled from the sessions at the “Climate Change: Global Risks, Challenges and Decisions” congress in Copenhagen which took place earlier this month have been posted on a University of Copenhagen website. The first of the key messages affirms what is being stated elsewhere, that the worst-case scenarios of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s 4th assessment report in 2007 are already on track to being realized, based on rapidly rising emissions and the rate of global warming.  Sessions from the congress can be downloaded from the Climate Congress’ web pages.  The Danish Government will host the UN Climate Change Conference in December 2009, and will present the conclusions from the Climate Congress in March to the decision makers ahead of the UN Conference.

Canada’s top ten weather stories for 2008

An Environment Canada website lists the top ten weather stories in Canada for the 2008 year; second on the list was ‘the Great Arctic Thaw’ which saw a second consecutive year of dramatic reduction in the volume of summer sea ice in the Arctic. Considering that the 2007-2008 winter was the coldest in the past eight years, the fact that the summer sea ice extent in the Arctic Ocean dropped to 4.52 million square kilometres, coming close to 2007’s record low of 4.13 million square kilometres, was remarkable. And because the sea ice was thinner in 2008 (less than a metre thick in places), overall ice volumes were less than those in any other year.

Kelp-fuel cars a possibility in Scotland

A new research program in Scotland could soon have motorists traveling in cars fueled by kelp and algae.  The use of ‘mari-fuels’ would be the marine equivalent to plant-based bio-fuels. The research will investigate ways of converting seaweeds and plant algae into fuel as an alternative to the increasingly controversial use of food crops to produce bio-fuels. Fuels produced from plants are, in theory at least, carbon neutral and for that reason an attractive alternative to petrol. And “unlike the plants currently used for bio-diesel such as oil seed rape, sunflower oil or palm oil, seaweed naturally grows at an extremely fast rate and it avoids taking valuable agricultural land out of food production or destroying rainforest - key concerns of environmentalists.”  Story.

Japanese satellite launched to monitor carbon dioxide emissions

The Japanese space agency JAXA launched the “Ibuki” satellite in January – the first satellite dedicated to monitoring global CO2 and methane emissions. Ibuki, meaning “breath”, will gather and store information on greenhouse gas levels around the globe for the next five years, circling the planet once every 100 minutes. The data Ibuki collects will be shared with NASA and other space and scientific organizations, and will complement the 282 land-based sites currently monitoring carbon dioxide levels. Story.

EVENTS

Gwynne Dyer lecture, April 4, Prince George
Gwynne Dyer, the world-renowned journalist and documentarian, will address the 5th Annual Dr. Bob Ewert Memorial Lecture and Dinner on April 4th at UNBC. The title of Mr. Dyer’s lecture will be Climate Wars: The Geopolitical Implications of Climate Change, and will be based on his new book "Climate Wars" which deals with some of the more disturbing potential consequences of global climate change. Details.
Indigenous Peoples’ Global Summit on Climate Change, April 20-24, Anchorage, Alaska
The Inuit Circumpolar Council is hosting April 20-24, 2009 in Anchorage, Alaska a Global Summit on Climate Change that will bring together indigenous delegates and observers. The purpose of the summit is to enable Indigenous peoples from all regions of the globe to exchange their knowledge and experience in adapting to the impacts of climate change, and to develop key messages and recommendations to be articulated to the world at the Conference of Parties (COP) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Copenhagen, Denmark in December 2009. Details.

8th International Carbon Dioxide Conference, September 13-19, Jena, Germany
“The recognition by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change of carbon dioxide as a major driver behind the current and future warming of the world climate, and the subsequent establishment of international initiatives to curb carbon dioxide emissions, such as the Kyoto protocol, has further greatly intensified global carbon cycle research. Since 1981 the worldwide scientific community meets every four years at an international conference for an exchange of the latest knowledge and to gain a better understanding on the multitude of interdisciplinary aspects of the global carbon cycle.”  Details.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES AND LINKS

  • The Prairie Adaptation Research Collaborative (PARC) publishes research reports on climate change adaptation topics which may be of interest to BC readers:  http://www.parc.ca/index.htm
  • Researchers affiliated with the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions (PICS) have prepared discussion papers in the following eight areas of climate change policy concern: adaptation priorities, alternative energy, cap and trade systems, forestry, health, sustainable building design, sustainable communities, and transportation.  http://www.pics.uvic.ca/research.php
  • The Worldwatch Institute’s “2009 State of the World: Into a Warming World” Report contains a very useful “Climate Change Reference Guide and Glossary”. The full report is available for purchase from bookstores, and numerous links and other downloadable resources are available from the Institute’s Energy & Climate Change web page.

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