The world is warming up and the impact of climate change is already being seen across the globe, an authoritative new UN climate report says.
But in this part of the world, which is barely out of the clutches of a long and wicked winter, the report sounds like a conundrum.
Make no mistake, the world is warming up, especially the Arctic, said John Stone, an IPCC lead author and adjunct professor at Carleton University.
“What we have experienced this winter is just weather,” said Stone. “It may have been cold in large parts of North America, but Alaska was unusually warm and Norway and other Scandinavian countries have been abnormally warm, too.”
Most of Europe has also had warm weather this year, he added.
“When you are looking at climate change, you just cannot look at one region of the world. You’ve got to look at the whole world together and you can’t look at one year, you have to look at the trend.”
The past 150 years indicate that climate has changed, he said.
The second of three reports by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was released in Japan on Monday. It warns that governments are ill-prepared for a warming world and if action is not taken soon, risks could become unmanageable.
The impact and adaptations in polar regions are a big part of the report.
Stone, the lead author on the polar regions chapter, pointed out that warming there has already led to a decrease in Arctic sea ice cover and volume. “It is declining faster than any of our models projected,” he said, adding that it suggests “to some of us that climate change may well be accelerating.”
The Arctic, said Stone, could be clear of sea ice in summer within the next few decades, “rather than the end of the century as was previously estimated. . . ”
It may be very hard for Arctic communities to adapt, he said.
The accelerated rates in permafrost thaw, loss of coastal sea ice and sea level rise are forcing some communities, particularly in Alaska, to relocate, said Stone.
“It is an expensive and culturally difficult exercise.”
The report says, without ambiguity, that there are risks to the “health and well-being of Arctic residents, resulting from injuries and illness from the changing physical environment, food insecurity, lack of reliable and safe drinking water, and damage to infrastructure, including infrastructure in permafrost regions.”
In an emailed statement, Environment Canada said that through the Arctic Council scientists are engaged in “climate change adaptation activities that advance our understanding of the range and extent of impacts of climate change in the Arctic region.”
It also said that an online adaptation information portal will be set up to help people there understand and adapt to climate change.
The IPCC report also sheds light on the new reality of property insurance versus extreme weather, especially in North America, where companies have experienced increases in severe weather damage claims in the past couple of decades.
(The flooding in southern Alberta in June 2013 was the costliest natural disaster in Canadian history, with $6 billion in losses, according to a January report by Munich Re, the world’s largest reinsurance firm.)
Meanwhile, Monday’s IPCC report also warned of decreased crop yields, losses due to forest fires and coastal erosion in North America.
“Climate change is more than just an environmental issue,” Ian Bruce, science and policy manager with the David Suzuki Foundation, said. “This is an economic and security issue that will impact everyone from the biggest cities to the smallest towns.”
In September, the first part of the IPCC report warned that Canada will continue to see more warming than the global average and extreme weather events will be more frequent and more intense.