Column: Arctic ice melt will impact Sudbury
Have you been following the news on the Greenland and Arctic seasonal ice melt this summer?
There has been unprecedented ice sheet melting in Greenland and the ice surface area in the Arctic Ocean hit a new record low on Aug. 23, with about three weeks of summer melting still left to go.
As well, longer term predictions in peer-reviewed papers in 2007 reported that the Arctic Ocean would be ice-free during the summer some time from 2050 to 2100. Very recent data indicates the Arctic Ocean will be seasonally ice-free by 2020.
Thus, after hundreds of thousands of years of year-round ice coverage at the top of the world in the Arctic Ocean, this will all come to an end in our lifetime. This is an epic moment in the geological history of the Earth, yet world leaders and the mainstream media are not giving this Earth-altering event the attention it needs.
So why should ice melting at the top of the world concern Sudburians?
A 2012 peer-reviewed scientific analysis found that the loss of Arctic ice favours "extreme weather events that result from prolonged conditions, such as drought, flooding, cold spells, and heat waves."
We have also been following the drought in the U.S. this summer. As result of that record-breaking drought, 50% of the world's corn (maize) crop and the 40% of the world's soya crop were lost. This is great news if you have corn and soya futures because the prices of these staple foods have risen.
However, this is not good news if you are a farmer, live on a fixed income or care deeply about people who will be impacted by rising food prices.
Ontario farmers have not been spared from the disrupted weather. Apple farmers lost 80% of their crop this spring. Farmers in the Rideau Valley have applied for federal relief funds after the driest summer in recent memory. Thankfully, we live in a country where taxpayers can help farmers during times of extreme weather conditions.
Many of us are lucky enough that we can afford increased prices in food and to give money, taxes, time and food to relief agencies, food banks and soup kitchens.
Still think you are safe? You have a retirement plan and you are all set. Think again.
Ice melting at the poles and the altered weather patterns are consistent with climate change. The Carbon Tracker Initiative, a team of London financial analysts and environmentalists, published a report in 2011 about the possible risks that climate change poses to stock portfolios and thus pension plans.
Financial collapse is a very a real risk of climate change and probably the scariest risk of all because it would be profound and widespread.
In conclusion, we are all vulnerable to climate change. Fortunately there are solutions. We just need sound government policies, education and leadership.
Particularly helpful would be a transparent and predictable price on carbon pollution that would help us shift to a low-carbon economy in a socially, economically and environmentally sound manner.
Ongoing education of the science, risks and real solutions to climate change via the mainstream media would help ease the minds of the masses and create the political will necessary for the transition to a low-carbon economy. This education would allow for leaders to finally heed the advice of the countless experts that have studied not only the science of climate change, but the technological, economic and sociological solutions.
Climate change is a threat, but it is also an opportunity. There is plenty of hope, but collectively, we have to face the truth.
However, as long as our federal government presents questionable data about how well Canada is doing in reducing our collective carbon footprint as Minister Peter Kent did in early August, it will be very difficult for Canadians to seize that opportunity.
Cathy Orlando is Canadian project manager and Sudbury's Group Leader for Citizens Climate Lobby, a not-for-profit, non-partisan volunteer
organization. Gerry Labelle is a former Progressive Conservative candidate in Sudbury.