Is Anyone Else Seeing a Pattern Here?

Recent news:

• Near-record rainfall has caused massive flooding in the Detroit area that is blamed for at least one death and has made roads impassable, swamped vehicles and flooded basements, officials said.  http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/michigan-floods-at-least-1-dead-1-000-cars-abandoned-1.2734986
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• The country suffered almost €2bn (£1.6bn) worth of damage to homes, infrastructure and industry in May, when heavy rains caused rivers to burst their banks, sweep away roads and bridges and set off hundreds of landslides. More than 20 people died in Bosnia and more than 60 in Serbia.  http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/08/bosnia-floods-missing-emergency
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• New York's heaviest downpour on record dumped a summer's worth of rain on parts of Long Island in a matter of hours on Wednesday, swamping highways before drivers could escape, flooding basements and causing at least one death.
  The 33cm recorded at the MacArthur Airport in Ronkonkoma during the morning was more than the area's normal combined total for June, July and August of 27cm.
  ^{http://www.news24.com/Green/News/Just-one-major-storm-floods-Long-Island-20140814}
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  Residents of Kamloops and other parts of southern B.C. are cleaning up after torrential rains soaked the region on Wednesday, causing flash flooding, power outages and small mudslides.  Environment Canada estimates the city of Kamloops was hit with about 25 mm of rain in about 20 minutes, flooding streets with muddy rivers of water, catching many people by surprise. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/kamloops-cleans-up-from-flash-flooding-1.2716899
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Yup - there's a pattern - extreme flooding.  In fact,extreme weather events are becoming more common.   

 

The work shows so-called “blocking patterns”, where hot or wet weather remains stuck over a region for weeks causing heatwaves or floods, have more than doubled in summers over the last decade.  http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/aug/11/extreme-weather-common-blocking-patterns

 So - maybe we should take climate change seriously. Actually do something, I mean.   Whaddya think?  Wanna keep rolling the dice - gambling that serious effects wont' happen while you're alive?   Looks like that's a bad bet.....

 

Write your MP.    Lobby the provincial government. 

 

 

That Royal Baby

That royal baby is going to inherit a royal mess!

Rapid thawing of the Arctic could trigger a catastrophic "economic timebomb" which would cost trillions of dollars and undermine the global financial system, say a group of economists and polar scientists.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/jul/24/arctic-thawing-permafrost-climate-change

New research suggests that the Arctic summer sea ice loss is linked to extreme weather. Rutgers University climate scientist Jennifer Francis points to the phenomenon of "Arctic amplification", where....Extreme weather events over the last few years apparently driven by the accelerating Arctic melt process - including unprecedented heatwaves and droughts in the US and Russia, along with snowstorms and cold weather in northern Europe – have undermined harvests, dramatically impacting global food production and contributing to civil unrest.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/earth-insight/2013/may/02/white-house-arctic-ice-death-spiral

Climate scientists have linked the massive snowstorms and bitter spring weather now being experienced across Britain and large parts of Europe and North America to the dramatic loss of Arctic sea ice.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/mar/25/frozen-spring-arctic-sea-ice-loss

We should all worry........

Amazing

2013 has been absolutely amazing: not the flooding or the thunderstorms or the heat waves.   Although those have been frightening - see the pic below of Toronto residents wading in flash flooding July 8, 2013. ( Picture from the Toronto Star.)  The results have been gruesome., to put it mildly.  Gruesome and traumatic for the folks affected.

Toronto flooded - with sewage as well as water.  

So when more than 90 millimetres of rainfall (more than 3.5 inches) pummeled the city in just two hours Monday, this divider was breached and a mixture of sewage and storm water overflowed onto Toronto’s streets and cascaded towards the harbour. 

http:www.thestar.com/news/gta/2013/07/09/toronto_flooding_released_raw_sewage_in_a_sweep_to_lake_ontario.html

Ontario and Quebec had more severe thunderstorms today: one person was killed in Quebec. .  Calgary and High River and Canmore saw  really vicious flooding  in June -I'm sure you've seen the coverage.

What's amazing is that the media and governments have actually mentioned climate change in the same breath as the severe weather.

Many Canadian cities and towns are ill-prepared for the rising frequency of catastrophic weather events like the southern Alberta floods, and it’s a problem that taxpayers will ultimately end up paying for, climate change experts say. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2013/06/26/f-climate-change-flooding-weather-preparation.html

Oh, that's the CBC - they're pinkos . Oh yeah?   Ok - but the Calgary Herald`s not left wing.

Canada’s insurance lobby says Albertans are less likely to be worried about weather trends linked to climate change than others in the country, despite a recent six-fold increase in insured damages from severe storms, fires and flooding. But as property and casualty carriers respond by hiking premiums up to 25 per cent this year, the Insurance Bureau of Canada says the province and its municipalities need to get serious about mitigating losses in Alberta that have mounted to an average of $670 million annually in the past four years compared to an average of $100 million annually in the previous 15 years. http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/alberta/Alberta+urged+prepare+increasingly+severe+weather+insurance+losses+mount/8446756/story.html

Another piece from the Calgary Herald:

 To put this in another context, it's been four weeks since Calgarians woke up to the raging waters of the Bow and Elbow rivers. It is the worst natural disaster that has occurred in this country and Calgarians have yet to hear from all levels of government that they are looking at every possible mitigation strategy aimed at minimizing the impact of another flooding event.  http://www.calgaryherald.com/business/Yedlin+Where+plan+prevent+future+floods/8681062/story.html

Maybe, just maybe the zeitgeist is shifting. Let`s hope so!

It has been a startling winter in most of Canada.  Warm and mild - quite pleasant  if you don't think about root causes .  I do - and so does Franke James. Here's a link to a visual essay she created in 2007 .....
http://www.frankejames.com/greenwinter.html

Interesting, no?

At her website,  Ms. James states :
"And as much as I delight in this gloriously sunny, “time to put on my shorts” weather, it is eerie. I see it as a warning to all of us that the planet is warming. Just look at the rising levels of CO2 in the atmosphere. We are now at 393ppm — which is 43ppm higher than is safe (350ppm). We are zooming towards the danger zone of 450ppm with no signs of slowing down.
We need real leadership on climate change at all levels of government. I hold out the hope that if Canadians demanded action on climate change, the Harper Government would take action. If only because they would understand that it could be the source of their renewable power."