This is the sixth in a series of columns addressing issues surrounding Climate Disruption in the West Kootenay. Greg Utzig is a local Conservation Ecologist who has been working on climate change issues for two decades.
GREG UTZIG
Special to the Star
While taking a holiday to south Pacific islands sounds idyllic, it’s hard to escape the impacts of climate disruption no matter where you go these days. Communities, economies, ecosystems and even whole countries are at risk – and we are all interconnected.
As we arrived in New Zealand in mid-January, they were experiencing a severe drought and an unprecedented and extended heat wave with temperatures approaching 40 C in the southeastern part of the country. Wildfires were breaking out and conflicts between urban dwellers and rural irrigation users were beginning to surface. It has just been determined that this January was the warmest ever recorded in N.Z.
To the south and west of N.Z., ocean temperatures were three to five C above normal. Apparently ocean currents had shifted and subtropical waters were not mixing with antarctic waters as they normally do. For us, the swimming was great – for the penguins, it was not so good.
As we moved on to the western shores of the south island, it looked like the weather would finally bring some relief. However rather that just a bit of rain, the weather system was a tropical storm, the tail end of cyclone Fehi. The storm brought high winds and torrential rains – described by some as the worst storm in 165 years. The resulting damage inland and on the sea coast was substantial: roads washed out, landslides, storm surge flooding, downed trees and dozens of people trapped in their cars overnight. Costs to repair infrastructure will be challenging for the small communities.
We know it’s very difficult to tie any particular weather event to climate change. However it is a scientific fact that increased ocean temperatures increase the strength of tropical storms. It’s also a fact that as the atmosphere heats up precipitation is much more likely to fall as intense storms, rather than gentle rains – exactly what occurred.
From New Zealand we headed further out into the Pacific to the Cook Islands anticipating snorkeling among the coral reefs surrounding the islands. We chose the Cooks after reading a recent report that warned that nearly all the World Heritage coral reefs had been significantly damaged by bleaching in the last three years of unprecedented warm ocean temperatures.
During our time in the Cooks, that region was under the influence of another cyclone, Gita. This storm reached Category 5 intensity (the highest level) and created extensive damage to the nearby islands of Tonga, including leveling their parliament building. It subsequently hit New Zealand as a damaging tropical storm creating further havoc.
In the Cooks we experienced the heaviest rain I have ever seen – the swimming pool rose noticeably in a few minutes. Large waves and high winds caused huge breakers to throw chunks of coral on to the coastal highway
Standing on the beach it was obvious that if sea level rises, coral reefs die and storms continue to intensify, as predicted, shoreline erosion will destroy much of the island’s coastal infrastructure in a few decades. The loss of coral reefs will severely impact the Islands’ two economic mainstays: tourism and the production of black pearls. Warm ocean waters are already creating survival issues for the oysters. Many of the smaller islands in the Cooks are atolls, rising only a few metres above sea level, and are likely to be uninhabitable by the end of the century. Other South Pacific nations are buying land in other countries with higher ground, so their citizens have somewhere to go when the sea levels become critical. Whole cultures that have existed for centuries will be lost entirely.
To bring this back to the Kootenays, we here in Canada live a lifestyle that makes us one of the top per capita producers of greenhouse gases on earth. We have a moral responsibility and the means to do our part to stop the global catastrophe that is unfolding. Instead, we continue to produce natural gas and coal because it might be good for the economy, or we buy a gas-powered car because it’s slightly cheaper than an electric. Or in the case of myself, go on a long distance flight that doubles my GHG output for the year. If not for ourselves, then at least for the sake of South Pacific islanders, we must change our ways – NOW – before it is too late!
