Rethinking Lifestyle

Our planet Earth was wonderfully created, a world with many systems in balance. Within a few short decades, human activity has dramatically affected those systems, throwing them out of balance.

One out of balance item that most of us can identify with is a washing machine. When we put bulky things in our washing machine, say my overalls, the spin cycle may not be able to cope, and the machine starts to wobble and may start walking around. Without remedy, the out of balance action could be destructive in an unpredictable way.

The emission of GHGs (greenhouse gases) by the burning of fossil fuels has resulted in increased carbon dioxide concentrations in our atmosphere, resulting in an increase in global temperatures, which affect many natural systems.

Following are examples of what could happen with other system balances going out of control.

In Manitoba, crop production would be disastrously affected if, in a year like 2022, we had an additional 6 inches of rainfall in June. Or a killing frost in July. The result would be greatly reduced crop yields, affecting all of us.

Our hydroelectricity depends on water flow, some from precipitation in Manitoba and our neighbouring provinces, some from snow-melt in the foothills of Alberta. Significant loss of precipitation or loss of snow-pack could severely affect our energy supply, which supports many aspects of our lives including heating and cooling our homes, cooking our food, energy for our industries, and powering our transportation.

Globally, we are already seeing life-threatening high temperatures, more and more extreme hurricanes, rising sea levels, deterioration of coastal areas and melting of permafrost. A long list of threatening effects of climate change could be added.

We in Southern Manitoba already experience 35 deg C temperatures occasionally. Normal body temperature is 37 degrees, only 2 degrees above ambient temperature during these hot days. Life becomes very difficult when the ambient temperature rises above body temperature, a situation already being seen increasingly in India, with deaths as a result.

Some people claim that we already know what we need to do to address climate change. I agree that we know in general that we need to reduce our net emissions to zero, and that will happen mainly by transitioning to renewable fuels, but there are many complications and challenges to achieve that. For example, the use of solar energy could be a major transition component, but we do not yet know how to provide the required energy storage in our Hydro delivery system and in electrical vehicles. Many other challenges remain, for example the environmentally safe provision of certain metals and other materials for batteries.

The connection between the burning of fossil fuels and climate change has been known since the 1970s. However, action to transition to renewable fuels has been slow.

The Canadian Government has announced emissions reduction targets of 40 to 45% by 2030 and of 100% by 2050. These are very important targets, providing us emission reduction amounts and target dates. It is our responsibility to develop plans and programs which will achieve these targets. Progress in emissions reductions has been very weak in decades to date and the task now is massive and urgent.

The purpose of the above is not to instill paralyzing fear, but to stress the urgency of what is happening, in the hope that we will work proactively (and successfully) to reduce climate change and to be more resilient.

Let’s work together to prevent as much climate change as possible and to learn resilience that can help us deal with climate change effects that are imminent or already present.