Looking ahead to dust bowls
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Updated: July 08, 2009 5:06 PM
Did you catch the article in a Vancouver daily last week predicting a Sahara desert-like landscape in the B.C. Southern Interior by the year 2050?
To me it reads more like a script for a Hollywood disaster movie than a realistic scenario for what climate change might create for us by mid century.
Phrases like “dust bowls scour the Okanagan” and “rain comes in hurricane torrents….hills slide down on homes and water wells are poisoned” certainly get your attention.
The article is based on a provincial government-commissioned research paper, Climate Change and Health in British Columbia, that was released in November 2008.
The purpose of the paper is to “outline how climate change is likely to affect the health of British Columbians and to suggest a way forward to promote health and policy research, and adaptation to these changes.”
The paper proposes research in how climate change will directly and indirectly affect the health of British Columbians.
Direct threats include loss of life due to an increase in frequency of heat waves, floods, severe storms and forest fires.
The longer term indirect results of climate change could result in a higher incidence of cardio-vascular, cancer, diabetes, West Nile and mental health illnesses.
According to the study, rural and aboriginal communities will likely face more difficulties dealing with the effects of climate change.
For example, the depletion of forests due to bug kill and the danger of fires from dead trees will likely be a growing problem in the years to come, affecting both health and livelihoods.
It isn’t all doom and gloom. One positive note – “With a moderate climate change scenario, by 2020, it may be possible to grow an increasing range of crops along the Fraser Valley as far north as Prince George. By 2050 these crops may be growable in the Peace River region.”
Beyond the scaremongering there are some recent events in the province that suggest there are going to be some major challenges ahead.
Many experts argue that the up to 90 percent loss of Interior pine forests is a direct result of climate change.
There is a high likelihood of similar bug damage to other trees, especially conifers, in the years to come. Fires aided by abundant fuel in the form of needles and other debris beneath the dead trees have already scorched thousands of hectares. There will definitely be more of these virtually uncontrollable fires in the future.
The predicted longer-term health problems associated with climate change are open to conjecture. I feel that it is a positive step though, that the government is studying the issue to hopefully minimize the effects.
Farewell
This is my last column in the Observer. My wife Laura and I are moving to the Comox Valley in July. We will miss our friends and the Shuswap lifestyle but are looking forward to being closer to family.
I would like to thank the Observer for giving me the opportunity to share my weather knowledge of the Shuswap and beyond, over the past year and a half. Hopefully I have stimulated some interest in a subject that has intrigued me for more than 50 years.
Comments or questions envirobc@telus.net.
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