Keyword Drought

Canada has some of the cleanest air on the planet.[1] But the truth is, many Canadians—especially in urban centres—are finding it more difficult to breathe easy. For example, instead of fresh spring air, the first day of Toronto’s 2019 spring break arrived with an air quality warning thanks to high levels of air pollution.[2]

Dr. Amber Fletcher grew up on a farm and has a strong appreciation for farmer knowledge and the importance of rural environments and communities. Now, as an academic at University of Regina, she studies how farmers are seeing and feeling the impacts of climate change in their fields and daily lives. She’s interested in the critical contributions that women make to farm life, especially during climate extremes such as floods and droughts.

Robin Tunnicliffe has farmed for almost 20 years, growing a wide range of organic vegetables for local restaurants and farmer’s markets. She remembers that “when I first started farming, my mentor gave me a list of planting dates.” This essential farmer-to-farmer teaching gave her confidence thanks to its hard-won wisdom, and she recalls thinking “Good! Now I know what I’m doing!” But she soon found that the lessons of tradition and experience were expiring, thanks in part to climate change.

Roy McLaren has a lifetime of farming experience: he’s farmed in southwest Manitoba for over 70 years. He looks at the Climate Atlas maps of climate projections with concern. “That is pretty bad,” he says, looking at maps showing a huge increase in very hot weather. “With that kind of heat,” McLaren muses, “we’d have to change our farming methods. We’d have to adopt new crops.”

Dendroclimatologist Dave Sauchyn studies tree rings to learn about climates of the past and what it means for the future. His research shows that there’s a “new normal” in the Canadian Prairies and that climate change is increasing the risk of extended and severe drought.