Keyword Economics

Winter is central to the Canadian prairie identity. It’s the defining season for a people whose common enemy is also their strength. The long cold snowy winter is also important to economies and ecosystems. And that winter is changing. Set to the backdrop of the Nestaweya River Trail, one of Canada’s longest skating trails, resilient settlers and newcomers alike talk about adapting to a world where the joys of the season are shrinking and what that will mean for future generations.   Recommended Video Citation Climate Atlas of Canada. (2024). Snowball effect: Warmer winters mean changing identities. Prairie Climate Centre. https://climateatlas.ca/video/snowball-effect

Canada’s forests are some of the largest in the world. They have enormous economic, cultural, environmental, and recreational value for Canadians of all walks of life. [1]

Darrin Qualman is a writer and researcher – with extensive farming experience – and who has been doing some long-term thinking about agriculture, climate change and energy systems. Given the large-scale and costly use of nitrogen fertilizer, fossil fuels and other inputs in agriculture, he has determined that it takes about 13.3 calories to make every calorie we eat. For Qualman, the solutions to climate change and the farm income crisis is to shift away from high-input, high-energy agriculture.   Recommended Video Citation Climate Atlas of Canada. (2020). Darrin Qualman: Energy, emissions and agriculture. Prairie Climate Centre. https://climateatlas.ca/video/darrin-qualman

Livestock producers Troy Stozek and Don McIntyre – both from southwestern Manitoba – are on the frontlines of farming carbon. By practicing rotational grazing, they’re able to raise more cattle on less land, and in doing so they’re restoring the soil and sequestering carbon from the atmosphere at the same time. Their stories and farming practices show that animal agriculture can be an important part of the climate solution.   Recommended Video Citation Climate Atlas of Canada. (2018). Farming Carbon: Environmentally responsible ranching. Prairie Climate Centre. https://climateatlas.ca/video/farming-carbon

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.”   Recommended Video Citation Climate Atlas of Canada. (2018). Roy McLaren: 70 Years of Farming Experience. Prairie Climate Centre. https://climateatlas.ca/video/roy-mclaren

On Gabriola Island, community members are beginning to notice the impacts of climate change. To reduce their ecological footprint, some residents started a non-profit organization called GabEnergy, which helps people order and install affordable solar energy systems on their homes. GabEnergy member Michael Mehta discusses the solar panels on his house and the potential for distributed, renewable energy systems across Canada.   Recommended Video Citation Climate Atlas of Canada. (2018). Community Renewables: Supporting solar energy on Gabriola Island. Prairie Climate Centre. https://climateatlas.ca/video/community-renewables

In 2009, Vancouver announced that it wanted to become the “Greenest City in the World by 2020”. Their action plan hopes to wean the city off fossil fuels and prioritizes pedestrians, bikes and transit when planning neighborhoods. As a result, Vancouver now has the lowest carbon emissions of any city in North America.   Recommended Video Citation Climate Atlas of Canada. (2018). Vancouver: "Greenest City in the World by 2020”. Prairie Climate Centre. https://climateatlas.ca/video/vancouver

As their oil wells began to dry up, the small community of Montana First Nation was faced an unemployment crisis. That’s when the idea of solar energy came up. The Nation founded Green Arrow Corp. Akamihk, western Canada’s first Indigenous-owned and operated community solar energy company. Green Arrow’s own team of trained community members is now installing solar panels across all of Alberta. “You hire your own people, by your people, for your people. We can do this for ourselves, we understand these types of businesses,” explains Vickie Wetchie, Montana First Nation member and general manager of Green Arrow. Wetchie describes the benefits that the community has experienced since they launched their solar company in 2012. The economic benefits–local employment, community revenue, and power savings—have been the primary motivators for pursing this energy development. There are now dozens of community members trained as skilled labourers in solar installation and maintenance.   Recommended Video Citation Climate Atlas of Canada. (2018). Montana First Nation. Prairie Climate Centre. https://climateatlas.ca/video/montana-first-nation

After a 1-in-100 year storm flooded Truro, Nova Scotia under five feet of water, the conversation around town shifted to questions about the future. What’s clear to local residents is that climate change is bringing higher tides, stronger winds and flooding, leaving more and more people shouldering the costs and risks.   Recommended Video Citation Climate Atlas of Canada. (2018). Storms of the future: Shouldering the risks of climate change. Prairie Climate Centre. https://climateatlas.ca/video/storms-future