Keyword Extreme weather

The North Shore Tribal Council, together with Sagamok Anishinawbek, Batchawana First Nation, and OFNTSC, is preparing infrastructure for climate impacts using the First Nations Infrastructure Resilience Toolkit (FN-IRT). This approach combines technical expertise with community knowledge to support adaptation planning for infrastructure and cultural resilience.

Climate change is happening. Understanding what the potential risks of climate change are helps us to prepare for them. Even with large efforts to reduce global emissions, we will still feel impacts from these changes, and the effects will be felt most heavily at the community level. It is therefore critical for communities to adapt, make changes, and reduce risk. This generally starts with a planning process called a climate risk assessment.

Joanasie Karpik is one of Nunavut’s most respected Elders on climate change. In 2017, youth and Elders gathered together at Sannirut, a popular camping spot near the community of Pangnirtung, for a video and storytelling workshop. Joanasie shares, “I’ve lived two worlds now”, speaking to the changes he has seen to the weather pattern over nearly 80 years of observation in Cumberland Sound. These unprecedented changes are outside of local knowledges of Elders and Joanasie shares, “today, because of climate change, we can’t use their knowledge in the same way.” We must work together to rise to the challenge of this new weather system.

With summer temperatures starting to soar, many Canadians are eager to visit our favourite local beaches to break the heat. In many parts of the country, this means a trip to the nearest lake or river. Climate change is impacting waterbodies across the country, with lakes in Canada warming two times faster than other lakes in the world.[1] And with these changes come increased health risks. Higher temperatures and changing precipitation patterns make lakes more suitable for waterborne disease outbreaks.[2] As water quality worsens under climate change, beach closures and swimming advisories are expected to become more common.[3]

In Bradwell, Saskatchewan harvest has become difficult as weather is often either too wet or too dry. Grain farmer Terry Boehm harvests his fields between rain and snow storms hoping to get some decent grain. The weather patterns his family have relied on for their livelihood for generations have changed. Across the prairies, farmers are having to adapt their farming practices to increasingly erratic weather.

Many Canadians welcome the arrival of hot summer days as respite from our long, cold winters. Understandably, we tend to think of more summer heat as a good thing. But too much heat can be dangerous.

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. In 2023, waves of air pollution passed through Canada during the summer surge of wildfires - impacting the health of many residents in large Canadian cities.[2][14]

We often think about climate change as something abstract or remote. We hear scientists talking about melting ice caps, see images of drought in faraway places, or browse through news coverage of exotic weather disasters. But climate change is having effects right here and right now in Canada. And the risks aren’t just theoretical or abstract. The effects of climate change promise to be up close and personal, affecting the everyday lives and health of Canadians. As Jeff Eyamie of Health Canada says, “The most immediate and personal impact of climate change is the health impact.”

Heat waves in cities are expected to be more frequent and intense under climate change. The City of Montreal is tackling urban heat islands head-on through city greening initiatives, in collaboration with Ouranos, a climate change research consortium.

Warmer temperatures could bring some benefits to farming in Canada, but climate change will also likely lead to new risks that farmers haven’t seen before. Anne Blondlot of Ouranos breaks down some of the key changes the agricultural community could be facing.