Climate Breakdown Effects Sweeping Across Canada, Officials Report

Insect infestations, forest fires, floods and drought reflect the devastating impact global warming is already having on the vast Canadian landscape, according to experts from all 10 provinces and two territories. Probably the most striking changes are occurring in the far North, where melting ice and permafrost are destroying roads and buildings as well as harming animal and plant life.

"We're seeing more landslides, mudslides than ever before," said Robert Collins, energy resources analyst for the Yukon Energy, Mines and Resources Department. Like other territories and provinces, Yukon has a booth at the UN Climate Change Conference that displays the impact of global warming on the local environment. One picture shows the side of a mountain stripped away by a landslide.

Forests are also feeling the effect of global warming. "In 2004, we burned twice the average (area of) forests through fires and 10 times what was burned the year earlier," Collins said. He said insect infestations are killing Yukon's forests because the deep cold that once regularly killed larvae no longer freezes the southern part of the territory. The dead trees are contributing to the frequency and breadth of forest fires, Collins said. "There are also changes in the water temperatures that affects the fish, and fish are vulnerable to diseases that you find in warmer water," he added. He said that for the first time, Yukon has seen funnel clouds that cause tornadoes.

Kik Shappa, a carver and hunter living in Griese Fiord, the northernmost settlement in the Canadian Arctic, said hunters face danger because of the melting ice cap. "The weather is really unpredictable and the ice freezes much later and breaks up earlier," he said, adding there are more incidents of hunters falling through the ice. He said animal migrations have altered because of changes in vegetation.

Manitoba is facing "multiple impacts and they extend pretty much through the entire province," said Rob Altemeyer, a member of Manitoba's legislative assembly.

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http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/montreal/story.html?id=adf03a81-a3ee-4657-8ed1-dab96e4276af

>> If the climate models are accurate, he said, Manitoba stands to lose a lot of its boreal forest, which covers one-third to one-quarter of the province.

"The boreal forest is on peat moss that contains enormous quantities of methane," Altemeyer noted. "If the forest can't survive, then the methane is exposed to sunlight, which melts the permafrost and the methane gets released out of the peat bog.

"Methane is 21 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide."

I guess we're all going to find out, since there's no way to halt the warming in time, and we sure aren't going to stop it from being released.

Might take a little longer in northern Manitoba, Saskatchewan.

We'll see, won't we?

Being a little over 50, and more than a little morbidly curious, I was hoping that I'd live long enough to see a hint of what was in store for the world but not so long that I'd actually have to DEAL with it.

Well, all those comfortable predictions of "not until 2050" are turning out to be altogether too optimistic and I may yet get a front row seat for experiencing the effects of global warming.

Worse luck.