Seven in 10 Canadians worried about climate change, link it to extreme weather

A large majority of Canadians are worried about climate change and believe it is behind an increase in extreme weather a new national poll suggests.

OTTAWA — A large majority of Canadians are worried about climate change and believe it is the reason for an increase in extreme weather, a new national poll suggests.

But the Leger poll says only a small fraction of people listed climate change as the top issue facing Canada today, and many say they’re only likely to change their behaviour if that doesn’t come with a cost.

Globally, temperatures hit record highs in July, while Canadians in every province and much of the North were directly impacted by fires — if not from the blazes directly, then by the thick smoke from those fires that blanketed cities and towns thousands of kilometres away.

More than 100,000 people were forced to evacuate their homes between May and September and hundreds of homes burned, including about 200 in suburban Halifax in the spring, and almost as many in West Kelowna, B.C., in August.

Against that backdrop, 72 per cent of Canadians surveyed said they are worried or very worried about climate change and 21 per cent said they were not very worried. Only seven per cent said they weren’t worried about it at all.

Pocketbook issues heavily outweighed climate change as a top-of-mind issue for Canadians in the poll, with only seven per cent of those surveyed listing climate change as the top issue facing the country.

The largest share — 33 per cent — said inflation is the top issue, 16 per cent chose housing affordability, and eight per cent pointed to rising interest rates. |Read more https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-climate-change-impact-assessment-1.6964662|

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A grim report about climate change in Ontario was kept quiet for 8 months

A new government-commissioned report on the risks Ontario faces from climate change has been made public after a summer that included stretches of extreme heat, heavy rainstorms and unprecedented wildfire smoke.

Presented to the government in January but only posted publicly in late August, the government did not issue a news release about the report. It follows a summer where Ontarians faced at times extreme heat, heavy rainstorms and unprecedented wildfire smoke.

The report does “the best job that’s been done to date describing the impacts of climate change and extreme weather,” said Blair Feltmate, head of the Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation at the University of Waterloo.

Its 530 pages are filled with often grim details about the expected effects of climate change in Ontario.

“Changes in Ontario’s climate are expected to continue at unprecedented rates,” says the report. “It is important to recognize how these findings can be used to spur action to protect residents, ecosystems, businesses and communities across Ontario.”

The report lays out the ways the researchers expect climate change to affect each region of Ontario along five broad themes: infrastructure; food and agriculture; people and communities; natural resources, ecosystems and the environment; business and the economy.

Douglas says Ontario’s food production and agriculture are particularly vulnerable to climate change.

“Yields will decrease,” he said. “It will affect the overall health of livestock. It will pose indirect threats to things like water availability, water quality. It’ll indirectly impact soil health and soil quality.” |Read more https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-climate-change-impact-assessment-1.6964662|

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