Democracy Dies in Darkness

Opinion: Canada’s record-breaking temperatures are

an alarm. We must act.
Opinion by David Moscrop
Contributing columnist

July 1, 2021 at 7:07 p.m. GMT+3

188

Residents of Canada’s westernmost province, British Columbia, have been living the opening pages of a post-
apocalyptic novel for several days now, as a heat dome settled over the Pacific Northwest.

On Sunday, Lytton, B.C., set the country’s record for hottest temperature at 114.98 degrees (46.1 Celsius),
displacing the previous record of 113 degrees (45 Celsius), set in 1937. On Monday, Lytton set the record again:
118.22 degrees (47.9 Celsius). On Tuesday, it set one for a third day in a row: 121.28 degrees (49.6 Celsius). On
Wednesday, a wildfire forced the entire town to evacuate. Across the province, the heat wave is suspected of
contributing to the loss of dozens of lives and stretched first responders thin. Several school districts have closed
and crops have been stressed.

The ideal number of times an 84-year-old heat record should be broken in a week is zero, not three and counting.
But this is what climate change has brought us. And we knew it was coming. In 2020, a study published in Science
Advances warned of rising temperatures and the risks they pose to humans. The research article, titled “The
emergence of heat and humidity too severe for human tolerance,” found that “reported occurrences of extreme TW
[wet-bulb temperature] have increased rapidly at weather stations and in reanalysis data over the last four decades
and that parts of the subtropics are very close to the 35°C survivability limit, which has likely already been reached
over both sea and land. These trends highlight the magnitude of the changes that have taken place as a result of the
global warming to date.”

As if on cue, thus arrived the heat dome.

Years of dire warnings about climate change and its effects may have inured some of us to the alarming idea of life
on a planet so deeply altered by human behavior that it is increasingly inhospitable to our survival, but the past few
days have reminded millions of us what that looks like in practice. The immediate question is how governments,
organizations, families and friends can take care of folks, reduce suffering and save lives, especially those of the
most vulnerable among us. Following that, we must ask ourselves how we can process these extreme weather
Our subscribers make our work possible.
events in a way that underwrites immediate, aggressive climate action.
Great journalism is essential. It’s also expensive to produce and we couldn’t do it without the
It is tempting to give up. The tasks ahead of us are daunting, and some of the consequences of our slow, inadequate
support of people like you. Subscribe today.
climate measures are locked in. But nihilism serves few of us, while hope and action will serve many.

Get
In March one just
2020, yearasfor
the$29 USD
coronavirus pandemic began to sweep the world, Damian Carrington wrote in the
Guardian: “There’s no ‘deadline’ to save the world.” While “deadlines can focus efforts,” he wrote, “even if this
You can cancel anytime.
deadline is missed, it will not be too late, because every act reduces human suffering.”
dead e s ssed, t w ot be too ate, because eve y act educes u a su e g.

That message of possibility is essential, a necessary frame if we are to mobilize in the face of tougher, more frequent
challenges induced by climate change. Strategies of mitigation and adaptation can improve and save lives; as
despairing as extreme weather events are, they ought not to drive us into morbid complacency. Indeed, it is an act
of privilege to give in to despair while we might still create a better world.

Creating a better world, however, takes structural changes at the level of states. While we ought to be focused on
improving our climate fortunes, individual behavioral changes must be secondary to national and subnational
policy that retools how we govern ourselves and how we do business. Last year, Seth Klein, in his book “A Good
War: Mobilizing Canada for the Climate Emergency,” laid out a program for such change. Whether you appreciate
the war frame or not — I do — or agree with each idea or not, the action outline gives plenty of suggestions for
transformative adaptation and mitigation polices. At the very least, Klein outlined the scale at which we ought to be
operating.

The heat wave in the Pacific Northwest should focus our minds — once those sweating through the heat can focus
again, at any rate. The latest extreme weather event should impel us to demand more from our governments and
should remind us that politicians will not do enough to address climate change and its effects on their own. They
won’t jump; we’ll have to push them.

How do we begin? In Canada, election speculation is rampant, with an expected vote in the fall. That’s a good place
to renew our efforts on climate, committing to making aggressive climate action the top issue and ensuring that
breaking weather records doesn’t become our national pastime.

Read more:

David Moscrop: It’s time to bring Canada into the 21st century

J.J. McCullough: Canada is abandoning national unity for ‘managed disunity’

Charlie Warzel: It’s not the heat. It’s the existential dread.

Geraldine DeRuiter: I have known hot places. The Northwest heat wave feels apocalyptic.

OPINIONS ABOUT CANADA HAND CURATED

Our subscribers make our work possible.

Canada’s
Greatrecord-breaking It’s time
journalism is essential. It’s also to bring Canada
expensive into the
to produce Doug Ford
and we couldn’t do itmust resign
without the
temperatures arepeople
support of an alarm.
likeWe must
you. 21st today.
Subscribe century April 18, 2021
act. June 23, 2021
3 hours ago
Get one year for $29 USD
View 3 more stories
You can cancel anytime.
Our subscribers make our work possible.
Great journalism is essential. It’s also expensive to produce and we couldn’t do it without the
support of people like you. Subscribe today.

Get one year for $29 USD

You can cancel anytime.