Canada: Francis Zwiers: Climate change is real but other human behaviour makes the damage worse
By Francis Zwiers
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Yes, climate change is real. Research increasingly indicates that extreme weather events are intensifying and becoming more frequent because of climate change. But many other factors also affect their occurrence and their impacts.
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Historic wildfire and forestry management practices have inadvertently primed the pump for larger wildfires through decades of fire suppression. Practices are changing but development in rural-urban interface zones adds to the challenge.
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The 2013 Alberta flood that caused more than $6 billion in damages — arguably the costliest natural disaster in Canadian history — is a case in point. While my colleagues and I found little to suggest that human-caused climate change played much of a role in that case, the damage to developed areas was extensive and expensive. Even when climate change is a factor in extreme events, it’s not what necessarily creates the devastation. Humans collectively create that vulnerability by putting infrastructure and housing in harm’s way.
There is more than ample evidence that global warming does threaten us and that we urgently need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to limit warming. But equally we must mitigate the increased vulnerability resulting from our development and land-use practices. Each of us bear responsibility on both sides of the risk equation as users of fossil fuels, natural resources and land.
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