“It’s pretty interesting that local communities have taken the federal relay, in recent years, in terms of preparing for climate change, says the lead author of the study published in November in Nature Climate Change , Alexandra Lesnilowski, McGill. There are local adaptation programs. But it must be emphasized that there are also research at Environment Canada and Health Canada on the potential impacts of climate change. A far cry from the performance of the UK, which is the world leader in adaptation. But Canada has a high. “
Since the first evaluation of adaptation efforts by the McGill team, Canada went from a score of 17 for a perfect score of 19 on ‘scale developed by Montreal geographers. Seven other countries have a perfect score. The United States has a score of 17. The programs are assessed by the classification of the determination of populations and vulnerable regions in the construction of dikes, through the public alerting systems to heat stroke.
Vulnerability coasts and cities
Canada as he does well in the rankings because it is less vulnerable to climate change, at least in the more populated southern areas? “No, not least because it is a big country with a lot of coastline, says PhD student at McGill. Do not forget droughts and heat waves in major cities such as Montreal and Toronto, especially for the elderly in an aging population. Ultimately, it will be important effects. “
Some researchers criticize the emphasis on adaptation to climate change because they feel it gives people the impression that cutting greenhouse gas emissions is impossible or even useless.
“I hope that the negotiations in Paris will increase the priority given to adaptation, says M me Lesnilowski . The debate over the issue was intense at the beginning of the millennium, but now it is set. Even if it was possible to limit the increase in the temperature of the planet with two degrees will require adaptation efforts. It is not a distraction. “
No comments:
Post a Comment