It isn’t ‘just the weather’

I was reading The Guardian the other day, which is one of the best, if not the best, newspaper for climate change coverage. I say this, despite the fact that it still silos the subject into a special section called “Climate Crisis and Environment.”

And it continues to publish front page headlines like “May and June heatwave kills about 2,700 in England and Wales, data suggests,” with no reference to climate change, until you hit the body of the story.

Which, quite frankly, is better than most newspapers do.

Indeed, in a recent issue of The Guardian, there’s an article about just that — the fact that an analysis of British newspapers revealed that 72 per cent of articles covering the U.K.’s June heatwave failed to even mention the climate crisis.

So why is that significant?

Well, if we don’t frame a 36-to-40 C heatwave as a climate-driven event, it quickly becomes just another weather anomaly. An anomaly which then becomes the new baseline for what we deem to be “normal” weather.

But there’s nothing normal about it. In fact, for Winnipeggers, the recent 36 C heatwave isn’t just one or two degrees above the norm. It’s a staggering 10 degrees above average July temperatures, measured over decades. Last year’s May temperature of 36.4 C blew the average temperatures for that month out of the water.

So, what these heatwaves really represent is a manifestation of a carbon-dioxide-packed atmosphere that’s radically altering and warming the global climate.

Nothing has prepared our city to deal with that. In fact, city council and the mayor have failed miserably in efforts to meet even their 2030 emissions reduction target of a mere 20 per cent, given that a recent city report indicates that emissions from landfills, city buildings, vehicles and other sources once again went up, this time by 1.5 per cent.

The biggest culprit is the Brady landfill, which still receives mountains of organic waste. That buried waste then decomposes releasing not just CO2 but methane, a particularly nasty greenhouse gas. Despite that, council has delayed funding the curbside pick-up and composting of organic waste until 2030. This, when some 300 other Canadian cities have had those programs in place for as long as a decade.

Nor has the city taken decisive action to adjust infrastructure spending in a way that might help us to adapt to, or at very least mitigate, the impact of extreme weather. Just take the recent decision to delay providing parks with the budget needed to acquire another 1,000 acres of heat-busting, water-absorbing greenspace.

Meanwhile, cooling trees and forests continue to fall to construction; cooling centres are thin on the ground and landlords take no responsibility for ensuring their buildings are habitable during +30 C heatwaves.

Worse still, we don’t even bother to count the number of Winnipeggers who die as a result of high temperatures. In fact, heat-related deaths aren’t even recorded in this province, despite the fact extreme heat is a recognized public-health issue. Instead, officials can only gauge the number of people dying by “excess mortality counts.”

In other words, a sudden jump in the number of people who die during a heat wave.

And that simply isn’t good enough.

Even more telling, when the Free Press questioned mayoral candidates about how the city might better protect its citizens during heatwaves, the only candidate who doesn’t appear to have an opinion is our current mayor.

He only answered the question when asked again a day or so later, by defending his record of installing seven water stations across the city and touting what he calls 24-7 cooling centres, which total four, most of which do double-duty as homeless shelters.

He then went on to observe that he would consider “exploring” a call to set maximum temperatures for rental units.

To which I would respond — “What’s to explore? Just do it.”

So, here’s the thing — ad hoc add-ons like a couple of water fountains or temporary cooling tents or compost drop-off stations don’t represent a plan. What this city needs to do is enforce and fund its own Community Energy Reduction Roadmap (CEIR) and assign capital to a comprehensive climate adaptation strategy, which would include a budget for the purchase of additional greenspace.

Because, if council doesn’t act now, our friends and neighbours will continue to die in the heat or watch helplessly as their homes drown in flood waters or burn to the ground.

So, think about that when you read an article about extreme weather that doesn’t mention climate change. And, most importantly, think about it when you head to the polls in the next civic election.

Erna Buffie is a writer and environmental activist. Read more @ https://www.ernabuffie.com/.