“While there may be general consensus on climate change predictions at the global scale, real discussion of climate change impacts in our own “backyard” – be it a city, a watershed, or a particular project site – is just getting started. In most cases, the emergence of “best practices” – or even “standard practices” – is still on the horizon,” states Eric Bonham.
“More and more thoughtful people are concerned that climate change, in combination with a number of contributing environmental circumstances, is poised to create a perfect storm of economic, social and political consequeces,” stated Bob Sandford.
“There are two responses to climate change: mitigation and adaptation. Mitigation is alleviating the effects of climate change through reducing greenhouse gases. Adaptation is responding to the changes that will inevitably occur. If migation is about CARBON, then adaptation is about WATER,” stated Jim Mattison.
In the first excerpt, Chris Wood observes that activists routinely assert that U.S. states are “looking toward Canada’s water” as a “quick-fix solution” to regional water crises but rarely if ever identify the states in question. Perhaps because none exist.
Atlanta’s drought, California’s fires, Mexico’s flood, Canada’s weird winters year after year… this book connects the dots in a lively way between the headlines, the climate science and the forecast for tomorrow and the day after. Dry Spring spells out the weather forecast for North America and the urgent reasons to begin preparing for the storm just over the horizon.
“The debate about Climate Change has generated a policy war between proponents of “hard caps” versus those who favour “intensity unit” approaches to regulating discharges of greenhouse gases. The author argues that intensity units are an effective tool for measuring performance in reducing pollution and ensuring that the public interest is protected,” wrote Peter Krahn.
Fraser Basin Council – Bacgrounder cover (300p)
October 2007
On November 6, 2007 the Fraser Basin Council hosted a workshop in Vancouver on adaptive decision-making, water management and climate change. The workshop was held in order to guide future Fraser Basin Council programs related to climate change and adaptation.
“Climate change is not the driver; rather, it is a variable. The key is to focus on what you want to do. Because many factors are in play, the objective is to build in resiliency to address risk,” stated Kim Stephens
Robert Hicks
Return periods are common in regulations and in 'standard engineering practice'. However, using return periods without considering their response to climate variability and climate change could result in poor long-term decision making and prevent proactive adaptation if not put into the context of climate change.
Robert Miller – UBC Civil Engineering professor
Short sharp bursts of rain are increasing in both frequency and intensity acccording to researchers at the University of British Columbia. The controversial research, originally done for a 2001 master's thesis, was published in the Journal of the American Water Resources Association.
