A new report on climate change commissioned by the Canadian Environment and Climate Change Department announced that Canada has been and will continue to warm up twice than the rest of the world. It seems that since 1948, Canada’s average land temperature increased by 1.7 degrees Celsius.
The report also noted that the warming of Canada is caused by human influence which has different consequences such as less snowfall and more rain, extreme hot temperatures that are getting hotter and more frequent, while extreme cold is becoming less cold. Plus, warmer summers will increase the evaporation of surface water which will lead to freshwater shortages in summer. Another discovery was that over the last 30 years, the amount of snow-covered land has decreased, and flooding is expected to increase because of sea-level rise.
US government and researchers also support these claims
Researchers from other countries are also backing these claims on a global scale, David Easterling, director of the Technical Support unit at the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information says “The global average temperature is much higher and is rising more rapidly than anything modern civilization has experienced, and this warming trend can only be explained by human activities.”
US researchers have also warned that without significant reductions in greenhouse emissions, the annual average global temperature could increase 9 degrees Fahrenheit (5 Celsius) or more by the end of this century, compared with preindustrial temperatures. While Michael Mann, a distinguished professor of atmospheric science at Penn State University says:
“North America, and especially Canada, is seeing even more rapid warming than the planet on the whole, and the impacts are now readily apparent. In the case of Canada, climate change threatens its very identity, melting its glaciers and ice, shortening its iconic winters bu turning snowfall into rain, and flooding its beautiful coastlines. This latest report drives home the fact that climate change is a dire threat now, and if we don’t act to dramatically reduce carbon emissions, that threat will only worsen with time.”
Katharine Hayhoe, director of the Climate Science Center at Texas Tech University said: “Warmer conditions bring summer heat waves, record-breaking floods and wildfires, sea level rise, permafrost thaw, invasive species, and a host of other impacts we’re not prepared for. Understanding how climate is changing in the places where we live and what this means for our future is key to ensuring our future is better, not worse than today.”
