I have spent the last couple of days updating an annual water report to see how the City of Williams Lake is doing with its conservation efforts (all will be revealed in another article, but the sneak preview is that we are still doing well).
As part of this report, I look at Environment Canada's local precipitation data and temperatures over the last 22 years or so. From June 2023 to April 2024, we experienced the world’s fifth largest ‘EL Nino’ event; El Ninos typically raise temperatures and reduce precipitation in our region.
The precipitation data supports that, with 2023 as the driest year in the 22-year data set I include in my report. While the last four years have all had below average precipitation, we have been lucky that the distribution of May to September precipitation locally has helped balance the winter droughts.
2024 was the world’s hottest year on record and capped the last 10 years of unprecedented heat. Atmospheric CO2 levels were at 428.4 ppm on January 19, (the ‘safe’ level is around 350 ppm). Climate change added 41 days of ‘dangerous heat’ for the average person in 2024.
We have seen the effect of drought and heat on the Californian wildfires, and have our own wildfire and flood experiences in B.C. to be familiar with the more ‘catastrophic’ climate change related events. But there are less dramatic consequences creeping into our everyday lives where a climate change connection may be less obvious.
Coffee, oranges and olive oil are just a few of the crops affected by droughts, floods and increased temperatures over the last few years. Crop yields from staples like corn, soya beans, wheat, rice, cotton and oats are all reduced when dealing excessive heat. Reduced water availability affects food production directly as well as a crop’s resistance to pests and disease.
Drought also affects the transport of food; 40 per cent of consumer goods traded between North East Asia and the Eastern U.S. go through the Panama Canal which has had to significantly reduce how many ships pass through a day because of the 2023 El Nino and related reduction in rainfall and water levels.
There is no one simple and single answer for why your grocery bill has gone up so much this last few years; blame has been attributed to increased fuel costs, the war in Ukraine, increasing labour and travel costs, supply chain issues, bird flu, the pandemic and excessive corporate profits.
Economists have now enough research to add in climate change, both directly affecting crops and transport, but also indirectly aggravating some of these other factors (for example workers in hotter temperatures will be less productive than at cooler temperatures; pandemics are predicted to occur more frequently with climate change, transport issues such as the Panama canal hold-ups).
The 2021/2022 cost of living crisis pushed an estimated additional 71 million people into poverty worldwide. Climate change pressures are only going to continue adding to food inflation with implications for economic and political stability as well as human welfare.
The world seems to be moving in the wrong direction to mitigate the issues that don’t fit neatly into the context of a four-year political cycle. Ignoring climate change or attributing blame elsewhere doesn’t make it go away, and unfortunately, the price of procrastination will just lead to increased human suffering.
What we can do in the Cariboo is to encourage and support our local food producers as a way to build up regional resilience and withstand world pressures. With a flourishing farmers market, it seems this is already well on its way.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-023-01173-x
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/dec/30/world-endures-decade-of-deadly-heat-as-2024-caps-hottest-years-on-record-un-antonio-guterres
https://www.worldweatherattribution.org/when-risks-become-reality-extreme-weather-in-2024/
For more information on Water Wise or Waste Wise and any of our school and community programs, contact the Cariboo Chilcotin Conservation Society at coordinator@conservationsociety.ca or visit the website at www.conservationsociety.ca
Jenny Howell is the water wise instructor and executive director of the Cariboo Chilcotin Conservation Society.