The chaos on Canada's west coast is a preview of climate change woes to come
World leaders have just returned home from COP26, the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, eager to talk about the progress they made in devising strategies to combat climate change. Right on time, events on the west coast of Canada have given us a glimpse of our perilous environmental future.
This past June, British Columbia was sitting under a highly irregular "heat dome" that drove temperatures up to astonishing heights. Fires, smoke, and life-threatening heat enveloped both sides of the U.S.-Canada border, but things were especially bad above the 49th parallel, with the town of Lytton topping out at 121 degrees Fahrenheit and ending up completely consumed by flames from a brushfire.
Now, just a few months later, an "atmospheric river" has delivered a wind-swept deluge to the same area, bringing widespread washouts, mudslides, and avalanches. The consequences for infrastructure — and, as a result, already buckling supply chains — have been especially shattering.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Writing in the National Post, author Terry Glavin notes that the Port of Vancouver and other marine terminals in the area "are now cut off from the rest of Canada, by road and by rail," with the Coquihalla Highway and Highway 3 both impassable. It may be possible to resolve the rail disruptions fairly quickly, but the same isn't true for roads. A government official estimates it could take "several weeks or months" to get them reopened. And because the flooding has been so widespread across the region, diverting truck traffic through the United States to the south isn't a great option either.
Add in entire towns under water, polluted municipal water systems, and gas lines severed with winter weather on the way — and we're left with a devastating picture of coastal western Canada. It's just the latest disturbing image of what awaits the world over the coming years and decades.
Extreme weather events — storms, floods, drought, deadly heat and cold — are bad enough in themselves. But they don't just do immediate damage to people and private property. They also play havoc with the networks of commerce and travel on which our modern lives and economies depend.
Yes, we need to do what we can to cut emissions so things don't become even worse down the road. But they're going to become pretty bad regardless. Internalizing that fact is an important task, not least because doing so might goad us to develop a nimbleness in our response to disasters and resilience in our supply chains once the worst discrete weather events have receded.
Human beings can get used to anything. We're going to have to get used to calamity.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Damon Linker is a senior correspondent at TheWeek.com. He is also a former contributing editor at The New Republic and the author of The Theocons and The Religious Test.
-
'Virtual prisons': how tech could let offenders serve time at home
Under The Radar New technology offers opportunities to address the jails crisis but does it 'miss the point'?
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published
-
The Week contest: Airport goodbyes
Puzzles and Quizzes
By The Week US Published
-
'We shouldn't be surprised that crypto is back'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published
-
The pros and cons of GMOs
Pros and Cons The modified crops are causing controversy
By Devika Rao, The Week US Published
-
The UK's worsening wet weather
The Explainer More frequent and intense rain is keeping flood boss 'awake at night'
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published
-
Is dangerous weather in the Mediterranean Sea the new normal?
Today's Big Question A waterspout, or sea tornado, recently sank a superyacht off the coast of Sicily
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published
-
The moon may be the ideal place to preserve Earth's biodiversity
under the radar A cache in a crater
By Devika Rao, The Week US Published
-
What is NASA working on?
In Depth A running list of the space agency's most exciting developments
By Devika Rao, The Week US Published
-
4 tips to make your home more eco-friendly
The Week Recommends You don't have to spend a bunch of money to make more sustainable choices
By Theara Coleman, The Week US Published
-
Is Hurricane Beryl the sign of another dangerous storm season?
Today's Big Question Climate change is fueling the frequency and intensity of storms
By Joel Mathis, The Week US Published
-
Extreme weather events in the last year
In Depth These events are becoming more common thanks to climate change, and are "affecting every corner of the world"
By Devika Rao, The Week US Last updated