"Warmer and Colder Warmer": Climate Change Already Marks Manitoba

If you think that Manitoba will be safe from the damaging effects of global warming, or that some additional diplomas may actually be beneficial to this frozen province, think again, climate change experts say.

We can even feel them now in the form of the cold, gloomy fall of the province, said one scientist.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Nobel laureate, issued a bleak report last week in which it was written that the world would not face significant food shortages , to extreme weather conditions and massive migrations if we could not prevent global temperatures to reach critical threshold.

For Manitoba, this means more extreme weather conditions, such as this summer's hot summer temperatures, but also colder and more extreme winters, said David Barber, a scientist and researcher at the University of Manitoba, who holds A Canada Research Chair in Arctic Systems.

"The probability is that we will have warmer periods of heat and colder periods of weather, wetter humidity periods and dry dry periods because we are changing the probability distribution of these types of systems. climate change, "he said.

"It's a problem for us because we've evolved on this planet because of the stable climate system we're in right now."

The cold fall in Manitoba and record temperatures in the east and west are not just a coincidence, he said, linking them to the melting sea ice.

He says that the air of the polar jet will come faster and will be more persistent, holding cold, snowy and rainy weather in our area.

"It's one of the manifestations of climate change, in that sea-ice changes are altering the functioning of the polar vortex," he said.

How does the polar vortex work:

Global impacts felt locally

The global impacts of climate change, such as droughts and mass migration, will also be felt in the Prairies, "said Curtis Hull, Project Manager at Climate Change Connection, a non-profit organization that helps educate Manitobans about climate change. climate change.

"When the rest of the world is in turmoil because of tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, droughts and massive climate-induced migrations, the economic consequences are really serious, and we are likely to experience this in Manitoba. ", did he declare.

Disasters such as the 2011 floods could also become a more common phenomenon, leading to new economic consequences, he said.

This latest report underscores the urgency for governments to act quickly, Hull said.

"This problem is so important now that it requires a concerted political effort to allow us to move away from this fossil fuel dependence – and we are talking about a profound change here."

In this 728-page document, the United Nations Organization explained how the weather, health and ecosystems of the Earth would be healthier if world leaders could limit it in a way or way. another man-made warming to half a degree Celsius instead of global agreements. on the objective of a degree. Among others:

• Half as many people would suffer from a lack of water.
• There would be fewer deaths and illnesses from heat, smog and infectious diseases.
• The seas would rise nearly 10 centimeters less.
• Half as many animals with backbones and plants would lose the majority of their habitats.
• There would be far fewer heat waves, showers and droughts.
• The Western Antarctic Ice Sheet is not likely to irreversibly melt.
• And that may be enough to save most of the world's coral reefs.

"For some people, it is undoubtedly a life-and-death situation," said Natalie Mahowald, a scientist in climatology at Cornell University, lead author of the report.

Limiting warming to 0.5 degrees from now means that the world can keep "some semblance" of the ecosystems we have. The addition of an additional 0.5 degree, the vaguer global goal, essentially means a different and more challenging Earth for humans and species, said another of the report's lead authors, Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, director of Global Change Institute of the University of Queensland, Australia.

With files from the Associated Press

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