As Earth Day made its annual mark on Monday, I found myself standing in front of an engaged crowd. Thanks to the Niagara-on-the-Lake community centre and the local Amnesty International chapter, the public came out for free to hear a talk about how human-accelerated climate change could impact species at risk and societal quality of life, in Niagara and beyond.
In 1970, the official calendar date of April 22 was set to be known as Earth Day. Since its inception, nations and communities across the globe take anywhere from a moment to an entire day to show appreciation for our planet. As another year rolls around and another Earth Day passes, the classic statement rises again: shouldn't every day be Earth Day?
In theory, of course it should. We need to look no further back than the Indigenous cultures of not just Niagara, but the world. Their knowledge of the land and associated traditions prioritized the health of nature out of respect for its living organisms and the services it provided for people. The original custodians of the land understood that taking care of the land meant taking care of themselves and future generations.
Since those times, the world was colonized and industrialized at a remarkable rate. Climate change was merely a new term in the late 1950s, and any sort of alarm about it only emerged in the early 2000s.
Here we are in 2024.
Personally, my Earth Day involved speaking at the NOTL community centre. Having the opportunity to spread an important yet optimistic message about our unique climate change situation is the place I want to be on Earth Day. The presentation was titled From Worry to Hope, as I recognize that the talk of climate change can be dreadful and intimidating in everyday culture. But it doesn't have to be that way, as messaging is everything.
My topic was about how climate change is likely to impact local species at risk and our economy as a result. I want to to explain how NOTL has an internationally unique platform to lead the way on tackling these issues, and I can't underscore that statement enough.
If you are reading this, you are the lucky one per cent. We live in an area of the world that is more stable than the other 99 per cent. We have stability in terms of societal relationships, above average affluence, and a generally safe and steady climate. Therefore, unfortunately and fortunately at once, we don't feel the urgency to act on climate change like other areas of the planet.
That's because our Netflix works, our streets are safe and our microwave just did its job. We live a life of comfort, thankfully. Yet, I believe there comes a certain societal responsibility when you can afford to get cozy. This is nothing to feel guilty about, to be clear, but rather it's a safe foundation for making change when others in the world can't.
NOTL is not your average town in terms of living conditions and money flow. We deservingly celebrate our wineries, plays, history and dining. As we should. Yet our freshwater creeks score dismal grades every year, and we have the lowest tree canopy coverage of any Niagara Region municipality. We could do better, we should do better, but will we?
Forest and wetland coverage act as free, naturally-existing tools which effectively sequester carbon from the atmosphere better than any available technology. It seems ironic to me that NOTL continually allows new developments to further degrade the remaining 10 per cent of these habitats, and then shouts out how we're going to fight climate change.
By means of statistical and scientific trends, here is what NOTL will likely be faced with if the human accelerated climate change continues on its current trajectory.
First of all, it is forecast that our winters will be shorter and weaker. That has implications for our biodiversity, where we depend on proper deep winter spells for a complete hibernation cycle. The trends will also challenge our agricultural cycle. If tender fruit products bloom too soon due to a soft winter, they are subject to frost damage throughout the remainder of true spring.
We will also be subjected to more severe precipitation events. Places that didn't use to flood will become more likely to, thanks to the increased non-absorbent surface areas of concrete. Invasive specie and associated diseases could become more prolific in southern Ontario, as such problematic organisms were traditionally found south of here in warmer climates. Look no further than how within 30 years, the deer tick, also known as the black-legged tick, was nearly unheard of in Niagara. Now, this potential lyme disease-carrying arachnid can survive our winters as far north as Muskoka.
Between climate change and habitat loss, I had a sobering realization as I prepared the Powerpoint file for this particular presentation. Since I last gave this talk, I had a slide stating how we had 54 species at risk listed in Niagara. The updated number, just a handful of years later, is now at 65. That's the number of species of plants and animals that may no longer exist in Niagara in the near future if we don't get our act together.
Although that is a heavier topic of discussion, and included some eco-political conversations with the crowd, there was a front row and a half of youngsters who have done more for environmental advocacy than any elected official I could mention. Known as The Green Herons, this local organization has galvanized local families and kids to do everything from learn about the environment, run native plant sales, restore turtle habitats, and so much more.
I have known some of these kids for nearly 10 years. I have had the privilege to watch them grow, be inspired by Niagara's incredible backyard, and turn into respectable members of the community. The Green Herons kids came up to the front podium and gave an official land acknowledgement before my presentation.
As they continued to sit in the front rows during this topic, I looked at them with a sense of hope for the future. What we give the sponge is exactly what it will eventually release back out into society.
