Globe Climate: In the fires, after the floods

Globe and Mail

3 days ago

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Good afternoon, and welcome to Globe Climate, a newsletter about climate change, environment and resources in Canada.
Although in this newsletter today we will look back at the aftermath of the floods down south, readers should be looking ahead to wildfires in the Prairies.
Officials in Manitoba are hopeful that with the help of international firefighters alongside cooler, wetter weather will slow raging wildfires. The province has declared its second state of emergency this year, and has started a new round of evacuations.
There are more than 560 active wildfires burning and 140 are considered out of control, prompting more than 345 air quality alerts and advisories in five provinces and one territory.
Follow our reporting this week.
Now, let's catch you up on other news.
For this week's deeper dive, a closer look at the deadliest flash flood in Texas in more than a century, and the signals it sends to other places prone to flooding.
Had there been just a slight shift in direction, the entire storm system might have passed without notice.
But despite unfolding in a place long known by the name 'Flash Flood Alley' the storm's severity caught nearly everyone off guard, and led to endless stories of human tragedy.
But, as water reporter Patrick White says in his story this past week, there's a political tale playing out here, too.
Flash floods are America's top storm-related killer, and climate change is making them more powerful. Patrick traveled to Kerrville, Tex. to speak to people on the ground. Along the Guadalupe River, locals recited past disasters like scripture: '32, '78, '87.
Yet, in this area with flood deaths going back generations, improvements to the warning system had been put off, even nixed. It's part of a difficult conversation in a region where climate change, though increasingly impossible to ignore, is often denied and remains politically untouchable.
The Texas disaster has put a focus on both the risk of flash flooding as well as how to predict or prevent it.
This particular county gave nearly 80 per cent of its vote to Donald Trump. When Patrick asked one flood victim about the scientific phenomenon, he went on a tangent that touched on Pizzagate, the mass harvesting of children's organs and other conspiracy theories. A woman who launched a petition for flood sirens on the river told him climate change was a liberal theory and equated it with cloud seeding.
The President's budget for next year includes a 27-per-cent cut to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the weather service's parent organization, including shutting down its entire research arm, which has labs studying the effects of climate change. Experts have warned for months that deep staffing cuts could endanger lives.
Meanwhile, researchers are also worried Canada isn't doing enough to prevent such disasters here. Ryan Ness of the Canadian Climate Institute says the country needs to invest in flood mapping, infrastructure and early warning systems.
Ness said many parts of Canada don't have flood maps, 'so it's hard to know where to protect or where to send warnings.'
He also said flash flooding can be made worse in areas burned by wildfire, which Canadians are in the throes of managing.
Tanya Talaga: News of a deep-sea port along the James Bay coast is a surprise to those who live there
Deliah Bernard: Instead of scrapping Indigenous consultations, let's make them better
Janice Locke: My apple cores brought nature to my doorstep – then some bigger guests arrived
Canadian cleantech veteran aims to make AI a force for good
Nicholas Parker, a long-time investor and adviser to companies and policymakers, is betting artificial intelligence will be a force for sustainability – and that there's money to be made.
He has been evaluating how AI can boost energy efficiency, streamline industrial processes and reduce CO2 emissions across numerous industries. Now he and his team are bringing together experts, entrepreneurs and investors to marshal some of the US$138-billion they say will be required to scale AI technologies for sustainability over the next five years.
We've launched the next chapter of The Climate Exchange, an interactive, digital hub where The Globe answers your most pressing questions about climate change. More than 300 questions were submitted as of September. The first batch of answers tackles 30 of them. They can be found with the help of a search tool developed by The Globe that makes use of artificial intelligence to match readers' questions with the closest answer drafted. We plan to answer a total of 75 questions.
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