Get ready for more heatwaves, floods and ice storms, report on Ottawa’s changing climate says

By Bailey Moreton, Capital Current, June 19, 2020

Ottawa councillors looked beyond the pandemic this week to another looming crisis.

They were combing through a massive, two-volume report presented to the city’s environment committee that revealed some worrisome projections about climate change in the national capital over the next 30 years. The key findings: Ottawa should expect a warmer, wetter and — on average — more disaster-filled future.

(...)While similar information about the anticipated changes to Ottawa’s climate has been circulating for some time, the comprehensive new report — presented at the June 16 meeting of the city’s standing committee on environmental protection, water and waste management — is more extensive in its data-crunching and analysis than any previous study.

And it’s been delivered at a fortuitous time for climate activists, said Isaac Smith, campaign lobbying co-ordinator with the local environmental organization Ecology Ottawa.

“The pandemic has changed the way many people see the city and their relation to its green space, local agriculture, and shifting climate,” he stated in an email. “This slow shift back to a business-as-usual lifestyle will cause people to question what ‘usual’ means and whether that’s good enough.” 

https://capitalcurrent.ca/get-ready-for-more-heatwaves-floods-and-ice-storms-report-on-ottawas-changing-climate-says/

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