The Salt Spring Climate Action Plan will be fully released on Tuesday March 2nd. The webinar will be live, and the presenters will be Bryan Young of Transition Salt Spring and one of the lead authors of the plan, Elizabeth May, our MP, and Gary Holman, our CRD Director.
To participate in the live public online presentation
on March 2, 2021 at 6:30 pm,
register at www.tinyurl.com/CAPLiveZoom1
The new Salt Spring Climate Action plan is in the final stages of development. We need your input as to how you want our island to proceed with its work in dealing with climate change. The survey provides options for you to choose in order to reduce emissions and adapt our infrastructure to meet the challenges ahead.
Please find time for the survey, it should take less than 15 minutes to complete, all replies are completely anonymous. Thank you.
https://www.saltspringclimateactionplan.com
The Climate Action presentation day in Ganges turned out to be a great success, over 140 visitors, great presentations, and a community building atmosphere. This all gave useful feedback to the Climate Action team working on the climate action plan update, thanks to all who attended and also to those who helped make the occasion such a success.
Next steps: The team are preparing the first drafts of the revised plan and looking forward to the next public presentation, planned for March 2020.
Work on the update to the Salt Spring Climate Action Plan is getting underway. As a community we need to discuss how we are going to going to meet our targets for greenhouse gas emissions and at the same time plan for the adaptation measures needed to meet the challenges of climate change.
The Islands Trust will shortly be holding a meeting, you are invited to sign a petition to the Trust to declare a CLIMATE EMERGENCY in the Trust Area. It will be submitted to Trust Council on March 12-14, 2019
A Climate Action Workshop was recently held by the Climate Action Group in association with the CRD Director and the Islands Trust, plus representatives from other groups on the island. The report is being prepared but a closing statement was agreed by all present:
“The climate crisis is real, it is already affecting Salt Spring, and the impacts will get worse. The CleanBC plan has set a time frame for provincial action and some related initiatives are in place or planned within the Capital Regional District and Islands Trust. The importance of establishing effective connections among agencies is key and it is recognised that there is a need for senior levels of government to provide leadership in coordination as well as support and funding for local projects”
This is a reminder that the Islands Trust will be hosting, with Living Oceans, a sea level rise workshop on Monday, January 28, 2019 on Salt Spring Island (details below). This workshop is designed to help communities begin planning for the impacts of sea level rise. The goal is to share information on sea level rise by presenting a slide show on what sea level rise is, its impacts on communities and the potential adaptation measures available for communities with limited resources. It is also to make community members aware of the different steps needed to start the planning process through interactive exercises and to offer some tools and resources to help with the next steps.
If you are on Facebook, here is a link to the Living Oceans post about the event that you can share: https://www.facebook.com/events/2286085471663942/ The Trust have arranged for posters to be put up and it is listed on the SSI Exchange.
People can register at: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/sea-level-rise-workshop-tickets-54540494086 (suggested to give the organisers a sense of numbers but not required).
Salt Spring Island Sea Level Rise Workshop
Date: Monday, January 28, 2019
Time: 6 pm to 9 pm
Location: Mahon Hall
Was the storm the shape of things to come or a once on a lifetime outlier? Is climate change making itself felt in BC and in particular on Salt Spring Island or can we claim that any changes in the weather are due entirely to cyclical climate variability?
BC Hydro certainly feel that change is happening, this was the worst storm they have ever had to deal with but more importantly they are seeing a year on year increase in power outages. This is from one of their recent reports: “… storms and extreme weather events in B.C. are becoming more frequent and severe. In the past five years, the number of individual storm events BC Hydro has responded to has tripled. The December windstorm is another indicator that this trend is not slowing down, and the frequency and severity of the storms are now increasing. For example, this storm generated more than twice the number of storm-related outages than BC Hydro experienced in all of 2013.”
Is it time for us to move from trying to combat climate change to accepting that it is here already and we have to plan for, and adapt to, the changes, and they include sea level rise, reduced summer rainfall, warmer summers with increased fire risk, and the possibility of further storms of equal severity to our experiences on December 20th?
From CBC News, 13th February 2018
“British Columbia has no clear plan to prevent threats such as wildfires, flooding and drought as it works to adapt to the risks posed by climate change, the province’s auditor general says.
Carol Bellringer says there is little monitoring of progress and reporting on performance involving the ministries of environment, agriculture, transportation, forestry and housing, as well as Emergency Management B.C.
The province may not be able to manage flood risks because roles and responsibilities are spread across many agencies and levels of government that could lack staff or technical capacity, Bellringer said in a report released Thursday.”
In response BC Environment and Climate Change Strategy Minister, George Heyman, released a comment:
“We accept the recommendations in the report and will work to ensure their intent is achieved.
Our government understands that B.C. needs to prepare for, and adapt to, climate change. In 2017, B.C. experienced the worst wildfire season in our history. We expect to see more impacts from extreme weather in the future and we must do whatever we can to prepare for the effects of climate change.”
The government news release can be found here:
http://www.bcauditor.com/sites/default/files/publications/news-releases/ClimateChangeNewsRelease.pdf
The full report can be found here:
http://www.bcauditor.com/sites/default/files/publications/reports/Climate_Change_FINAL_0.pdf
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