Climate Change

Climate change is a long-term shift in environmental conditions occurring worldwide. For thousands of years, the Earth’s climate has hardly changed at all. Temperatures, rainfall, the length of seasons and other environmental factors have remained just right for humans, animals and plants. This stability is thanks to the greenhouse effect.

Just as the glass of a greenhouse keeps the sun’s warmth inside, an invisible blanket of “greenhouse gases” — consisting mainly of water vapour, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane — trap solar heat in the Earth’s atmosphere. Without these gases, the heat of the sun would escape into space and the average temperature on our planet would plunge by 33°C – from 15°C to -18°C.

According to a 2007 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a scientific intergovernmental group that provides objective information on climate change, “eleven of the last twelve years (1995-2006) rank among the twelve warmest years in the instrumental record of global surface temperature (since 1850).”

In some parts of Canada, temperatures could rise by 5 to 10°C. While that might not seem like much of a leap, the average temperature during the last ice age was only five degrees cooler than today. Scientists fear that the Earth could become too warm, resulting in climatic changes greater than humans have ever witnessed.

As temperatures rise, polar ice caps, glaciers, and sea ice will melt faster than before, raising global sea levels, causing higher tides and damaging coastlines with floods and erosion. Extreme weather events, such as hurricanes, thunderstorms, tornadoes and heat waves, will happen more often and severely.

How Climate Change is Affecting Wildlife

Climate change is already having an impact on all kinds of wildlife. Species worldwide are shifting their ranges, migrating sooner and bearing young earlier than in the past. American robins and red-winged blackbirds frequently arrive on their breeding grounds weeks before they once did. Edith’s checkerspot butterfly has moved its range northward and up into mountains as temperatures heat up further south.

In the past, climate change occurred so slowly that wild plants and animals had time to adjust. Today, shifts in temperature, seasons and weather are happening so fast that wildlife has little chance to adapt . Instincts developed over thousands of years are becoming useless. Key habitat elements — food, water, shelter and space — are declining or disappearing.

Global warming is also blamed for the widespread decline of amphibians, including Costa Rica’s golden toad, now feared extinct. Coral reefs worldwide are dying off because of unusually warm ocean temperatures.

The most dramatic changes of all are taking place in the High Arctic, which is heating up faster than anywhere else. In fact, Northerners are watching in disbelief as sea ice shrinks and pulls back from the coast; new species of birds like robins and barn swallows settle in; unfamiliar plants, like white spruce and dwarf birch, spread over the tundra; and salmon are caught for the first time.

Across this country, governments, industries, schools, communities and individuals are taking action to curb climate change and address its impacts. Their efforts include improving the management of forests and wetlands; supporting climate change and atmospheric research; increasing energy efficiency in buildings and automobiles; and developing renewable energy sources, such as wind turbines and solar power, and fuel cell technology.

What CWF is doing to Help Fight Climate Change

CWF is taking actions to reduce our own carbon footprint. We had solar panels installed on our office roof and had an energy audit performed on our building.