Canada's East Coast most vulnerable to rising sea levels
Canada has the longest coastline of any nation on Earth — 243,042 kilometres of it. So while some of us joke about the benefits of climate change (so long, winter!), the reality is rising sea levels are a major concern.
A troubling new study has shown sea levels have risen more quickly in the last century than the 27 before it — and half of that can be attributed to human-fuelled climate change.
“The acceleration we have seen over the last 100 years is only going to continue,” says Carling Hay, a Canadian researcher at Harvard and one of the authors of the study.
What does this mean for Canadians? Here's what the experts say.
Why is this happening?
There are two major causes of sea levels rising. The first is obvious: There's simply more water as temperatures rise and ice sheets and glaciers melt. The second is a result of thermal expansion. As the ocean gets warmer, it expands. According to a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, since the ocean has such a large capacity to absorb heat, the full impact of warming on the depths of the ocean won't be seen for a long time.
“If [greenhouse] fall to zero tomorrow, the climate of the atmosphere will continue to change for 10 to 20 years, but sea level rise will continue for many decades and probably even one or two centuries,” says Alain Bourque, executive director of the research consortium Ouranos.
What does this mean for Canadians who live on the coast?
Well, it depends on which coast. If you live on the East Coast, there’s definitely cause for concern since it sits on a “hot spot” that will see a greater than average increase in sea levels. There are two major ice sheets on Earth, one in Greenland and the other in the Antarctic, and Canada's East Coast is vulnerable to rising sea levels as the western part of the Antarctic ice sheet melts. “When you have an ice sheet or glacier melting you actually see sea levels fall near the ice sheet but you see sea level rise further away,” says Hay. That's why the melting of the Antarctic ice sheet will impact the East Coast more than the one that covers nearby Greenland.
But sea levels are only part of the story. In the Arctic, loss of ice cover is having a huge impact on wildlife — and therefore food security — for northern indigenous populations. Shrinking ice cover means it can be too thin to safely hunt on, animals traditionally hunted are losing their habitat and less ice cover has allowed predatory orcas pose to move in and eat local whales.
What if you don’t live on the coast?
Rising sea levels may cause friction between communities. “I think increasingly people will say: 'Wait a minute you are using my money to live in an unsustainable area,'” says Bourque.
But given the lack of direct impact of rising sea levels, it can be tempting to think higher temperatures may not be all that bad for most Canadians. Bourque says that people who take on this view are mistaken. “They are confusing ... a warmer but stable climate versus a warmer world that is always getting warmer with no stability in it,” he said.
Heat waves, droughts and floods are all potential impacts of climate change. And just as sea levels are rising at unprecedented levels, Bourque says ecosystems are “completely transforming” at rates we haven’t seen. While warmer temperatures could bring greater biodiversity to Canada, there’s no way to predict whether how existing ecosystems would support new species. Bourque pointed to the emergence of the white-footed mouse in southern Quebec, a carrier of Lyme disease. He predicts an “explosion” of Lyme disease in the next four or five years in Quebec and Ontario.
What can you do?
Hay and Bourque have the same message: Think about long-term. It’s easy to become overwhelmed by climate change and composting just doesn't feel like enough most days. But it will make a difference.
“Don’t rely on future generations to make those changes or on governments to force you to make the changes,” says Hay. “Every small action does add up.”
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