February 2022 – Hanna Sander-Green

Golden, BC: Planning for Climate Change

The mountains above Golden, BC. Photo by Jesse Martini on Unsplash.

It is important for municipalities to be forward thinking in the face of the escalating climate crisis. Municipalities need to know what conditions they will be facing in the future and what they can do to prepare for these conditions. With this in mind, the Columbia Basin Rural Development Institute (CBRDI; 2020) prepared a report titled State of Climate Adaptation: Town of Golden. I live in the Town of Golden and was drawn to exploring this report to gain a better understanding of my community’s response to a changing climate. This blog post will seek to summarize and critically analyze the report.

The report was created as a tool to be used in local planning and decision-making efforts in Golden, BC. It zeroes in on climate projections for the community, current local impacts, and current and potential adaptation measures. The authors of the report used the State of Climate Adaptation and Resilience in the Basin (SoCARB) indicators as a basis for their analysis. The SoCARB program measures changes to climate as well as progress on climate adaptation and resilience at the community level using a set of indicators (Columbia Basin Trust, 2015). Within the report, five “thematic pathways” (CBRDI, 2020, p. 6) were explored: wildfire, water supply, agriculture, flooding, and extreme weather.

The authors used a number of approaches in writing the report. First, they used a top-down approach, which is characterized as being conducted by a small group of individuals internal to an organization and having limited engagement with outside stakeholders (CCME, 2021, p. 9). Further iterations could be strengthened by providing a means for public input. This would not necessarily indicate a wholesale change in method. The same top-down approach could still be used, but there could be a draft made available for public comment before completion. That way, the lived experiences of residents could either validate or perhaps question some of the analysis.

Secondly, the authors of the report used a mix of qualitative and quantitative data, but relied more heavily on a qualitative analysis. The climate projections used were quantitative in nature. The adaptation actions and impacts were described qualitatively; they were not assigned a number or ranking to highlight their importance relative to one and other. Because there was no ranking in terms of the relative importance for the impacts, especially, it is difficult to know what should be priority focus areas for the community in dealing with climate change. This is an aspect of the report that could be improved upon with future iterations.

Thirdly, the authors used a comprehensive approach in their analysis. While a tightly-scoped approach would see an evaluation of one sector or thematic pathway, a comprehensive approach sees an assessment done across a number of sectors or thematic pathways (CCME, 2021, p. 11). Because the report highlights and evaluates five thematic pathways, it falls firmly into the category of a comprehensive assessment. This makes sense in that the authors of the report were attempting to describe the state of climate adaptation (as well as climate projections and impacts) in Golden as a whole.

As noted at the start of this blog post, the report was written to aid in local decision-making and planning processes. I think the report has partially delivered on this objective. For example, the evaluation of adaptation actions shows both what is already in place and what can be implemented or strengthened in terms of adaptation. However, because there is no ranking of what impacts have the most vulnerability or risk associated with them, it would be hard for decision-makers to choose wisely in terms of further adaptation measures to focus on. As a next step, the Town of Golden could consider undertaking a full climate change risk assessment in order to prioritize areas for action in the face of changing climate conditions. Within that assessment, the Town could seek to include more voices from every demographic to ensure a holistic understanding of climate impacts in Golden.

As a resident of Golden, I am happy to know the Town has been thinking about climate change and its future impacts. I am hopeful, too, that the Town will consider conducting a full climate change risk assessment when resources allow.

References

Columbia Basin Rural Development Institute. (March 2020). State of Climate Adaptation: Town of Golden. http://www.cbrdi.ca/sites/default/files/Documents/PDF/Climate%20Adaptation/Report_Golden_StateOfClimateAdaptation_Final_June2020.pdf

Columbia Basin Trust. (February 2015). Indicators of Climate Adaptation in the Columbia Basin. http://datacat.cbrdi.ca/sites/default/files/attachments/ClimateAdaptation_FinalReport_15-03-15%5B1%5D.pdf

Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment. (2021). Guidance on Good Practice in Climate Change Risk Assessment. https://ccme.ca/en/res/riskassessmentguidancesecured.pdf

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A MACAL Student Update: Local Framing and Indigenous knowledge

A glacier in Alberta, Canada. Photo by Touann Gatouillat Vergos on Unsplash.

When I think about glaciers receding up mountainsides, losing ground slowly and yet much too fast, I feel a visceral sense of panic (Sander-Green, 2021). I worry that the water supply will suddenly dry up in the small town where I live, our aquifer dwindling alongside the glaciers. I dwell on the fish in nearby streams, deprived of the cool flush of glacier water. I envision the view changing dramatically, new rocky outcrops exposed, as I leave my home and head east through the mountains of Glacier National Park. After all, glaciers are an intensely local phenomenon here in Golden, British Columbia – they sit atop the Purcell Mountains to the west and blanket much of the Rocky Mountains to the east. And, yes, they are melting (in fact, under a medium emissions pathway, the glaciers of Western Canada are predicted to lose 74% – 96% of their volume by the end of this century; Bush et al., 2019, p. 12).

In our Masters of Arts in Climate Action Leadership program (MACAL), we recently completed a course titled Communication for Climate Action (CALS 502). In CALS 502, we learned about tailoring climate communications to specific audiences or segments of the population (Hine et al., 2016). One way we can do this is to bring up specific, local examples of climate change (Maibach et al., 2011). To put this another way, we should talk about rising seas in coastal regions, droughts in agricultural areas, and – indeed – melting glaciers where they exist (Sander-Green, 2021). It may seem like an obvious idea, but sometimes seemingly obvious ideas can remain hidden until they are explicitly introduced. It is a learning that I will bring forward with me into coursework and beyond.

Specifically, this learning is helpful in informing my thinking about our team’s design challenge project. The design challenge project is a year-long project in which MACAL teams come up with a concept for a climate action project that is based on principles of open learning. Our team is working through a project that would see the creation of a piece of software that connects students on the topic of climate change. Using the software, students would be able to read about local impacts of climate change. They would also be prompted to undertake a climate action project of their own and then upload a summary of the project to share. Learning about the importance of local framing for climate change communication in CALS 502, I feel confidence in the direction of our team’s design challenge project.

Additionally, through readings in the MACAL program, I have deepened my appreciation for the role Indigenous knowledge has to play in addressing climate change. As an example, Menzies and Butler (2006) wrote about how the site-specific ecological knowledge that many Indigenous people hold can be a critical aspect in seeking long-term sustainability in an ecosystem (p. 1). Although the authors were writing about resource conservation, I believe the concept can be applied to climate change, as well. With this in mind, our team has decided to incorporate Indigenous knowledge directly into our prototype. Local examples of Indigenous knowledge and storytelling will be made available alongside climate science. Our hope is that this will give students access to information across disciplines and world views, providing them with more tools and ideas to help address climate change.

References

Bush, E, Gilett, N., Bonsal, B., Cohen, S., Derksen, C., Flato, G., Greenan, B., Shepherd, M., & Zhang, X. (2019). Canada’s changing climate report – executive summary. Environment and Climate Change Canada. https://www.nrcan.gc.ca/sites/www.nrcan.gc.ca/files/energy/Climate-change/pdf/CCCR_ExecSumm-EN-040419-FINAL.pdf

Hine, D. W., Phillips, W. J., Cooksey, R., Reser, J. P., Nunn, P., Marks, A. D., Loi, N., & Watt, S. E. (2016). Preaching to different choirs: How to motivate dismissive, uncommitted, and alarmed audiences to adapt to climate change?. Global Environmental Change, 36, 1-11. ttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2015.11.002

Maibach, E., Nisbet, M., & Weathers, M. (2011). Conveying the human implications of climate change: A climate change communication primer for public health professionals. George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication. https://www.climatechangecommunication.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Climate-Communication-Primer-for-Public-Health-Professionals-1.pdf

Menzies, C. & Butler, C. (2006). Introduction: Understanding ecological knowledge. In Butler, C. (Ed.), Traditional Ecological Knowledge and natural resource management (pp 1-17). University of Nebraska Press.

Sander-Green, H. (2021). Glaciers in my backyard, the ocean in yours [Unmarked reflection for CALS 502]. Royal Roads University. https://moodle.royalroads.ca/moodle/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=822213