CPAWS Seeks to Curb Climate Change —

with AUBRIANNA SNOW

T

he effects of climate change are being felt across the world in the form of extreme weather and natural disasters. Alberta may be one of the most severely impacted provinces in the years to come. Kecia Kerr, executive director of the Northern Alberta chapter of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS) is well acquainted with the potential effects of global warming on Alberta.

CPAWS is a national organization that began in the 1960s and has grown to include chapters across the country. The Northern Alberta chapter is stationed in Edmonton and conducts its business from Red Deer to Alberta’s border with the Northwest Territories. Society works mainly in advocating for new protected areas and good management of current protected areas and public lands, but efforts to maintain biodiversity in the face of the climate crisis is also a big piece of their work.

The Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute’s Dr. Richard Schneider developed a series of climate maps for Alberta in 2013. These maps predict that Alberta may face an overall temperature increase of four degrees Celsius or above in the worst-case scenario, far exceeding the 1.5-degree threshold established by the The world would be a better place if we would just love one another and care for others.

Paris Agreement. Even in the bestcase scenario, the province will still be above that mark.

“Precipitation is going to change,” explains Kerr. “It’s going to change in a way that even though precipitation overall for the whole year is going to increase, it’s going to decrease in the mid to late summer months when stress due to drought is highest.”

Alberta’s landscape will become much warmer and drier on the whole, according to these models. “Grasslands (will be) expanding to the north,” says Kerr. “At the hundred-year mark, we’re going to have very little left of our boreal forest.” Schneider’s

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worst-case scenario sees a “mixed grass ecosystem” spreading as far north as Fort McMurray by 2050.

The heating up of our province will impact more than just weather.

“There will be a lot of species that are not going to be able to adapt with the rate of change that is expected. We’ll lose a lot of different species, but it will also really affect our communities that are dependent on certain industries,” says Kerr.

While the possible futures of Alberta’s climate landscape show a significant change even in the bestcase scenario, there are ways that Albertans can make a difference locally in reversing these impacts and preserving our natural spaces.

“The biggest thing that we can do is make sure that we’re telling our elected officials that these are things that we care about,” Kerr says. “We want them to be taking action on climate change.” Calling, emailing, and participating in letter-writing campaigns held by CPAWS and similar organizations are all ways for nature lovers to have their voices heard.

“I know for a lot of people, that sounds a little bit anticlimactic, but they have a huge impact.”