To the Editor,
The City of Port Alberni’s Official Community Plan climate backgrounder contains data up to 2021 on which predictions are based. In 2023 and continuing now into 2024 the planet has witnessed global surface temperature and sea surface temperature anomalies that indicate accelerated warming far above the 1850-1900 pre-industrial baseline established by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Daily, globally and here at home, records are being smashed.
On Feb. 1, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), world’s oceans reached 21.1 degrees Celsius global average, literally off NOAA’s chart.
According to ERA5 Copernicus, Europe’s global data tracker, on Jan. 25, the most current data available, global average temperature was at 1.7 above the pre-industrial baseline.
Whether these trends are caused by human activity, Earth forces or God, this fast-paced growth is not good news for humans, plants and wildlife.
We will continue to feel accelerated financial pressures as weather events damage infrastructure; sea level rise, floods and fires affect insurance and commodity pricing; and farming in heat and drought becomes increasingly challenging, exacerbating food insecurity.
Following the precautionary principle, our OCP policies should plan for worst case scenarios and answer the most pressing question of the day: how will we as a community address the declared climate emergency in a way that will help Port Alberni survive?
I suggest that a combination of emergency plans and evacuation strategies; urban greening, forest and riparian management strategies; flood control mitigation through naturalization; and collective agricultural operations on public lands all represent good starting points.
Theresa Szymanis,
Port Alberni