Socially, badly eroded or submerged coastlines would affect millions who live in places such as New York, Prince Edward Island and Shanghai. To help people at least consider the unknown, and prepare for the worst, several Waterloo researchers are participating in a five-year, $2.5-million project called the Partnership for Canadian Caribbean Community Climate Change Adaption.
Palm trees, an empty stretch of sand and a lacy fringe of surf on a turquoise sea: It is a brochure image that draws millions of work-worn people to brief vacations as pampered castaways.
Can it last? Environmentally, the effects of climate change include rising sea levels, altered currents, and oceans that are more acidic than they have been in human history. Reefs, known as the tropical rain forests of the sea because of the diversity of life they support, are threatened.
Waterloo researchers, including Ellsworth LeDrew, have studied the damage close-up at dive sites in Fiji and Indonesia. They also compare their findings to what satellites see from 700 kiliometres in space. That information can be used to set up marine protection areas.
Socially, badly eroded or submerged coastlines would affect millions who live in places such as New York, Prince Edward Island and Shanghai. Weather-pattern changes could lead to stronger floods and longer droughts, struggling fisheries, and extinction for animals unable to adapt.
Many seaside resorts — and the jobs they create — would lose their highly valuable beaches and be damaged, if not disappear. If several holiday spots in the same place become rundown, the economy of communities and entire small island countries could suffer.
“Sea level rise is considered to be one of the most certain and prominent consequences of climate change. It will transform coastal communities and their economies,’’ says Waterloo’s Daniel Scott, a Canada Research Chair in Global Change and Tourism in geography and environmental management. “It’s a unidirectional impact, so we know it is coming. It’s just a matter of how much and when.”
To help people at least consider the unknown, and prepare for the worst, several Waterloo researchers are participating in a five-year, $2.5-million project called the Partnership for Canadian Caribbean Community Climate Change Adaption. Scott is the chair.
Working with Barbados-based CaribSave, its teams are focusing on those who live, work and depend on coastal regions in the Caribbean and on Canada’s east coast. They’ll work directly with residents to find out how local economies may be affected by climate change, and what can be done to reduce the risks.
These are long-term challenges, but Waterloo’s researchers are seeking answers on how to adapt now.
