Here in the North, we’ve got front row seats to the effects of climate change.
Thawing permafrost, severe drought and violent forest fires.
Global average surface temperatures have warmed by about 0.74° C over the past 100 years but up here temperatures are increasing twice as fast, states the NWT Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation Report.
The rate of increase is proportional to latitude.
In the Mackenzie Valley, average annual temperatures have increased about 2°C since the 1940s when records started being kept, while annual temperatures in Inuvik have increased by 3°C, states the report.
The territorial government has released a strategy for dealing with climate change. Its three main goals are adapting to the changing climate, using less fossil fuel and improving knowledge of climate change impacts.
This should be lauded but with the GNWT, it’s important to separate the hubris from reality. The fact remains the territory remains poorly positioned to deal with these problems.
The writing was on the wall for all to see when the GNWT was forced to subsidize power bills by nearly $50 million and crank up diesel use in 2014 and 2015 after severe drought knocked out the city's hydro power supply from the Snare River hydroelectric system.
Water levels reached record lows because of dry conditions, reducing the amount of electricity the system was able to generate.
We are just as hopeless today as we were then should – and almost certainly when – another drought forces us back onto diesel to turn on our television sets and light our homes.
The fact remains, Yellowknife is entirely dependent on fossil fuels. It is an unpleasant predicament to be in, and it has been continuously punted down the road because the problem is great and the solutions are daunting to approach.
The NWT already has the highest cost of electricity in the country. Hopefully the territorial government can reduce the cost of power and still reach its goal of using 20 per cent less fossil fuels by 2030. To do that, it will have to strike a deal with Ottawa to expand hydro capacity in the territory and get hooked up to the southern grid.
The GNWT has previously balked at the $2-billion-plus price tag but if $350 million can be spent on public-private partnership hospitals and $300 million on a road to Tuktoyatuk, connecting the NWT to the southern power grid must be considered an essential project if we have any hope of moving past diesel power sources.
In the meantime, Northerners, already wary of wasting fuel due to high costs, can continue doing their part by investing in wood pellet stoves, hybrid vehicles and energy-efficient homes.
And if you can grow a garden or shop at the city farmers' market, give it a try and avoid having produce shipped from the south.
As we are about to observe Earth Week, it's important to remember that the residents of the NWT are not responsible for the vast majority of the carbon emissions that are changing our planet but its still important for us to do our part.