Time is well past due to address climate change, for our own sake

Recent events only confirm the environmental threat's real

Vancouver Sun 22 Jan 2022

Stuart Mackinnon says. 

The recent storms have shown how vulnerable Vancouver's coastal infrastructure is.

The seawall around Stanley Park sustained major damage. Our beaches, coastal parks and pathways were inundated with water and aquatic debris. Piers were torn up, logs tossed about on beaches and damage caused to our waterfront access. This, on top of the earlier damage from the atmospheric river event that pushed a barge so far onto Sunset Beach that the owners and federal government are still unsure of how they're going to remove it.

These events have a lot of people talking. Some of that talk has been irresponsible speculation, some has been hair-pulling and teeth-gnashing apocalyptic chatter and some has questioned the benefits of maintaining a fortress-like wall around the city.

What we need is less self-righteous indignation and more co-operation to support our park board workers as they navigate the difficult tasks involved in fully reopening the parks. This includes staying off the seawall while repairs are done.

The seawall is a much-loved amenity — loved by residents and visitors alike. Our staff will be working to clear the debris, analyze the damage and seek the quickest and most cost-efficient ways to safely repair and reopen it.

However, we as a city need to think about how these changing climate events are impacting our infrastructure. If, as many believe, these aren't anomalous events, but in fact a new normal, then we need to be planning for infrastructure that can withstand these events.

Projections for sea level rise vary widely. However, after the year 2050, it's projected to rise from 60 centimetres over current levels to more than six metres over current levels by

We can no longer afford the luxury of putting off climate mitigation. We must find ways to both allay the dangers coming and work together to reduce our ecological footprint.

2100. The province of B.C. currently recommends using half a metre for planning to 2050, one metre to 2100 and two metres to 2200. Unfortunately, historic sea-level rise can't be used to predict future increases given the increasing pace of climate change.

To protect vulnerable areas, the City of Vancouver estimates it will need to invest $1 billion in flood management infrastructure alone by 2100. With climate change and sea-level rise, simply building back to current standards won't be enough.

We need to rethink which amenities are both cost-effective and desired. Every decision we make has a cost attached to it. The park board, like other public and private entities, must now include climate change in those costs — both to build and to maintain infrastructure. And not just new projects; we must re-examine all of our current infrastructure through the lens of climate change and mitigation. We must not only build new and better, but also sustain what we already have.

As we look ahead, this is an excellent chance to work in partnership with the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-waututh Peoples, who have lived on these lands since time immemorial, to learn about these iconic places and their experience working with the land and sea. Their knowledge will be imperative so that we don't repeat mistakes we may have made in the past.

Vancouver isn't unique in this situation. Coastal cities around the world are faced with the same dilemmas. Whole nations face being swamped by ever-rising oceans. We can no longer afford the luxury of putting off climate mitigation. We must find ways to both allay the dangers coming and work together to reduce our ecological footprint that is driving climate change.

Pulling of hair and gnashing of teeth is neither useful, nor productive. It's time to work together for the benefit of all.

Stuart Mackinnon is a Green party commissioner and chair of the Vancouver park board.