The Energy Mix

Top Menu

  • About
  • Latest Digest/Archive
  • Partners
  • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Contact

Main Menu

  • News Archive by Category
    • Climate & Society
      • Carbon Levels & Measurement
      • Carbon-Free Transition
      • Climate Action/”Blockadia”
      • Climate Denial & Greenwashing
      • Climate Policy/Meetings/Negotiations
      • Culture, Curiosities, & Humour
      • Demographics
      • Energy Politics
      • Energy Subsidies
      • Energy/Carbon Pricing & Economics
      • Finance & Investment
      • First Peoples
      • Insurance & Liability
      • International Agencies & Studies
      • Jobs & Training
      • Legal & Regulatory
      • Media, Messaging, & Public Opinion
      • Methane
      • Travel, Leisure & Recreation
    • Climate Impacts & Adaptation
      • Biodiversity & Habitat
      • Drought, Famine & Wildfires
      • Food Security
      • Forests & Deforestation
      • Health & Safety
      • Heat & Temperature
      • Human Rights & Migration
      • Ice Loss & Sea Level Rise
      • International Security & War
      • Severe Storms & Flooding
      • Soil & Natural Sequestration
      • Water
    • Demand & Distribution
      • Air & Marine
      • Auto & Alternative Vehicles
      • Batteries/Storage
      • Buildings
      • Cities
      • Electricity Grid
      • Energy Access & Equity
      • Off-Grid
      • Petrochemicals & Plastics
      • Supply Chains & Consumption
      • Transit
      • Walking & Biking
    • Jurisdictions
      • Africa
      • Arctic & Antarctica
      • Asia
      • Australia
      • Brazil
      • Canada
      • China
      • Europe
      • India
      • International
      • Mexico, Caribbean & Latin America
      • Middle East
      • Oceans
      • Small Island States
      • South & Central America
      • Sub-National Governments
      • United States
    • Non-Renewable Energy
      • CCS & Negative Emissions
      • Coal
      • Nuclear
      • Oil & Gas
      • Pipelines/Rail Transport
      • Shale & Fracking
      • Tar Sands/Oil Sands
    • Opinion & Analysis
    • Renewable Energy
      • Bioenergy
      • Demand & Efficiency
      • General Renewables
      • Geothermal
      • Hydrogen
      • Hydropower
      • Research & Development
      • Solar
      • Wave & Tidal
      • Wind
  • Special Reports
    • Alberta’s Bitumen Pipe Dream
    • Canada’s Drive to Net Zero
    • Carbon Farming
    • City and Sub-National Action
    • Drawdown
    • Drive to 1.5
    • 26-Week Climate Transition Program for Canada
    • America’s Electoral Climate 2020
    • Canada’s Climate Change Election 2019
    • The Energy Mix Yearbook 2018
      • Climate Extremes
      • Fossils Go For Broke
      • Renewables (R)Evolution
      • Electric Vehicles
      • Canada’s Contradiction
      • COP24
      • Pipeline Politics
      • Jobs and Just Transition
      • Cities and Sub-Nationals
      • Finance and Divestment
      • Climate Litigation
  • Webinars & Podcasts
  • About
  • Latest Digest/Archive
  • Partners
  • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Contact
  • Subscribe
  • Donate

logo

  • News Archive by Category
    • Climate & Society
      • Carbon Levels & Measurement
      • Carbon-Free Transition
      • Climate Action/”Blockadia”
      • Climate Denial & Greenwashing
      • Climate Policy/Meetings/Negotiations
      • Culture, Curiosities, & Humour
      • Demographics
      • Energy Politics
      • Energy Subsidies
      • Energy/Carbon Pricing & Economics
      • Finance & Investment
      • First Peoples
      • Insurance & Liability
      • International Agencies & Studies
      • Jobs & Training
      • Legal & Regulatory
      • Media, Messaging, & Public Opinion
      • Methane
      • Travel, Leisure & Recreation
    • Climate Impacts & Adaptation
      • Biodiversity & Habitat
      • Drought, Famine & Wildfires
      • Food Security
      • Forests & Deforestation
      • Health & Safety
      • Heat & Temperature
      • Human Rights & Migration
      • Ice Loss & Sea Level Rise
      • International Security & War
      • Severe Storms & Flooding
      • Soil & Natural Sequestration
      • Water
    • Demand & Distribution
      • Air & Marine
      • Auto & Alternative Vehicles
      • Batteries/Storage
      • Buildings
      • Cities
      • Electricity Grid
      • Energy Access & Equity
      • Off-Grid
      • Petrochemicals & Plastics
      • Supply Chains & Consumption
      • Transit
      • Walking & Biking
    • Jurisdictions
      • Africa
      • Arctic & Antarctica
      • Asia
      • Australia
      • Brazil
      • Canada
      • China
      • Europe
      • India
      • International
      • Mexico, Caribbean & Latin America
      • Middle East
      • Oceans
      • Small Island States
      • South & Central America
      • Sub-National Governments
      • United States
    • Non-Renewable Energy
      • CCS & Negative Emissions
      • Coal
      • Nuclear
      • Oil & Gas
      • Pipelines/Rail Transport
      • Shale & Fracking
      • Tar Sands/Oil Sands
    • Opinion & Analysis
    • Renewable Energy
      • Bioenergy
      • Demand & Efficiency
      • General Renewables
      • Geothermal
      • Hydrogen
      • Hydropower
      • Research & Development
      • Solar
      • Wave & Tidal
      • Wind
  • Special Reports
    • Alberta’s Bitumen Pipe Dream
    • Canada’s Drive to Net Zero
    • Carbon Farming
    • City and Sub-National Action
    • Drawdown
    • Drive to 1.5
    • 26-Week Climate Transition Program for Canada
    • America’s Electoral Climate 2020
    • Canada’s Climate Change Election 2019
    • The Energy Mix Yearbook 2018
      • Climate Extremes
      • Fossils Go For Broke
      • Renewables (R)Evolution
      • Electric Vehicles
      • Canada’s Contradiction
      • COP24
      • Pipeline Politics
      • Jobs and Just Transition
      • Cities and Sub-Nationals
      • Finance and Divestment
      • Climate Litigation
  • Webinars & Podcasts
Advanced Search
AustraliaCanadaCitiesDrive to 1.5Drought, Famine & WildfiresSevere Storms & FloodingSub-National Governments
Home›Jurisdictions›Australia›From Newfoundland Snowstorms to Australian Bushfires, Climate Means the ‘Exceptional Becoming Normalized’

From Newfoundland Snowstorms to Australian Bushfires, Climate Means the ‘Exceptional Becoming Normalized’

January 22, 2020
January 22, 2020
 
56
0
Share:
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  Print This Story
OttawaBob/Twitter

From an epic snowstorm blanketing Newfoundland to devastating bushfires and flash floods in Australia, climate change is the common thread that is turning the exceptional into the “new normal”, a Calgary-based climatologist told CBC News this week.

“If you see what’s going on in Newfoundland right now and hear some of the stories, a lot of people don’t have this in living memory,” said University of Calgary climatologist Shawn Marshall. “It comes down to statistical distributions. If you picture a normal curve where you have extreme minima and maxima on either end, climate change shifts that whole distribution, and that changes the frequencies.”

Like this story? Subscribe to The Energy Mix and never miss an edition of our free e-digest.

SUBSCRIBE

Marshall speculated that a change in perspective on climate disasters might ultimately be driven by their economic impact. “The costs associated with that could hammer us, could cripple us pretty hard,” he  said. “This is what the future looks like, more and more commonly. That’s very disruptive, very expensive. What used to be exceptional is becoming normalized. It’s not necessarily going to be easy for us.”

Israel Dunmade, an associate professor in Mount Royal University’s earth and environmental sciences department, reminded CBC of the distinction between climate and weather. However, “over a long period of time, we are seeing from anthropogenic activities, our economic activities, an increase in ambient temperature,” he said. “Over the years, as a result of that increasing temperature, it has led to the current climate change,” with drier conditions making wildfires more frequent and intense, and shifting wind patterns contributing to drought in some areas [and, he might have added, flooding and severe storms elsewhere].

“It’s pretty hard to always attribute severe weather to climate change, but there is no question that some of these events, especially Australia, have a huge climate change layer to them,” Marshall said. “Extreme weather has always happened,” but “when you add a bit of climate change, more energy, more moisture [in the] atmosphere to the mix, then you start to get things we have not seen before.”

For a city like Calgary that went through a “100-year” flood in 2013, Marshall said the frequency could shift to “one in 20, one in 10”.

TagsCities - ImpactsDrive to 1.5Drive to 1.5 Failure Is Not An OptionUS Election 2020 - Global Crisis Local Impacts
Share:
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  Print This Story

Find more stories about
AustraliaCanadaCitiesDrive to 1.5Drought, Famine & WildfiresSevere Storms & FloodingSub-National Governments

    Leave a reply Cancel reply

    Recent Posts

    • EXCLUSIVE: Blaming Campaigners for Rising Premiums Masks Trans Mountain’s Shoddy Safety Record, Ex-Insurance Exec Says
      EXCLUSIVE: Blaming Campaigners for Rising Premiums Masks Trans Mountain’s Shoddy Safety Record, Ex-Insurance Exec Says
      March 12, 2021
    • Time to Invest Now as Governments Devote Just 18% of COVID Spending to Green Recovery
      Time to Invest Now as Governments Devote Just 18% of COVID Spending to Green Recovery
      March 12, 2021
    • Toronto City Council Calls for Ontario Gas Phaseout
      Toronto City Council Calls for Ontario Gas Phaseout
      March 12, 2021
    • Brookfield to Supply Hydro-Generated Electricity for U.S. Green Hydrogen Plant
      Brookfield to Supply Hydro-Generated Electricity for U.S. Green Hydrogen Plant
      March 12, 2021
    • A Decade After Fukushima Nuclear Disaster, Cleanup ‘Has Barely Begun’ [Sign-on]
      A Decade After Fukushima Nuclear Disaster, Cleanup ‘Has Barely Begun’ [Sign-on]
      March 12, 2021

    News Feed

    Top News

    • Republican Senators Delay Haaland Confirmation in Fossil Power Play
      March 11, 2021
    • Alberta Health Whistleblower Dr. John O’Connor Wins Free Expression Award
      March 11, 2021

    Read More

    Carbon-Free Transition

    • Lost Financing Prompts Bangladesh to Cancel Nine Coal Plants
      March 11, 2021
    • Renewables Supply 88% of Portugal’s Electricity in February
      March 11, 2021

    Read More

    Canada

    • Alberta Health Whistleblower Dr. John O’Connor Wins Free Expression Award
      March 11, 2021
    • Calgary Tech Company Expands, Creates 500 Jobs
      March 11, 2021

    Read More

    U.S.

    • Republican Senators Delay Haaland Confirmation in Fossil Power Play
      March 11, 2021
    • Mississippi Regulator Forces Power Company to Shut Unneeded Coal, Gas Plants
      March 11, 2021

    Read More

    International

    • Kerala State, India Installs Solar to Turn 75,000 Homes into ‘Mini-Power Stations’
      March 11, 2021
    • Wind Moves Ahead in France as Gas Demand Lags
      March 11, 2021

    Read More

    • About the Energy Mix
    • Contact
    • Privacy Policy and Copyright
    Copyright 2020 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.