Let’s Talk Science and the Royal Society of Canada have partnered to provide Globe and Mail readers with relevant coverage about issues that affect us all – from education to the impact of leading-edge scientific discoveries.
Lenore Fahrig, Professor of Biology, Carleton University and Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.
The 26th Conference of the Parties on climate change (COP26) has ended, but climate change has not. In fact, we are now in a climate emergency, as reports of fires, droughts, and killing heat waves are commonplace. Some parts of the world are turning into places where no-one will be able to live. At COP26 the world’s leaders agreed, as supported by science, that our reliance on oil, gas, and coal (fossil fuels) must decline quickly to avoid a climate apocalypse within the lifetimes of about half of all Canadians alive now.
Governments, including ours, understand this problem. Over the past, nearly 30 years the Canadian government has made major commitments to reduce our fossil fuel emissions. But Canada’s actual carbon emissions have not yet declined. The longer we take to reduce our emissions, the more difficult it becomes. In a Catch-22 scenario, the worse the climate gets, the more money will be diverted for responding to climate-caused crises, and the less money will be available to build the infrastructure we need for a fossil-fuel-free world.
On one hand, averting climate apocalypse is simple but will require us to make two significant changes that will have a deep impact. First, we need to produce our electricity without burning fossil fuels, and second we need to retire our fossil fuel-driven engines and furnaces and replace them with electrical equivalents.
On the other hand, while this sounds simple, it represents a major overhaul of almost all of our infrastructure, and it will affect our lifestyle. It is extremely difficult for democratically-elected governments to implement this type of massive overhaul without the support and involvement of industry and the public.
This brings us to the question, what can I do? As individuals, especially as parents who care about the future, how can we help nudge Canada towards a zero-carbon society and give our children hope?
Probably the most important thing we can do is to make the energy transition in our own lives, and then talk about it with both friends and strangers. The first step is to find out how your decisions contribute to your personal carbon emissions (your carbon footprint). Many delegates at the COP26 pointed out that time is short and carbon emissions need to drop fast. This means that to be most effective we should change the big things first. For example, I gave up air travel when I discovered that it was the biggest piece of my personal carbon footprint. Another high-impact shift is to ditch our gas-burning cars. But an equal or greater source of carbon pollution for most Canadians is the gas or oil we burn in our homes.
Despite copious misinformation to the contrary, it is perfectly feasible and not hugely expensive to move your home off gas. We recently switched our gas furnace for an air-source electric heat pump. At the same time, we switched out our gas water heater for a heat pump water heater and our gas stove to an induction stove. We now have no gas at all coming into our home, and the increase in our electric bill is less than what we used to pay for gas. More importantly, we reduced the carbon emissions of our home by more than 90%. You can read more about our experience with the electric heat pump.
If you decide to do this yourself, you will soon find there are a lot of people ready to tell you it is not feasible to get your home off gas. These include people whose advice you would normally want to trust, like energy auditors, installers, and utilities representatives. But there is also a lot of good information coming from knowledgeable individuals. This webinar is a great example from Mike Kurz in Toronto. Mike explains in detail why and how to wean your home off gas. He also points out several myths that you will encounter along the way.
In a democracy, governments rely on public support to avert crises. By the same token, industry responds to consumer demand to ensure its success. The Covid-19 crisis would have been much worse without the overwhelming support of the Canadian public for lockdowns and vaccinations. The Canadian public needs to similarly step up to support and encourage the implementation of the major infrastructure overhaul needed to avert the worst of the climate crisis. One of the best ways we can show this support is to make those changes in our own lives and share the information we gain with others.