Shuswap Climate Action Society
supporting community knowledge and solutions
Climate Science, Data & Tools
How Climate Change Creates Conditions for Frigid Polar Vortex Outbreaks
Newser, a digital news service, recently published an article that looked into the link between climate change and severe winter weather known as polar vortex outbreaks.
Judah Cohen, a researcher at MIT, says human-driven warming in the Arctic, particularly shrinking sea ice and changes in snowfall patterns in Siberia, appears to make those stretching episodes more likely, increasing the odds of severe cold outbreaks in North America, Europe, and parts of Asia.
New Climate Science
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) - Sixth Assessment Reports 2021-22
Thousands of researchers from 195 countries across the world contribute to the work of the IPCC. Their sixth and most recent assessment (AR6) is comprised of three working group (WG) reports: WGI - The Physical Science; WGII - Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability; and, WGIII - Mitigation of Climate Change. In particular the WGIII report is not all bad news. It suggests three actions — protecting forests and other ecosystems; restoring those ecosystems; and improving management of working lands, such as farms — are among the top five most effective strategies for cutting carbon pollution. Scaling up solar energy is No. 1 on the list!
Indigenous Information Sources
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This website, Indigenous Climate Action (ICA) provides information on gatherings, resources, and tools that helps to amplify the voices and support Indigenous sovereignty.
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Indigenous Climate Hub is another Indigenous-led project sharing helpful resources and information on climate change, and to provide a space to share resources, information, and impactful climate change stories from Indigenous perspectives in Canada.
General Information Sources
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Stay up to date on climate data with ClimateData.ca, an organization supported by Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), the Computer Research Institute of Montreal (CRIM), Evolving Web, the Pacific Climate Impacts Consortium (PCIC), ClimateWest, the Prairie Climate Centre, ORCCA, Ouranos and CLIMAtlantic.
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SnappyWords.com offers this thorough explanation on how climate change impacts wildfires in How Climate Change Fuels Increasing Wildfire Disasters, including adaption and mitigation measures that reduce impacts and get to the root cause of climate change - primarily the burning of fossil fuels.
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Retooling for Climate Change is a project of the Fraser Basin Council with a focus on social, economic and environmental resilience to climate change in British Columbia. This site has a broad range of resources for everyone, from Indigenous governments and organizations, local municipalities, the public sector, industries and businesses, to individuals.
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The Pacific Climate Impacts Consortium (PCIC) is a regional climate service centre at the University of Victoria, whose website offers climate data, assessment tools, research publications and data interpretation software for groups doing analysis of climate information.
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The Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions (PICS) is a collaborative research effort between UVic, UBC, SFU and UNBC, to provide climate solutions and engagement.
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Project Drawdown's mission is to help the world reach “Drawdown” (the point at which levels of GHGs in the atmosphere stop climbing and start to decline) by providing a solutions-based resource to get us there quickly, safely, and equitably. Their Table of Solutions is an assessment tool of showing the relative affect of how various individual actions (and sectors) can reduce emissions.
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National Geographic offers a prediction tool that demonstrates how climate will affect the way we interact with water, how we grow crops, deal with the rising temperatures, change weather patterns and increase health risks.
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Here is the link to access studies published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
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The federal government provides lots of information and data on climate change in Canada on their website Canadian Centre for Climate Services.
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Need more data? Find it here at the Climate Atlas of Canada website.
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Calculate your carbon footprint using one of the websites listed in this CBC article.
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Connect here with Inspiring Climate Action BC, a project intended to build British Columbia’s capacity to adapt to climate change by providing working professionals with education, training and networking opportunities.
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The Community Research Connections, a consortium of research dedicated to sustainable futures of Canadian communities, provides access to studies and initiatives including MC3-Meeting the Climate Change Challenge.
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The One UN Climate Change Learning Partnership (UN CC:Learn) is a joint initiative of over 30 organizations helping countries achieve climate change action through e-learning.
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The Climate Centre offers an interactive set of materials prepared by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and the Climate Centre, with a specific youth training toolkit.