Western Canada British Columbia Heavy rains have caused disasters for days. Deputy Governor Mike Farnworth recently declared a state of emergency in the province, temporarily restricting refueling and non-essential travel to ease supply chain disruptions and support post-disaster recovery. The federal government urgently dispatched thousands of air force troops to assist in material airdrops, disaster area monitoring and air evacuation.
What is the reason why this always livable North American country has fallen into the "doomsday crisis" of flooding? Climate change may not be the only explanation.
Floods in British Columbia have left four people missing so far. Rescue workers are trying to help nearly 18,000 people escape. The military has sent hundreds of soldiers and military aircraft to assist in evacuation and transport equipment. After the disaster, local people went to supermarkets to grab supplies. Faced with the relentless attack of natural disasters, the provincial government admitted that it was surprised by the scale, scope and duration of this extreme rainfall. Governor John Horgan said: "The current flood disaster is an extreme climate phenomenon that occurs once in 500 years. This has exceeded our past predictions and response capabilities."
一
From "Livable Paradise" to "Noah's Doomsday": " "Atmospheric rivers" are abnormal, and "composite effects" appear
This flood is mainly due to the "Atmospheric Rivers" with strong and abnormal retention of water vapor. River) invasion, evaporated water vapor from the tropical waters of the Pacific Ocean travels to the west coast of North America in autumn and winter every year.
Although the atmospheric river phenomenon has often caused heavy rains and floods in California, the United States, in coastal areas such as British Columbia, Canada, this situation is generally much milder and usually only brings light rainfall. Canadian media pointed out that this year's abnormal conditions are likely to bring about the most costly single climate disaster "since the founding of Canada".
Since November 14, British Columbia has experienced abnormal rainfall for four consecutive days. Many local places reached the total rainfall for the entire month within 72 hours. In addition, this summer's record-breaking wildfires destroyed forest vegetation and caused flash floods in various places. Outbreaks, rivers bursting their banks. In addition, railway and highway transportation were also paralyzed due to the disaster. The floods caused many disasters and destroyed large areas of the province's farming and livestock industries.
Unfortunately, before the arrival of this atmospheric river, the West Coast of Canada has already experienced a winter rainy season that is wetter than usual for several consecutive weeks. Heavy snow has fallen in many places, especially in mountainous areas. The continuous heavy rain caused the snow to melt rapidly and intensified the flooding, causing widespread flooding, mudslides, etc., and paralyzing traffic.
The floods also disrupted railway transportation in the province, preventing import and export goods from being transported to the terminals, paralyzing logistics on the West Coast. As the largest port in Canada and the third largest port on the West Coast of North America, after the Port of Los Angeles and Long Beach Port in California, the current global supply chain is in chaos and the Christmas peak season is approaching. It may severely impact the already critical situation. The North American supply chain poses greater logistics pressure.
In addition, some towns in Canada have experienced fuel shortages, and authorities are studying importing fuel from neighboring Alberta and even the United States. The provincial government says it could take months to fully reopen many infrastructure projects, including the busiest highways.
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The loss of the "handsome logging man": "Clear-cutting" aggravates flooding...
In addition to climate change, there may be other important factors that caused the serious damage of this disaster. Some experts point out that although logging is needed to limit the threat of wildfires in Canada, the clearcutting operation of local forestry, which involves clearing most or all of the trees in an entire area, may have exacerbated severe flooding.
Peter Wood, a local scholar who studies clear-cutting, said: "We know what happens when you log on steep slopes. When you reach a critical point, the forest can no longer exert its buffering ability to control water flow." Clear-cutting is seen as causing serious damage to local areas. Intermittent landslides and rising water levels were the main cause, forcing more residents to flee their homes.Many areas were flooded and the main road system was almost cut off.
In fact, many experts have warned in the past that deforestation will affect slope stability, the speed at which water is absorbed into the ground, and the ability of the root system to hold soil. Without the protection of trees, heavy rains can wash large amounts of sediment into nearby water systems, blocking streams and rivers and causing rapid flooding. Expert Peter Wood said: "In the past few days, I have been looking at particularly hard-hit areas, which happen to coincide very well with the areas where deforestation is the most severe, and logging does cause flooding." The province of Poetry has experienced many serious wildfires in recent years, and some of the areas destroyed by wildfires have also been hit hard by this disaster. Canadian ranger Thomas Martin said: "There is a very significant connection between the occurrence of forest fires and the risk of landslides or mudslides. Fires will make the soil hydrophobic, so runoff will become more." He pointed out that forest ecology Experts have been recommending controlled burning and selective logging to allow larger trees to thrive and improve protection from wildfires, but the community has never paid attention to it.
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Is infrastructure becoming obsolete due to climate change?
In the face of this rare disaster, which is "once in 500 years", some experts pointed out that the flood destroyed important infrastructure facilities and believed that a nationwide risk assessment should be conducted to prepare for extreme weather caused by climate change in the future. Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said the climate crisis is here and the country will have to adapt to this reality. "Climate change mitigation, and its adaptation, must be a top priority in our decision-making at all levels."
British Columbia Premier John Horgan pointed out that infrastructure design must be rethought to prepare for future climate disasters.
He said that in the short term, the focus will be on protecting citizens at risk, helping those affected, and restoring traffic. "But in the medium term, we will have to think about how to rebuild infrastructure smarter and make it more adaptable," he stressed. Local experts said that in the future, developing standard practices for climate risk assessment across the country should be a priority. The reason is that existing infrastructure is based on past climate data, which may no longer be applicable today with frequent extreme weather.
Ryan Ness, research director of the Canadian Institute for Climate Choices, said: "Infrastructure continues to be built in this way, and once it is built, it will become obsolete in many aspects, but it will be used for decades or even a century." An earlier report found that warming could cost Canada's infrastructure billions of dollars in additional damage, growing as the climate crisis escalates. By the end of this century, flood losses could reach $13.6 billion per year, with road and rail losses reaching $12.8 billion per year. The report also noted that preventive adaptation measures could reduce these losses by up to 90 percent.
The report concluded that Canada’s lack of climate risk information led to poor decision-making. For example, existing flood maps are on average 20 years old, with little consideration of how climate change may affect flood risk. The report estimates that at least 500,000 buildings across the country are at risk of flooding and cannot be identified through existing government flood maps. Similar situations also appear in information on climate risks such as wildfires.
Darren Swanson, senior associate at the International Institute for Sustainable Development, said the current disaster in B.C. highlights the importance of extensive risk assessment as a precursor to building resilient infrastructure, because without knowing what the risks are, it is impossible to do an adequate job Prepare.
After this desperate flood, the Canadian authorities want to make the country a livable country. It seems that there is still a lot of room for improvement in terms of forestry and climate risk information.
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