Hello Friends,

This is the month of February. A time when the world in Canada seems to come to a standstill. Outside the comforts of your home, the snow falls and wind howls. In an entrancing dance, the snow and wind cause terrible blizzards. In such a climate, one often finds it difficult to believe in climate change. After all, how could the earth be getting warmer, if it is minus twenty degrees Celsius temperature and 2 feet of snow have fell during the day? People, usually don?t realize the full magnitude of a problem until they, themselves, are affected by it. Aside from the frigid winter, our summers have been typically cool around 15 degrees Celsius. In recent years however, temperatures have risen to over 30 degrees for prolonged periods. Our winter snowfall was delayed by a month. In such a climate, who would not welcome warmer temperatures and less snow? Hence, we encounter a serious problem despite possessing the knowledge of global warming, people may not sense how it directly affects them.

However, the north is very directly affected by climate change. Our people are affected by climate change. In Canada, like the rest of the world, climate change poses a major threat. In this series of articles for this month we will explore the threats that climate change poses to Canada, and evaluate how exactly it affects people. These impacts can be positive, negative, long term or short term. Regardless, of that they do exist and will change life as we know it.

This month, we put together all the things we have talked about in the last 6 months and tie it together to see out it affects us our culture, our identity, our life. So, here?s a little preview of what we are going to talk about this month:

         Acidification of arctic waters

         Polar ice caps melting and its impacts on wildlife

        Melting of the ice around the NorthWest Passage

Finally, after exploring all these issues we will look at how they affect us, our society, and our civilization in the last article for this term. Ultimately, humans are linked in the chain of nature. The more we disrupt this chain, the more we will suffer. So, let?s unite to fix this chain and restore to its former beauty and magnificence. Environmental health is linked to human health. That?s why we must change our habits and become greener.

Regards,

Nitish Bhatt