The Climate Lens

This summer, Calgary City Council has taken a few degrees of heat from climate concerned Calgarians for their recent effort to sprawl our city outwards yet again, this time to the tune of somewhere between five and eight new communities on the very far edges of town. To hear some city councillors, developers and industry leaders talk, this is the only way we can accommodate growth for our city. But is it? What would it look like if Calgary were to view city growth and indeed every facet of governance through a climate lens as the moment irrefutably demands of us?Joining us today is Natalie Robertson, long time hub friend and our go to urban resilience planner and researcher with expertise and in-depth knowledge of intersections within municipalities in the face of extreme weather events. Her work includes mitigation and adaptation, with a focus on system wide elements, undermining and supporting sustainability and resilience. Also with us today is Dr. Godo Stoyke, an award-winning environmental researcher and presenter, bestselling author of Climate Change Solutions, and not to mention the chair of the Edmonton Climate Hub, who's currently working right now on net zero builds in Edmonton. Support us on Patreon!

This summer, a full one third of the entire country of Pakistan is under water after experiencing rainfall at 780% of what's normal, 4.6 million people are affected, 300,000 have been rendered homeless, over a thousand are dead, 90% of crops in one of their biggest province have been ravaged and 80% of Pakistan's livestock have been killed. Flooding is one of many ongoing extreme climate enhanced weather disasters impacting entire swaths of countries across the planet right now.It was just under a year ago that was British Columbia's turn to be underwater, crippling for a time. Our prime port in Vancouver leaving our critical western Canadian supply chain infrastructure our lifeline in rubble. When all is said and done, it may well be the most expensive disaster in Canada's history. Of course, it wasn't all that long ago that the previous record was held right here in Calgary when it was our turn to be underwater in 2013.Many things have changed since then in the city, but at the same time many things haven't changed. Calgary has declared a climate emergency. We know for a fact we headed for more and bigger extreme weather events than we've ever experienced in our lifetimes, which most certainly includes more flooding. We know that we live on a flood plain. We know that in addition to being one of nature's most efficient carbon capture systems, wetlands also act like great big sponges that can soak up floodwaters as well as releasing them in times of drought making wetlands among the best climate fighters we've got.According to the City of Calgary website, around 90% of the pre settlement wetlands in Calgary have been lost development. In spite of all this. City Council voted 10 to 5 to allow developers to sprawl once again, encroaching a river valley and endangering some of the very few wetlands that remain to us. One area under increasing scrutiny in this regard is known as Ricardo Ranch.To help break this all down, we reached out to Alberta Wilderness Association board member Nathaniel Schmidt, former City of Calgary Parks Urban Conservation Lead Chris Manderson and former City Council staffer, campaigner and owner-operator of Calgary’s one-of-a-kind Good News Coffee in Inglewood, Jordan Stein.Support us on Patreon!

July 5th, 2022 was a big day for Calgary as our City Council voted in its climate strategy. Recent polling reveals Calgarians not only think we can prosper from the energy transition but that we should lead on it. This vote happened under the cloud of a vote from just the previous week to expedite yet more costly and climate-endangering sprawl in our city as well as a coordinated disinformation campaign about the cost of the strategy. We brought together a host of climate concerned Calgarians to share their impression of that day and what is coming next.Support us on Patreon!

Calgary Climate Hub is excited to announce our new show The Climate Lens, where host Bentley & guests break down the top stories of our time as they happen from a climate perspective & connect them back to local level climate action right here in Calgary.The Climate Lens comes at you via Podcast, Webcast, Twitter Spaces, Youtube & you-name-it, telling the climate stories that need telling. Tune in during council votes or when the next extreme weather event rolls through & get smart analysis from local experts on all-things-climate.Climate folk don't have the luxury of ignoring big picture systemic issues but we also know that community/municipal climate action is our best shot to see real change happen before our eyes. We need to do both. The Climate Lens (#TCL) bridges that gap.Support us on Patreon!