Voice on the Coast Question #3: Environmental issues are important to the younger generations. What are your observations to how climate change is affecting the Coast?

Climate change is the overriding crisis of our time. It is the measurable result of a culture which is no longer in harmony with natural processes. And it is connected to every other crisis we face from species at risk to the rising cost of energy. I have personally observed more extreme weather patterns, more frequent coastal storm surges, fewer wild fish, more problems with bears in the settled areas, increased rates of skin cancer. We know that sea level rise is inevitable and will certainly be keenly felt in our coastal environment. We know that ecosystems will change, that our water resources will be threatened, that our air quality will suffer.

It is clear that business as usual is not an option. While the climate change issue is obviously beyond one local government’s ability to solve, everyone must participate and local governments can and must play a lead role in guiding a way forward. At the SCRD, two Energy and Emissions Reduction Plans have been prepared, one which addresses the internal operations of the SCRD and the other which provides direction at the community level. The Community Energy and Emissions Plan was developed collaboratively between the SCRD and all its member governments and included an extensive public engagement process. Several key areas are targeted in these plans: transportation, buildings, land use patterns, food production, water, and solid waste.

It is just as crucial for us in our semi-rural environment to address climate change issues as it is in urban centres. But the types of actions we have available and their degree of impact will be different. The rural nature of our electoral areas makes transit more difficult and expensive, creates challenges for energy efficient infrastructure, and makes the shift to denser, more walkable communities much slower. But there are some opportunities that are not available in more urbanized areas. We have the opportunity to capitalize on our unique natural environment by ensuring that new developments infill the denser community nodes instead of taking up new undeveloped areas. We can ensure that our forests remain as carbon sinks. We can enhance local food production. We can ensure that our response to sea level rise does not create increased damage to our shoreline ecosystems. We can work together as a region to make the Sunshine Coast a “zero waste community.”

Carbon offsets will be an additional tool that we will need to use if we are to actually achieve the GHG reduction targets we have committed to. But aren’t buying carbon offsets a contemporary form of buying indulgences, a sin and repent scenario? What if we created our own carbon offset program so that the “indulgences” we purchase are used to implement local green projects like planting trees, improving transit, creating new bike lanes, and installation of solar panels? Developing our own local energy systems like geothermal plants, our landfill gas to energy project, or even a small scale run of river project should also be researched and explored.

There are solutions and I believe local governments have a very important leadership role to play.