Quote:
Originally Posted by Reefmagnet
Since that's your answer to: Exactly what havoc are we wreaking?
I'm guessing you've come up with zip, nada, null, zero, nought, nuttin' on that one.
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Some Canadian havoc for you.
A cut and paste of Table 1 to save you the trouble.
Climate System Element Observed Trends
Temperature
Annual air temperature –
Canada
The annual average surface air temperature over the Canadian landmass has warmed by 1.5°C over the period
1950-2010
Temperature Extremes
Hot extremes –
Canada The frequency of warm days (when the daily maximum temperature is above the daily 90th percentile) during the
summer has increased nationally since 1950
Cold extremes – Canada The frequency of cold nights (when the daily minimum temperature is below the daily 10th percentile) during the
winter has decreased nationally since 1950
Precipitation and other hydrological indicators
Annual precipitation – Canada Canada has generally become wetter in recent decades, as indicated by the increasing trend in annual average
precipitation
Snowfall/Rainfall – Southern
Canada
In several regions of southern Canada, there has been a shift in precipitation type, with decreasing snowfall and
increasing rainfall
Streamflow – Canada Observations suggest decreasing trends in maximum and minimum river flows over the period 1970-2005 in much
of southern Canada, with increases in minimum flows in western Nunavut, Northwest Territories, Yukon and northern
British Columbia
Snowfall – Canada Annual snowfall has declined over most of southern Canada and increased in the north over the last 6 decades
Snow cover – Canada Negative trends in snow cover extent have been observed during spring over the Canadian landmass, with largest
declines observed in June
Permafrost
Ground temperature – Canada Permafrost temperatures at numerous borehole sites across Canada have increased over the past two to three decades
Sea Level
Sea level – Global Global average sea level rose about 21 cm between 1880 and 2012 at an average rate of 1.6 mm/year
Relative sea level – Canada Relative sea level rise of over 3 mm/year has been observed on coastlines of Atlantic Canada and the
Beaufort Sea
coast, with lower amounts along Pacific coastlines. Relative sea level fall of 10 mm/year has been observed around
Hudson Bay where the land is rising rapidly due to post-glacial rebound
Sea Ice
Seasonal ice extent – Arctic End-of-summer minimum ice extent has declined at a rate of 13% per decade over 1979-2012, while maximum
winter
sea ice extent has declined at a rate of 2.6% per decade
Ice Type – Arctic A shift in ice cover from one dominated by thick multi-year ice (MYI) to one increasingly dominated by thin first-year
ice (FYI) has been observed
Eastern Canada Declines in winter sea ice extent have been observed in the Labrador-Newfoundland and Gulf of St. Lawrence region
Glaciers
Glacier mass – Yukon, British
Columbia, Alberta
Western Cordilleran glaciers are losing mass and shrinking rapidly to the smallest extents in several millennia.
Glaciers in
British Columbia and Alberta have
lost, respectively, about 11% and 25% of their surface area over the
period 1985-2005, while glaciers in Yukon have
lost about 22% since the 1950s
Glacier mass – High Arctic Significant negative mass balances are evident from the early 1960s into the first decade of the 21st century. The
rate of mass loss for glaciers throughout the High Arctic has increased sharply since 2005, in direct response to warm
regional summer temperatures
Lake and River Ice
Spring ice thaw – Canada Trends towards earlier ice-free dates (lakes) and ice break-up dates (rivers) have been observed for most of the country
since the mid-20th century but are particularly evident in Western Canada
Ocean Climate
Canada’s oceans Long-term changes in ocean temperature (increasing), salinity (variable sign), and acidity (increasing) have been
observed in all three of Canada’s oceans. Long-term decreases in subsurface dissolved oxygen levels have also been
observed in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans off Canada
TABLE 1: Examples of observed changes in Canada (from Chapter 2). The length of the observational
record varies with the indicator.