climate change

Impacts of summer wildfires

Businesses in Valemount, BC, stepped up to help thousands of Jasper evacuees, but now find themselves struggling. (photo from Spencer Hall)

A member of the miniscule Jewish community in Valemount, a town in east-central British Columbia, reflected on the challenges of the past year and looked ahead with hope to 2025.

Spencer Hall is publisher and editor of the Rocky Mountain Goat newspaper, which serves Valemount, McBride and the Robson and North Thompson Valleys. When wildfires rampaged across the Alberta resort town of Jasper, about 90 minutes up the highway from Valemount, Hall’s newspaper was on the frontlines reporting as thousands of evacuees – residents and tourists – flowed in from the east.

On July 22, two wildfires exploded in the area around Jasper and fire officials and national park administrators evacuated the community in advance of the expanding inferno. The fire would tragically sweep away one-third of Jasper’s structures and kill one firefighter, 24-year-old Morgan Kitchen of Calgary.

A welcome centre was created in Valemount, the closest significant town to Jasper’s west. With just 1,000 full-time residents, Valemount was overwhelmed by the thousands of Jasper evacuees, but Valemountians came together to do all they could for their next-province neighbours.

“I was getting ready to get the paper out to press on a Monday night,” Hall recalled. “I just finished the layout for the evening and was about to go to bed, and then we hear that all the residents and the tourists that were in Jasper – and it was the summer, so there were many of them – were coming to Valemount. I threw on my clothes and went to the community centre. The mayor was standing in the rain directing traffic for hours in the parking lot of the community hall.”

photo - Spencer Hall, left, seated, helps register Jasper evacuees who came to Valemount — Spencer Hall, left, seated, helps register Jasper evacuees who came to Valemount. *(photo from Spencer Hall)*

Townsfolk quickly responded to the newcomers, who were suffering physically and emotionally.

“To see all of us come together, that was nice, but obviously it was very devastating, as the fire raged on and decimated 30% of the town [of Jasper],” said Hall. “You’d have people crying on the side of the street, understandably, because they just lost their house or their pets. It was a very dramatic week.”

The economy of Valemount and the surrounding areas – the tourist draw of Mount Robson is just up the road – depends greatly on tourism. Valemount attracts snowmobilers in winter and counts on drivers heading to and from Jasper for restaurant and hotel business year-round. The devastation in Jasper has had repercussions on both sides of the BC-Alberta boundary.

“Even though this fire wasn’t in our province, it did impact British Columbians, especially in Valemount,” Hall said. “We are seeing a lot less tourism.… There are business owners that are really struggling. Our restaurants have been impacted. We have one grocery store and they are feeling the impact as well.”

And the newspaper isn’t immune.

“The Goat has definitely been impacted because as revenues go down, the first thing people slash is their ad budget,” said Hall. “So we’ve been seeing less ads months later.”

The tourism downturn came at a particularly bad moment, as last winter saw lower-than-average snowfall, reducing the winter vacation crowds. Local businesses had hoped for a good summer to make up for the shortfall, but the July fires gutted that hope.

It is early yet in the winter sports season, but snowfall so far is promising.

“We’ve had a few people come out for snowmobiling,” Hall said. “I know that we have more snow than we had last year, so that’s good.”

Consultants are helping local businesses and the tourism authority is working to strengthen the sector. Hall said interprovincial jurisdictional issues, as well as a provincial election in British Columbia, may have slowed economic responses for the region, but the federal government seems to be particularly slow in responding.

photo - New Life Church in Valemount, BC, took in many evacuees and kept them fed — New Life Church in Valemount, BC, took in many evacuees and kept them fed. *(photo from Spencer Hall)*

The dramatic year was a trial by fire for the newspaper’s new owner, who took over the media outlet only in January. (See jewishindependent.ca/new-face-in-bc-media.)

“It was a lot,” said Hall. “I come from a radio background, where you’re able to communicate very, very quickly.”

The Goat, which is a weekly newspaper, effectively became a daily news platform during the fires. In addition to a new website, the Goat is developing a breaking news feature to respond immediately to any future events like last summer’s.

Another Jewish community member, Vancouver doctor Larry Barzelai, worries that the fires Jasper saw will be an increasingly common occurrence.

Barzelai, who is BC chair of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE), said that almost every year brings a climate-related catastrophe.

“This year with Jasper, last year was West Kelowna, two years before that was Lytton that burned to the ground,” Barzelai said. “There is a pattern here. It’s not getting any better and I don’t think it will.”

CAPE has been trying to shift the dialogue, said Barzelai, but things won’t change until people change their patterns and lifestyles, massively reducing the use of fossil fuels.

“Until we get a handle on that, things are not going to improve,” said Barzelai. “I’d like to have something more optimistic to say, but it’s tough finding optimism when you see what’s going on in the world.”

A United Nations study issued recently reported that three-quarters of the earth’s surface is permanently drier than it has ever been.

“It’s just another piece of evidence that we are going in the wrong direction. The world is heating up and we’re letting it get hotter and hotter,” Barzelai said.

Eby talks about record, plans

BC Premier David Eby says election is “about the values of who we are as a province and how we move forward on the big issues of our time.” (photo from news.gov.bc.ca)

David Eby, the incumbent BC premier and leader of the New Democratic party, assured Jewish voters that, if reelected Oct. 19, his government would have their backs.

Speaking with the Jewish Independent, Eby said the loss of Selina Robinson as a cabinet minister and then as a New Democrat caucus member earlier this year was a blow, but that his government is committed to the issues that are important to Jewish British Columbians.

“It was really tough for our caucus and for our government to lose Selina,” Eby said. “She was a major contributor to our team. It’s hard to really quantify that kind of emotional feeling that a lot of people on our team have around the loss, of not having her being part of our team going forward. But it hasn’t slowed down our work and our commitment to the overall Jewish community and our efforts to fill the role that she did as a critical bridge between our caucus and the broader Jewish community.”

Eby and his party have been working with community agencies to fight antisemitism and to increase security for Jewish institutions, he said.

“We’ve been working closely with a number of Jewish organizations to identify ways that we can provide support in this incredibly challenging time where we see this rise in antisemitism and some really disturbing behaviour targeting Jews, everything from the horrific arson attack [against Schara Tzedeck Synagogue] to slurs that people are enduring in the street,” he said. “From increasing support for security for synagogues and Jewish community centres, mandatory Holocaust education deployment, making sure that that is a reality in our schools in the province, we’re working on that together.”

He also cited British Columbia as “having the strictest standards around hate crimes” and promised that prosecutors will ensure that hate crime cases make it to court.

“We’re going to continue to do that work,” he said.

Speaking just days before the official start of the campaign period, Eby predicted that affordability, particularly around housing, will emerge as a top concern for voters.

“The availability of housing in the province, regardless of where, is a huge issue for so many people,” said Eby. “It’s a drag on our economy that we’re not providing adequate housing for people.”

Young people who cannot afford to own a home are questioning whether they have a future in the province, he said.

“I really think that housing will be, if not the issue, certainly one of the main issues, because there’s a fairly bright line between ourselves and the BC Conservatives on this issue,” Eby said. “They [the Conservative party] appear to think that people are best left to the market when it comes to housing, that government does not have a role to play in initiatives like using public lands to build more attainable housing or restricting the excesses of platforms like Airbnb or people buying vacant homes as an investment.”

Eby pointed to a recent report that said rental costs have increased across Canada by 5% while in British Columbia they have fallen by 5%.

“We are finally starting to see rents come down across the province,” he said. “The most recent report shows that we’re on the right track and we can’t stop now.”

Eby cited climate change as a topic where his party and the Conservatives have diametrical opinions.

Last week, Eby announced that his party is now committed to eliminating the consumer carbon tax, a sudden reversal of an environmental policy that was first implemented by the BC Liberal government in 2008. While the NDP have altered course, putting them on the same side as the Conservatives on the future of the tax, Eby positions the shift as an affordability issue in a time of economic pressures for consumers and went on the offensive against what he characterizes as the BC Conservative leader John Rustad’s climate change denial.

“John Rustad has taken the very bizarre position that climate change is not real,” Eby said. “It is bizarre, but it’s also dangerous for British Columbians. Will a premier who doesn’t believe that climate change is real protect your community from floods or forest fires, make the necessary investments around infrastructure for protecting communities right across the province?”

Other issues likely to take centre stage in the campaign are the related topics of mental health, addiction and homelessness.

“A lot of people want to see the folks that they see suffering on the sidewalks in our communities get the care they need,” Eby said. “And they are also feeling anxious when people with mental health, brain injury, chronic addiction are banging on the hood of their car, or engaging in petty theft or, in some cases, quite dramatic and awful violent incidents.”

The upheaval among the opposition parties – with the folding of the BC United campaign and the unification of right and centre-right candidates under the Conservative banner – in some ways did not come as a surprise to Eby, he said.

“We were expecting a unified right-wing vote,” he said. “The surprise for me was really that the unification came around the far-right side of the political spectrum and not the centre-right side that the BCU [BC United party] represented.”

Eby said he has been reaching out to former BC United supporters who he said “feel quite abandoned.”

“I know these are people who don’t see themselves in a party where the leader is a climate change denier and who supported anti-vaccine convoys as they were rolling up their sleeves to get vaccinated,” he said. “I know those aren’t the values of British Columbians.”

He said former BC United supporters are sending emails, letters and donations, telling Eby, “I never thought I’d vote NDP but this time I will.”

Eby is asking those who do not feel comfortable in the BC Conservatives “to lend us their votes this election.”

The concept of “lending” a vote was employed by the late federal NDP leader Jack Layton in the 2011 Canadian election when that party made unprecedented breakthroughs, winning more than 100 seats and forming the official opposition for the first and only time. Asked if that was a deliberate echo of his former federal leader, Eby suggested this moment in BC politics is unique.

“I’m not asking for a commitment of lifelong fealty from these voters,” Eby said. “I want to prove myself as committed to British Columbians and their priorities and doing our best to address the big challenges. This election, in my opinion, has become less and less about partisan politics and more about the values of who we are as a province and how we move forward on the big issues of our time, whether we do it together and united as a province that welcomes everybody and ensures that we’re stronger together or whether we start to divide ourselves along culture war lines and use internet conspiracy theories as a compass for deciding how we address certain issues.”

Greens seek breakthrough

BC Green Party leader Sonia Furstenau wants to “make sure we have a province that is centred around well-being, that is centred around everybody’s basic needs being met and is centred around creating communities where everybody can thrive.” (photo from facebook.com/SoniaBCGreens)

Sonia Furstenau is hearing from Jewish voters that they feel abandoned. The BC Green Party leader wants to rebuild trust between the Jewish community and the province’s elected officials, she said.

“Trust comes from relationships, it comes from understanding and it comes from people really being reliable,” Furstenau told the Jewish Independent. “I think we have shown that we are committed to approaching the work we do from a place of building relationships.”

The Green leader, who hopes to exponentially expand her two-member caucus in the legislature in the Oct. 19 election, reflected on what she has heard from Jewish British Columbians recently.

“I’ve had many conversations in the past month with members of the Jewish community who have expressed to me … that people feel abandoned, that people are concerned about growing incidences of antisemitism,” she said. “It’s a recognition of the need to continue conversations and stay connected.

“But, at a provincial policy level, it’s education, education, education,” Furstenau said. “I know that the premier has made a commitment to [mandatory] Holocaust education and I think that is important and necessary. I want to expand that. We need every student in BC to graduate with a very firm and reliable fact-based understanding of 20th-century history. We need people to be able to withstand the disinformation that is now becoming so dominant in discourse, political and otherwise.”

To address the challenges, Furstenau said students need to be equipped against disinformation so that they can navigate the contemporary world with a solid grounding in history and what it means to be an engaged citizen in a democracy. That means understanding the Holocaust in the context of the 20th century, she said, but also in the context of the antisemitism that has existed for centuries.

“The key piece is that we are building an informed and inclusive community here in BC that does not tolerate hatred or discrimination or racism of any kind,” she said.

As much as she wants voters to consider policies or issues, Furstenau is urging British Columbians to think first and foremost about representation.

“When we go into the ballot box, we’re not voting for a party or a premier,” she said. “We’re voting for the person who is going to be our voice in the legislature.”

She is asking people to take seriously “the question of who is going to be the best representative for me in my community,” she said.

“We have a first-past-the-post system,” she said. “We elect, in this case, 93 representatives to the legislature and, in the best-case scenario, we have a diversity of voices and viewpoints and ideas and we have a legislature where people can find the capacity to work together and across party lines.”

In addition to a number of independent candidates, likely including a few incumbents made politically homeless by the suspension of the BC United party’s campaign, Furstenau hopes voters will consider Green candidates and elect enough members who do not belong to either of the two largest parties to result in a minority government.

“What I think would be an ideal outcome in this election is [a scenario where] no single party has all of the power,” she said, “that we have a legislature with a diversity of voices and representation and we are seeding the conditions where we’re working collaboratively, finding common ground and focusing on solutions for people.”

Furstenau is knocking on doors and the issue she hears about most from voters are affordable housing, cost-of-living, access to reliable health care and climate change.

“When people talk about housing, of course they talk about the fact that we have a growing homelessness crisis in this province,” she said. “The vast majority of people that I talk to about this want to see solutions so that we don’t have people who are living without homes in our communities. That’s a really key piece and some of the politicization and rhetoric that we are already hearing in this election misses the mark, as far as I’m concerned. We can solve this. We can make sure that nobody in our community is living without housing, and we should. For us, the key thing is that British Columbia could be the best place on earth to live. It’s a beautiful place, it’s full of extraordinary people, it’s got an enormous amount of richness and diversity and what we want … is to ensure that everybody here has the best chance to have a good life in British Columbia.”

The coalescence of right and centre-right candidates is not a positive development for democracy, in Furstenau’s view.

“I don’t think that having fewer choices on the ballot is a good thing,” she said. “I think, in a democracy, more choice is better. I think this was an unfortunate loss for the people of BC and I think that suggesting that we should have concentration of political parties and fewer political parties is the wrong direction. We just have to look south of the border to see where that leads us. I was disappointed by the decision that Kevin Falcon and a small number of people apparently made to fold an entire political party. That’s not the kind of leadership that we need right now and it’s not an approach to democracy that we need right now.”

Barring unforeseen developments, there are three main parties to choose from, and Furstenau hopes for a Green electoral breakthrough.

“We are determined to elect the biggest Green caucus in history,” she said. “We have six or seven key ridings where we see that possibility.” In addition to her own riding of Cowichan Valley, she cites other Vancouver Island ridings as possible pickups, including Saanich, Courtenay-Comox, Esquimault and Victoria-Beacon Hill, as well as West Vancouver-Sea to Sky, which the party narrowly lost last election, and opportunities in the Kootenays.

“We’ve built our platform around the idea of well-being, that when we have a society that is rooted in the well-being of its citizens, of its communities and its natural world, we get to a place where we don’t have the kind of conditions to create more hatred and more discrimination,” Furstenau said. “We know that political parties will scapegoat groups of people, including Jewish people. We know that, when people don’t feel safe and secure, we get into political discourse that is dangerous and so our response to that is let’s make sure we have a province that is centred around well-being, that is centred around everybody’s basic needs being met and is centred around creating communities where everybody can thrive and we have to be focused on that and that’s what we are doing.”

Tracking earth’s winds

A band of clouds above the equator, created by the rise of air within the Hadley cell and responsible for heavy rainfall in this region. (photo from Weizmann Institute)

Why do parts of earth become rainforests, whereas others turn into deserts? A new study exposes the far-reaching impact of human activity on a global airflow phenomenon that crucially affects earth’s regional climates.

In the tropics, above the equatorial rainforests and oceans, the strong solar radiation hitting earth propels a stream of warm, moist air far upward. Once reaching the upper atmosphere, this stream moves in both hemispheres toward the poles; it then descends in the subtropical regions at around 20 to 30 degrees latitude, contributing to the creation of massive deserts like the Sahara in northern Africa. From there, the stream – known as the Hadley cell – returns to the equator, where it heats up and rises again, embarking on its circular journey anew.

The two Hadley cells – the northern and the southern – circulate most of the heat and humidity across low latitudes, greatly affecting the global distribution of climate regions. When the warm, moist air rises, it cools down, allowing water vapour to condense, which leads to heavy rainfall deep in the tropics. In contrast, the streams of air that descend toward the earth in subtropical regions are accompanied by warm, dry winds that reduce rainfall. In essence, the Hadley cells determine which regions in the tropics and the subtropics will have arid deserts and which will be blessed with abundant rainfall. Israel is located on the margins of the northern Hadley cell, which contributes to the country’s semiarid climate.

Because of their huge significance, the Hadley cells are of great interest to climate scientists. However, while there is plenty of global data about rainfall and temperature, measuring airflow throughout the atmosphere is next to impossible. Adding to the quandary, the various models seeking to make sense of the Hadley cells have been found to contradict one another. Global climate models, which are used for climate projections, indicate that the northern Hadley cell has weakened over the past few decades, whereas observation-based analyses suggest the exact opposite.

An uncertainty over a system that is so essential to earth’s climate detracts from the researchers’ ability to assess how much humans have contributed to recent climate change. This, in turn, undermines the credibility of climate projections, making it ever harder to formulate policies required for dealing with the climate crisis. The latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the most important document in the field, makes a special point of this issue.

In a paper published in Nature, Dr. Rei Chemke, of the earth and planetary sciences department at the Weizmann Institute of Science, and Dr. Janni Yuval, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, address the uncertainty that has plagued the existing models for the past two decades. They propose an observation-based method for measuring the intensity of airflow in the Hadley cells.

To tackle the challenge, Chemke and Yuval looked for readily available data they could use to formulate a new way of measuring the cells’ intensity. After examining physics equations describing airflow, they identified a relationship between the Hadley cell intensity and a constantly monitored parameter: air pressure at sea level. They then examined observational data collected over several decades and reached the conclusion that the intensity of the northern Hadley cell has indeed been weakening – just as suggested by global climate models. Moreover, they were able to show, with more than 99% certainty, that this weakening has been the result of human activity and will likely continue.

What, then, is to be expected? Over the coming decades, the weakening of the northern Hadley cell is likely to mitigate the projected precipitation changes at low latitudes. It will act to temper both the increase of rainfall in equatorial regions and the reduction of rainfall in the subtropical regions. This tempering, however, might only reduce, but not overcome, the projected aridification and desertification of Israel.

“In our follow-up study,” said Chemke, “we will examine whether a similar weakening in the Hadley cell has happened in the past thousand years owing to natural phenomena – and that will allow us to assess how unprecedented these human-induced changes are.”

– Courtesy Weizmann Institute

Look on bright sides of earth

The southern and northern hemispheres look equally bright in this iconic image of earth, titled “The Blue Marble,” which the crew of the Apollo 17 spacecraft took on Dec. 7, 1972. (photo from NASA)

Why do earth’s hemispheres look equally bright when viewed from space? Weizmann Institute scientists offer an answer to this decades-old question.

When looking at the earth from space, its hemispheres – northern and southern – appear equally bright. This is unexpected because the southern hemisphere is mostly covered with dark oceans, whereas the northern hemisphere has a vast land area that is much brighter than these oceans. For years, the brightness symmetry between hemispheres remained a mystery. In a new study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), Weizmann Institute of Science researchers and their collaborators reveal a strong correlation between storm intensity, cloudiness and the solar energy reflection rate in each hemisphere. They offer a solution to the mystery, alongside an assessment of how climate change might alter the reflection rate in the future.

As early as the 1970s, when scientists analyzed data from the first meteorological satellites, they were surprised to find out that the two hemispheres reflect the same amount of solar radiation. Reflectivity of solar radiation is known in scientific lingo as “albedo.” To better comprehend what albedo is, think about driving at night: it is easy to spot the intermittent white lines, which reflect light from the car’s headlights well, but difficult to discern the dark asphalt. The same is true when observing earth from space: the ratio of the solar energy hitting the earth to the energy reflected by each region is determined by various factors. One of them is the ratio of dark oceans to bright land, which differ in reflectivity, just like asphalt and intermittent white lines. The land area of the northern hemisphere is about twice as large as that of the southern and, indeed, when measuring near the surface of the earth, when the skies are clear, there is more than a 10% difference in albedo. Still, both hemispheres appear to be equally bright from space.

In this study, the team of researchers, led by Prof. Yohai Kaspi and Or Hadas of Weizmann’s earth and planetary sciences department, focused on another factor influencing albedo, one located in high altitudes and reflecting solar radiation – clouds. The team analyzed data derived from the world’s most advanced databases, including cloud data collected via NASA satellites (CERES), as well as data from ERA5, which is a global weather database containing information collected using a variety of sources in the air and on the ground, dating back to 1950. ERA5 data was used to complete cloud data and to cross-correlate 50 years of this data with information on the intensity of cyclones and anticyclones.

photo - Prof. Yohai Kaspi, left, and Or Hadas of the Weizmann Institute of Science — Prof. Yohai Kaspi, left, and Or Hadas of the Weizmann Institute of Science. (photo from Weizmann Institute)

Next, the scientists classified storms of the last 50 years into three categories, according to intensity. They discovered a direct link between storm intensity and the number of clouds forming around the storm. While northern hemisphere and land areas in general are characterized by weaker storms, above oceans in the southern hemisphere, moderate and strong storms prevail. Data analysis showed that the link between storm intensity and cloudiness accounts for the difference in cloudiness between the hemispheres.

“Cloud albedo arising from strong storms above the southern hemisphere was found to be a high-precision offsetting agent to the large land area in the northern hemisphere, and thus symmetry is preserved,” said Hadas, adding: “This suggests that storms are the linking factor between the brightness of earth’s surface and that of clouds, solving the symmetry mystery.”

Will climate change have an impact?

Earth has been undergoing rapid change in recent years, owing to climate change. To examine whether and how this could affect hemispheric albedo symmetry, the scientists used CMIP6, a set of models run by climate modeling centres around the world to simulate climate change. One of these models’ major shortcomings is their limited ability to predict the degree of cloudiness. Nevertheless, the relation found in this study between storm intensity and cloudiness enables scientists to assess future cloud amounts, based on storm predictions.

Models predict global warming will result in a decreased frequency of all storms above the northern hemisphere and of weak and moderate storms above the southern hemisphere. However, the strongest storms of the southern hemisphere will intensify. The cause of these predicted differences is “Arctic amplification,” a phenomenon in which the North Pole warms twice as fast as earth’s mean warming rate. One might speculate that this difference should break hemispheric albedo symmetry. However, the research shows that a further increase in storm intensity might not change the degree of cloudiness in the southern hemisphere because cloud amounts reach saturation in very strong storms. Thus, symmetry might be preserved.

“It is not yet possible to determine with certainty whether the symmetry will break in the face of global warming,” said Kaspi. “However, the new research solves a basic scientific question and deepens our understanding of earth’s radiation balance and its effectors. As global warming continues, geoengineered solutions will become vital for human life to carry on alongside it. I hope that a better understanding of basic climate phenomena, such as the hemispheric albedo symmetry, will help in developing these solutions.”

Other collaborators in conducting this study include Dr. George Datseris and Prof. Bjorn Stevens of Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, Germany; Dr. Joaquin Blanco and Prof. Rodrigo Caballero of Stockholm University, Sweden; and Dr. Sandrine Bony of Sorbonne University, France. Kaspi is head of the Helen Kimmel Centre for Planetary Science; his research is supported by the Yotam Project and Rene Braginsky.

– Courtesy Weizmann Institute

BGU moving to solar

(photo from BGU)

Ben-Gurion University of the Negev will soon produce 20% of its energy needs on the Marcus Family Campus from solar energy. Recently, solar panels were installed on the roofs of three buildings on campus in the first stage of the initiative.

The project is estimated to cost NIS 2 million (approximately $736,000 Cdn). Once completed, it will replace more polluting fuels that are typically used to power buildings. The university is expected to recoup this investment within a few years as it reduces its energy expenses.

Dr. Daniel Farb has donated a small wind turbine called the Tulip, developed by his company, which will charge laptops and phones from wind energy.

In April 2022, BGU announced it would stop investing in companies that produce oil and coal and move those investments and all future investments into alternative energies and investment vehicles governed by ESG (environmental, social and governance) principles.

The university was awarded Green Campus status by the Israeli Ministry of Environmental Protection in 2010 and has been among the top universities worldwide in green rankings. Bike racks, electronic recycling and solar and wind-powered charging stations can be found all over campus.

BGU’s Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research have been studying environmental issues for 50 years. Leveraging these strengths, the Goldman Sonnenfeldt School of Sustainability and Climate Change was dedicated in May 2022. It brings together more than 150 labs on the university’s three campuses to tackle these issues.

– Courtesy Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, BC & Alberta Region

Investing in the climate

Martin Thibodeau, RBC’s B.C. region president, will be honoured at the Ben-Gurion University Gala Dinner June 14. (photo from RBC)

On June 9, Ben-Gurion University president Daniel Chamovitz and members of the Canadian Associates of Ben-Gurion University (CABGU) will visit Vancouver to recognize the launch of its new School of Sustainability and Climate Change (SSCC) and the local supporters who have helped make its opening possible. In particular, Royal Bank of Canada and Martin Thibodeau, RBC’s B.C. region president, will be honoured at the event.

SSCC opened last October at BGU’s Be’er Sheva campus, where its growth has been rapid. Seven months old, the school currently offers two undergraduate degrees and four graduate-level environmental science-related degrees. Its two graduate fellowships, which have supported work in renewable energy and smart city design, were funded by RBC.

“The RBC Research Fund at BGU’s School of Sustainability and Climate Change [is] being established in Martin’s honour, [and] will enable undergraduate and graduate students to be trained as, and pursue meaningful careers as, climate change innovators, entrepreneurs and policy experts,” said David Berson, who serves as CABGU’s executive director for the B.C. and Alberta Region. The funding that is raised at the gala will help further SSCC’s research programs.

SSCC’s mandate isn’t just to address environmental concerns at home in Israel, said Chamovitz. It will have a global reach, as well. BGU is currently working to cement research partnerships with universities and countries that have similar interests in addressing climate challenges. Chamovitz said RBC’s investment in its new school will provide a pathway to meeting that global need.

“RBC was one of the early supporters of SSCC, and this support was essential for leveraging subsequent support,” he said. “The Royal Bank of Canada believes in us,” and that support has served as an encouraging model for other companies to invest in BGU’s programs as well, he said.

Lorne Segal, president of Kingswood Properties and director of the Vancouver Board of Trade, who is an honorary co-chair of the June event with his wife, Mélita Segal, said corporate sponsorship is crucial to startup programs like SSCC. He said corporate support is also vital to finding answers to environmental challenges like global warming.

“Sponsorship from leading businesses and industry leaders does provide imaginative solutions to complex issues impacting our people and the planet,” he said. “Without significant and generous sponsorship support, this crucial work, simply put, would not be possible.”

Segal said supporting initiatives that bring about positive change is part of Thibodeau’s nature.

“Martin Thibodeau truly is a lifelong builder of community,” said Segal. “He is deeply praised by Ben-Gurion University for his commitment to the cause of finding solutions to climate change. It is truly remarkable how much he and RBC Royal Bank have done to enhance the capacity of the Ben-Gurion University community programs and agencies, and advance the conversation on Canada’s transition to a net-zero economy.”

Thibodeau’s support of Canadian Jewish communities and of Israel goes back decades. Originally from Quebec, he served as RBC’s regional president in Montreal until he moved to Vancouver. He oversees some of the largest – and smallest – branches and more than 4,000 employees.

In 2015, while working in Montreal, Thibodeau volunteered as a co-chair for Quebec’s largest multi-day walk for women’s cancers, held by Pharmaprix, to raise money for research at the Jewish General Hospital. “I have been involved with the Jewish community for almost my entire RBC career,” he told the Independent.

He is a strong supporter of the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver and the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver and their community initiatives, and he has been to Israel several times. It was in 2014, said Thibodeau, that he and his wife, Caroline, visited Be’er Sheva and learned of BGU’s environmental research. “[I was] so inspired by the research [and] the innovation,” he said, noting that it wasn’t hard to get behind the creation of a school that was working to find solutions to climate concerns.

“It’s right there in front of me every day,” he said. “I am a proud father of three children and I believe we have a responsibility to make sure that our climate can continue to thrive, and well beyond my lifetime. It is my personal belief that we need to do that today more than ever.”

Thibodeau said it’s been an interesting journey since that first visit to BGU in 2014. “It’s become such a tough priority for the world,” he said of climate change. In Canada, among other things, he supported RBC’s Blue Water Project, which helped provide clean water access to Canadian communities.

Still, Thibodeau is a reticent honouree. He admits that he is uncomfortable with the idea that he will be the guest of honour at a gala, even if it is for a cause he loves. “I’m very humbled,” he said. “I don’t like to have that kind of spotlight on me.” But, he said, raising money for research that might one day create a safer and better environment, that is something he will gladly get behind.

photo - Mélita and Lorne Segal, honorary chairs of the BGU Gala Dinner for Sustainability and Climate Change — Mélita and Lorne Segal, honorary chairs of the BGU Gala Dinner for Sustainability and Climate Change. *(photo by The Collective You)*

The gala will also acknowledge Lorne and Mélita Segal, who are well-known for their philanthropy and other work. Both have been recognized by Capilano University with honorary doctor of letters, and Lorne Segal has a doctor of laws (hon.) from the Justice Institute of British Columbia. He was inducted into the Order of British Columbia for his work as founding chair of Free the Children’s WE Day Vancouver and as chair of the Coast Mental Health Courage to Come Back Awards. The Segals regularly open their home to fundraising galas.

“When Lorne and I built our home, we didn’t really do it for ourselves but, rather, to share it with the community,” said Mélita Segal. “Whether it was Dr. Peter AIDS Foundation, Arts Umbrella, Chor Leoni, JNF [Jewish National Fund] or WE Charity … it has been a great joy for us and very fulfilling to give back and share in this way.”

Berson described the Segals as “tireless builders of community, leading by example while creating opportunities for people in the business world to make a difference in the lives of others. Ben-Gurion University, Canada, is genuinely fortunate to have their leadership for this event and for our organization.”

The Ben-Gurion Sustainability and Climate Change Gala on June 9 takes place at Fairmont Pacific Rim. Tickets and tables can be purchased at bengurion.ca/vancouver-gala-2022-tickets or by contacting Berson at [email protected].

Jan Lee is an award-winning editorial writer whose articles and op-eds have been published in B’nai B’rith Magazine, Voices of Conservative and Masorti Judaism and Baltimore Jewish Times, as well as a number of business, environmental and travel publications. Her blog can be found at multiculturaljew.polestarpassages.com.

BGU tackles climate change

Researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev’s School of Sustainability and Climate Change have been experimenting with alternative ways of irrigating trees, in this case, by floodwater. (photo by Dani Machlis/BGU)

“It is in the Negev that the creativity and pioneer vigour of Israel shall be tested,” David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister, predicted in 1955.

The country was not even a decade old. Ben-Gurion was trying to inspire a growing population of immigrants, including Holocaust survivors, to realize their collective potential – to not just embrace a new home, but to build a new, resilient future. That legacy, he maintained, would be found in the most unlikely of places: in the harsh expanse of the country’s southern water-poor and undeveloped desert. But their hard work, he insisted, could one day transform Israel.

“In order to be a realist, you must believe in miracles,” he said.

Today, his vision for the Negev lives on at the university that was founded in his name. Ben-Gurion University of the Negev sits, not coincidentally, at the northern tip of the desert. Some 13,000 square kilometres of semi-arid, rocky terrain make up the Negev, punctuated by dry riverbeds and desolate vistas. It’s on the cusp of this wilderness that Israel’s first School of Sustainability and Climate Change (SSCC) was established last October.

This June, Canadian Associates of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev will be holding a gala dinner in Vancouver to raise funds for the SSCC’s ongoing research. Co-chaired by Melita and Lorne Segal, the event will honour Royal Bank of Canada’s B.C. regional president, Martin Thibodeau, for his community-building efforts.

Existential research

According to BGU president Daniel Chamovitz, environmental research has always been a part of BGU’s mission. Water reclamation, sustainable food production and creating plant species that can survive in adverse environmental conditions have been continuing themes of study since the university’s inception in 1969. Establishing a school that could serve as an umbrella for diverse areas of climate and sustainability research was a natural progression.

“We are the engine, by necessity, of development and change in the Negev,” Chamovitz said. That existential motivation has not only led to new ways to desalinate sea water for industrial purposes and engineer new foods, but new collaborative opportunities with countries experiencing climate impacts. The university is home to three campuses that house climate- and sustainability-related studies, as well as a business park with more than 70 multinational companies. It’s also become fertile ground for Israel’s start-up industry and research collaboration.

Chamovitz said countries like the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Morocco are looking to partner to solve common environmental challenges. Desertification, the erosion of arable lands driven by a changing climate and urbanization, now affects more than one-sixth of the world’s population. There are also real-time challenges in the Middle East, where dry lands predominate but research experience may be limited.

“The Abraham Accords here have been essential for the growth of the school,” said Chamovitz. It’s not only opened doors for political alliances, it’s fostered new research partnerships for institutions like BGU, he said.

“For 50 years, we have been learning to live in our desert,” he added, noting that what was once seen in Israel as a hyper-local challenge – how to live in a desert – has become a concern for an increasing number of countries.

This month, a delegation from Morocco’s Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P) arrived in Israel to discuss a new research partnership with the university. The collaboration, which will focus broadly on addressing food insecurity, demands for smart agriculture and alternative energy options, will also lead to educational partnerships with UM6P. “They are very excited,” Chamovitz said. “We already have our first students [from Morocco].”

But international collaboration isn’t the only byproduct of the SSCC. There’s growing interest within Israel, as well.

“[The] school has become the magic dust which influences everything,” Chamovitz said, noting that departments and researchers without any seeming connection to climate change and sustainability are identifying ways to explore environmental subjects.

“One of the most surprising and fulfilling outcomes,” he said, “is that our department of Hebrew literature.… That’s when we knew we had succeeded – when Hebrew literature became part of the school.”

Prof. Noam Weisbrod, who directs SSCC’s Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, estimates that about 70% of BGU desert research, in one way or another, touches on topics related to climate change and sustainability. The list of departments is diverse, ranging from biology and medical sciences, to environmental geography and earth sciences.

“The idea is to team up and create a force which is focusing on climate change and sustainability and their impacts in different angles and different directions, and to enable multidisciplinary research” that attracts students who can lead the next generation of research into sustainable ways to combat climate change, Weisbrod said.

Mitigation imperative

In February of this year, the International Panel on Climate Change released its sixth report: Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability.

“Approximately 3.3 to 3.6 billion people live in contexts that are highly vulnerable to climate change,” the IPCC stated, noting that “current unsustainable development patterns are increasing exposure of ecosystems and people to climate hazards.”

“Diminishing resources is a real challenge,” said Weisbrod, adding that the solutions may lie in how we manage those precious resources. “There is a lot of research on how to get more crop for drop of water. I like that sentence, ‘more crop for drop,’ because this is what we’re trying to do – to get the maximum crop for minimum resources,” he said.

The latest IPCC report suggests humanity is on the right path. Countries like the United Arab Emirates are taking action to protect water resources and reduce climate change impacts like desertification, steps that are part of BGU’s cooperative strategies with UAE.

According to Chamovitz, many of these advances wouldn’t be possible without investors that are willing to support sustainability initiatives. He noted that RBC was one of the SSCC’s first donors and has been important to the school’s success – in 2020, RBC, British Columbia, sponsored the first two research fellowships at SSCC.

Chamovitz will be a special guest at the Ben-Gurion University Gala Dinner for Sustainability and Climate Change on June 9 at Fairmont Pacific Rim. Tickets for the event are available from bengurion.ca/vancouver-gala-2022.

Educating the next leaders

King David High School student and Climate Education Reform British Columbia member Sara Bauman (photo from Sara Bauman)

Weather events like the recent floods across British Columbia and last summer’s record fire season are prompting questions about how to plan long-term for the changing environment. One King David High School senior has come up with part of the answer: create a climate curriculum that prepares tomorrow’s leaders for addressing climate change.

Sara Bauman is a member of Climate Education Reform British Columbia (CERBC), a group of approximately 20 high school students who believe that the world’s pressing environmental challenges deserve a place in the province’s education system. Bauman says lessons about the physical climate system and the science behind phenomena such as greenhouse gases and sea-level rise should be a standard part of what students learn in school.

CERBC is pushing for a new curriculum that includes mandatory courses on climate-related topics and for the subjects to be taught across K-12 grade levels. At the present time, Grade 11 and Grade 12 students have the option to take environmental sciences, which contains a certain number of units relating to climate change. But the elective aspect, Bauman explained, means that not all students are learning about climate science or its implications.

“We want to get students to understand the urgency of the climate crisis and the need to act now,” Bauman told the Independent. “[If] not every student has to take it, different students are going to be receiving different knowledge, some less than others. [We] need the whole generation to be prepared to combat climate change, not just a few.”

A 2019 study conducted by researchers at Lund University, in Sweden, found that Canadian schools as a whole fell short when it came to educating students about climate change. In British Columbia specifically, research indicated that schools often failed to teach three core concepts: that the climate is warming, that there is consensus among experts that climate change exists, and that human-driven solutions are possible. The researchers also noted that there is no consensus among provinces or school districts when it comes to teaching students about climate change.

In October, CERBC met with B.C. Minister of Education Jennifer Whiteside to discuss its proposal. The students outlined six needs that they felt would be essential to a successful K-12 climate curriculum, including enabling students to “understand the urgency of the climate crisis” and to recognize that there are ways to mitigate or slow climate change.

Bauman said the program needs to be interdisciplinary because climate change has social implications as well. “We want students to understand the relationship that climate change has with social justice issues,” she said, noting that environmental advocacy “can’t be separated from other movements, like the Black Lives Matter or Indigenous rights movements, because, at the end of the day, climate change does come down to systems and how we structure our lives. And we also want to inspire students to start to critically engage in politics and see how they can create policy change.”

KDHS head of school Russ Klein said CERBC’s call for a mandatory climate curriculum reflects a wider sentiment among today’s students that the topic needs to addressed. Even though Bauman is the only KDHS student representing CERBC at this time, other students at KDHS are finding their own ways to raise social awareness.

photo - King David High School head of school Russ Klein — King David High School head of school Russ Klein *(photo from KDHS)*

“[In] the last two or three years, especially with Greta Thunberg and the climate protests, we’ve had a whole bunch of students actively engaging with the school, the [administration], climate protests and [other types of] activism,” said Klein.

Students at KDHS have a variety of avenues in which to get involved, including the youth groups Sustainabiliteens and the Green Club, which are aligned with addressing social and environmental issues.

Klein said Bauman brings an important quality to this dialogue. “She lends a Jewish voice of perspective to some of what she’s been doing, which I think is also very relevant for other people,” he said. “We need more diversity in the room.”

Of course, students aren’t the only ones who want to see a curriculum that reflects today’s challenges. Many teachers do as well. The B.C. Teachers’ Federation publishes downloadable “Climate Change Heroes Lesson Plans” to help teachers develop new learning modules.

Still, Klein said, many schools want the province to lead this effort. “There are so many different things and priorities for schools to do, and I think this one has to be very high on the list. And how we do that, of course, is [we] look to government. These things must be mandated,” he said, pointing out that, until the province implemented LEED-compliant building codes requiring contractors to adhere to sustainable practices, “builders weren’t doing anything. Because why would they? But when it’s the law of the land, they have no choice.”

Last week, Whiteside’s office issued a statement acknowledging that it is working with the BCTF and the Climate Change Secretariat to increase climate-related resources for teachers. It noted, “The flexible nature of B.C.’s curriculum provides many opportunities in which topics like climate change can be explored in various levels of detail.”

The ministry maintains that both K-10 and 11-12 curricula contain resources for “possible connections” to climate change that allow teachers to introduce new study topics. The elective nature of 11 and 12 grade courses, it said, “offer[s] interested students an opportunity to delve deeper [and] encourage exploration from a local to a global scale.”

While the ministry did not say whether it will invite the students to participate in writing a new climate curriculum, Bauman said she hopes the ministry will accept CERBC’s input – “Because we are the students. We know what is best for our generation [when it comes to] learning. I think the ministry doesn’t realize what an asset we are to helping this process.

“We want to create a relationship with them,” said Bauman. “We want to partner with them [and] help the process in any way that we can.”

Bauman said it’s important for students to be part of the solution.

“The most important thing, at least for me,” she said, “is to get students to envision a better world and help them feel inspired, empowered and engaged because, a lot of the time, we hear about climate change and it’s a lot of doom and gloom. [Working] with CERBC has allowed me to put my climate anxiety into other things and channel it into meaningful action, and I want other students to have the chance to do the same.”

Jan Lee’s articles, op-eds and blog posts have been published in B’nai B’rith Magazine, Voices of Conservative and Masorti Judaism, Times of Israel and Baltimore Jewish Times, as well as a number of business, environmental and travel publications. Her blog can be found at multiculturaljew.polestarpassages.com.

מבול של גשם שלא היה כדוגמתו

ראש ממשלת בריטיש קולומביה, ג’ון הורגן, ציין כי עלינו להסביר לשבעת מיליארדי תושבי כדור הארץ כי מוטל עלינו לפעול עכשיו, למנוע מאירועים כאלה לקרות בעתיד

(flickr.com/photos/bcgovphotos)

מצב חירום הוכרז ביום רביעי האחרון שעבר במחוז בריטיש קולומביה שבמערב המדינה עקב גשמי זעף שירדו כאן במשך חמישה ימים ברציפות (מסוף שבוע שעבר ועד יום שני), וגרמו לנזקים אדירים, מספר קורבנות בנפש ולמותם של אלפי בהמות בחוות שהפכו לבריכות מים עמוקות. כמות הגשם הענקית באותם חמשת ימים שווה בעצם לכמות גשם בחודש רגיל בבריטיש קולומביה. באזורים נוספים בצפון מערב אמריקה – בצדו השני של הגבול – בארה”ב כמות המשקעים הגדולה, גרמה לנזקים קשים בדומה למה שקרה בקנדה.

ממשלת בריטיש קולומביה ביקשה את עזרת הצבא הפדרלי ופנתה אף לקבל עזרה ממחוז אלברטה הסמוך. זאת בנוסף להגעת כוחות רבים ממערכי הביטחון וההנדסה של המחוז, בתוספת עזרה של מאות מתנדבים. כל אלה עובדים יום ולילה, מנסים להעביר למקלטי חירום אלפי אזרחים שנתקעו באזורי השיטפונות הקשים, ומנסים להציל בהמות רבות שנתקעו באזורים חקלאים מלאי מים.

כבישים וגשרים רבים נעלמו מתחת למים הגועשים, נהרות עלו על גדותיהם והציפו אזורים נרחבים, סחף בלתי פוסק הרס בתים ותשתיות. תמונות קשות אלה הן רק חלק ממה שמוטל על עובדי ההנדסה לטפל בו בשבועות ואף בחודשים הקרובים. עבודות ייבוש שטחים מוכי השיטפונות כבר החלו בעזרת משאבות שעובדות יומם ולילה, במקביל לפינוי וניקוי של אזורים אלה שנראים כמו אחרי מלחמה קשה בה ניצח כרגיל הטבע.

התחממות כדור הארץ מורגשת היטב בבריטיש קולומביה שנחשבה למקום בעל מזג אוויר נוח, בחורף ובקיץ. אך לא כך עוד בשנה האחרונה: בקיץ האחרון הגיעו הטמפרטורות לשיא של כל הזמנים – קרוב לחמישים מעלות צלזיוס. לאור כך כשבע מאות קשישים, חולים והומלסים מצאו את מותם, ומערך האמבולנסים קרס תחת עומס פינוי נפגעי החום לבתי החולים. במקביל כמות השריפות בקיץ עברה כל שיא וגמרה לנזקים כבדים ביותר לטבע ולרכוש. יש מומחים שטוענים ששריפת עצים וצומחים אחרים, סייעו לתופעות הסחף הקשות לאור הגשמים בימים האחרונים. השריפות גורמות כנראה גם להגבלה של יכולות הקרקע לספוג כמויות גדולות של מים. לאור כמות גשם אדירה שירדה במשך חמישה ימים ללא הספק, תופעה שלא מוכרת במחוז, נגרם נזק קשה ביותר שייקח אולי שנים לתקנו. בשלב זה ידוע כבר על אישה אחת שנהרגה מסחף של בוץ ועל שלושה נעדרים שנעלמו בכביש שהפך לאגם. במחוז חוששים שמספר הקורבנות יעלה בימים הקרובים.

בלבד לפגיעה בנפש, בבעלי החיים ולרכוש, נגרם גם נזק גדול למערכי ההסעה של סחורות ומזון בכל חלקי בריטיש קולומביה. וכן נחסמה הכניסה לנמל הימי של ונקובר שהוא הגדול בקנדה ובמערב צפון אמריקה. לכן צפוי מחסור במוצרים שונים בימים הקרובים והממשלה מנסה למצוא פתרונות גם בנושא זה. זאת בנוסף לבעיית שינוע הסחורות ובעיות במערך האספקה העולמי לאור מגפת הקוביד. מחירי סחורות שונות לא מפסיקים לעלות והמחסור צפוי שיגרום לעליות נוספות במחירים.

ראש ממשלת בריטיש קולומביה, ג’ון הורגן, ציין כי עלינו להסביר לשבעת מיליארדי תושבי כדור הארץ כי מוטל עלינו לפעול עכשיו, למנוע מאירועים כאלה לקרות בעתיד. הורגן ביקש להדגיש כי אין ספק שהתחממות כדור הארץ גורמת לתופעות מזג אוויר קשות שמורגשות כבר היטב במערב קנדה, בקיץ האחרון שהיה חם ביותר ובסוף ימי הסתיו עת ירד מבול נוראי של גשם. מכת הגשם הזו לדבריו היא אירוע של פעם בחמש מאות שנה. האם בעולם מקשיבים? לא בטוח.