Calgary

Submerged
Is climate change to
blame for this devastating
flood?

of oil, has experienced the

wrath of Gaia.
Did we expect nothing to
happen as we polluted the
environment and exhausted
its resources? We have been
warned many times but did
we listen the answer is no, the
cries of Mother Nature fell on
deaf ears and she is angry.
And now Mother Nature is
exacting her vengeance on
the people of Calgary.

Flooded roads in Calgary, Alberta

June 21, 2013

By: Tony Chan, a freelance

journalist Published on Wed
Jan 15 2013
Calgary Alberta one of
Canadas greatest cities and
the country's biggest exporter

But how did this happen

considering that Calgary is in
the Prairies Eco zone which
has a dry climate and rarely
experience rain especially of
this magnitude. Well it didn't
happen overnight, years of
extracting oil from the tar
sands has made Alberta
climate change central
causing a huge increase of
floods, droughts, wildfires and
hail storms. It has also made
the Eco zone warmer,
expanding deserts and
changing stream flows.
"Alberta will be greatly
affected by drought and water
scarcity under changing
climate conditions and can

expect potential increases in

hail, storm and wildfire
events. Spring rainfall could
increase by 10 to 15 percent
in Southern Alberta." -reported Gordan Mcbean the
chairman of the Canadian
Foundation for Climate and
Atmospheric Sciences

A cause and effect chart that show

the impacts of climate change

"Could the wacky weather be

part of what is predicted due
to climate warming? Very
possibly, but of course it
impossible to say with any
certainty"-- wrote multi

National Magazine Awardwinning journalist Andrew

Nikiforuk
The answer to that question is
yes, climate warming is to
blame for this bizarre weather
and disaster.
What happen were easterly
winds blew large amounts of
humidity directly at the Rocky
Mountains, with nowhere to
go the humidity just kept
building up until finally rain
clouds formed and unleashed
340mm of rainfall onto
Calgary. The Bow river and
Elbow river overflowed
beginning Canada's most
devastating flood to date
causing 1.7billion dollars
worth of structural damage,
loss of homes and loss of
power but thats only how it
affected human activities. The
flood also caused erosions
that washed away fertile soil,
destruction of crops, loss of
plant life and wildlife.
"The frequency with which
Canada experiences events
such as heavy rainfall of a
given intensity (known as the
return period), is projected to

increase such that an event

that occurred an average
once every 50 years will be
likely to occur about once
every 35years by 2050."
Telling the Weather Story,
Insurance Bureau of Canada,
2012
Truly if nothing is done about
the damage we're causing to
our plant, cities and countries
will be subjected to the same
fate as what transpired in
Calgary.

Sources:
"2013 Alberta
Floods." En.wikipedia.org. N.p., 12
Dec. 2013. Web. 13 Jan. 2014.
"CERF 2011." : Canadian Study
Calculates Costs of Global Change to
Coastal Communities. CERF, 01 Oct.
2011. Web. 13 Jan. 2014.
Nikiforuk, Andrew. "Calgary's
Manhattan Moment." Thestar.com. The
Toronto Star, 24 June 2013. Web. 13
Jan. 2014.
"Prairies." Canadian
Biodiversity.Mcgill.ca. Canadian
Heritage, n.d. Web. 13 Jan. 2014.