A detailed presentation last week at the monthly meeting of the Pembina Climate Action Network (PCAN) painted a picture of greenhouse gas emissions and climate change in Manitoba.
Entitled Thoughts and Numbers on Climate Change – Through a Manitoba Lens, professional agrologist Daryl Domitruk touched on not only a wide range of data but also what is and isn’t being done well.
Domitruk, who is also a research director of the Manitoba Pulse and Soybean Growers and has served on a provincially-appointed committee to advise the government on climate change policy and greenhouse gas reduction targets, suggested it all needs to start with greater understanding and awareness.
“Before we do anything to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, we have to understand our local environment better,” said Domitruk, who applauded the work of organizations like PCAN to help advocate for and educate about climate change and its impact, particularly in the Morden-Winkler area.
Domitruk suggested there are a few key things for people to consider.
“There’s a lot of things that people think about where they live; some of them are true, some of them are myths, and sometimes we have to see through all of that to really understand where we live,” he said. “It’s so that we know what we can do in any kind of an issue like climate change, which may be different than what people that let’s say live in a big city or even live in another part of the country or any other part of the continent or even another part of the world.
“So it starts with greater understanding,” said Domitruk, who went on to touch specifically on Manitoba’s record on greenhouse gases and climate change.
“What are the sources in Manitoba of greenhouse gases? Those are different from what they are in other places … and what steps has Manitoba taken so far, and how successful have we been?”
He noted that people might think Canada is doing fairly well in terms of overall being ranked 10th in terms of emissions, but it paints a different picture when you take a look at it in a different way.
“If you look at the per person emissions … we’re at least number three on a per person basis, and that’s primarily because we live a pretty good lifestyle,” Domitruk said. “Each one of us is emitting quite a bit, but when you add it all up, it doesn’t amount to as much.
“The important thing is that Manitoba, within Canada or within the world, is a relatively low emitter, especially amongst the developed countries as a western advanced economy,” he continued. “It’s primarily because roughly 98 per cent of our electricity comes from hydro electricity … we have a very green electricity source, so that means our total emissions are actually on the low side.
“On the other hand, that makes it hard because we don’t have as switch we can just throw to reduce emissions; we have to look around and take little bits of emissions from a thousand different places that aren’t related to our electricity grid.”
So the fact that we may be doing better than other places doesn’t take the pressure off.
“It comes down to personal responsibility. We need to look at our individual emissions and what we can do, and again, that needs to be in the context of where we live,” Domitruk said. “There’s no point in copying someone who lives in a completely different environment. We need to learn what works in our environment and act on an individual basis, and hopefully that creates some kind of collective action as well.
“I also hope to actually bring forward the notion that we’re all focussed on trying to slow climate change and mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. We really ought to be spending more time on adapting because the emissions are increasing, and there are changes afoot. There are changes happening now, and some of them we need to more proactively respond to by adapting.
“It’s not that it’s too late to mitigate, but we have to adapt.”
Another key takeaway from his presentation was that we need to recognize that we live in what has been a grassland region.
“This was grassland and not too long ago. So that means that the model for sustainability going forward is in that grassland, and there’s precious little of it left,” Domitruk noted.
“So we really, each one of us, needs to recognize that, you know, things like trees are nice, but they’re maybe not the solution to climate change as they are sort of played out to be,” he said. “For us, we need to look at our grassland … what’s there that can help us sequester more carbon … we have it in how a lot of cattle producers manage their pastures and how they manage their herds.”
Domitruk also pointed out we all need to rethink how we regard things like home heating and transportation.
“Transportation is a big one for Manitoba,” he suggested. “There are electric vehicles, sure, but there’s also other options in respect to things like public transit. There are other things we can advocate for that can make a difference in our emissions for transportation.
“And then there’s just the kind of regular lifestyle changes in concert with new technologies, recognizing who’s doing a good job out there and encouraging them, whether it’s people building energy efficient homes.
“It’s also paying attention … I think we take for granted our hydro electricity. It’s clean, it’s green, but it’s limited, and we can’t just buy a whole bunch of electric vehicles and expect the electrical grid to supply it all. We need to look at other alternatives.”
Domitruk also concluded that we should seriously consider nuclear power as an energy option.
“It has been off the table for a while, but I think it’s time to look at those kinds of options again.”
