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No matter how may windmills are built, fossil fuels — oil, gas, coal — are going to be the dominant source of energy around the world for decades to come. That’s true no matter how much Canadians do to reduce emissions. Renewables account for about 13.5% of world energy production today, unchanged from more than two decades. Recent international forecasts say renewables –including nuclear—will never make it much above 13% of world output for decades to come.

Spending vast amounts of money to reduce carbon emissions to mitigate climate change therefore “is just a waste of money,” said Mr. Feltmate. If fossil fuels are here to stay, the only sound objective is to prepare for the future by adapting to reasonable expectations of future weather systems and events. One can argue over the cause of the events, but not about the need to spend money to adapt to the events.

The cost of adaptation, moreover, need not be that great. Billions of dollars will have to be spent upgrading power, transit and urban infrastructure no matter what. The Canadian Electrical Association claims $350-billion in new investment will be needed over the next 20 years to maintain the country’s electricity system. Adapting that investment to meet the possibility of greater weather events will involve minor changes in spending, says Mr. Feltmate.

At the local level, in Toronto and elsewhere, that means doing what needs to be done to renew the electricity systems and transit systems, and making the necessary adjustments to meet new weather circumstances. Even without the weather, urban populations and conditions have also changed, making cities more vulnerable. David Phillips, Environment Canada’s chief meteorologist, said in a Toronto Star interview that major cities are becoming more vulnerable to flooding as more of them are covered with asphalt. Building materials are impervious to rain and so “we end up with flash floods,” he said.

Adaptation to weather events is nothing new. The objective of individuals, corporations and governments should be preparedness in the face of events that seem predictable and inevitable, rather than on trying to pull giant strings to change the forces that may or may not be causing the events.

National Post

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