SUMMERSIDE
Barry Murray gets a worried look on his face when the conversation turns toward climate change.
“We haven’t got a clue,” said the Kensington resident.
“We haven’t really absorbed how serious the impacts of climate change are going to be and we’re kind of unprepared yet.”
Murray, who is the executive director of the Kensington North Watershed Association, was the only member of the public to attend a recent meeting in Summerside to provide input into how P.E.I. can adapt to climate change, as part of the province’s new Climate Change Action Plan.
The adaptation strategy is being developed by UPEI’s Climate Lab. Its director, Adam Fenech, said they have been receiving a lot of good feedback, and he expects to present the final plan to the province this fall.
During last week’s event, Fenech led a general discussion about climate change as it relates to P.E.I. and took questions from the handful of people who attended, including Murray.
Fenech touched on a wide range of topics as part of the discussion, including a topic near to the hearts and pocketbooks of many Islanders – agriculture.
The relevant available data now suggests P.E.I. can expect to have an additional growing month for crops by between 2041 and 2070.
However, those same growing seasons will also be much drier overall with more severe storms.
These are all things P.E.I. as a whole needs to start preparing for, said Fenech.
Long-term thinking and planning is critical to the province’s future, he added.
“If you plant a tree now you’re planting for 70 years from now. But the climate is going to be different. So there are certain species that won’t do well under climate change and they’re probably going to disappear from the Island. If we plant them (now), they’re just going to go.”
More information about P.E.I.’s Climate Change Action Plan is available online at www.princeedwardisland.ca/adaptation.
@JournalPMacLean
