Tony Lepage

In case you hadn’t heard, British Columbia was hit by a powerful storm this week. This was the third storm in as short as a week to pound the west coast and knock out power lines that still have not been repaired. What’s more, “it disrupted the morning commute.”

Across the Atlantic, Europe is thinking of canceling winter due to a lack of snow. Okay, they don’t really have a choice—it simply looks like the snow isn’t coming this year.

Further south, Bahrain was brought to “a virtual standstill” due to near record setting floods. But Bahrain isn’t the only nation to be affected from these storms; Saudi Arabia, Iran, Sri Lanka and India have all been hit by hard rainfalls displacing thousands of residents.

What’s worse, Thailand’s car sales dropped nearly 10% “due to prolonged severe flooding.”

To sum up the year, the United Nations released a report stating that 2006 will be the 6th warmest year on record.

Speaking of heat, Australia is evacuating residents of many towns after declaring the bushfires of Tasmania are out of control.

In Canada, we read about the rain storms of the west and the lack of snow in Europe. Across the globe, other completely different, environmental issues cause worry and suffering. Would it be a jump to wonder whether this trend will continue? Would it be bold to think we’re going to need to depend upon ourselves, more and more, to cope with these crises?

Sure, environmental crises happen all the time. This is what makes it hard for us to notice any change. It’ll take years before we can have any solid conclusions about what we’re seeing take place right now.

To the scientists, attempting to draw attention to the root of these problems, attempting to conclusively draw links between what we see more of in 2005, and 2006, than we’ve seen previously, I say:

Good luck.

To you, and the world, who will continue to experience these extremities of weather, I say, again:

Good luck.