MCGUINTY GOVERNMENT HELPING ONTARIANS UNDERSTAND THE POTENTIAL IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE

For Immediate Release
July 19, 2007

MCGUINTY GOVERNMENT HELPING ONTARIANS UNDERSTAND THE POTENTIAL IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE
Invests In Interactive Website, Polar Bear Research

TORONTO – An interactive website that shows the impact greenhouse gases could have on our climate and additional research into polar bears and their threatened habitat will help to drive home the impacts of climate change, Minister of Natural Resources David Ramsay said today.

“We all know that climate change is having an impact on how and even where we live,” said Ramsay.  “This website will give people a clearer picture of the changes in climate we can expect, which is the first step in understanding the impacts of climate change if we continue on our current path, and how our actions can diminish its effects.”

The new website is an educational tool that shows how Ontario’s climate may be very different in the future if we do nothing, compared to how it might be if we all do our part.  The site gives a glimpse into how Ontario’s future climate could be, based on two climate scenarios, and shows possible outcomes, not predictions.  Climate maps show projected summer temperatures, winter temperatures, and precipitation from April to September and from October to March.  Visit gogreenontario.ca and click on the Climate Change Projections for Ontario button to see how your actions can make a difference.

The government is also investing $315,000 in the first year of a three-year polar bear research project that will provide a better understanding of the impacts of climate change on the health of Ontario’s polar bear population.  The project will monitor seasonal movement patterns of Southern Hudson Bay polar bears, as well as the numbers of polar bears, their body condition and the habitat where female bears build dens to give birth. The climate change website projects that polar bear habitat in southern Hudson Bay would experience the greatest warming of any place in Ontario.

The Minister of Natural Resources is also putting polar bears on the priority list for scientific assessment by the Committee on the Status of Species at Risk in Ontario under Ontario’s new Endangered Species Act.

“To tackle climate change, governments, businesses and individuals all need to act to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” said Peter Ewins, Director of Species Conservation at World Wildlife Fund Canada.  “Polar bears are under increasing threat around the world as their essential habitat warms faster than any other place on the planet.  This research project will help us better respond to the disruption melting sea ice poses to Ontario's polar bears and the communities that share their ecosystem.”

“We are supportive of this research project dedicated to understanding polar bears and the impacts of climate change,” said Janet Sumner, Executive Director of CPAWS-Wildlands League.  “The results will be useful in planning for the future in fragile ecosystems.”

In addition, the Ontario government has appointed two co-chairs for a new Expert Panel on Climate Change Adaptation.  Dr. David Pearson is Professor of Earth Sciences at Laurentian University and Dr. Ian Burton is Emeritus Professor at the University of Toronto and Lead Author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 4th Assessment Report. 

The panel has been asked to develop adaptation strategies for Ontario and will provide recommendations to the minister.  Additional panel members and further details of the panel’s work will be announced shortly. Adaptation is how living things cope with environmental stresses and changes and is a key part of addressing the impacts of climate change and global warming. 

Helping Ontarians understand climate change is just one way the McGuinty government is achieving results in ensuring a healthier natural environment and mitigating the effects of climate change.  Other initiatives include:

• Making $220 million in loans and grants available to help municipalities reduce greenhouse gas emissions by improving and retrofitting buildings
• Setting ambitious but realistic targets to reduce greenhouse gases below 1990 levels – six per cent by 2014, 15 per cent by 2020 and an 80 per cent reduction by 2050
• Launching a $650-million fund that will help secure the next generation of high-paying jobs for Ontarians by developing new clean and green technologies.

Related Information

• CLIMATE CHANGE PROJECTIONS FOR ONTARIO
• ADDRESSING CLIMATE CHANGE: RESEARCH ON THE POLAR BEARS OF SOUTHERN HUDSON BAY
• EXPERT PANEL ON CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION: CO-CHAIRS

For More Information

Anne-Marie Flanagan
Minister’s Office
416-327-0654

Jolanta Kowalski
Communications Services Branch
416-314-2106

General Enquiries

Natural Resources Information Centre
1-800-667-1940
TTY 1-866-686-6072 (Hearing Impaired)