JUST THE FACTS

It’s warming

Our planet has a natural cycle of warming and cooling, it moves huge amounts of carbon into and out of the atmosphere every year. When the cycle is balanced, atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) levels remain relatively stable. Careful measurements over the past few decades have confirmed that CO2 in the atmosphere is increasing.

Human activities are adding more carbon into the atmosphere every year, which is only about 3–4% of the amount exchanged annually. This small addition is enough to upset the balance, surpassing nature’s ability to absorb carbon. The oceans and land are currently absorbing half our emissions, but the rest remains in the atmosphere for at least another 100 years.

 

It is us and we are sure

97% of peer-reviewed climate studies agree with the scientific consensus that human-induced global warming is real, and that the burning of fossil fuels is a significant factor, being the primary cause of human induced CO2 increase in the atmosphere.

Fossil fuels are the main source of energy for our economic activity, from transportation to products we rely on daily. As a result, CO2 concentrations have increased significantly, about 30% since pre-industrial times, just 200 years ago! This has resulted in a strengthening of the greenhouse effect, which plays a critical role in warming our planet.i  (The greenhouse effect is a natural process that warms the Earth's surface. When the Sun's energy reaches the Earth's atmosphere, some of it is reflected back to space and the rest is absorbed and re-radiated by greenhouse gases. The absorbed energy warms the atmosphere and the surface of the Earth.)

 

We must prevent a 1.5ºC rise in global temperature

Our global average temperature is about 1° C hotter than average, and we're already locked into at least another 0.5° of warming.To avoid potential and catastrophic effects on both humans and ecosystems, we must prevent global temperatures from rising by more than 1.5º Celsius above pre-industrial levels.iii

 

We can fix it!

We need to keep fossil fuels in the ground and quickly transition to renewable energy. 80% of fossil fuel reserves need to stay in the ground for us to stay below 2°C of warming. In Canada that means we need to stop the tar sands expansion including pipelines development and invest on clean energy instead.

Renewable energy is getting cheaper and more popular presenting everyday. In fact, global carbon emissions have already started to slow due to the rapid growth of clean energy. 

The worldwide movement to stop climate change and resist the fossil fuel industry is growing stronger every day!

 

Climate Change in Canada

From 1990 to 2013, Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions increased by about 18%

• 26% above what was our Kyoto target. We were supposed to reach this target by 2012

• 17% above our Copenhagen target. We are supposed to reach this target by 2020

PM Justin Trudeau signed the Paris agreement on climate change on April 2016, the Canadian government committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 30% from 2005 levels by 2030. A few months later PM Justin Trudeau and his cabinet signed off on two major pipelines, Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain pipeline and Enbridge's Line 3, projects that will pump a million more barrels of bitumen a day from Alberta's tar sands to global markets if they are constructed.

Alberta’s tar sands produce some of the world’s dirtiest oil, from 3 to 4 times as much greenhouse gas emissions per barrel as the production of regular crude oil. Tar sands upstream bitumen and gas are now the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in Canada. The tar sands alone spew out more CO2 than all the cars in the country combined

To meet the Paris climate change agreement,we need to keep fossil fuels in the ground and transition to renewable energy!!

 

Climate Change in Manitoba 

In 2014, Manitoba’s GHG emissions came from these sectors and in these proportions

• 61% – Fossil fuel burning mostly for transportation, energy used for residential and commercial heating, in electricity generation, in the oil and gas industry, and in the manufacturing and construction industries

• 29% – Agriculture – mostly methane (CH4) from livestock and nitrous oxide (N2O) from soils

• 5% – Waste disposal – mostly methane (CH4) from landfills and wastewater

• 4% – Industrial processes

In 2014, our emissions were 22.3% above the level we should have been at by 2012 to achieve our Kyoto Protocol target and to comply with Manitoba’s Bill 15, The Climate Change and Emissions Reduction Act.

Manitoba is one of the only two provinces that did not sign The pan-Canadian framework on clean growth and climate change, a plan developed with provinces and territories and in consultation with Indigenous peoples, to meet our emissions reduction targets. The plan includes a pan-Canadian approach to pricing carbon pollution. Carbon pricing is the policy that climate scientists and economists alike say is the best first-step to reduce the likelihood of catastrophic climate change from global warming