The iconic image associated with the Alberta Floods of 2013 could well be that of the smiling firefighter carrying an aged High River woman who does not look at all amused:
Or perhaps it will be this one of the flooded grounds where the Calgary Stampede is held:
.
But for me the one that captures what could be the most significant change in the mindset of Calgary is this one:
.
Not much of a shot, is it? Just a non-descript office building on the left, no doubt with a flooded basement where the power systems and utilities, maybe even the computer servers, are located: the ruined systems that will keep the building out of service for weeks, maybe months – just the same as happened here:
.
That’s a shot from New York during Superstorm Sandy, where office buildings were flooded a few blocks from Wall Street and City Hall, in a city that is one of the media capitals of the planet.
And what was the consequential change in NYC’s mindset?
.
What several decades of scientific study, warnings and observation failed to achieve was accomplished in a few days – because those with the power were directly affected. Now it was personal. Climate change was no longer theory; it was a flooded basement, a failed power system, a ruined computer – and the ability to do business, to make money, to live an unthreatened life.
And so:
.
And more importantly, this:
.
So will Alberta go all green on us, will Calgary’s oil industry repent? Not anytime soon, but I don’t think they will ever be the same. Denialism only works when there’s only prediction to deny, when only theory needs to be doubted, or when changes in the environment are far away or too incremental.
But now it is Calgary that took a direct and unexpected hit. The mud may be hosed away and the debris trucked off, but the psychological impact cannot be excised nor the fear of further consequences be dismissed.
So the climate-change conversation, at least, will change. And the executives in the upper floors of their flooded office-buildings will now have to reassess the risk.
Because now it’s personal.
Billions of dollars to repair damages.
Will this get the governments’ attention?
I wouldn’t bet on them getting the message if Australian experience is a guide. More frequent floods, heatwaves and catastrophic bushfires haven’t shifted the deniers here. Coal and gas are still king here and woe betide those who suggest they really should stay in the ground! And we look like we are soon to have a new Prime Minister (no not this week’s new one, the current Leader of the Opposition) who once said “Climate change is crap”, even if he says he has changed his mind. Needless to say, he’s a conservative; well actually a “Liberal” which has the same meaning here as it does in BC.
Hard to know if the Calgary 2013 flood will get locals appreciating climate change. The local newspaper highlights on possible differences between Calgary’s flood zones (higher /middle income homes near the river/bike-ped path/green belt) as different from ie. New Orleans. http://www.google.ca/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4GFRC_enCA214CA215&q=calgary+herald
I don’t agree with all of it nor claim that it’s simply the richer areas that were hardest hit and hence, that might include decision-makers.
Right now it is surival and helping others.
However what the flood in Calgary may mean how locals and planners will locate/redefine walkable, cycleable neighbourhoods in future. The floods occurred in residential areas closest to the Bow and Elbow Rivers which include the annual snow melt run-off every spring (that’s how Calgarians tend to think of their higher water levels in spring time on the rivers under normal conditions), where the areas does tend to be neighbourhoods with walkabile, cycleable areas.
But now if people may tend to buy homes further away from the rivers with these amenities, then how many more neighbourhoods will be designed/improved for these same amenities and infrastructure as those near the rivers? The more scenic areas of Calgary do tend to be by /along the rivers where also there is more of a mature tree canopy.
How do you get alot of locals accustomed to thinking of springtime thaw melt and river water volume associated with heavy Rocky Mountain snowfalls to switch to climate change causes?
From a Calgarian (ex-Vancouverite) who was evacuated from her downtown home.