The qathet region has about a 10-year window to learn how to live safely and comfortably with heat waves [“BC records nearly 500 deaths and counting during heat wave,” June 30]. That’s when extreme heat events will really start climbing, warns Climate Atlas of Canada, an education initiative of the federal government and Canadian universities (climateatlas.ca/).
We are no longer a forestry and mill town where you build whatever you need. Sadly, “McGyvering” a heat pump out of Kokanee empties is a lost art. Retirees are moving in as fast as builders can build, increasing our vulnerability. And, like everywhere else, we have marginalized residents with limited options and resources.
Leaving everyone to fend for themselves, which is by and large what happened this week, isn’t a humane option.
We plan for earthquakes, forest fires, winter snows, air quality alerts, lost hikers and stranded boats. We’ve prepared for house fires, burst sewers and small landslides. It would be irresponsible not to add heat events to the list now that we’ve seen a real one. Converting risk to resilience, planners call it.
We need a 10-year plan because it takes 10 years to plan, approve and build proper shade structures (not bus shelters).
Saplings need a decade to grow to a useful size. We need equipment and supplies. People have to be organized and trained and we need manuals for them. We also need localized public education and awareness campaigns. And priorities have to shift at city hall to pay for it.
Protection from the sun is not a luxury. It is a requirement for public health that city planners are coming to see as an essential utility, as necessary as water and sewage.
Please let’s not find ourselves sitting here in 2030 thinking: “OMG, why didn’t we listen?”
Don Button, Fairmont Avenue
Powell River
