We now know that the lifestyles and choices of Canadians are having an impact on the Earth's climate. Many of our day-to-day activities, such as driving cars and purchasing food grown around the world, pollute the air with gases that stay in the earth's atmosphere. We call them greenhouse gases (GHGs) because they trap the sun's heat and cause the earth to warm up like a green house. This leads to warming in some parts of the world, cooling in others, rising sea level, and increasing frequency of severe weather events.

It is hard to predict exactly how climate change will affect a particular area but climate scientists have been working to forecast what we can expect in the future. Here in the Capital Regional District we can expect to see longer, hotter, drier summers and wetter stormier winters. Warmer, drier summer weather could result in droughts, outbreaks of insects and pests, forest fires. Wetter winter weather could cause floods and landslides. All these problems could impact our ability to grow food, the health of our forest resources, and the sustainability of our hydroelectric power stations.

If we don't make any changes soon, greenhouse gases will continue to accumulate in the atmosphere and the harmful consequences of climate change will increase. But the good news is we have a choice! We can continue to participate in activities that contribute to GHG pollution or we can choose to reduce our GHG emissions and slow the rate of climate change by changing some of our daily habits. It's up to you!