The Year of the Rat: Climate Change

This Years Chinese New year started off the Year of the Rat with worldwide climate changes predicted.

The ‘La Nina' effect- Ocean cooling in the Tropical Pacific is likely to continue for several months. This cool phase began in early 2007 and so far has caused floods in Africa, droughts in South Africa and the recent China deep freeze.

Computer projections suggest La Nina will last till June.

In China the recent freeze and heavy snowfall that just occurred has damaged 1/10 th of China's forests. This poses a high risk for forest fires later this summer. China is now preparing an aggressive reforestation program to be implemented soon.

African flooding has occurred in Southern African nations causing the evacuation of thousands. The United Nations note that it is only halfway through the rainy season and more rain is expected.

Increased volcano activity has been noted in the Philippines island of Negros.

Bangladesh is also experiencing a strange cyclic rat epidemic. Specific bamboo plants flower once every 50 years, simultaneously across the country and provide a very nutritious food for rats. This flower bloomed last year and the rat populations exploded and are now threatening crops causing a rat based famine. High rat populations are feared because of the possibility of similar increases in infectious diseases

There are always climate variations from year to year and travelers are advised to continue to watch for bulletins that may affect their vacations.

It may be wiser to book vacations at shorter notice so as to be more flexible and not to be forced into a destination that is having trouble.

Travelers are also encouraged to remember to go as green as possible with their vacations (please see the always excellent column by Sun Columnist Vivian Song who explores these issues every week) since every perturbation in our climate is buffered by our Wilderness and Natural resources.

Tourism is the 3 rd major global economy (behind Arms Dealerships and the Drug Trade which are both unlikely to help curb greenhouse emissions).

There is some hope that by harnessing the huge spending habits of tourists to fund widespread regrowth of natural resources we can limit some of these unpredictable disasters that re occurring with more regularity.

This is also not to say that travelers should feel guilty about spending money on themselves but only to be careful about where that money is going.

At our clinic we re seeing a growing trend especially among teenagers and young adults to choose a cause that they believe in after research and thought and going on a working vacation. Many have returned and said they enjoyed themselves much more than they would have from a resort retreat because they met local people that they both taught and learned from.

Some of these “Winnipeg Good Will Ambassadors” have written stories on our website about their trips and organizations with instructions on how to get involved, and have volunteered to be resources for anyone contemplating overseas work.

Climate change problems are unlikely to be ever solved by “one great idea or breakthrough” but lots of people acting together and sharing lots of small ideas and experience can be effective.