Tipping Points — State of the Mountains

by Lael Parrott, Zac Robinson and David Hik

Postfire regeneration after the 2009 Upper Saskatchewan River Valley prescribed burn. Photo: Zac Robinson, 2023.

“Tipping points provide humanity with quantifiable measures of how much change is too much.”

This year – 2023 – will be remembered across Canada as a year of extreme and deadly weather. Wildfires and smoke, floods, drought, extreme temperatures, tornados, and warming oceans left no region of the country unaffected. Around the world, similar extreme events led to unprecedented loss of property and life. Indeed, June through August marked the world’s hottest three-month period in recorded history, with the average global temperature in July more than 1.1°C warmer than last century’s average.

Canada’s 2023 wildfire season is the most destructive ever recorded. By September, more than 6,132 fires across the country had burned some 16.5 million hectares, an area larger than Greece. In British Columbia alone, the B.C. Wildfire Service reported a total of 2,217 fires in the province this year, burning over 25,000 square kilometres of trees, bush, and grassland, easily the worst fire season measured by land burned. The majority of this year’s fires, over seventy per cent, were sparked by lightning, while twenty-three per cent were human-caused (the lowest in the past decade). The cost of fighting those fires exceeded $770 million. (For an in-depth overview of the causes, consequences, and potential for coexistence with wildfire in Canada’s mountains, see Lori Daniels’ feature essay “Wildfires” in the 2019 State of the Mountains Report).

Underlying conditions of extreme drought and above-average temperatures made western and northern Canada particularly susceptible to wildfires this year. These events are way outside the expectations of natural variability. These ‘tipping points’ in the climate system are pushing the world into a state where the impacts of climate change may accelerate even faster and become irreversible. Tipping points provide humanity with quantifiable measures of how much change is too much, and point to urgent global, local, and individual efforts required to avoid crossing these thresholds.

Indeed, recognizing tipping points does inspire positive actions. For example, the United Nations General Assembly declared 2022 the International Year of Sustainable Mountain Development, a resolution supported by ninety-four countries. The main outcome was the declaration of 2023–2027 as Five Years of Action for the Development of Mountain Regions.

Adopted by the UN General Assembly, the resolution recognized that the benefits derived from mountain regions are essential for sustainable development, and that mountain ecosystems play a crucial role in providing water and other essential resources and services to a large portion of the world’s population. The resolution also recognized that mountain ecosystems are highly vulnerable to the increasing adverse impacts of climate change, extreme weather events, deforestation, forest fires and forest degradation, land-use change, land degradation and natural disasters, with increasing impacts on the environment, sustainable livelihoods and human well-being. Member states were encouraged to adopt a long-term vision to incorporate mountain-specific policies into national sustainable development strategies.

“As Canada’s national mountaineering
organization for the past 117 years, The Alpine Club of Canada is witness to both the adverse and positive impacts of environmental and social change in Canada’s mountains.”

As Canada’s national mountaineering organization for the past 117 years, The Alpine Club of Canada is witness to both the adverse and positive impacts of environmental and social change in Canada’s mountains. In this sixth volume of the State of the Mountains Report, Tim Patterson summarizes the development of Indigenous Guiding in western Canada. Martha Warren outlines the benefits of accessible sustainability education programs in the mountains. Greg Horne and Suzanne White describe efforts to protect and celebrate unique mountain environments.

We also recognize the value of research and exploration in learning about the impacts of climate change in Canada’s mountains. Sean Carey and John Pomeroy summarize thirty years of collaborative mountain watershed research in Yukon. Emily Jerome and Heather Shaw describe how Living Lakes Canada is tracking climate change impacts in alpine freshwater ecosystems. James Eastham reviews the decisions that led to Parks Canada contr olling access to Moraine Lake in Banff National Park. Mary Sanseverino and Lael Parrott share photographs from a photographic survey from Observation Mountain in Banff National Park. And in our Feature Essay, James King provides a comprehensive overview of the challenges of studying dust and its impact on the environment.

We hope that you enjoy this volume of the State of the Mountains Report, and please let us know if you have suggestions for stories that could be included next year.

— Lael Parrott, Zac Robinson, David Hik

The Report is co-edited by long-time club members Lael Parrott, Zac Robinson, and David Hik. Parrott is an environmental geographer at The University of British Columbia, Robinson is an historian at the University of Alberta, and Hik is an ecologist at Simon Fraser University and Chief Scientist at Polar Knowledge Canada. All Fellows of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, the team is dedicated to geographic literacy and the betterment of mountain peoples, places, and practices.