Remember the film An Inconvenient Truth? 20 years ago this year, a documentary featuring Al Gore warned us all about climate change and what it would do to our planet. Some skeptics back then and even today might point out that some of Gore’s predictions did not come true – for example, that there would be no snow left on Kilimanjaro, or ice left in the Arctic, or all the glaciers would have melted by 2020. I’m happy to say that a friend’s recent vacation photos near Banff proved that there are still some of the Columbia icefields in Alberta, and Kilimanjaro is not snow-free – not yet, anyway.
But can we honestly say – even without a group of scientists and David Suzuki sending us their dire warnings almost daily – that we don’t believe our weather and climate are, in fact, drastically changing?
Two weeks ago, over 170 millimetres of rain fell in Napierville, submerging hundreds of acres of vegetables, some of which could be lost. Hundreds if not thousands of people on Montreal’s West Island and in Châteauguay lost the entire contents of their basements due to a sudden deluge of over 150 mm of rain in one hour. For many, it was the second time, after a similar storm in August of 2024 – my brother and his wife among them. I drove to Pierrefonds that day to see if I could help them, and I could not believe the lake that was at the end of their street. A car was almost submerged, and a young man was up to his waist in water, pushing a bicycle that was completely hidden. And this week, as I drove to my mother’s house in Châteauguay, I saw streets still lined with mattresses, couches, carpets, appliances, children’s toys – all of it ruined by flood waters and not yet picked up.
As Châteauguay Valley citizens who live off the land or close to it, many of you already know how our seasons are changing. We are getting more severe heat and then suddenly massive amounts of precipitation, making daily life not just difficult, but dangerous.
So, if there are any climate change deniers still out there – know that climate change could soon be at your door. And when it comes, it likely won’t knock politely but force its way in, because we didn’t want to deal with the inconvenience of preparing for the gathering storms.