The Return Of A Climate Change Resiliency Researcher

Jeff Green | Aug 16, 2023

Ten years ago, Robert Mclemon presented the results of a research project that he had spent five years working on, at a public forum at North Addington Education Centre in Cloyne.

He was a climate change researcher and, at the time, an associate professor at Wilfred Laurier, who had a family cottage on Sheldrake Lake. He gathered historical weather and other data, conducted a series of interviews with members of the local community as part of his research project, and brought in some of his students from Waterloo to help out.

When he presented his findings to the local community in 2013, he said “some changes are good for some industries in Addington Highlands. Longer, warmer summers and shorter winters allow contractors and real estate agents to work longer in the year and the older population would have less snow to remove. Negative effects like lake ice dangers, bad snowmobiling conditions, more expensive road maintenance due to increased thaws and freezes in the winter months and a shorter wood harvesting season for foresters are some of the negatives.”

One of the points that came out his study was that, as the result of a 1 degree increase in the average temperature globally from the pre-industrial era, the average temperature in Denbigh in 2013 was closer to the average temperature 1000 years ago than to the temperature 150 years ago.

Based on some of the sediment core samples from the bottoms of lakes in the region, Mcleman found that the forests in the region were different in 1000 Ad than they were in 1850.

“One thousand years ago it was relatively warm here, so trees like hemlock and beech were very common. In the 1850s the forest was more like that of northern Ontario; white pine was plentiful and it was harvested and shipped to Europe. If the Europeans had been looking for white pine here 1000 years ago, they would not have found it,” he said. “If we continue to see the temperatures change as they have been, we'll probably see better conditions for trees species like hemlock, beech and other warmer tree species that you see in places like Guelph, Ontario."

This insight puts a question to the way trees are harvested and replaced by local loggers under provincial regulations. Re-plantings that are done as part of the harvesting regulations, are done with the same species that are cut down, when they might be more successful if seedlings from trees that are more prevalent in warmer climates are planted instead.

Over the past ten years Robert Mcleman has not conducted any further research in Addington Highlands. He is now a full Professor at Wilfred Laurier, and one of ten Canadian scientists who are working with the intergovernmental panel on climate change. His focus is on implications of climate change on health and well-being, around the world. His research in Addington Highlands and in Canadian prairie communities in the 2010's set him up for his current role.

He returned to Northbrook last month to give a talk at the Lion's Hall, and said it was interesting to come back after all this time to see how the community is faring, and to see some of the people he got to know 15 years ago.

“Rural communities feel the impact of climate change more directly that cities do,” he said, “and while things like the Derecho and other events can happen, they have become more common through climate change.

“You also see how some people are impacted more than others. In Addington Highlands, wealthier people, near the lake, will be less affected by the heat, but it can get pretty hot in those homes that are not near the water and don’t have air conditioning. There are added health implications for aging populations when add extra heat, and the increase in tick borne disease impacts are a factor as well.”

He said that he was impressed that the local MPP, Shelby Kramp, came out to his presentation (which took place on July 12)

“She made a point of taking notes on what governments can do, in the context of building resilience in our communities. It is another sign of the strength of our community.”

In addition to his work with the Global Panel on Climate Change, Dr. Mcleman also oversees a hockey rink project at rink.org where he gathers data on hockey conditions at outdoor rinks daily in the winter to track changes over time.

While he remains optimistic about the local community, the impact of climate change is clearly accelerating. The 1 degree increase in the global temperature over the pre-industrial global average, whose impact he was tracking in 2013, is now approaching 1.5 degrees, just ten years later.