Tourist hotspots put visitors' money to work for the climate

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This week:

• Tourists in Alaska help pay for local heat pumps
• Disappearing rails in Canada
• How Yukon is fireproofing an entire city

Tourist hotspots put visitors' money to work for the climate

Sharyn Augustine has seen climate change up close during the 20 years she's lived near the Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau, Alaska.

"It was a huge glacier. It's melted hundreds and hundreds of feet in the time that I've been here alone," she told the radio program What On Earth. "It's quite sad really because we get so many tourists come here in the summer just to see the glacier."

But for the past few years, tourists more specifically, tourism dollars have also been contributing to climate solutions in Juneau. Augustine is one of the people who has benefited. A program called the Alaska Carbon Reduction Fund, managed by the nonprofit Renewable Juneau, paid for a free heat pump to reduce her reliance on her oil-based heating system.

The pump saves Augustine money she estimates as much as $2,000 US per year. But she's also happy that it reduces emissions from her home heating.

"By getting a heat pump, it's just one little thing extra that I can do to help [with climate change]," she said.

Andy Romanoff, project director for the Alaska Carbon Reduction Fund, said the program works with tourism companies as well as private industry to buy heat pumps for lower income households (those who own their home, but have a household income below 80 per cent of the median). Heat pumps are installed for applicants on a first-come, first-served basis using the available funding.

"We have a number of tourism organizations that work with us, and we help them figure out what the carbon impact is per person that takes partin one of their tourism outings," he said.

Some of the companies tack the carbon reduction fee which might be as low as a dollar or two onto their bills automatically. Others offer it as an extra fee that customers can opt out of.

"From what I understand from the one business that has that opt-out method, no one has opted out," said Romanoff.

Tourists can also visit the program's website to calculate the carbon impact of their trip and pay into the fund on their own.

The program has purchased 46 heat pumps since it began in 2019 and has recently expanded from Juneau into Ketchikan and Sitka. With the program now reaching other parts of Alaska, Romanoff said he's negotiating with cruise lines to find a way to get them on board with the program.

Romanoff said it's easy to put tourist dollars to work and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in southeast Alaska. With electricity generated by hydro power, Romanoff says switching from oil heating systems to electric heat pumps makes economic sense for residents.

"It's local hydro, it doesn't travel very far and so it's fairly inexpensive," he said. "Oil is expensive, so trading one for the other, it's automatically a savings."

For other tourist towns around the world, he says, the key is figuring out a similar formula.

"Can you check multiple boxes?" he said. "Can you serve lower-income families, while eliminating emissions, while saving people money, while meeting local climate, energy and housing goals?"

Romanoff says the idea of so-called regenerative tourism is picking up steam around the world.

"It's that idea of not just visiting the place you're going to, but understanding it, learning about it, interacting with it in some way and maybe giving back a little bit to that place," he said.

At least one other tourist hotspot has begun spending revenue from tourism on climate initiatives this year. Barcelona, Spain, recently raised its tourist tax to 3.25 euros per night. Deputy Mayor Laia Bonet said the city plans to spend 100 million euros from that tax to install heat pumps in 170 schools.

"We want to ensure tourism has a social and environmental return and benefits our citizens," said Bonet.

She said the first 24 schools will have their heat pumps installed this summer.

"Our goal is that all our children and teenagers can learn in decent and comfortable conditions and at the same time become aware of the values of sustainability," she said.

The program will also provide schools with photovoltaic panels that will allow them to produce the electricity needed to power the new heat pumps. Bonet said the solar panels will generate energy surpluses that will be shared with the community resulting in savings of more than 1.1 million euros per year.

Rachel Sanders

Old issues of What on Earth? are here. The CBC News climate page is here.

Check out our podcast and radio show.In our newest episode: What do we owe to the places we go on vacation? As we just read, in Alaska and Barcelona, money from tourism is paying for heat pumps. We hear from people in both of these tourist hotspots about how to put visitors' money to work for the climate. And we answer a listener's question about whether our beloved maple syrup will disappear in a warming world.

What On Earth26:11Should tourists cough up for climate? Hell yeah!

What On Earth drops new podcast episodes every Wednesday and Saturday. You can find them on your favourite podcast app, or on demand at CBC Listen. The radio show airs Sundays at 11 a.m. ET, 11:30 a.m. in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Check the CBC News Climate Dashboard for live updates on wildfire smoke and active fires across the country. Set your location for information on air quality and to find out how today's temperatures compare to historical trends.

Reader feedback

Apparently, today is World Turtle Day! Last week, we wrote about all the people working to save endangered turtles in Canada, prompting a note from Jon Mills, who worried about the advice to help turtles cross the road. "I recently learned that turtles carry water in their shells to help soften the soil to make it easier to dig and lay their eggs," he wrote. "Turtles should not be picked-up and carried across the road as this may cause the water to be voided, something I've personally experienced helping turtles cross could actually hinder them laying eggs."

We passed this on to Sue Carstairs, executive and medical director of the Ontario Turtle Conservation Centre, who responds. "Yes, turtles may urinate when picked up and yes, some turtles urinate on their nests their urine is very diluteso it can look like water. If you're quick and quiet while helping the turtle across the road, they most likely will not urinate on you. In an ideal world, we wouldn't pick up any wild animal under any circumstance, but turtles are exceptionally prone to being killed on roads, and this is a major cause of population declines Not to sound cheeky, but a dead turtle lays no eggs. As many males as females cross roads, so you're also helping males, as well as juveniles."

Of course, also pay attention and stay safe yourself while helping turtles.

We also mentioned that reporting turtle sightings helps protect their habitat. The Nature Conservancy of Canada tells us that if you live in Quebec, you can do that at carapace.ca.

Have you tried buying a small car in recent years? Has it been difficult? We are working on a feature about the ubiquity of SUVs in Canada, and would love to hear your stories about trying to purchase something other than an SUV or truck (new or used).

Write us at whatonearth@cbc.ca.

Have a compelling personal story about climate change you want to share with CBC News? Pitch a First Person column here.

The Big Picture: Disappearing rails across Canada

Trains on tracks can be an efficient way to move goods and people and a fun way to travel. But rail is declining and the tracks are disappearing across Canada, as this map from Canadian Geographic shows. (Click for a larger image.)Perhaps surprisingly, it's happening as we speak. "We tend to think of all this abandonment as from our grandparents' era, when we're [in fact] seeing a lot of it in our lifetimes," Brian Doucet, Canada Research Chair in Urban Change and Social Inclusion at the University of Waterloo, told Canadian Geographic. It's part of a fascinating feature that takes a deep dive into why passenger rail is struggling, and what it means for Canadian passengers and communities.

Emily Chung

Hot and bothered: Provocative ideas from around the web

• The international maritime court has ruled that greenhouse gases in the ocean count as marine pollution. The ruling has implications for countries that signed the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), and also small island states threatened by rising seas.
  
• A federal government panel has come up with a list of 35 "plausible" global disruptions that could reshape Canada and the world in the near future, and two of the top three are environmental.
  
• China requires all taxis to be scrapped after eight years. Now, some of its first electric taxi fleets have hit that limit, paving the way for a new EV battery recycling industry.
  
• Waste heat from a Google data centre will provide 80 per cent of the heat for the town of Hamina, Finland, starting next year, the company announced. Amazon has a similar project in Dublin.
  
• Electric vehicles are more likely than gas-powered cars to hit pedestrians in urban areas, an analysis of British road collisions has found. Researchershave a few ideas about why that is.
  

Fireproofing an entire city: How Yukon is working to protect its capital

When the temperature reaches above 25 C and there's no rain in sight, Sandy Johnston often scans the horizon from his backyard, looking for any sign of smoke.

"If there's a strong south wind blowing," he said, looking toward dense stands of pine and spruce trees, "I'm a little bit nervous."

Johnston lives in the Mary Lake subdivision, nestled in boreal forest on the southern edge of Whitehorse. He knows his rural property is vulnerable to any wildfires that might approach the city from the south.

But just beyond his backyard, the landscape is being altered to help protect him, and the Yukon capital.

Since 2020, the Yukon government has been building a massive, permanent fuel break, among the first in Canada.

It's one tool intended to slow any encroaching wildfire, by removing fuel like trees and shrubs from the landscape or replacing them with slower-burning deciduous species. It could also give wildfire firefighters a safe space to work and defend Whitehorse.

The "Whitehorse South fuel break" is located in the most vulnerable area along the southwestern edge of the city. So far, nearly 400 hectares have been cleared. Once finished in 2032, the fuel break will span 20 kilometres.

"It's something that we're kind of grateful to see being developed," said Johnston, who lives less than two kilometres away.

Driving through the fuel break, the open area widens where conifer trees have been cleared. The width of the break ranges from a few hundred metres to two kilometres in the widest section.

Some areas of the fuel break are thinned out, others are totally cleared. At least three-quarters of the cleared areas will be replanted with hundreds of thousands of aspen seedlings, a slower-burning species.

"It's a big change for sure, but I would argue it's necessary," said Luc Bibeau, manager of the prevention and mitigation unit at Yukon Wildland Fire Management.

The fuel break's location is strategic, based on the prevailing winds toward Whitehorse.

"Most of the time the wind comes out of the south, out of the Carcross valley and the Marsh Lake area in the summertime it's like 80 per cent of the time," Bibeau said.

The stands of densely spaced spruce trees are a particular concern. Their tiny needles are packed with resin and can become volatile with fire, he explained.

"They're kind of our worst enemy in some ways," he said.

Walking through the forest, Bibeau pointed to spruce branches that start close to the base of a trunk and act like a ladder if they catch fire.

"[Flames] climb the ladder fuels and they go all the way up the tree. They torch off in those really aggressive kind of pretty scary-looking crown fires," said Bibeau.

"We're never going to eliminate risk, but there's a lot of things we can do to set ourselves up better for the future and try to really think about this strategically."

The fuel break, however, isn't expected to be the only way to protect the city.

At his Mary Lake property, Johnston has rigged up a vacuum with a long hose to suck leaves from his branches, removing some potential fuel.

He's grateful for the fuel break, but also worries it may give Whitehorse a false sense of security.

"The biggest threat to the community will be from an ember shower," he said, recalling how embers blowing across B.C.'s Okanagan Lake last year started more fires there.

David Loeks, a Whitehorse resident who co-authored the 2020 report for the city about wildfire vulnerability, says he believes it is possible to create a fireproof city. But he says it takes commitment from all residents.

He says FireSmarting removing or thinning forest fuels is the best defence. He compares it to vaccinating a population, where you need to reach a "critical mass."

He feels Whitehorse is "nowhere near the buy-in that we should have" but says there's still time.

"I'm applauding the work that's being done in the forest, because it's good work and together with the private property work, you would end up with a fire-safe Whitehorse."

Kate Kyle and Juanita Taylor

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Editors: Emily Chung and Hannah Hoag| Logo design: Skdt McNalty