In 2018, Jen Gobby used Lasqueti Island as the basis for her environmental studies dissertation (for the full summary, go to: https://lasqueti.ca/island-info/climate-change).

​

She sought to answer 2 questions:

​

• How are the impacts of climate change going to affect us here on Lasqueti?

• What can we do to prepare for them?

 

Jen worked with residents to identify areas of resiliency and vulnerability on the island: precipitation patterns; storm activity; food growing; sea level change. They also developed strategies for adaptation in several areas: wilderness/wildlife; water management; food security; society/infrastructure.

​

The Lasqueti Climate Change Action Committee believes it is time to revisit Jen’s report and to put the recommendations into action. Furthermore, we understand that we must look beyond adaptation to mitigation. We must ask ourselves how to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to enter the post fossil fuel era.

​

We would like to continue engaging Lasquetians in conversation at different public events. We were at the market this summer and will be at the fall fair.  Come visit our table and share your ideas and vision with us about moving Lasqueti out of the fossil fuel era.

​

We are a resilient community, and our simple lifestyle can help us adapt to climate change, but we are lagging behind in the area of mitigation.  Other Gulf Islands are already transitioning to a new green era.  Transition Salt Spring, for instance, is actively engaged in helping that community to become fossil fuel free by 2050. (https://transitionsaltspring.com/.  Our reality here is, of course, quite different from other Gulf Islands. We are facing unique challenges as an off-grid island but together we can significantly reduce our greenhouse gas emissions within the next decade.

 

Yves Parizeau