1. Announcing the 5th installment of series, “2C: Beyond the Limit.” This time, @brady_dennis and Bonnie Jo Mount take us to the fragile Magdalen Islands in the center of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, just north of the Canadian Maritime provinces.
2. They’ve seen 2.3 degrees C of warming and even more than that
-- 3C -- in winter, which is when it really counts in this particular case.
-- 3C -- in winter, which is when it really counts in this particular case.
3. This warming is already leading to severe, even disastrous consequences. The sea ice that once encased these islands, home to some 12,000, has dwindled rapidly.
4. One staggering stat on ice loss in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, from Fisheries and Oceans Canada: “In the 9 year span since 2010, 7 of the 9 lowest maximum ice volumes of the time series have occurred." dfo-mpo.gc.ca/csas-sccs/Publ…
5. Island residents say the change has been dramatic. 
6. This rapid loss of ice, in turn, has exposed the coast to punishing waves, especially in winter. And as a result, fragile red sandstone cliffs are collapsing rapidly into the sea.
7. So you have roads and paths washed out or collapsing, backyards disappearing, damage to businesses in storms, and a lot of vulnerable infrastructure that has to be protected at great cost – which the relatively small community on the islands cannot afford.
8. Basically, what I think the story of the Magdalen Islands shows is the intersection between the extreme vulnerability of islands in general in the face of climate change – and how this gets amplified further when you are in the Arctic or a near-Arctic location.
9. For Arctic islands, extreme levels of warming and the loss of sea ice get added to the story.
10. Across the Arctic, sea ice loss is exposing coasts to new levels of damage – and these are often permafrost coastlines, so when the water hits them, they can crumble fast.
11. When it comes to the Magdalen Islands, you also have, in this particular spot, far above average rates of sea level rise – which makes everything worse still.
12. So add together the general vulnerability of islands, rapid high latitude warming, sea ice loss, fast sea level rise….it is a lot for any place to have to deal with, and it is coming all at once.
13. And yet. In this particular part of the world, there is also an actual *benefit* of climate change, albeit one that is so sudden and odd as to be rather ominous.
14. Much as in Maine, the lobster catch in the Magdalen Islands is exploding, because the warm water is now so hospitable to the organisms.
15. For now.
16. This is a classic case of poleward migration of fisheries due to warming waters. And once the lobsters start moving north there is no guarantee that they’re going to stop off your shores. They might just keep on going, making the benefit transient.
17. @brady_dennis spoke with Mario Cyr, an underwater videographer from the islands, who had this to say after diving and taking a look at the lobsters.
18. And there is yet another thing that is rather ominous in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, which is that the deepest waters are warming extremely rapidly, well over 2C just since the year 1915.
19. This, scientists say, is tied to a broader pattern of ocean current changes that involve the Gulf Stream and related currents.
20. So in sum: The Gulf of St. Lawrence, although perhaps little written about outside of Canada, is experiencing some of the most dramatic impacts of climate change already. Indeed, the region is witnessing multiple, compounding changes happening all at once.
21. For the Magdalen Islands, @brady_dennis reports, residents know that in such circumstances, they can’t win all battles. They’re already starting to give up on some of the most vulnerable coastal spots.
22. “Not everything can be fixed; not everything can be saved,” one expert says in the story. “In some cases, you have to accept retreat.”
23. And with that, the story is here: washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/… /end
