Extreme weather caused by climate change cancelling more major events: Study
More and more major cultural, social, business and arts events around the world are being disrupted or cancelled by extreme weather events caused by climate change, according to a new study published in the International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction.
The study, Mapping the impact of extreme weather on global events and mass gatherings: Trends and adaptive strategies, details that from 2004 to 2024 more than 2,000 mass gatherings were reportedly disrupted around the world, with events in British Columbia accounting for 74.
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According to Shawna McKinley, co-author of the study and instructor of sustainable event management operations at the B.C. Institute of Technology, the number of events disrupted has increased in recent years, particularly in the years following the COVID-19 pandemic.
McKinley said arts, cultural and sports events are particularly vulnerable. She said there are hot spots where a disproportionate number events have been disrupted. In Canada, this includes cities like Halifax, Calgary, and Kelowna, as well as the entire province of B.C.
She said in other places, hurricanes, heat and flooding are often to blame for disruptions, but in B.C., wildfires and smoke are often to blame, as well as heat.
'Things that festivals take extremely seriously'
Erin Benjamin, president of the Canadian Live Music Association, said her industry is very aware of the impact that extreme weather driven by climate change is having on events.
A shop and home that were burnt by wildfires in Scotch Creek, B.C., are pictured on Friday, Aug. 18, 2023. That same month, the Salmon Arm Roots and Blues Festival about 25 kilometres south of the fire, cancelled a portion of its event, due citing concern for the safety of attendees, volunteers and the community as a whole. (Ben Nelms/CBC)
"We're really pre-occupied with the way weather is becoming more and more severe over time — everything from cancelling events to having to evacuate sites, to having to elevate and escalate emergency preparedness plans," Benjamin said. "All of these things are things that festivals take extremely seriously."
She said the live music industry adds $11 billion to Canada's GDP annually and creates more than 100,000 jobs, but many organizations and festivals are operating close to the financial edge and it can be impossible to recover from a cancellation.
"There is an economic aspect, there's a cultural aspect and certainly there's a social aspect, and for all of these reasons and others, we need to be very preoccupied with the impact of severe weather on outdoor concerts and festivals," Benjamin said.
She said there are organizers reacting to weather events and then there are those who are adapting to climate change.
The study notes an example in B.C., the Salmon Arm Roots and Blues festival in the province's Interior. Benjamin recalled attending the festival several years ago — a particularly smokey experience due to wildfires in the area.
*(BC Wildfire Service)
Last year the festival was scheduled one month earlier than in previous years — in late July instead of late August — as a way to try to reduce weather-related disruptions.
"Relocating on the calendar is a possibility for some folks, but not all, and it's not really a strategy that all can use," Benjamin said.
Indoor mass gatherings also potentially affected
Music festivals seem especially vulnerable to weather-related disruptions, as they're typically held outdoors, but McKinley said even less obvious types of events, like indoor business conferences can also be upset when things like major storms ground aircraft and attendees can't make it to to the event.
She said emergencies like wildfires or flooding could also affect business events when evacuees and first responders fill up hotels and leave conference-goers nowhere to stay.
McKinley said her research team gathered accounts of as many disrupted events as they could in the years studied and looked for overlaps with studies that highlighted the role of climate change causing the weather events or making them more extreme — something that occurred in 57 per cent of cases.
"If we look at an area like British Columbia, you need to be anticipating escalating heat, you need to be anticipating more extreme urban rainfall events," McKinley said. "That is just going to make things a bit more unpredictable."
Thumbnail courtesy of Erik Chouinard/CBC/Radio-Canada.
The story was originally written by Rafferty Baker and published for CBC News.
