Watch: Canada's Magdalen islands have front row seat to climate change - Euronews
VIDEO : Watch: Canada's Magdalen islands have front row seat to climate change | Euronews
In the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, on the small Magdalen islands, cliffs are receding and the sand dunes are disappearing, leaving homes vulnerable to the lashing waves.
The archipelago, part of Quebec province in eastern Canada, is in a race against time -- and the elements -- to survive global warming.
The Magdalen Islands are notably losing one of their most important defences in winter: ice. It has always served as a sort of shield, but without it, the coasts are completely exposed when rough storms hit.
With each cycle of freezing and thawing, the red sandstone cliffs crumble more easily.
The islands' picturesque shores are already receding by an average of half a metre a year, according to a study by the University of Quebec at Rimouski.
Related Knowledge Center: Climate science
What began as a theory in the 1890s — that industrial emissions of carbon dioxide could increase global temperatures — had progressed to a scientific fact a century later. Scientists across a range of disciplines are studying the impact of the still-growing concentration of carbon dioxide and other so-called “greenhouse gases” in the atmosphere as they call for industrial and governmental policies to slow, then halt, the warming of the planet.