Last week, Lorna and I joined a local group, here in Prince Edward Island, on a tour of a wonderful facility at the neighbouring community of St. Peters.  It is the School of Climate Change and Adaptation of the University of Prince Edward Island.  The group meets regularly at the Fortune Community Centre near our cottage. This was the first time we had joined this group after arriving at our cottage for the summer and it was a great way to get our feet firmly planted in the red soil of P.E.I.

The school is situated in a new facility which can be seen perched on the hill side above the highway going through St. Peters.  I must admit I was not overly impressed viewing it from the road driving by the last couple of years.  To me it had the appearance of something which had been plunked down on a hillside having a box like appearance.  However, this is definitely a case of not judging a book by its cover or, to use a science (fiction) analogy, like the TARDIS, of Dr. Who fame – there was much more on the inside that appeared on the outside. 

The school offers undergraduate and graduate programs at the masters, and PhD level in Environmental Sciences with impressive facilities including residents for the Masters and PhD students.  They wisely, in my view,  decided not to offer resident facilities for undergraduates probably wanting to maintain a peaceful environment.

The programs include such areas as food security and sustainability, a Climate Smart Lab, a Drone Lab, Coastal Monitoring and Mapping, GIS and Modelling, and Climate Policy.  Here are a couple of examples of what they are doing to give you an idea of the range of activities.  The drones are used to map the entire coastline of P.E.I.  and track the erosion that is occurring because of climate change.  This is caused primarily not by rising sea level but by storm damage with the increasing storm surges due to increased frequency of storms caused by climate change.  We have experienced hurricanes in the last two Septembers on the Island and this year is forecast to have a lot of hurricane activity.  We were advised that some people who own property on the coast try to put up sea walls to stop the erosion with rocks and concrete or other material.  However, this only diverts storm water to the neighbouring coastline and makes the effect worse.  Robert Frost was definitely right when he wrote that good fences make good neighbours – or in this case, no shore-line walls make good neighbours. 

Another great example of what the schools are doing is a fully automated machine developed by the students which can be used to identify specific weeds in a field of potatoes (a very important crop on P.E.I.) and treat it with the right substance limiting the amount of chemicals used.  It can also identify where fertiliser is needed on a field, again limiting the amount used. 

The University of P.E.I. is a small educational facility with about 5,500 students.  However, with this facility they are leading but it shows that size is not an impediment to innovation and excellence.  Climate change is a reality and there will need to be innovative in developing ways to deal with this reality which is exactly what is being done at the school.  Of course this does not let governments, or businesses or each of us off the hook from doing all we can to fight and mitigate the extent of climate change.

We are called to be stewards of the world that God created and declared to be good.  May we be blessed to do that on our journey.