From freak weather to our water supply to optimism and action. Here are answers to your climate questions

Over the last four months, you've sent us over 300 climate questions as part of the Great Lakes Climate Change Project.

We've researched the most commonly asked questions and given you answers about extreme weather, our water supply, and how you can both take action and stay optimistic in the face of the climate crisis.

Before we jump in, some general takeaways from your questions. 

Most readers did want to hear about the many ways climate change impacts our lives, but also wanted a focus on solutions. A lot of questions were concerned less with what's new and more on breaking down the long-term processes that have brought us to this point. That's what we'll be focusing on here. 

Some of you asked why we focused on the Great Lakes, and pointed out (correctly) that there is no such thing as a "local" climate issue. While true, the purpose of the project has been to highlight that these abstract, global concepts can be seen and felt right in Canadians' backyards. 

Through our form, we also received some climate denials. That's not the focus of this story, but here are explanations on how volcanoes, solar cycles and other natural fluctuations affect the climate. Here's an explainer on the Little Ice Age a few centuries ago, and one that summarizes (some of) the evidence that current climate change can only be caused by humans. 

Ready to jump in? Let's go. 

Where and when can we expect to see more extreme events like storms, floods, wildfires, tornadoes and hurricanes?

Everywhere, and we're already seeing a rise. Beyond that, this is a tricky question to answer. 

This is largely because these phenomena are so unpredictable, said Xuebin Zhang, a senior research scientist with Environment and Climate Change Canada. As a lead author on the extreme weather chapter of the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, he and his team analyzed thousands of scientific papers. 

It is often reported Canada is warming at twice the global average, but with little discussion of what that means. According to Zhang, even if the world manages to limit warming to 1.5 C, Canada will see a rise closer to 3 degrees — which has serious implications for our weather. 

Generally speaking, we can expect more floods and heat waves across Ontario. Heavy rain events will become more common and more intense. Around the Great Lakes, more rapid and intense water level fluctuations could threaten homes and wildlife, and some winter storms could get more extreme. 

Across Canada, the predicted impacts vary wildly between and within provinces, from stronger hurricanes in the Atlantic, to frequent droughts in the Prairies, to more wildfires in B.C. Research on changes to the number of tornadoes and extreme wind events is ongoing, Zhang said.