Unusually warm summer helps Abbotsford gardener grow bananas

After almost a decade of nursing a banana plant in his Abbotsford backyard, Aird Flavelle still has a hard time believing that his plant is bearing tiny green bananas.

The plant typically grows three-foot long leaves in summer. This year it has grown up to twice that size.

“I’m suspicious…it’s because the climate has gone bananas.” says Flavelle.

A UBC climatologist, Associate Professor Simon Donner says the Abbotsford gardener’s suspicions may be true.

“The fact that somebody could get bananas to start growing in a farm in Abbotsford is an indicator of just how warm unusually dry, and almost subtropical, the weather has been this summer.” said Donner.

But Donner believes there’s more to it than just environmental factors.

“Those things are natural cycles. But, we’re poking it with a stick by putting moregreenhouse gases in the atmosphere, the records are happening because we have been warming the planet,” said Donner.

Climate change impact

The changing climate is affecting not just the environment, but also industry.

A recent UBC study last year predicted that climate change would affect the water-dependant oil sands process in Alberta.

Recent events show that the effects are already visible.

READ MORE: Oilsands water restrictions a climate change ‘preview:’ study

Despite the fact that climate change impact is big enough for bananas to show up in an Abbotsford backyard, Metro Vancouver is a long way from becoming a contributor to the world’s banana production.

“We are going to experience more weather like this in the future. That is what all models say,” said Donner.