Kristen Villebrun and Wendy Bush hoped they wouldn't have to pray for Chedoke Creek, but four years after they first raised alarm about the water's condition, they were part of an Indigenous full moon ceremony to do just that. About 50 people showed up near Princess Point on the dark and frigid Monday evening for the monthly ceremony, which was particularly special as it focused on Chedoke Creek. The body of water that runs into Cootes Paradise had about 24 billion litres of sewage and storm water runoff leak into it due to a gate being left open.
With a recent donation in Quebec, Labatt Breweries of Canada has donated more than a million cans of water to support communities with 24 distributions in seven provinces over 11 years. Established in 2012, Labatt's Canadian Disaster Relief Program was created to provide safe drinking water to Canadian communities experiencing disasters such as flooding, forest and wildfires, environmental spills, drought and ice storms that compromised a community's water supply.
As of Sept. 30, according to Agriculture Canada's most recent update, 72 per cent of the country and 69 per cent of Canada's agricultural landscape was considered either "abnormally dry" or in "moderate to exceptional drought." But drought's effects aren't felt only in the summer. For cattle producers, winter is when the toll can be most severe, as animals' caloric needs are higher and grazing land is frozen or snow-covered. "Certainly, the impacts are carrying on for people that utilize the resources that were depleted during the summer," said Trevor Hadwen, a Regina-based agroclimate specialist with Agriculture Canada.
Most canola crops are grown without requiring irrigation in the Prairies, the nation's agricultural heartland spanning nearly 1.8 million square kilometers (695,000 square miles). But the region is sensitive to droughts, whose frequency and severity have been steadily increasing. In this region, explains Phillip Harder, a hydrology researcher at the University of Saskatchewan, in Saskatoon, "crop production relies on water that accumulates throughout the year." In other words, snow that accumulates over winter and soaks into the ground during the spring thaw. But howling winds over fields that stretch as far as the eye can see have been blowing away much of that snow of late.
The research coming out of Global Water Futures (GWF) is being presented at an open science meeting over three days from May 15–17, and will highlight some of the best science and knowledge addressing solutions for Canada’s water futures, including advancements in the forecasting and modelling of snow, glaciers, water quality, soil moisture, floods and droughts, in monitoring of water quality, in detection of the COVID-19 virus in community wastewater, in Indigenous co-creation of knowledge, and in how national and international policies could achieve water sustainability.
The Okanagan can expect more spring floods, but also longer and drier summers in the future. That’s thanks to climate change, says James Littley, deputy administrator with the Okanagan Basin Water Board. “According to the 2020 report, climate projections for the Okanagan region, we will see warmer temperatures here,” Littley told delegates to the Southern Interior Local Government Association convention in Vernon on Tuesday.
Farmers can’t predict the future, but a new tool may help them get ahead of droughts and floods. The Manitoba Forage and Grassland Association partnered with Aquanty, a Waterloo, Ont.-based water resources firm, to develop a forecasting tool for the Assiniboine River basin and Pembina Valley and Plum River watersheds of the Red River basin.
In today’s Big Story podcast, a recent report found that by 2030 demand for water will outstrip the world’s supply by 40 per cent. In the United States, the Colorado River and other major sources of water are drying up. The number of droughts worldwide is skyrocketing. And Canada has a lot of water that other nations will someday soon not just want but badly need. Does this mean that wars over water are inevitable? Maybe not.
I discovered one obvious reality when I moved to Manitoba in 2001: water is a big, big issue here. And it’s often news. Farm news. Agriculture news. Winnipeg news. Indigenous news. Environmental news. Sometimes it even gets to be national news. Whether it’s floods, droughts, water pollution, drainage, wetlands, sewage plant costs or Canada-U.S. river crossings, water issues are often the most important in the province.
In the last few years, droughts across Europe and in the U.S. have caused crop yields to drop significantly, while population growth puts serious pressure on the global freshwater supplies that help power our agriculture industries. These conditions have forced everyone in the food business, from grower to retailer, to think about how best to use and maintain what limited resources are available—and that includes a new wave of snack companies that are turning to drought-resistant crops for ingredient inspiration.
The earth under Dennis Lebow's gumboots is saturated. He's in the Salinas Valley in California, about an hour south of San Jose. The valley is often referred to as the "salad bowl of the world" as it's one of the most productive agricultural areas in the U.S. Most of Canada's lettuce, strawberries and tomatoes are grown in its fertile soil, according to California's Department of Food and Agriculture.
The earth under Dennis Lebow's gumboots is saturated. He's in the Salinas Valley in California, about an hour south of San Jose. The valley is often referred to as the "salad bowl of the world" as it's one of the most productive agricultural areas in the U.S. Most of Canada's lettuce, strawberries and tomatoes are grown in its fertile soil, according to California's Department of Food and Agriculture.
Indigenous peoples have been stewards of our natural environment since time immemorial. Conserving and restoring nature through Traditional Knowledge and Indigenous Science is fundamental to addressing the twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss. Climate change is altering the water cycle, resulting in flooding, droughts, and wildfires. It is also one of the key drivers of biodiversity loss. Conserving and restoring nature are important ways for mitigating and adapting to climate change. Canada is committed to implementing nature-based solutions to build resilience and help meet the country's 2030 and 2050 greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets.
The Prairie Blood coulee winds through a property on the Kainai Nation, also known as the Blood Tribe, in southern Alberta. On a warm fall day, about a dozen people haul willows, mulch, dirt and water to several spots along a dry creek bed. Some pound large posts into the ground. Technicians from Blood Tribe and volunteers from local environmental groups are building five beaver dam analogs, which mimic a natural logjam. They hope to restore the stream flow to help the landowner care for his animals and have more water for wildlife as the area experiences a decade-long drought.
Extreme weather events are increasing in frequency and intensity and the dynamics of Earth’s atmosphere is ever-changing. A new pan-Canadian collaboration will measure aerosols, water vapour and clouds and how they interact to impact Earth’s weather and climate as part of NASA’s Atmosphere Observing System (AOS) mission. The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) will collaborate with NASA on AOS with its High-altitude Aerosols, Water vapour and Clouds (HAWC) mission. The mission consists of two Canadian instruments on a Canadian satellite and a third instrument on a NASA satellite, all planned for launch in 2031. These innovative instruments will provide critical measurements, enabling Canadian climate scientists and weather forecasters to better understand and predict extreme events like severe storms, floods, droughts and poor air quality conditions.
Floods, droughts and major storms that wash out highways, damage buildings and affect power grids could cost Canada's economy $139 billion over the next 30 years, a new climate-based analysis predicts. The report, titled Aquanomics, was published Monday by GHD, a global engineering and architecture services firm. In an interview with CBC News, the firm's Canadian water lead Don Holland said that the value of water and the costs associated with it are underacknowledged.
The advance of the climate crisis, marked by its extremes — droughts or deluges, fires or floods — makes abundantly clear the human habit of trying to contain and control water isn’t working. For her new book, Water Always Wins, National Geographic Explorer Erica Gies criss-crossed the globe, witnessing some of the unanticipated results of modern society’s preference for engineered solutions.
One reason for the Middle East’s vulnerability is that there is simply no margin to cushion the blow on millions of people as the rise in temperatures accelerates: The region already has high temperatures and limited water resources even in normal circumstances. Middle East governments also have a limited ability to adapt, the International Monetary Fund noted in a report earlier this year. Economies and infrastructure are weak, and regulations are often unenforced. Poverty is widespread, making job creation a priority over climate protection. Autocratic governments like Egypt’s severely restrict civil society, hampering an important tool in engaging the public on environmental and climate issues.
Jane Goodall says she's sharing a message of hope and a cry to action as she returns to the stage for live events. The scientist, who's best known for her work with wild chimpanzees in Africa, was in Calgary on Wednesday and was scheduled to give another talk in Victoria on Friday night. "It's my first trip to Canada in three years, because of the pandemic, and it's my third trip anywhere," Goodall said in an interview Wednesday before her Calgary event. Like many, she spent the past two-and-a-half years of the pandemic working from home and delivering her message online. "It was a grind," she said, "because we created virtual Jane and virtual Jane could do Zooms and Zoom interviews and attend conferences every day."
An ongoing effort to restore watersheds and wetlands in the province is creating a healthier future for British Columbians by mitigating the impacts of climate change on communities, strengthening ecosystems and securing quality drinking water. Premier John Horgan highlighted the Budget 2022 commitment of $30 million to continue to improve B.C.’s watersheds.
In a rooftop greenhouse near downtown Denver, cash crops are thriving on hydroponic life support. Arugula. Chard. Escarole. Cabbage. “And basil,” said Altius Farms CEO Sally Herbert, plucking a bright leaf. “Which you really should taste. Because it’s magnificent.” The vertical farm is one of many Colorado models for coping with increasing water scarcity in the western United States, as climate change makes droughts more frequent and more severe.
