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.
As climate change persists, researchers and stakeholders are working together to come up with nature based solutions to damage in urban communities caused by extreme weather. Nature Force, a project led by Ducks Unlimited in partnership with 15 property and casualty insurance companies, aims to use natural infrastructure, such as wetlands, to restore and protect high-risk areas from flooding.
New Acre Project, an initiative delivered by ALUS that supports purpose-driven organizations to fund grassroots environmental stewardship projects, announces new funding from BEF (formerly, the Bonneville Environmental Foundation). The funding will support 100 New Acre™ project acres in Alberta, Canada, powered in part by Coors Seltzer’s mission to help protect and restore Canada’s waters.
The world is currently experiencing an unprecedented climate and ecological crisis. Climate change is warming our planet and altering the water cycle, resulting in extreme temperatures, flooding, droughts, and wildfires. It's also contributing to the destruction of our planet's rich biodiversity, which negatively impacts our communities and our quality of life, and threatens the livelihoods of Canadians who rely on it. Protecting more nature across Canada directly addresses these challenges.
Despite the increase in flooding and the resulting damage to properties, homes and livelihoods, many Canadians are still unprepared and don’t know how to mitigate flood risk. A recent survey commissioned by RSA Canada and WWF-Canada found that 37% of Canadians don’t know how to protect their homes from flooding. The biggest awareness gap was among 18-34-year-olds at 54%, compared to 40% of 35-54-year-olds and 23% of those aged 55+.
