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.
Some communities, such as Umiujaq, are particularly at risk to be impacted by beaver expansion because of the geography, says Mikhaela Neelin, director of the Nunavik Hunting Fishing Trapping Association. Umiujaq is one of the communities located just north of the treeline — the edge of the habitat where trees are capable of growing. "In the tundra and a lot of regions, they're seeing beavers appear there for the first time," said Neelin, adding that the consequences are a mixed bag.
Without a doubt, water is the most abundant resource on Earth. After all, it covers over 70% of the planet - yet despite this we are facing a looming crisis as a species. Climate change, global conflict and overpopulation are just some of the factors that are devastating the water supply in many areas around the world. It means that two billion people - one-quarter of the human population - are without access to safe drinking water. As the world's population creeps ever closer to eight billion, attention is being focused on developing technologies that can help address this before it is too late.
The world is going to have huge difficulty coping with the crises of the 21st century. Covid-19 has already shown that. More frequent future pandemics, the looming climate catastrophe, environmental collapse, the ongoing Sixth Mass Extinction with increasingly rapid loss of species, water wars, overpopulation, human mass migration – all these await mankind. Climate change, just to take the most obvious example, is a vastly more immense, much more complicated problem that requires navigation of complex scientific analysis and the imposition of painful policies internationally to ensure collective survival.
