Prime Minister Justin Trudeau repeated promises Tuesday to update legislation that governs water use while formally announcing the Canada Water Agency is to be headquartered in Manitoba's capital city. Trudeau said his government's first priority is to update the act regulating the use and development of the resource in Canada.
Dingell, Great Lakes Task Force, Urge President Biden to Emphasize Importance of Canadian Investment in Great Lakes
Congresswoman Debbie Dingell (MI-06), co-chair of the Great Lakes Task Force, sent a bipartisan letter with several colleagues to President Biden this week, urging the president to highlight the importance of Canadian investment in our shared Great Lakes resources during his upcoming visit to the country later this month. “The Great Lakes contain one-fifth of the world’s fresh surface water, providing drinking water for more than 30 million Americans and Canadians, supporting a $6 trillion regional economy, and providing habitat for a host of fish and wildlife,” the lawmakers wrote. “Through partnerships between the United States and Canada, sustained investments are critical to clean up toxic Areas of Concern, address the threat of invasive species, restore habitats, reduce harmful algal blooms, and mitigate other threats to the Great Lakes.
Why do oceans matter for climate change?
As the climate crisis gets worse, oceans — the planet’s greatest carbon sink — can no longer be overlooked. Spanning 70 per cent of the globe, oceans have absorbed nearly a third of the planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions caused by humans and 90 per cent of the excess heat those gases create. The heat stored in the Earth’s entire atmosphere is equal to what’s stored in the top few metres of our oceans. If that wasn’t enough, oceans produce more than 50 per cent of the planet’s oxygen and regulate our climate and weather patterns.
Climate change now considered one of top threats facing Canadian children: report
The latest in a series of annual reports on challenges facing children and youth in Canada is identifying climate change as a top threat for the first time. Released on Wednesday (Sept. 7), the fifth annual Raising Canada report says the mental and physical impacts of the world’s rapidly changing climate, as well as the disproportionate effect it has on marginalized and racialized kids, now deserves greater attention. Air quality is worsening, leading to an uptick in bronchitis and asthma among children and youth, while an increase in the occurrence and intensity of extreme weather events also puts them at risk, report authors found in their literature review. The impacts are particularly harsh for children with intersecting inequities.
IISD Experimental Lake Area receive major funding
The IISD Experimental Lake Area has received $11.7 million, over the next five years, from the Government of Canada through the Canada Foundation for Innovation’s (CFI) Major Science Initiatives Fund. “This funding is essential to driving forward our research on threats to Canada’s precious fresh water—from microplastics to drugs in our water and much more,” said Richard Florizone, IISD’s President and CEO in a prepared release.
Quebec river granted legal rights as part of global 'personhood' movement
With its kilometres of rapids and deep blue waters winding through Quebec's Côte-Nord region, the Magpie River has long been a culturally significant spot for the Innu of Ekuanitshit. Now the river, a majestic, world-renowned whitewater rafting destination, has been granted legal personhood status in a bid to protect it from future threats, such as hydro development. Its new status means the body of water could theoretically sue the government. On Feb. 16, the regional municipality of Minganie and the Innu Council of Ekuanitshit adopted separate but similar resolutions granting the river nine legal rights, including the right to flow, to maintain its biodiversity and the right to take legal action.
Healthy rivers: How DNA tool can help keep tabs on freshwater quality
Cyberattack on Florida water treatment plant raises alarms in Canada
Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri told a news conference Monday that someone remotely accessed a computer for the City of Oldsmar water treatment system on Friday and briefly increased the amount of sodium hydroxide, also known as lye, by a factor of more than 100. The Tampa Bay Times said the chemical is used in small amounts to control the acidity of water, but it’s also a corrosive compound commonly found in household cleaning supplies such as liquid drain cleaners.
A TALE OF THREE WATERSHEDS: WHAT WE KNOW — AND DON’T KNOW — ABOUT THE HEALTH OF CANADA’S FRESHWATER
Canada is famously home to 20 percent of the world’s freshwater — but how well are we stewarding this supply? WWF-Canada recently reassessed the health of our country’s 25 watersheds to better understand how they’re responding to threats from pollution, habitat loss and climate change. Our 2020 Watershed Reports found that 26 per cent of Canadas’s 167 sub-watersheds received a score of Good or Very Good, which is good or very good news! But what’s bad, or possibly very bad, is that nearly 60 per cent of these sub-watersheds received no score at all because they remain Data Deficient. In other words, we just don’t know. This lack of data is concerning as we need a complete picture to determine which areas need dedicated efforts to protect our freshwater ecosystems.