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.
Water cremation is set to be made available for the first time in the UK. The process, known as resomation, uses a mix of potassium hydroxide and water to break down human remains in what is billed as a more sustainable option. It takes four hours - the bones remain, and are powdered then returned to loved ones in a similar way to ashes, in an urn. Resomation is used in Canada, South Africa and many US states.
Have you noticed lower water levels in your favourite creek? Are you worried about your community’s water supply? Do you have questions about how climate change will impact local fish populations? If you have concerns around water in your region, you’re not alone. The Creston Valley is vulnerable to climate change which is altering our water cycle. Disappearing glaciers, record-breaking summer temperatures, prolonged dry periods and extreme flooding all have serious repercussions for our communities and ecosystems.
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."
The water cycle is a delicate balance. In natural settings, water from rainfall or snowmelt can soak into soil or runoff to streams. Some of the water is stored in natural underground reservoirs—called groundwater. Plants use up the water to grow, and then new precipitation refills the groundwater—a process called groundwater recharge. In dry climates, plants use up most of the water that enters the soil. So how does the groundwater get refilled? For Canadian prairies the answer is found in depressions located in the landscape. In these depressions, runoff from the surrounding land accumulates and moves into the groundwater.
