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.
To give residents easy access to drinking water this summer, the City of Ottawa has installed a water fountain in the city's Chinatown neighbourhood that attaches to a fire hydrant much like a fire hose. Ottawa's water services department noticed during last summer's heat waves in western Canada people loved having drinking fountains and misting stations run off the cities' fire hydrants — so in the fall, they decided to recreate the idea here.
UBC experts are available to comment on flooding and extreme weather, in light of a state of emergency in Kelowna and other parts of western Canada. Climate science and natural disasters Dr. Susan Day Professor, Department of Forest Resources Management Email: susan.day@ubc.ca Phone: 604-822-6652 Interview Language(s): English: Urban forests, Urban soils, stormwater, water relations, plant response to climate stress to climate stress
With hits like the "Roughest Neck Around" that celebrate oil workers, Canadian country rocker Corb Lund might not be an obvious choice as a campaigner against fossil fuel expansion. But the music star has taken on an unexpected new role, as a leader of efforts to stop new open-pit coal mines in western Canada's iconic Rocky Mountains. Alberta’s province, dubbed "Canada's Texas" by political scientists for its petroleum industry and conservative political culture, has been hit by the cancellation of the planned Keystone XL pipeline to the United States, as US President Joe Biden's administration steps up action on climate change.
Snaking beneath Regina's streets are 600 kilometres of water mains built with asbestos-cement. That's about 60 per cent of some 1,000 kilometres of the mains that deliver water to homes around the city. Increasingly, some scientists and communities are questioning the wisdom in having drinking water flowing through pipes constructed from asbestos fibres.
