Climate change, water are inextricably linked
No one can live without water. We like to think we’re blessed with an abundance of clean water in Canada, but we really don’t have a much larger sustainable supply of water than most places.
We can only sustainably use the amount that runs off on land. What we do to the environment – and not just to the water itself – affects everything from the amount of water we have to the quality of our water supplies.
Climate change is already having a tremendous impact on water supplies, shrinking glaciers and causing more frequent droughts and flooding. It’s an issue Canada’s provincial premiers must contend with when they meet in Winnipeg for the Council of the Federation from Aug. 4-6. The premiers plan to discuss the state of our country’s freshwater supplies and the impact climate change is having on them.
A Senate committee report from 2005, Water in the West: Under Pressure, puts the issue in perspective:
“Climate change means that precipitation is becoming less reliable, and more of it is expected to come as rain rather than as snow. What snow there is will melt sooner. There are likely to be more big storms and more severe droughts,” the report states.
The report, which was based on expert testimony, also notes that summer flows in many Alberta rivers are down by about 40 per cent from where they were a century ago.
http://dailygleaner.canadaeast.com/opinion/article/1156058
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