Could The Federal Government Be A Tad Defensive?

From the Liberal Report on water contamination by tar sands mining entitled The Hidden Dimension: Water and Oil Sands: 

No should one underestimate the intensity of the reaction that any suggestion the industry is contaminating water in the region can provoke among oil sands promoters and defenders - even those in the normally staid realm of the public service.  For example, Preston McEachern, head of science, research and innovation with Alberta Environment, was recedently forced to issue a retraction and apology to two respected scientists, Kevin Tomoney and Peter Lee, for alleging they "lied in their research about the oil sands industry" in relation to its impact on Alberta's waer resources.   The same defensiveness was observed when federal environment minster Jim Prentice, answeringa a question from Liberal M.P. Francis Scarpaleggia in the House of Commons about research by world-renowned water scientist Dr. David Schindler that proved the industry is contributing to contamination of the Athabasca River, described Dr. Schindler's findings as mere "allegations."

http://thetyee.ca/News/2010/08/19/LiberalTarSandsReport/

The Liberal report found that industry developments are indeed contaminating the Athabasca River; that the framework for protecting the river is based on "bureaucratic compromise" as opposed to rigorous science-based policy; that there is inadequate baseline data and studies on the project's impact on groundwater;.... and finally that the federal government "has devolved and diluted" its water monitoring responsibilities.

Now we dismiss published peer reviewed studies as mere allegations?    Wow!!!!  

Water Woes

http://www.ogc.gov.bc.ca/documents/directives/dir_2010-05_Suspension_of_Surface_Water_Withdrawals.pdf

SUSPENSION OF SURFACE WATER WITHDRAWALS (PEACE RIVER)
REQUIREMENT:
Effective immediately, the BC Oil and Gas Commission (Commission) is requiring suspension of waterwithdrawal from rivers, lakes and streams, previously approved by the Commission under Section 8 of the Water Act, for the following basins within the Peace River Watershed.

I said climate change would affect everything we do.  What if this summer's  "drought" bcomes the new normal ?  We're going to have to reduce personal and industrial wataer consumption in the future - why not start now?

Climate Change Will Change Everything

More accurately, the effects of climate change will change everything.  For example, from the pages of that environmental rag, the Globe and Mail, an article in today's edition (Friday, August 13, 2010 page B3) describes the problems Brookfield Renewable Power fund is having.  The fund has

had a dismal 2010 as near-record-low precipitation last winter and spring in Ontario and Quebec has deprived it of the water levels needed to turn its turbines.  The winter's sparse snowfall and the dry spring are posing challenges for hydroelectricity producers acrosss Central Canada, drawing down Hydro-Quebec's massive reservoirs...and hammering production and financial results of investor-owned power companies. ....still, he said the company is in a strong financial position to weather the drought, and is maintaining its distributions to unit holders in anticipation of a return to more normal precipitation levels.

Brookfield Renewable Power Fund will be in trouble if  precipitation levels have changed their patterns, and this "drought" is the new normal. (Just ask the Australians about a new normal - drought, that is.)  Climate change models predict that rainfall patterns will shift  -  be more unpredictable  - and more variable as the temperature climbs.

It might be a good idea to plan for increased variability in rainfall patterns among other things  - and to take meaningful steps to mitigate the effects fo climate change.  It will take years - decades - to change the  physical infrastructure of our lives - so we had better start now.    Continuing denial is not a good option - if one is concerned about the long term viability of humnaity.

Water Shortages in The Tar Sands

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/energy-and-resources/oil-sands-report-warns-of-investor-risk/article1571659/

Oil sands companies could soon run out of water and, in years to come, find themselves with a shrinking market for their product, according to grim new research.  Under current expansion plans, companies could run out of adequate winter water supplies as early as 2014, estimates the report, which was prepared for Boston-based investor and environmental advocacy group Ceres....“All of this should give investors pause as they consider anteing up for what has become a $200-billion bet,” said Douglas Kogan, director of climate risk management for research group Riskmetrics Group, which wrote the report. “There may be safer places to put their money, and certainly more environmentally sustainable ones.”

I predicted this: not the shrinking markets  -  the water shortages.  Check your RRSP and make sure you're not investing in the tar sands.  And nag your pension plan administrators regarding the issue.  Not only will you be environmentally responsible, you'll make more money investing elsewhere.  Where ??? Run proposed investments through my link titled "Corporate Environmental and Social Reports."

Pray for Rain

http://www2.news.gov.bc.ca/news_releases_2009-2013/2010ENV0024-000542.htm

Environment Minister Barry Penner says below average snowpacks across British Columbia indicate significant potential for low stream flows and water-supply shortages to develop this summer. As a result, Penner says the B.C. government is developing a 2010 Drought Response Plan to guide government actions for low stream flows and drought conditions. Given the current low snowpack conditions, notice of potential drought is included in this bulletin, although should wet weather materialize in May and June, it could reduce the risk.

Forest fires, anyone?  Remember 2003?  Calling these weather conditions "drought" implies they are temporary.  Meet the new normal as climate change worsens.  I'm very glad the City of Kamloops voted in favour of water meters:  we're some of the piggiest comsumers of water in the world.  And, we cannot afford to waste water and have our usage exceed the natural replenishment of the acquifers and water systems.  Our well being depends upon the well being of the  environment - not the other way around.

Speaking of Climate Change and Water

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/regional-news/Warm+conditions+signal+threat+2010+drought/2658949/story.html

B.C's provincial environment Minister Barry Penner advised British Columbians on Monday to brace for possible drought in many areas of the province this summer following two months of unusually warm and dry weather.  It could also mean an earlier start to the forest-fire season, Penner warned.

Snowpacks in river basins across B.C. are below normal levels and with only four to six weeks of winter remaining, time is running out to make up the difference.

If the situation persists, it could pose serious problems for cattle ranchers who need both rain to foster vegetation growth and snowpack to refill lakes and stock watering ponds that have not yet recovered from drought conditions in the summer of 2009.  Snowpacks range from 65 per cent to 95 per cent of normal, according to a bulletin issued by the ministry's river forecast centre.

"I want to give advance notice to local governments, to individuals as well as industry, that we may have some water supply challenges this summer, and it's a good time to start looking at ways we can reduce our consumption over the summer months," Penner said.

Didn't Gwynne Dyer and others suggest wars might be fought about access to water as climate change alters rainfall patterns?   I hope we are a  long way away from armed conflict - but I did overhear (OK - I eavesdropped) vendors at the local farmers' market discussing  verbal conflicts about water rights last summer.   2010 looks as if it will be worse at the moment - perhaps we should begin reducing greenhouse gas emssions in a meaningful manner and working on plans to adapt to it.   Just a thought....

The Story of Bottled Water

Ethical Investing

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/more-carrot-than-stick/article1496341/

Shareholders of Suncor Energy Inc. will soon know more about the costs of carbon in the company’s business. ... Enbridge Inc. will provide additional disclosure about its Northern Gateway oil-pipeline project. These Calgary companies didn’t reach these decisions independently, however. In each case, the commitment to expanded disclosure about environmental issues came after talks with executives at Ethical Funds Co., an institutional investor with social responsibility as part of its core mission.  The efforts of Ethical Funds illustrate a growing place for environmental concerns in the corporate governance movement.....Now activist institutional investors are asking to bring carbon costs and water quality to the annual shareholder ballot.

Businesses that ignore climate change ignore both opportunities and risks.  Firstly, they ignore outright threats  to their business - such as the risk that they won't have available water when they need it. ( Just ask the Merritt rancher that was isntructed to turn off his irrigation pumps last fall because the kokanee were spawning.)  Secondly, they ignore the opportunity to positon themselves as environmental leaders and attract more customers or investors by doing so.

We Should Install Water Meters In Kamloops

I have the greatest respect for Anita Strong: however,  I feel she has not considered all of the ramifications of her opposition to water meters.  She wrote to the editor of the Kamloops This Week on March 5, 2010 expressing her distress at the potential installation of meters in Kamloops.  (Water meters were rejected in a referendum held in 2001. ) She asked "What is the meaning of the referendum results of the previous administration? Nothing? "  I'm wondering for what period of time  a vote should  be binding? For example, the law on slavery was voted on several times in Britain  until it was repealed - after said law  was upheld the first time. Would Ms. Strong suggest that the issue should never have been reviewed after it was upheld the first time?  Should slavery still be legal? Of course not - times change and no one approves of slavery in  2010.  The referendum rejecting water meters was held almost ten years ago - I think the zeitgeist has changed.   It is at least fair to ask the question : would the installation of water meters benefit Kamloops?

I feel it would.

The City of Kamloops states that a Kamloopsian consumes 800 liters of water per day.  800 liters!!!!!!Swedes use just  200 liters per person per day - and the average British Columbian uses just over 400 liters of water per day .  In 2004, the average Canadian used 329 liters of water per day according to the Real Estate Institute of Canada.  Using all that water has environmental impacts .  We return less water than we remove to the ecosystem - and the water returned is of a lower quality than that withdrawn. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, that bastion of environmental concern, states “high [water] consumption places stress on rivers, lakes and groundwater aquifers and may require dams and flooding with serious ecological impacts.”

And then the spectre of climate change rattles its chains. 
http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/epd/climate/about/impacts-bc.htm

Historic data suggest that many parts of British Columbia are already starting to experience some of the impacts of climate change. ....Although warmer temperatures may be appealing, seemingly small changes in climate can have significant ecological, social, and economic consequences. For example, slightly warmer [winters]  have contributed to the devastating mountain pine beetle infestation in the B.C. interior. There are growing concerns about summer water shortages in the agriculturally-significant Okanagan region. The rate of global warming projected for the 21st century is much faster than observed changes during the 20th century, and likely faster than at any time during the past 10,000 years.  Rising air temperatures will reduce the amount of precipitation that falls as snow in the winter and in the mountain regions, resulting in lower river levels during the dry summer period. Higher temperatures in the summer will increase the need for water — for people, aquatic life, and irrigation in agriculture. What’s more, the increased heat will heighten the evaporation of water, leading to water loss. This will make it even harder to ensure adequate water supplies.

Kelowna began installing water meters in the middle 1990s.  Their average water consumption per capital per day has dropped to 400 liters per day since then.  The installation of water meters in Kamloops combined with educational programs would drop water consumption in Kamloops to similar levels.  Not only would that be good for the environment, it would benefit our pocketbooks. The water treatment plant cost millions: increasing its capacity would cost millions more.  Wouldn't it make more sense to use less water instead of squandering our tax dollars?

Are Profits The Most Important Thing?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/feb/18/worlds-top-firms-environmental-damage

The cost of pollution and other damage to the natural environment caused by the world's biggest companies would wipe out more than one-third of their profits if they were held financially accountable, a major unpublished study for the United Nations has found.  The report comes amid growing concern that no one is made to pay for most of the use, loss and damage of the environment, which is reaching crisis proportions in the form of pollution and the rapid loss of freshwater, fisheries and fertile soils.....Another major concern is the risk that companies simply run out of resources they need to operate, said Andrea Moffat, of the US-based investor lobby group Ceres, whose members include more than 80 funds with assets worth more than US$8tn. An example was the estimated loss of 20,000 jobs and $1bn last year for agricultural companies because of water shortages in California.

Are profits the most important thing in the world?  More important than healthy ecoysystems?  Just in case no one else has noticed, I'd like to point out that the economy is a subset of the environment, not the other way around.   We have no Planet B  - so let's work for a velvet climate revolution  - a world that is sustainable and more democratic than  the one we live in now. 

Climate Change and Water

You would think that anyone who has been blethering on about climate change as much as I have would know about the connections between water, climate change, and energy usage.  However, I did not until I found a paper entitled Climate Change and the Global Water Crisis: What Businessess Need to Know and Do at                           http://www.pacinst.org/reports/ungc_climate_water/index.htm

Water  is used for extracting, refining, processing, and transporting all forms of energy, from coal to solar.  Large volumes of water are used as cooling water in conventional thermal generating plants. Energy production can also cause signicant water pollution.  A much less recognized connection between water and energy are the vast amounts of energy used to treat, distribute, and use water. Water is heavy . . . .Energy needs are particularly high for places where water is .... piped over long distances and steep terrain.

Climate change will increase water demand due to droughts; reduce the quality of available because of sea level rises and extreme flooding (does anyone remember the lack of drinking water in Haiti after Hurricane Jeanne dumped two meters of water in 36 hours?;) and melt the glaciers that supply water to China, Pakistan, Indian , and western Canada .

The authors of the paper suggest that companies should manage their risk in various ways.  To me, the most important is that businesses 

seek opportunities for collective action as water and energy are connected to social, cultural, and environmental issues ... by pooling resources and bringing together a wide range of expertise and knowledge through partnerships for a common goal.

A velvet climate revolution will require us all to pool our knowledge and expertise in pursuit of the common goal: survival.  And presumaly, we all wish for more than a mere Hobbesian survival:  we all want a  socially and environmentally just culture living within  limits imposed by the environement.   Cooperation is and will be absolutely necessary - between people, nations, and businesses.

Dawa Steven Sherpa Explains Why Dealing With Climate Change Is Important

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/video/2009/dec/10/copenhagen-sherpa-himalayas

You have to help us because it is a problem you have brought to us. When you have a quarter of humanity who are going to face a serious shortage of water, then that is not just about climate change and environment,  that is a humanitarian crisis .  That's also security.   When 1.3 billion people see, because of the actions of the west historically  they are being disenfranchised,  then there is going to be a lot of hostility towards them in the future.

Dawa Steven Sherpa explains that climate change is visible in Nepal right now in the video at the above link.  He does not mention that some  of the 1.3 billion people who depend upon glacial melt water from the Himalayas live in countries that possess nuclear weapons. China, India, Pakistan ...... Do you really think the leaders of those countries will watch their populations die of starvation without doing something?   Do you thin I'm being overdramatic? No water in the rivers equals no crop growth equals anger ....

BC Government's Position on Climate Change

http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/epd/climate/about/impacts-bc.htm
From the above site:

Future Climate Change and Impacts in British Columbia

The rate of global warming projected for the 21st century is much faster than observed changes during the 20th century, and likely faster than at any time during the past 10,000 years. The actual rate of warming will depend on how fast greenhouse gases continue to accumulate in the atmosphere, and how the climate system responds. Although climate change appears to be gradual at the global scale, atmospheric warming may in future trigger abrupt changes in regional climate. For this reason, past trends do not necessarily predict how biophysical systems will respond in future.

The best available science suggests that the impacts for B.C. in the 21st century will include:
•a 2-5 0C increase in average annual temperature;
•increased river flood risks in the spring and coastal flooding associated with storm surges;
•glacial retreat in the south; reduced winter snow pack and earlier snowmelt; contributing to reduced summer water supply; and
•increased stress on species at risk; shifts in the geographical range of vegetation, including economically important forest species;
•increased river temperatures and stress on salmon; and
•reduced summer soil moisture and increase in forest fire risk.
Water Resources: Rising air temperatures will reduce the amount of precipitation that falls as snow in the winter and in the mountain regions, resulting in lower river levels during the dry summer period. Higher temperatures in the summer will increase the need for water — for people, aquatic life, and irrigation in agriculture. What’s more, the increased heat will heighten the evaporation of water, leading to water loss. This will make it even harder to ensure adequate water supplies.

It may be a good idea to get accustomed to conserving water now!

Himalyan Glaciers Are Melting Too

http://www.asiasociety.org/onthinnerice
Click play on Melting Glaciers On the Roof of the World for a disturbing look at how glaciers are receding in Asia.  Climate change is a fact ........ glaciers and polar ice cpas are all going.
But so what if glaciers are melting - what difference does it make? Well, 2 billion people depend on the meltwater from Himalayan glaciers for their basic needs.... Oh so what - that's halfway around the world - a long way from North America.  OK then  - look at a map of Canada - what feeds the rivers running east from the Rockies into Alberta and Saskatchewan?  Bingo!   Glaciers .. and they're melting too. Gee - no one depends on those rivers for drinking or irrigation or industry or fishing, do they?  (Doesn't the Athabasca flow right through Fort Mcmurray? And doesn't tar sand extraction use enormous quantities of water?)  Hmmmnnnnn.... No worries then ......we can continue with Canadian policy  - ignore climate change for another twenty years.

On the other hand, if you think climate change is an immediate concern, email or write the Prime Minister.  Tell him you  don't want to see the prairies waterless in twenty years.

Canada's Rivers At Risk

The World Wildlife Fund has drawn Canadian's attention to more water woes. By focussing of water flow, rather than on global rankings based upon volume, the WWF has revealed serious problems with Canada's rivers. They sate "evidence shows that climate change will result in - and indeed is laready causing - significant changes to water cycles globally and locally. " You may remember that returning sockeye runs in the Fraser were so low in 2009 that commercial fishing was banned. So, in the face of more bad news, should we curl up in the fetal postion? No. The WWF states:
"Canada ....still has the opportunity to avert a national water crisis by keeping rivers flowing, for nature and for people - but only if we take immediate action." WWF recommends taking agressive action on climate change and keeping water use within nature's limits. I've added links that assist in finding one's MP or MLA to my blogroll: please email your MP and tell her(or him) that Canadians want REAL action on climate change.