A Somber "Global Warning" for Manitoba
by Larry Powell
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| Lk. Winnipeg photo - Greenpeace |
It's believed to be the first time such a research group has so clearly spelled out a link between global warming and such obvious consequences as the massive and frequent flooding which has occurred on the Red River over the past century or so.
The Institute has done what it calls "a prairie-wide cumulative stress analysis" of prairie water resources. It finds a significant part of southern Manitoba, including much of the Red River Valley, suffers from a high demand for water, a high risk of damage to water quality and, despite the catastrophic flooding events, an actual shortage of supply!
And, even with more frequent ands severe rainstorms, the IISD predicts problems for agriculture due to increasing drought and negative water quality impacts.
This, it explains, is because these irregular and extreme storms will produce heavy nutrient loads and longer periods of low flow in streams and rivers. (Nutrients such as phosphorous have, for years, been lending to huge growths of algae in Lake Winnipeg. The algae, in turn, clog the lake and rob it of oxygen, harming fish life.)
The Vermillion River in
Dauphin, MB.
A PinP photo
Increasing problems brought on by climate change will also bring increasing tension over the widespread practice by farmers of digging drainage ditches on their land to get rid of excess water. It says such drainage conflicts with the idea of adapting to climate change by storing runoff water for use later.
In an interview with the Winnipeg Free Press, the Institute's lead researcher on the project, Dr. Hank Venema, said, "It's in the agricultural industry's best interests not to do this, given the nature of climate-change projections.
"But those guys are under extreme pressures to squeeze profits out of increasingly small margins," he told the paper.
The Institute is also critical of short-term measures like government money for drainage projects, flood protection and even disaster assistance after flooding, when it might have been better used for long-term management and governance of watersheds.
The study suggests there should be a major shift away from what it calls our present "hard path" approach to water management. This places the emphasis on big, expensive water projects, which are centrally managed, to meet whatever the demand might be.
The Institute calls instead for a "soft path" philosophy, which would develop more evenly distributed, relatively small-scale energy sources. Usually, conserving and carefully managing the demand side play significant roles in "soft-path" systems.
Despite this gloomy and uncertain era of climate change we are now living through, the Institute sounds this note of optimism in its summary.
"We propose that Manitoba is now on the cusp of a new era of water policy (the Adaptation Era), where the nature of climate change impacts makes the rationale for reintegrating across the land-water divide obvious. Increased awareness that climate change exacerbates Lake Winnipeg eutrophication will reinforce high-level political commitment to an integrated response." l.p.
"We propose that Manitoba is now on the cusp of a new era of water policy (the Adaptation Era), where the nature of climate change impacts makes the rationale for reintegrating across the land-water divide obvious. Increased awareness that climate change exacerbates Lake Winnipeg eutrophication will reinforce high-level political commitment to an integrated response." l.p.
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PLEASE ALSO READ: "It's Climate Change, Stupid!" here
EDITOR'S NOTE: The IISD has, I believe, produced a valuable report here. Let's hope the government is listening. My only regret is that the Institute seems to emphasize "adaptation" (to climate change) to the exclusion of "mitigation." (i.e. aggressive steps to reduce the production of greenhouse gases which have, after all, been the cause of these problems, in the first place.) Surely, only through a combination of the former and the latter can we provide future generations with a more secure, sustainable and livable world. l.p.
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