The Globe and Mail - Globe Climate: Alberta’s drought is testing the limits of its water-licensing regime
Published by the Globe and Mail, this week’s ‘Globe Climate’ newsletter by investigative reporter and data journalist Matthew McClearn, in collaboration with energy reporter Emma Graney from The Globe and Mail, explores Alberta's current drought crisis and the intricacies of water allocation in western North America, and brings together a wide range of other news highlighting pressing climate issues across Canada and the world.
The Globe and Mail - B.C. to provide $80-million to help farmers cope with drought
Published by The Globe and Mail, this article from British Columbia highlights the concerns of farmers like Werner Stump, who face another dry season following unprecedented drought last year. As Vice-President of the BC Cattleman’s Association, Stump emphasizes the pivotal role of water for agriculture, expressing gratitude for the provincial government's $80 million investment to address water management challenges.
The Conversation - Arctic rivers face big changes with a warming climate, permafrost thaw and an accelerating water cycle − the effects will have global consequences
This recent article, published by Michael A. Rawlins and Ambarish Karmalkar on The Conversation, highlights how arctic rivers are undergoing significant transformations due to the warming climate and permafrost thaw, with far-reaching implications for both the Arctic region and the world.
The Tyee - Alberta’s Brutal Water Reckoning
This recent article, published by Andrew Nikiforuk at The Tyee highlights the escalating water crisis in Alberta, driven by climate change-induced droughts and dwindling water resources. With reduced snowpack accumulations, melting glaciers, and critical water shortages across river basins, the province faces severe challenges in maintaining water supply for its residents and industries.
CTV News - Why drought on the prairies is making your steak more expensive
This recent article, highlighted by CTV News, sheds light on the significant impact of consecutive drought years on North America's beef industry, leading to higher retail prices for consumers. Ranchers, faced with depleted grasslands and rising input costs, have been forced to downsize their herds, resulting in a reduction in overall beef production.
The Western Producer - Communities feel pinch as river levels plummet
This recent article featured on The Western Producer highlights the mounting stress that climate change is exerting on Canada’s water resources, and the mounting need for a consistent national approach to addressing water vulnerability. Communities along the South Saskatchewan River are dealing with depleting water levels, which is caused the town of Leader, Saskatchewan to declare a state of emergency because they couldn't get enough water from the river for their town.
C1W Feature in the Water Canada January/February 2024 eMagazine - Mapping Water’s Future: Canada1Water offers tools for community focused sustainable water management
Water Canada's latest edition shines a spotlight on the groundbreaking Canada1Water project, offering readers an in-depth look into its mission and potential impact, as well as for the increasing need of an accurate, integrated, forward-looking model to help resolve uncertainties and set sustainable strategies. To find out how Canada1Water aims to fill that gap, we encourage you to read this months issue of Water Canada, featuring Andrew Kirkwood.
The Hill Times - Canadian Drought Monitor reports extreme or severe drought conditions in large areas of British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan
“Periodic droughts are a normal occurrence in the semi-arid Prairies. Yet there is a new factor that may makes them both more frequent and more severe: climate change. This has big implications for Canada's potential to feed itself, and to help meet a food-short world in the years ahead. This will require much greater attention to water security, soil health and to sustainable agricultural practices, including regenerative agriculture.”
C1W Feature in the Winter 2024 Edition of Ground Water Canada – Water Project in Stretch Run
“The Canada1Water project is a good start in evaluating the dangers that climate change poses to water resources and to Canadian society at large. The groundwater industry, including water resources engineers, policy and decision makers, community planners, and so on – they will all benefit from a comprehensive modelling and data framework that will enable us all to mitigate impacts and adapt more effectively to the changing reality brought on by climate change.”
Bringing the future into focus
As Canada1Water’s inaugural simulation results come in, Steve Frey of Aquanty says early signs already point to some potentially big groundwater changes for certain parts of the country.
Why continental scale is such a big deal
Jeremy Chen developed the first-ever single hydrologic model of Canada more than 10 years ago as a PhD candidate. We talked to him about how modelling has changed since his groundbreaking achievement — and why next-gen continental-scale models like C1W are so important.
Opening the doors to discovery
Aquanty climate scientist Andre Erler is eager for the results from Canada1Water’s simulations — and just as excited to see what other researchers do with them once they’re publicly available.
Serving up a wealth of water data
Aquanty’s Graham Stonebridge took the opportunity of the December 2023 C1W progress meeting to share how the project’s web team is building a portal that can meet the full range of potential user needs.
In Canada’s North, water is life
Canada is a famously vast country. For remote jurisdictions with limited resources, coming by accurate data on groundwater, surface water and climate is hard — never mind building models and simulations. Scientists Ryan Connon and Isabelle de Grandpré in the Northwest Territories see a chance for Canada1Water to change that.
The Globe and Mail - Loss of snow and impact on water supplies tied to climate change
A new study - highlighted in The Globe and Mail - reveals the impact that climate change has played on snowpack across the Northern Hemisphere, and the accelerating shift toward an increasingly snowless future. The implications for regional hydrology are not uniform across Canada or any other nation (some regions may experience more snowpack, others less), but it is clear that changing snowpack dynamics will certainly result in changes to the overall behaviour of hydrologic systems and exacerbate water resources vulnerability in the coming decades.