During the Cold War Russia had created a base called the Nagurskoye airbase that included a weather station and a communications outpost in the Franz Josef Land archipelago. Originally, the runway could only handle planes that would be equivalent to the B-52 American airplane. The air base has now been expanded to include icebreaking submarine nuclear missile bombers called the Delta IV. It can have up to 12.8 megatons of nuclear firepower with only 4 missiles. Russia also possesses almost 40 icebreakers with more on the way, making it the largest fleet of icebreakers in the world.

Although this military base is the main threat to Canadian and other Western countries, Russia’s goal is to discover the untapped natural resources and new shipping routes that are being uncovered from the melting snow. According to Administrator Alexander Moiseyev, chief of Russia’s Northern Fleet,

“The complex ice conditions make it necessary to organize safe shipping, so Russia insists on a special regime of its use.”

 Russian President Vladimir Putin has cited estimates that put the value of Arctic mineral riches at $30 trillion. This is part of the first plan for Russia’s climate change mitigation in terms of lowering the threat of climate change to their country. Russia’s two-year plan to mitigate climate change has also written that there are positives to climate change, and finding the untapped reserves in the Arctic is one of them.

This has been the most activity the North Arctic has experienced and has caught the world’s attention. With Russia’s high military presence, it would be difficult for other countries to be active without conflict.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said it “increases the dangers of accidents and miscalculations and undermines the shared goal of a peaceful and sustainable future for the region. So, we have to be vigilant about that.”

Russia views the Northern Sea Route (NSR), as a domestic passageway, while other countries see it as an international passageway. Blinken has also made it clear to the Arctic Council that it is warming 2.5 times as fast as the rest of the world. According to predictions, the Arctic is assumed to be completely ice-free by 2050. The Arctic is responsible for regulating the climate for the rest of the world and absorbing dangerous UV rays the sun emits.

With current testing of the nuclear missiles Russia carries, it can have an impact on the environment if ever launched. Nuclear bombs decimate anything that is within the radius of the missile’s potential. Effects from fallout can include future genetic mutations. In this case, to be surrounded by water may have a greater impact when Russia is testing in the Arctic to the eggs and larvae of marine organisms.  The fallout can cause immense darkness [to the area] and cause plant death-causing starvation up the food chain. The Arctic already has a scheduled lack of daylight annually, and it could be made worse if the activity continues.

Authors of an article published in “The Atomic Scientist, further speculate even small-scale use of nuclear warheads could deplete the ozone layer, shorten the growing season, increase temperature, and hasten the effects of global warming.

However, despite these warnings, it seems that Russia is on a steadfast mission for economic growth regardless of the environmental costs. Though it is important to note that it is not alone in doing so and many other countries are also in the process of developing in the Arctic, including Canada. 

This story is not new in the current era of development, although there is one difference. This time people are noticing and cautioning against such a move if anything to protect a testament of time. The Arctic, stubborn, beautiful, cold, and, with hope, untouchable even by the hands of cruel progress. 

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Source: Shutterstock

Mr. Musk did it again. Tech giant has become ranked the second richest person in the world right behind Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. He jumped the ranks after Tesla stocks boomed from $7.2bn to $128bn.

Tesla is considered the most valuable car firm in the world, but manufactures only a portion of the cars that Toyota, VW, and GM make. With only a vision of growth going forward, Tesla is looking to expand in Europe as the car trends seem to be geared towards smaller vehicles.

Tesla is now considered the biggest new entrant on the S&P 500, with more than a $500bn market value, this sparked a buying frenzy into the electric giants car shares. Musk has even more exciting news as four astronauts launched off to the International Space Station by SpaceX, which is another one of Elon’s tech ventures.

Salty Treat: Don’t let moose lick your cars.

Source: Unsplash

As if this is not the most Canadian thing you have heard yet? Officials warn drivers to not let moose lick the salt on your car. The moose enjoy the road salt splashed onto cars as a treat and they are having a hard time resisting this salty snack.

Jasper National Park officials warn that this poses a great threat for moose and drivers, as it allows the animals near your car and become socialized enough to approach vehicles over time. This poses a great threat as it can cause fatal road accidents if in a collision with a moose.

Moose are especially dangerous in collisions due to their large size and they can often charge if they feel threatened – avoiding human interaction is the best for the wellbeing of wildlife. In order to protect the animals, fines of up to $25,000 can be faced for visitors found disturbing wildlife.

Jaspers National Parks spokesperson Steve Young states “Moose and cars are not a good mix. If you hit the moose with your car, you take the legs out from under it and it’s going through your windshield.” We hope this does not become a greater issue and that the moose stay away from the salty snack.

Less Kids Means…?

This week, the Guardian announced a new research survey which shows many young adults hold a pessimistic view of our future climate, and this is influencing their decision to have children.

Researchers surveyed 600 individuals between the ages of 27 and 45. Results suggest that a significant amount of people have reconsidered having children due to the grim future of climate change. More specifically, the study found that 67% of people were very or extremely concerned for the wellbeing of their potential future children in a climate apocalypse world.

One study participant said, “I feel like I can’t in good conscience bring a child into this world and force them to try and survive what may be apocalyptic conditions.”

Lead researcher, Matthew Schneider-Mayerson, of Yale-NUS College in Singapore, said that survey participants were less concerned with the carbon footprint of having children as they were with the wellbeing of the child. Schneider-Mayerson said, “The fears about the carbon footprint of having kids tended to be abstract and dry… But the fears about the lives of existing or potential children were really deep and emotional. It was often heartbreaking to pore through the responses – a lot of people really poured their hearts out.”

A 42-year-old participant wrote that 2050 would be “a hot-house hell, with wars over limited resources, collapsing civilisation, failing agriculture, rising seas, melting glaciers, starvation, droughts, floods, mudslides and widespread devastation.”

Should anyone tell them about the relationship between overpopulation and climate change?

Thermochromic Window

SOURCE: Design Boom

This week, scientists from the U.S. department of energy’s national renewable energy laboratory unveiled a new breakthrough in energy technology: the thermochromic window.

The window works by changing colour (this takes about seven seconds) to block the sun on warm days, in turn, preventing the room inside from heating up. Simultaneously, as the window changes colour, it “leads to the formation of a functioning solar cell that generates on-board power… not only would the buildings use less power, but they would also generate it.”

This technology “reduces the need for air conditioning while simultaneously generating electricity.” With 39% of all energy in the U.S going to cooling residential and commercial buildings, this is an energy breakthrough.

While an interesting idea, I have some questions.

Not only is “natural light” a selling feature in houses, an increase in natural light in one’s home has proven to have numerous mental and physical health benefits including reducing seasonal depression, aiding in sleep, and improving overall happiness levels. With tinted windows preventing sunlight from entering a home, I wonder if this is such a great idea?  

White Giraffe Sighting & Efforts to Keep it Safe

Source: CBC News

An extremely rare white giraffe has been fitted with a tracking device for its protection after its family was killed by poachers. The giraffe currently resides at the Ishaqbini Hirola Conservancy in southeast Kenya and has a rare skin condition (leucism) which caused partial loss of pigmentation on the skin. The Northern Rangelands Trust said in a statement this Tuesday that the giraffe was fitted with a tracking device for its own protection – so rangers can monitor its movement on a daily basis. The trust says it is the world’s only white giraffe, although according to National Geographic (NatGeo),  another one was spotted in Tanzania in 2015.

The unusual coloration makes the giraffe extremely vulnerable to poachers in the wilderness. According to the trust, two other white giraffes in the conservancy, a female and her calf, were killed by poachers back in March and concerns are mounting for the remaining animal. Giraffes are being hunted for their tails, pelt, bones and meat. NatGeo published an article a while back about poachers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo hunting giraffes for their tails as they are thought to be a status symbol – leaving the body behind.

Giraffes are slowly disappearing worldwide. The African Wildlife Foundation estimates the species has lost 40 percent of its population in just 30 years, and recent reports show poaching and wildlife trafficking are contributing to this decline. Hopefully the tracker will keep this one alive.

How UK chicken is linked to deforestation in Brazil  

The WTF: The Week This Friday Vol. 26 appeared first on A\J.

Municipal transit systems have been heavily criticized in the past for failing to connect people in growing suburban developments, lacking efficiency in dense urban areas, or simply not having enough ridership to make a difference. Rachel Brown, a recent graduate working in the sustainable transportation sector, had some of these feelings growing up; “As soon as I had access to a car, transit wasn’t my main mode of transportation,” she said, “it took way longer, it was inconvenient for me to walk to a bus stop from my house. For me to get on a bus and go to my friend’s house took almost an hour, where I could get in a car and drive to my friend’s house in fifteen minutes.”

This is coupled with the fact that learning to use the bus can be intimidating for many people. There are still many mental and physical barriers that prevent people choosing transit- think of a young student who may not understand how to use the bus, or a newcomer to Canada not yet confident in their English. Without a simple, stress free transit system, many people may be deterred from giving transit a chance.

“Transportation can be crucial for linking communities to vital resources.” -Rachel Brown

Brown highlighted the positive effects a functional, appealing transit system can have on communities, “Transportation can be crucial for linking communities to vital resources, so as an example you could live in Scarborough or a community hub that you’re connected to culturally, spiritually, religiously- maybe you’re just going to school downtown- but having that ability to get to those resources is really important.” Brown added it’s about breaking down common behaviours and norms in society; “My first option should be taking the bus, or the train, or bicycle…It shouldn’t be automatically just driving in a car.”

So how do we move from a single car culture to a transit culture? For public transit to be more competitive with other modes of transportation, things need to change. Municipalities across Canada have acknowledged some of these problems and found solutions to improve transit within their communities.

Kingston’s Transit Orientation Project

Back in 2012, many high school students in the city of Kingston, Ontario opted out of riding public transit. While the buses were free, many students admitting the idea of going on the bus gave them fear and anxiety because they did not know how to use it.

Dan Hendry, with the Limestone District School Board, saw an opportunity to increase transit ridership in Kingston, while simultaneously providing students with the confidence and tools to use transit and gain the freedom of mobility. He developed the Transit Orientation Project, an education program designed to encourage teenagers to ride the city buses and provide them with independent mobility. At the time, 30% of greenhouse gas emissions from Kingston came from transportation³, and if more individuals took the bus, it would have a significant impact on city emissions.

“It’s this idea of normalizing the usage and understanding of how to use it,” Hendry explained. Hendry took students on the bus and taught them about anything from bus etiquette, to the social, economic, and environmental benefits that come with riding the bus. The students were taken to get their bus pass the same day.  Hendry said students asked “about anything from stopping the bus, as funny as that sounds, but how do you get on the bus? Off the bus? When do you pull the trigger? Do you get off the front or the back? Can you put your bike on the rack? What about getting a transfer?”

The program was all about highlighting the freedom students would have using transit. With a bus pass, students were able to get to work, volunteer, and participate in after school activities. The bus passes were also used for field trips, experiential learning opportunities, and other activities which opened community resources to students.

The first program in 2012 began with grade nines. By 2015, students from grade nine to twelve had a transit pass. Hundreds of bus lessons later, and the program helped transit ridership in Kingston increase by 87%.

In Charlottetown, PEI, they had experienced a similar problem. The city noticed that newcomers and seniors were the primary demographic using transit. Inspired by the work in Kingston, they embarked on a similar teen transit ridership program.

As the Manager of Environment and Sustainability in Charlottetown, Ramona Doyle was involved in the project. Doyle mentioned educating the public on sustainability solutions like bus ridership serves two purposes; “One is trying to create a population that buys into the concept of sustainability and sees it as a community value because that will then come back to elected officials in terms of priority in the community….And two, just to create a population that really cares and understands the space we have is limited and precious and worthwhile preserving.”

Doyle and Hendry both noticed the positive impact the programs had on families in their community. They mentioned that in the months following the program, they saw students encouraging their parents and family members to use transit, teaching them what they had learned from the program.

“It’s all about ‘normalizing transit at a young age, for families as well, and making it more accessible…focussing not just on a bus but on freedom, [students] have just one more tool in their kit.” -Dan Hendry 

While the pass may not be profitable while students are in high school, the teen transit program fosters future paying customers, and encourages these individuals to use the bus into adulthood and reduce the possibility of becoming automobile dependent in the future. “It’s all about ‘normalizing transit at a young age, for families as well, and making it more accessible, focussing not just on a bus but on freedom, [students] have just one more tool in their kit,” Hendry said, adding, “Transit has been stigmatized for a long time. And it’s not just underfunded but seen to be important… so I think if people see how to use it and understand it at a young age, they will have it as a tool for life”.

Word of the program success has spread beyond Charlottetown and Kingston. Cities across Canada including St. John’s Burlington, North Bay, Peterborough, and Belleville are currently hoping to, or in the process of, running similar programs.  

Belleville ‘On-Demand’ Transit System

Every night, a handful of city buses in Belleville, Ontario would lap the same routes over and over, often driving around an empty bus. At night, demand was low, and the number of passengers dropped significantly. Hoping to maximize the ridership fares per revenue hour, the city moved to a fixed nighttime route which used less than a third of their normal fleet. It didn’t take long for residents to complain these buses were slow, and many individuals ended up having to travel far distances to reach a bus stop.

This was not sustainable.

In 2018, the city partnered with Pantonium Inc, a Toronto based company which uses algorithms and cloud-based technology to optimize transit fleets.  They created a pilot project with Belleville which offered on-demand transit to the community during nighttime routes. Using the EverRun software platform created by Pantonium, passengers could use an app on their phone, call in, or even email to signal a city bus to pick them up at any bus stop of their choosing, then drop them off at any other stop in town. As more passengers used the system, drivers would receive updated routes in real-time which could cater to multiple passengers at once, maximizing efficiency.

Luke Mellor, the Marketing Director at Pantonium Inc, explained why the project was needed in Belleville; “The service has to cover the whole city and there is not a lot of demand, so they can’t afford to put a lot of vehicles out there. So, what you have is a very sparse network that takes forever to get around. We saw this nighttime, low-density bus service as a niche where on-demand bus service would work very well.”

“If you can get those people that don’t have cars and provide them a service that’s good for their mobility needs, then they won’t get cars. That’s at least the hope, you can prevent the mode-ship from going in reverse.” – Luke Mellor

Belleville was able to increase efficiency using far fewer buses to cover the same distances while providing the same level of service during low demand periods while avoiding wasted emissions and eliminating the need for bus transfers. The service was very adaptable, “It’s a little more flexible I think than a fixed route in managing demand,” Mellor said, “if you can get those people that don’t have cars and provide them a service that’s good for their mobility needs, then they won’t get cars. That’s at least the hope, you can prevent the mode-shift from going in reverse.” The program was so successful, Mellor mentioned when the program first started, they saw nighttime ridership increase by over 300%.

This program was unique as it opened the door for this technology to be replicated in suburban developments or sparse, low-density communities which may not have a solid transportation system in place. Mellor admitted that in terms of using cloud technology to optimize transit fleets, we are still behind the curve and there is a long way to go. Regardless, he is hopeful in how the EverRun software will grow, “Imagine if every city in Canada had 2-10 buses, 24 hours a day that could pick you up and drop you off at any bus stop in the city. That would be a service that would actually get people out of their cars. Especially for equity and justice, not everyone can afford a car, but everyone needs to get around a city.”

Read more Pantonium and the EverRun software at this Link. 

More Than Transit

This is not just about transit, this is about fostering connected, healthy, sustainable communities.

Sustainability has become increasingly integrated into our decision making. Each community is different, and sustainable solutions that work for some may not work for all. But moving toward a more sustainable transit culture and away from a single-car culture has shown to better communities’ time and time again. This is not just about transit, this is about fostering connected, healthy, sustainable communities.

As Dan Hendry put it, “It’s not just about the bus, it’s about moving from point A to point B, this is jobs, volunteering, first dates, meeting friends…Transit can positively affect your life even if you don’t use it. Whether that be the grocery store clerk getting to work on time, whether that be reduced flows in traffic and congestion, whether that be the environmental benefit if people care about that, and with 7.8 billion people I think we should.”

Want more stories like this? This article is featured in our next issue, Getting There: The Ecosystem of Human Movement. Check out the next issue for more!

The post Path Finders appeared first on A\J.

Today, Alternatives Journal is releasing our latest issue, Getting There: The Ecosystem of Human Movement.

The carbon footprint of an individual within a developed country is drastically higher than someone in a developing country. The reason behind this is partly in how we choose to get around. We drive to work every morning. We board cruises and airplanes to glamorous, far away destinations. We like to be always on the move.

The question becomes; how do we move from point A to point B and design the systems that help us to do so in a way that lowers our carbon footprint and leaves behind a positive lasting impact on the natural, social and economic environment? These questions will be answered in our latest issue, Getting There: The Ecosystem of Human Movement.

In this issue, we will discuss population growth and planning. As our population changes, we have become required to rethink city planning and discover the positive impacts of sustainable solutions such as greenways, bike lanes, improving city walkability, and retrofitting existing transportation infrastructure to better facilitate the movement of people and goods.

This issue will also explore the sustainability of traveling and the tourism industry. In the last few months, many airlines and cruise ships have had to park their fleets and seen a massive decline in customers. However, in the wake of a global pandemic that forced us to cancel our vacation plans, we were presented with the opportunity to reflect on how we travel and what tools we can use, like carbon offsetting, to help mitigate the impact we have.

Finally, this issue will critically assess our public transportation systems. How do we move away from a single car culture to a transit culture? What is the economic value of public transportation? How are other communities making their public transportation systems more sustainable? Asking these questions will have positive trickle-down effects to the entire community – whether that be through improving our physical and mental health, ability to access employment, or by protecting our natural spaces.  This issue will answer these questions and hopefully prompt you to ask a few new ones.

This was an incredibly special issue. In the summer of 2020, four students from the Centre for Environment and Sustainability (CES) at Western University undertook this issue as co-op placements. There is an old Persian saying: “If you want to make God laugh, make a plan”. At A\J, we had lots of plans for how this summer was supposed to unfurl. We had a great team and a great work plan arranged in the early winter to start in May 2020. Of course, those plans were made oblivious to the deadly and tragic impacts of Covid-19 that were about to ensue.

Thankfully, the ‘sustainability’ focus of their education – with strong leadership from our issue’s guest editor, Professor Stephan Vachon (and the CES director) – allowed the team to dodge the flaming chainsaws of uncertainty and chase the golden unicorns of new opportunities. This issue is a testament to the power and capacity that emanates from campuses in London, Ontario and across the country, from coast to coast to coast. 

ABOUT AJ

Small but mighty, Alternatives Journal (A\J) is Canada’s environmental voice. Publishing intelligent and informed environmental journalism since 1971, A\J fosters positive change and seeks sustainable solutions that our 30,000+ readers can use to improve their communities and our world.

References to this issue can be found at this link. 

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 –Ismail Serageldin, (1995)

– “The only problem with this scenario is a lack of evidence.”

–Aaron Wolf

Back in 2018, two A\J journalists wrote a story on Cape Town, South Africa. Following a lengthy drought, the city was facing an expected date for their municipal water supply to run dry- dubbed “day zero”. While I was aware of dwindling fresh water resources on a global scale, the idea of a dam supporting millions of people going completely dry seemed like something out of a Hollywood movie. Luckily, through the residents of Cape Town’s strenuous water conservation efforts, the city was able to avoid day zero from ever becoming a reality.

Freshwater availability on a regional scale is complex and depends on a variety of factors including population size, climatic norms, reservoir fluxes, and socio-political instability. While some regions of the world are rich in water resources, like Lagos, they lack government leadership and aging water infrastructure means that the water that does come out of the taps often isn’t safe to drink. Meanwhile other regions, like Cape Town or East Australia, are susceptible to drought and water shortages as the reservoirs in which they source their water cannot replenish themselves fast enough to keep up with increasing demand.

Variable rainfall as a result of climate change makes Australia particularly prone to droughts// SOURCE: CBC

We do not have a lot of freshwater available to us here on earth. In fact, we have extraordinarily little. Only 2.5% of all water on earth is freshwater, and 99% of that freshwater trapped in glacial reserves so it is not easily accessible to humans. This means, only 0.007% of all freshwater on earth is currently available for human use. Most of this is used towards agricultural purposes, accounting for over 70% of freshwater withdrawal.

But many of the aquifers and rivers from which we source our freshwater are starting to dry up. At the time of writing this article, researchers predict the world will run completely out of fresh water in about 19 years. But, like Cape Town’s day zero, those estimates aren’t set in stone and will ultimately depend on how we use our water resources.

Cape Town rose to a certain level of fame being the first major city to almost run out of water on such a massive scale, but they are not alone. The effects of climate change and our disregard towards over-straining and polluting our water reservoirs means multiple cities across the globe are currently at risk for their own day zeros, including Beijing, Istanbul and London.

To add to the problem, researchers predict future political rifts surrounding water will likely occur where two nations share a transboundary water resource. A 2018 study examined different factors that affect a nation’s water availability like population growth, climate stress, or socio-economic power imbalances to determine which areas will be most at risk for future hydro-political tension (which is a nice way of saying water wars). They found areas which share rivers like the Nile, the Ganges, the Indus, the Tigris/Euphrates, and the Colorado, will be likely hot spots.

Likelihood of hydro political interaction as a result of water scarcity// SOURCE: GIZMODO

Unless we get serious about conserving water, are the water wars we’ve been hearing about really on the horizon?

David Brooks is a global water conservation and management expert, having spent his career advising NGO’s on transboundary water issues and researching freshwater management opportunities around the world. Brooks once said “Water wars may make good press, but they seldom make good politics. Even in the Middle East, where water is scarcer than anywhere else in the world, water has more often been a source of cooperation than of conflict.” Having heard little to dispute this water wars of the future scenario, I asked him to speak with me to explain what he meant by this.

“First of all, there won’t be any water wars,” Brooks told me, “People just do not go to war over water, it isn’t worthwhile. The only people who need large amounts of water are farmers, and they do not usually have a lot of political power. You can scrabble over water, but [scrabbles] are more likely to be intra-national instead of inter-national.”

“Water wars may make good press, but they seldom make good politics.” -David Brooks

Water wars or not, billions of people around the world still drink dirty water. And in the short future, more and more people will experience regional water scarcity as a result of climate change. So, as humans do, we find innovative ways to solve our problems. For example, we have found ways to make undrinkable water, drinkable.

Water desalination has been a promising option for sourcing our fresh water. Water desalination is the process of removing the minerals and salt from sea water by boiling water and capturing the steam (called thermal desalination) or forcing the water through a membrane (called reverse osmosis). Over the last decade, desalination plants have popped up all over the world in more arid regions like Israel, Saudi Arabia, and cities like San Diego. With warm, dry arid areas expected to worsen with climate change, desalination presents itself to be a unique opportunity as a potential drinking water source in areas prone to droughts. Unfortunately, many critics say this method is too extremely expensive and energy intensive.

Brooks claims while this method is energy intensive, it is becoming increasingly more cost effective. “Desalination is coming along very rapidly,” he says, “I once wrote ‘Desalination is to water, what nuclear power is to electricity- too expensive to use’. It is a great sentence but totally wrong. It is energy intensive, but the cost of desalination has just plummeted as people began to look at it with modern technology. Israel is essentially getting most of its drinking water from desalination! The next stage will be solar desalination because the cost of solar electricity has also plummeted.”

Israeli water desalination plant// SOURCE: United with Israel

This made me wonder, instead of spending all this money constructing water desalination plants, why don’t we just increase the price of water and conserve what we already have?

We price water much too low for the value it provides to us. But simply increasing the price of water has its own problems. “You immediately get to an equity question; what about poor people?” Brooks asked me, “You can give 100 litres of water per day for free; that’s enough for a family to live with… and by the time you’re making a swimming pool or something, then people can pay more for it.”

The idea of giving everyone a set amount of water they can use, then charging extra for those who want to waste it seems fair to me. But I must admit, as an environmentalist, my skin crawls everytime I walk by a home watering their lawn.

Unfortunately, conservation pricing may not work as well with agriculture and ultimately punish the farmers. “We need so much more water for irrigation than we do for drinking water. 80% of the world’s water is used for irrigation, or at least is used on farms, and the amount you need for drinking water is really marginal,” Brooks says.

He continued, “Water is so valuable to farmers, prices have to go way up before it affects irrigation costs. You have to come at it from other ways. You have to have water conservation specialists working for the government… and you have to let prices go up very slowly.”

I must admit, as an environmentalist, my skin crawls everytime I walk by a home watering their lawn.

Another option we discussed is to implement water conservation designs in urban settings. Why do we need water so clean we can drink it in our toilet bowl or watering our lawn? Eco-friendly designs which recycle or use less water cost money, and water is so cheap that unless the consumer is incentivized through legislation or higher water bills, there isn’t that motivation to pay out of pocket and replace their perfectly good, working just fine, toilet.

Living in Canada, we have one of the richest sources of freshwater per capita. As a result, we do not think about these kinds of problems affecting us at home. Although it is not as likely we will run out of drinking water on the same time scales as places like Mexico City or Lagos, that does not mean we get to use it guilt free. “Half of all communities in Canada already face water problems of one sort or another,” Brooks says, “The prairie provinces are short of water, they are right now and will be”. In fact, many rivers that once flowed down the Rockies and fed the prairies have already begun to be too low for extraction by mid-summer- and this is in our own backyard. 

“Throughout history, water has induced far more cooperation than conflict around the globe.” – Aaron Wolf

The issues surrounding water that led to this “water wars” narrative is complex. Freshwater quality and quantity differ regionally. The real problem is not necessarily a lack of freshwater supply (promising options exist on the horizon to eventually solve these issues), but more a lack of equitable, sustainable water use in the present. This is then amplified through climate change affecting normal water distributions patterns and lack of political will to regulate this precious resource.

Aaron Wolf once said, “Throughout history, water has induced far more cooperation than conflict around the globe”. Sure, water conflicts may occur more frequently, but there probably will not be any water wars- it just makes good press. In the end, this narrative is drawing our attention away from the real problems and leading us in a direction of conflict, not cooperation.

In the meantime, we need to treat water like it costs more than we pay for it. Conserving water now will postpone whatever is on the horizon, water wars or not.

The post Avoiding Water Wars appeared first on A\J.

Alternatives Journal and the Friends of the Greenbelt Foundation are hosting a celebration of the possible expansion of the Greenbelt into Waterloo Region and Wellington County. There’s just one problem: earlier this month, Waterloo Regional council voted for revisions to the greenbelt expansion before agreeing to join. In fact, if these revisions aren’t met, regional chair Ken Seiling says the Region is, “quite happy to be left out.” Sounds serious. Let’s take a closer look.

By now, most people in mid-Ontario know about the Greenbelt. Enacted in 2005, “Ontario’s Greenbelt is an area of permanently protected landscape of prime farmland and natural systems, as well as vibrant communities. It surrounds the Golden Horseshoe, and is vital to the quality of life in southern Ontario.”  (Friends of the Greenbelt Foundation) The Greenbelt Plan curbs urban sprawl and protects natural and rural lands from development in the greater Toronto and Hamilton area.

Preserving the rural and natural land within the Greenbelt positively influences so many intersecting aspects of society: recreation, health, air, water, food, transportation, and the economy to name a few. By curbing sprawl, urban centres must focus on doing more with less, and rather than build out, create vibrant cores with walk-able, transit-centric communities.

These priorities match with Waterloo Region’s, so what’s the problem with joining the Greenbelt? Well, let’s go back to 2004 when Ken Seiling, Waterloo Region’s regional chair and Kevin Thomason, a community advocate with Smart Growth Waterloo Region who wears many hats, travelled to Queen’s Park. They asked premier McGuinty to be included under the newly formed provincial Greenbelt legislation. At the time, the province decided to focus on the inner ring of the Greater Toronto Area for Greenbelt designation, and this excluded Waterloo Region. However, at the same time, Waterloo Region was targeted by the province for a population increase of 15 per cent in five years by in the Places to Grow act.

“Waterloo was left with the worst of both worlds,” says Thomason, “we were getting all of the growth, none of the protection.”

Waterloo Region is unique because it is almost entirely dependent on groundwater, and a population increase puts a lot of pressure on that usage. The Region realized stronger protection was needed for their land and water, and that they would have to do it unsupported by the Greenbelt Plan.

Luckily, because the Region of Waterloo depends so much on groundwater, they have a history of prioritizing the environment, and they were up for the challenge.

“We weren’t being included in the provincial greenbelt,” says Thomason, “so we decided to build our own here and in fact, we’ll even do it better than the province’s because we can learn from their mistakes.”

Over the next ten years, the Region created a set of policies to act as their own “home-grown greenbelt.”  Two policies stand out. The Protected Countryside designation and Countryside Line worked as two complimentary policies designed to protect the entire Waterloo moraine and impose strict boundaries on every urban centre in the region from small hamlets to larger cities. These were enacted in the Regional Official Plan in 2009, among other policies meant to protect the land and water. Developers fought the entire Plan in court after court until a settlement was reached in 2015.  

“Thank goodness the region spent millions of dollars defending [the ROP],” says Thomason, “but because of it, we now have this interesting situation coming full circle. Our local protection is so good that it might actually even be better than parts of the Greenbelt…we need to make sure the strongest of either [policies] prevail and that the Greenbelt doesn’t erode or degrade our local protections that we’ve spent millions of dollars in the last 15 years working on.”

This is why Ken Seiling and the regional council voted for revisions. But what kind of revisions are they looking for exactly?

In the Region’s February 28 report sent to the province in response to the Growing the Greenbelt proposal, they are asking for the following:

• Stronger language to give municipalities the option to enforce policy beyond the minimum outlined in the Greenbelt Plan.
• Allowance for the policies with the highest protection to prevail
• Better protection for the groundwater Waterloo Region depends upon
• Revision of the current policy restricting municipalities regarding aggregate extraction
• Commitment from the province to more consultation with municipalities
• Commitment from the province to use the best technical information and municipal land-use planning information
• Allowance for municipalities’ ongoing planning projects to be completed and respected before the final mapping for the greenbelt expansion is completed.

The full report can be read on the Planning and Works committee meeting agenda on pages 39 to 49 here.

How likely is the province to meet the Region’s requests? The provincial minister of municipal affairs Bill Mauro sent a letter to Waterloo Regional Council saying, “If we were to move forward with a Greenbelt expansion, we would work with the Region of Waterloo to ensure that a new Greenbelt boundary does not result in a reduction of existing local protections. That may include potential changes to the Greenbelt Plan if they are needed.”

You can view the whole letter here.

Interpretations of the letter differ. Kevin Thomason is optimistic. He says, “you’re not going to be getting a clearer message, and it’s highly, highly unusual for a minister to send a letter to ever single Councillor saying that I’ve heard your concerns and we’ll work with you on them. We’re very lucky to have exactly what we need to have happening which is the province is offering to work with the region to make sure the right things happen.”

Ken Seiling on the other hand feels the letter was too vague. “I don’t know what that means at this point in time, or where they’re prepared to go. So I really can’t comment because I don’t know what they intend to do.”

While all of Waterloo’s townships and cities have agreed to the Region’s legislation over the past ten years, Thomason feels the missing piece in the Region’s current protection is the province. “This opportunity for Greenbelt expansion is bringing the province to the table and in fact frankly, all of these local protections we developed always anticipated eventual Greenbelt expansion for reinforcement. We need a strong second layer of protection. We need the permanence that only the provincial government can bring.”

Seiling doesn’t feel that way. He feels local legislation is stronger than provincial because citizens are quite active on the local level, while provincial legislation is not conducive to citizen participation, and decisions can be made with little or no citizen input.

Ultimately the best of both protections is what needs to happen in the Region of Waterloo. Both parties have the same goal – to curb urban sprawl and protect our green spaces and water.

While the deadline for this round of citizen feedback on the Growing the Greenbelt proposal has passed, it’s still up to us to keep the momentum on this proposal going.

“The most important thing is that these large-scale, land-use planning decisions only happen once or twice in a generation.” says Thomason. “There’s a lot of money at stake – a lot of developers, a lot of people out there who are speaking with chequebooks and you know wallets and that sort of thing. That’s where we need to make sure that the public has an equally strong voice and is part of the process, and that every citizen is speaking up for the future that they want to see. If not, there’s plenty of others who will speak up for an alternative future.” 

Tell your local MPP you care about the greenbelt, and that implementing it should not undermine current Regional protections.

Follow progress at greenbelt.ca and Ontario.ca/greenbelt

Other Resources:

Ontario’s original Places to Grow document.

Waterloo Region’s Regional Official Plan.

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