Alberta – along with Saskatchewan and British Columbia – is burning, with hot, dry weather compounding the difficulty of fighting forest and bush fires, destroying crops and pasture lands and drying out lakes and rivers, with the North Saskatchewan River at its lowest levels in 14 years.
More worrisome yet is the fact that the rest of the summer is forecast to offer more of the same, with it being possible that certain northern fires rage on until winter and the first snowfall. With the world in the early stages of a Super El Nino, next summer could add a further twist of the knife with continued hot, dry weather.
Climate change may be mistakenly believed as causing warmer weather, but the fact is that climate change is responsible for extreme and varied weather events, from increasing heat globally, to drought or flooding. As the global climate changes, it is likely that the arid conditions and subsequent water restrictions imposed in California would become the reality in Alberta as well.
The Saskatchewan River Basin provides drinking water for thousands upon thousands of people. In the short-term, provinces need to collaborate on planning for shared river systems to protect this, our most precious resource. People will need to reprioritize water usage, and consider what’s most important – having green lawns or shiny vehicles, or having water for essential purposes of drinking or cooking.
Secondly, Canada needs to come up with a national climate change strategy and implement it, or pay the heftier price of irreversible damage to its environment and resources in the long-term.
