A Thirst for Fossil Water

Water to quench our thirst? In Canada we hardly think about it. After all, we have 20% of the world’s fresh water. We don’t realize that most of this is non-renewable water derived from the melting of glaciers, the melting of continental ice sheets or trapped in inaccessible ground water.

When I was visiting my parents last summer, who live near Smithers, B.C., a glacier which was once an overwhelming presence near their home had shrunk to a nearly invisible trace. This water won’t be coming back again.

Some facts:

• Our renewable fresh water is 9% of the world’s supply behind Brazil, China, and former USSR.  
• 60% of Canada’s renewable fresh water flows north into the Arctic ocean & Hudson Bay
• 90% of our population lives southern regions
• We have the 2nd highest per capita consumption in the world, behind USA
• Canada has traditionally blocked the recognition of water as a human right until very recently.

These revelations were part of a Regis College “Windows on Theology,” titled Living Water on March 22^nd the U.N World Water Day with Alana Mitchell, Dr. Dennis O’Hara and  Fr. John McCarthy

Water is the lifeblood of our lives and our spirits yearn to share. What can we do? Women both indigenous and non-indigenous formed a Wall of Women on World Water Day in B.C. Around 15 women, including representatives from the Tsleil-Waututh, Squamish and Musqueam First Nations, as well as Greenpeace campaigners, gathered for the Wall of Woman in the cold and rain by The Welcome Figure at Ambleside Beach to proclaim a message to the oil magnate Kinder Morgan that a pipeline expansion was not welcome.

Yet, as humans in a faith context we thirst for justice:

• approximately 20,000 First Nations people living on reserves across Canada have no access to running water or sewage treatment
• women in developing countries carry an unjust load in struggling to get water for their families

Our Western, middle-class lifestyle places increasing demands on water sources. Our choices of food especially matters. Looking at the facts behind our water use: 

•  Agriculture – 70% 
  • ....1,000 litres per day – survival diet
  • ....2,600 litres per day – vegetarian diet
  • ....5,000 litres per day – meat-based diet
  • ....diets richer in meat & seafood → major eco-stress
• Industry – 22%
• Personal – 8%

Many people living in poverty, particularly on the developing world, daily face enormous  hardships because water supplies are neither sufficient nor safe. For water users living in poverty this is rapidly becoming an issue crucial for life and, in the broad sense of the concept, a right to life issue.”  Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.

For I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me (Matt. 25:35)

Water is sacred trust, in these days calling us to regard and live with its gift of life, not just for ourselves, but for all humans and all beings of our planet earth. 

And we are Canadians and we do cherish water, it is part of our interior landscape and our identity. Let us make a difference and begin where we are. 

David Suzuki Foundation, “It’s More than Just Love,” 

Linda Gregg, CSJ
Peterborough Neighbourhood 

UPDATED: Please see this excellent article: 30 Photos That Will Help You Appreciate Your Tap & Toilet

London Water Rights Festival

Coming to Museum London on April 4-6, an opportunity for water-lovers to come together to consider the impact of our water use on the next generation. Learn about challenges such as transnational corporate influence on water bodies, the Harper government's 2012 elimination of 99% of rules protecting Canadian rivers and lakes, and effects of climate change, as well as successful community activities to protect water.

Meet special guest, Ashinaabe elder, Josephine Mandamin, who ten years ago began her journey each spring walking the perimeter of the Great Lakes to remind us about the need to care for this sacred element. Josephine, also known as Water Walker, will be present each of the days. On Saturday, Mike Nagy president of Water Watchers will speak about Nestle’s involvement in the Guelph area watershed. 

The films include:

• Blue Gold (struggle for water rights);
• Waterlife, (threats to the Great Lakes);
• Bottled Life (Nestle's global business);
• Sacred Spirit of Water (First Nations' relation to water, the rise of "Idle No More").

Please refer to the POSTER for more specifics.

Hope to see you there!

Paula Marcotte (Guest Blogger)

Is this the Swan Song of the Bobolink?

Do you know what a Bobolink is? Well, we might want to memorize this bird song and admire its beauty. The song of the Bobolink may not be heard much longer in the land and our children’s children may see and hear it only through the Internet.  According to an Ontario government report, the Bobolink is an “area-sensitive grassland species.” It requires “relatively large patches of suitable field habitats” and the Atlas of the Breeding Birds of Ontario, 2001-2005, suggests, says Environment Canada, that: “The loss of grassland habitat has had serious consequences for grassland species of birds. Birds such as the Upland Sandpiper, the Bobolink, and the Loggerhead Shrike have declined since the early 1980s.” The Bobolink is in trouble.

It’s time for confession. For most of my life I have lived in a rural area and commuted to the city for work. Smugly, I have been alternately angered and saddened by the way that the city continues to sprawl out into the farmland yet I have chosen to put the connection between Bobolinks and houses out of my mind as I drove by those fields of houses. Now, from disappearing open grasslands to nests in local hayfields, the Bobolink is struggling to survive, and must compete with farmers who also need that first spring cutting of hay for their own survival strategy. Who do we save?

In British Columbia, the fate of Fish Lake is in the balance. A mining firm wants to drain it to gain access to the minerals underneath, a potential economic boon to the financially desperate area. Others see the draining of the lake as a tragic and futile mistake which will destroy an environmental jewel that took millions of years to create. It has emotional, spiritual, ecological and physical meaning which is hard to put into dollar terms. What do we do? What is the right decision?

There may be a new approach that gets us out of the either/or dilemma.  New insights about how we measure the cost of biodiversity may prove helpful. “We can begin to quantify just how expensive the degradation of nature really is” says Richard Anderson, Business Reporter for BBC News. We can put an economic value on the loss of grassland habitat and the Bobolink, for example, or the collapse of the bee colonies. We can begin to talk about a new system of accounting that considers natural capital and human needs. This way of describing the cost benefits of natural resources would be essential data for discussions which looked for shared values and common ground between opposing ideas about how to view and use our resources.

John Helliwell, a co-director with the Social Interactions, Identity and Well-Being Program at the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research has been exploring the areas that involve natural values and sustainable human values, looking for the collaborations that can keep us, our children and our children’s children connected, living in ways that contribute to everyone’s well being. This means keeping the dialogue and disagreements flowing until there is resolution and not imposing solutions too soon. If we don’t find a new approach, one that takes us beyond “I’m right” and “You’re wrong,” it won’t just be the Bobolink that’s singing her last song. The bill for the Bobolink has come due. Who’s going to pay?