Welcome to Dry February: You’re probably going to feel the need for a good stiff drink when you realize just how dry things are likely to be in Alberta this year! Alberta Municipal Affairs Minister Ric McIver (Photo: David J. Climenhaga). The United Conservative Government appears to have finally cottoned
Continue readingTag: drought
Views from the Beltline: Alberta sacrifices agriculture for oil
There is panic on the prairies. The greatest fear of farmers and ranchers alike is stalking the land—drought. Drought has always been a part of prairie life, of course, but droughts today are different from those of history. Today they are increasingly fuelled by global warming and will get nothing
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: “Why are we building houses if we don’t have enough water?”—A big lesson from a little town
Oakley, Utah, is small but appealing. Nestled in the mountains beside the Weber River less than an hour’s drive east of Salt Lake City, the town offers an attractive bargain for out-of-staters and weekenders. The river and mountain springs provided plentiful water that attracted early settlers. Water, however, is no
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Alberta isn’t immune to global warming
Living in Alberta one often gets the impression that when it comes to energy and the environment, promoting the oil industry is top priority while dealing with global warming is an afterthought. The premier has said he accepts that anthropogenic climate change is real, but he never shows much interest
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Further Down The Road
For those whose sense of weather peril is somewhat muted, the following picture of a London park, the top part showing it in May, and the bottom part as it appears today thanks to prolonged drought and heat, may help awaken the senses and cognition about how far down the
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: "There Was No Rain"
Climate change refugees are on the march and they’re coming not just from Africa or the Middle East or some low-lying atoll in the South Pacific, they’re migrating poleward in the Americas too. Todd Miller went to southern Mexico to interview climate migrants. Where are they from? Where are they
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Finally, Some Relief ….
The months-long drought where I live appears finally to be at end. However, any relief I feel is tempered by the knowledge that the weather system responsible for it is also part of the one that has wrought so much devastation in Louisiana:Meanwhile, i…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Finally, Some Relief ….
The months-long drought where I live appears finally to be at end. However, any relief I feel is tempered by the knowledge that the weather system responsible for it is also part of the one that has wrought so much devastation in Louisiana:Meanwhile, i…
Continue readingThings Are Good: Efficient Beans to Beat Drought Conditions
Beans are delicious, so delicious that earlier this year the UN declared 2016 to be year of the pulse. Around the world beans are cultivated for their protein and their ability to grow in many places. Some beans are better at growing in wet areas while others in drought conditions. This has led botanists to […]
The post Efficient Beans to Beat Drought Conditions appeared first on Things Are Good.
Continue readingThings Are Good: How We Can Fend Off Drought
In this TED talk David Sedlak explores options that can be used to fend off drought in cities. The last century saw massive developments that treated water in a very unsustainable way (from dams to pathetic water policies). This century we will have to correct the mistakes of the past and focus on changing how […]
The post How We Can Fend Off Drought appeared first on Things Are Good.
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Apocalypse Now, And The Shape Of Things To Come
I decided to take a break from the political landscape today to look at our physical one. Regrettably, although the title of this post comes from two films, what is depicted here is all too real. I’ll let the disturbing imagery speak for itself. Recommend this Post
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: It’s the D-Word and It’s Arrived in Canada
Prime minister Cletis doesn’t seem to have noticed that global warming has arrived in his very own backyard. Funny how he can’t hear all those local Tories squealing like pigs over the drought setting in across the West. It’s the sort of think I watch out of the corner of
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Yet Another Sign Of Just How Much Trouble We Are In
When we think of climate change, the first things that may come to mind are our increasingly violent storms and melting Arctic ice. Another, of course, is drought and its ever-widening destructive swath. It is the latter that has led to a new threat: The world’s largest underground aquifers –
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Connecting the Dots on Climate Change
One of the biggest failures in climate change reporting is the tendency to focus on particular aspects without considering the bigger picture. What does sea level rise have to do with droughts or floods? What is the role of changing ocean circulation patterns? How do these impacts all factor into
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: What Are The Limits?
Humans, and other primates, it appears, have an innate sense of fairness. We expect, for example, in times requiring sacrifice, that no member of society will be exempted. When we are part of a long queue, for example, we expect everyone to bide their time and wait as well; someone
Continue readingLeft Over: A California Cautionary Tale…Served Dry
Drought-ravaged L.A. looking to ‘sponge up’ every bit of rainwater New storm drains built to let rainwater ‘piddle out’ into soil, $1B emergency plan to add more By Kim Brunhuber, CBC News Posted: Mar 20, 2015 4:39 PM ET Last Updated: Mar 20, 2015 10:20 PM ET Having grown up
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: California Down to Its Last Year of Water
A report in the LA Times claims that California has freshwater reserves for but one more year. As our “wet” season draws to a close, it is clear that the paltry rain and snowfall have done almost nothing to alleviate epic drought conditions. January was the driest in California since record-keeping
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: When the Taps Run Dry, Where Do You Go?
Sao Paulo Riots Imagine telling the residents of Toronto that they have to flee the city and travel elsewhere in search of water. Well something along those lines may be in store for the millions of residents of Brazil’s largest city, Sao Paulo.As south-east Brazil grapples with its worst drought
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: How South Americans are Killing Their Environment
In some places, cutting down trees can have huge consequences. In South America, the impacts are especially far-reaching. Deforestation has picked up again in the Amazon. That, in turn, is causing havoc to the region’s hydrological cycle, triggering severe drought. The unprecedented drought now affecting São Paulo, South America’s giant
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Feed’Em or Weep
They’re finally figuring it out. An editorial from The Dallas Morning News warns that unless the US launches a major food relief effort to Central America, the country faces a tsunami of refugees fleeing to the US to escape famine. The swarm of immigrants who came across the border this year,
Continue reading