Science
journalist praises community efforts to protect water
Award-winning
broadcaster Bob McDonald draws 220 people to presentation
An estimated 220 people
converged at a Goderich location on Tuesday, June 23 to hear one of Canada’s
foremost science journalists and broadcasters speak on water issues, climate
change and the need for alternative energy sources.
The Ausable Bayfield
Maitland Valley Drinking Water Source Protection Region invited Bob McDonald,
host of CBC radio’s Quirks and Quarks
and TV Ontario’s Heads Up!,
to speak to the public on water protection.
There is no other known
world that can support human life, according to McDonald. “It’s
very beautiful, it’s exquisite, it’s unique,” he told the
crowd at the Columbus Centre. The well-known author compared the Earth to the
‘Garden of Eden’ but he said it’s a very fragile planet too.
“A (planet with a) thin film of water, a thin bubble of air –
that’s where we live.”
He said the planet may
look, from afar, like it is blue and has lots of water but he used a pitcher
and a glass – removing the undrinkable water until only a drop was left
– to illustrate that very little of the world’s water is fit for
drinking. “Only 0.1 per cent of all the water in the world is available
for us to drink,” he said.
McDonald complimented the
people of this region for their active local involvement in protecting the
fragile sources of drinking water. He said Canada has so much of the
world’s scarce fresh water supplies that “we are the water
keepers.”
The speaker made it clear
there is no doubt the planet’s climate is changing. “Yes, the Earth
is getting warmer,” he said. The problem is not just that the planet is
getting warmer, he said, but that the planet is getting hotter at an
unprecedented rate. The speaker’s visuals, showing the accelerated
decline in northern sea ice, painted a stark picture for the audience. The
anticipated melting of permafrost is likely to release methane and pose a
greenhouse gas impact ten times more severe than carbon dioxide, he said.
The noted science
journalist underscored the fragility of the planet but he also offered a
message of hope. “Look how far we have come, look what we have done, I
think we can apply the same creativity and the same ingenuity and figure out
how to get through this (and find) new ways to turn wheels, other ways to keep
ourselves warm, other ways to move from here to there,” he said.
“We’ve got to take care of this beautiful (planet) because
that’s all there is.”
Goderich Councillor David
Yates introduced McDonald to the crowd. He also complimented the region on its
“truly unique” efforts to include members of the public in local,
community Source Protection working groups. The more than 75 community working
group members have just completed a year and a half of study of water
protection through an adult learning program and they presented planning policy
suggestions to the Source Protection Committee on Tuesday. They will also be
invited to provide feedback on the assessment reports being prepared in the
upcoming year.
For more information on
Drinking Water Source Protection in the Ausable Bayfield Maitland Valley region
visit sourcewaterinfo.on.ca or
phone 519-335-3557, 519-235-2610 or toll-free 1-888-286-2610. Stewardship
funding is available for voluntary best-management-practice projects by owners
of homes, farms, businesses and other properties in some of the region’s
most vulnerable areas. For information visit sourceprotectionstewardship.on.ca
or phone the numbers above.
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