RESOURCE CRISIS

Water - A resource in crisis in Canada



Water - A resource in crisis in Canada

Summary of the Climate Change Problem in Canada

The international scientific community agrees that there has been a significant change in global climate in recent years. Human activity - particularly burning fossil fuels for transportation and industrial processes - produce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that trap heat in the atmosphere. In addition, we have cleared an increasing amount of land for human use, resulting in the loss of forests and wetlands that absorb and store greenhouse gas emissions. We therefore favored the natural greenhouse effect to the point that there is now a risk of global warming at a rate higher than that observed in human history.

Scientific projections indicate that climate change may affect the health and well € 'being of Canadians in many ways. Some of the expected consequences are: increased smog and heat waves that cause an increased rate of illness and death related to temperature, the spread of infectious diseases in Canada, such as malaria, dengue and yellow fever, caused by the northward migration, because of global warming, insects that transmit these diseases and the possible reduction in the quality and quantity of drinking water, because water sources some areas are threatened by drought (Bailis,2006).

Canada's climate is changing. Temperatures are rising, particularly in the Arctic where the permafrost is melting the ice and where declines. It provides for even greater environmental changes, including increases in surface temperatures and the frequency of severe weather, rising sea levels and shrinking sea ice These changes can alter the natural habitats and force wildlife to adapt or they will be replaced by species whose adaptive capacity is greater. The species most likely to disappear are those that require different habitats at different stages of their existence, such as amphibians, or those living in restricted areas such as islands, isolated lakes or mountain peaks (Bannon,Collier,2003). Although it is expected that Arctic ecosystems are the hardest hit, other regions of Canada will also be affected. It is anticipated that the aquatic ecosystems of rivers and coasts and those of lakes and streams will be affected by changing the flow of rivers and streams - the result of a decrease in snow, the early thaw and changing throughput. Rising temperatures may also cause further spread of invasive forest pests that have very serious consequences on some tree populations in Canada (Barnes ,Field,1933). Although it is impossible to accurately predict the reactions of some ecosystems to climate change, the Canadian biodiversity and world could be irreversibly disrupted if we do not take action to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases to the cause climate change. According to the environmental scientist greenhouse gas emission is the primary cause of this climate change. After water vapor, the most important participant in global warming is carbon dioxide (CO2) produced during the combustion of coal, oil or natural gas for heating, transportation and electricity. Methane (CH4), another major contributor to climate change, is ...