Water, water, everywhere
Posted 3 years, 11 months ago at 11:55. 0 comments
This evening, Kris and I attended the latest in a series of Perspectives on Nature lectures hosted by the Museum of Nature. Tonight’s speaker was Dr. David Schindler, and he was speaking on “The Myth of Abundance: Western Canada’s Water Supply.” It’s always nice to hear scientists who are able to articulate their science without needing to dumb it down.
Sadly, and this is the cynic in me talking, Dr. Schindler was preaching to the choir. I didn’t see a whole lot of the “general” populace in the crowd; the only people who are going to shell out $10 a pop to hear someone talk about water scarcity and the science of conservation are the people who are already scientifically literate and are therefore (hopefully) already aware of the problems, even if only in broad strokes.
Many of the questions after the lecture focused on why society continues to ignore environmental issues that are spinning out of control, even in the face of recent disasters and existing programs and guidelines to make things better. The fact that the Walkerton tragedy doesn’t still keep Ontarians awake at night scares the bejeebus out of me. Do people not know where this place is? This isn’t some cyclone destroying a tropical paradise half a world away. This is your own backyard, people.
Again, my inner-cynic believes that until we have an environmental catastophe that directly impacts health care and the economy for a lot of people, and that also happens sufficiently close to election time, we are unlikely to see science affecting politics in any appreciable way.
Please prove me wrong.
