[All] Fw: Climate Change in Waterloo ON & need to protect food and water

Sun Jan 13 15:10:48 EST 2013

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Louisette Lanteigne <butterflybluelu at rogers.com>
To: eco <commissioner at eco.on.ca>; "dmcguinty.mpp.co at liberal.ola.org" <dmcguinty.mpp.co at liberal.ola.org>; "peter.braid at parl.gc.ca" <peter.braid at parl.gc.ca>; Peter Kent P.C. M.P. <minister at ec.gc.ca>; "Joe.Oliver at parl.gc.ca" <Joe.Oliver at parl.gc.ca>; Prime Minister/ Premier Ministre <pm at pm.gc.ca>; "bob.rae at parl.gc.ca" <bob.rae at parl.gc.ca>; "Elizabeth.May at parl.gc.ca" <Elizabeth.May at parl.gc.ca>; "thomas.mulcair at parl.gc.ca" <thomas.mulcair at parl.gc.ca>; Tim ( MAH) Ryall <tim.ryall at ontario.ca>; "justin.trudeau at parl.gc.ca" <justin.trudeau at parl.gc.ca>; "ahorwath-qp at ndp.on.ca" <ahorwath-qp at ndp.on.ca>; "hhampton-qp at ndp.on.ca" <hhampton-qp at ndp.on.ca>; "catherinefife at on.ndp.ca" <catherinefife at on.ndp.ca>; "gerry.ritz at parl.gc.ca" <gerry.ritz at parl.gc.ca>; "tim.hudak at pc.ola.org" <tim.hudak at pc.ola.org>; "harold.albrecht at parl.gc.ca" <harold.albrecht at parl.gc.ca>; "gary.goodyear at parl.gc.ca" <gary.goodyear at parl.gc.ca>; "stephen.woodworth at parl.gc.ca"
 <stephen.woodworth at parl.gc.ca>; "jbradley.mpp at liberal.ola.org" <jbradley.mpp at liberal.ola.org>; "jmilloy.mpp.co at liberal.ola.org" <jmilloy.mpp.co at liberal.ola.org>; Cbentley Mpp <cbentley.mpp at liberal.ola.org>; "dcansfield.mpp at liberal.ola.org" <dcansfield.mpp at liberal.ola.org>; "bchiarelli.mpp.co at liberal.ola.org" <bchiarelli.mpp.co at liberal.ola.org>; "tabunsp-qp at ndp.on.ca" <tabunsp-qp at ndp.on.ca>; "gcrack.mpp at liberal.ola.org" <gcrack.mpp at liberal.ola.org>; "ddamerla.mpp at liberal.ola.org" <ddamerla.mpp at liberal.ola.org>; "dduncan.mpp at liberal.ola.org" <dduncan.mpp at liberal.ola.org>; "mgravelle.mpp at liberal.ola.org" <mgravelle.mpp at liberal.ola.org>; "hjaczek.mpp at liberal.ola.org" <hjaczek.mpp at liberal.ola.org>; "mkwinter.mpp at liberal.ola.org" <mkwinter.mpp at liberal.ola.org>; "tmcmeekin.mpp at liberal.ola.org" <tmcmeekin.mpp at liberal.ola.org>; "lsandals.mpp at liberal.ola.org" <lsandals.mpp at liberal.ola.org>; "kwynne.mpp at liberal.ola.org" <kwynne.mpp at liberal.ola.org>;
 "dzimmer.mpp at liberal.ola.org" <dzimmer.mpp at liberal.ola.org> 
Sent: Sunday, January 13, 2013 3:10:11 PM
Subject: Climate Change in Waterloo ON & need to protect food and water

Hello

I posted a You Tube video of my garden this morning on January 13, 2013 in Waterloo Ontario Canada.  Broccoli is growing and ready to pick, celery and Kale is growing, lilac trees in bud, hollyhocks growing, snapdragon flowers are blooming. Please feel free to show that you tube video. Here is the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7O8Cm7Q9r48

I have worked with frogwatch Ontario for many years. Normally we don't see temperatures over 4 degrees at a steady level until early March when the early spring rains come and that gets animals like Jefferson Salamanders on the move. Yesterday the UW weather station said we had a high of 11.6 C in the last 24 hours. It's a full melt right now. 

Clearly we need to take action on climate change. The sever disruption of natural weather patterns is evident. There is no plausable deniability that the oil industry, and bad development practices is disrupting nature itself. 

Yesterday in Paris Ontario on Jan 12th 2013, I saw Maude Barlow who stated that the Ogallala Aquifer will be gone in our lifetime. That aquifer provides for 30% of the US grain supply. She stated by 2030 the world's demand for water will exceed availability by 30%. The drought is creating "Hot stains" in the the world from drought. 

Currently 1/4 of the oceans rising sea levels is because we are paving over source areas, building quarries in recharge areas and diverting water to big cities who use it and dump it into water systems leading to the ocean. For example, here in Waterloo Ontario, we are digging up our recharge for gravel, pave it over than dump the waste water into the Grand which drains to Erie through the Great Lakes to the sea. Repeat this over time, we deplete our inland water supplies for good and raise sea levels. We create flood drought scenarios and ruin our local agricultural industries along with inland fisheries and ecosystems. 

Mumbai is at the bottom of their water table now and Mexico city is sinking onto itself because aquifers are depleted. Sink holes are forming. That can happen in Waterloo Region too if we don't protect our aquifers. 

Right now, China is stockpiling rice, precious metals, iron ore and dry milk. UN Agricultural experts note that China imported 2.6 million tonnes of rice in 2012, more than four-fold from 2011 levels. http://www.wealthwire.com/news/global/4395 

Meanwhile 70% of Ontario's natural wetlands are gone. They used to process 80 to 90% of phosphates and nitrates. Now we have Lake Erie going toxic due to blue green algae who are fed with the phosphate wastes of our effluent and unsustainable development practices. 

The province ignored the inclusion of gravel pits as a risk to source areas and this is unreasonable. Natural systems are worth billions annually and yet we fail to put a price on the value of aggregates left in place for the function they serve in supporting water supplies and the economic systems and communities dependent on it. 

Planners and engineering firms are too confident that they can circumvent the risks with man made schemes but science has shown they have failed miserably. They destroyed the Ogallala. If we could resolve these issues don't you think the US midwest, Australia, China have acted on that prior to the droughts they have? They are suffering right now. 

We must prohibit development on all primary recharge areas and prime farmlands.  In Vermont they successfully passed a law that states that water is no only in the public trust, it belongs to the ecosystem. Local food trumps water export needs. They made it a law and we should too as soon as possible. Time is of the essence. 

The World Bank predicts that 44% of the world's farmlands will be in a state of drought with the most severe impacts in the US, Southern Europe, Southern Africa and South East Asia. This is evident of the fact that even with Best Management Practices are not working. We must manage populations within the natural carrying capacity of the lands on which they live. Work within nature's constraints rather than to flaw miserably as we craft our ways beyond logical limits. 

Our National Water Act is 43 years old. It is unreasonable we continue without revising it. We have no National Drinking Water Standard and that is unreasonable. We have no Aquifer Mappings so we're planning in the dark. This is also unreasonable. 

Our nation is at immediate risk.

I demand a moratorium on all projects that place Canada's water resources and farmlands at risk until we establish reasonable policy and protocols to prevent the associated food and water security issues.  This includes tar sands expansion projects.  We must keep local water supplies local to restore the health of our ecosystems and economy for the long term. 

Agriculture is worth $50 billion annually for Ontario alone annually yet  only 5% of our lands are established farmlands yet they are being raised for urban sprawl, roadways and gravel pits. To save our food and water you can start by implementing a Waterloo Moraine Protection Act to protect Waterloo Region and Lake Erie. Prohibit the pits from digging primary recharge areas and the Grand River. Save our farmlands to provide food for generations to come. 

Here is a supporting power point I created to show how protecting Waterloo's aquifers makes good economic sense. 
http://www.slideshare.net/Waterloomoriane/ara-submission-lanteigne-aggregate-risks-gdp-impacts

Imagine the prosperity Canada would have in protecting these resources. Our bounty could feed the world. 

In closing I include this passage from the bible, where God speaks to Moses about how to care for the promised land. 
Deuteronomy 11
New King James Version
8 “Therefore you shall keep every commandment which I command you today, that you may be strong, and go in and possess the land which you cross over to possess, 9 and that you may prolong your days in the land which the Lord swore to give your fathers, to them and their descendants, ‘a land flowing with milk and honey.’[a] 10 For the land which you go to possess is not like the land of Egypt from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and watered it by foot, as a vegetable garden; 11 but the land which you cross over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water from the rain of heaven, 12 a land for which the Lord your God cares; the eyes of the Lord your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the very end of the year.
13 ‘And it shall be that if you earnestly obey My commandments which I command you today, to love the Lord your God and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul, 14 then I[b] will give you the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, your new wine, and your oil. 15 And I will send grass in your fields for your livestock, that you may eat and be filled.’ 16 “Take heed to yourselves, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them, 17 lest the Lord’s anger be aroused against you, and He shut up the heavens so that there be no rain, and the land yield no produce, and you perish quickly from the good land which the Lord is giving you.

God warned us. This logic as written in the bible is still true to this day. 

Yours in good faith,

Louisette Lanteigne
700 Star Flower Ave.
Waterloo ON
N2V 2L2
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://gren.ca/pipermail/all_gren.ca/attachments/20130113/4ca449f5/attachment.html>