OCEANS, GLACIERS at INCREASING RISK

Be Happy You Reside in Canada ~

especially in On tari-ari-ario!

A recent climate report in The Canadian Press by Bob Weber is startling!

We know the climate is quickly changing

and is alarming with increasing risk to human health.

Damage to Earth's oceans and glaciers from climate change

is outpacing the abilities of governments to protect them.

It doesn't matter where you live in the world ~ or whether you live in Canada, the impacts of climate change are going to impact everyone, said Sherliee Harper, an epidemiologist at the University of Alberta and one of the leading authors.The report was compiled by more than 100 authors worldwide with more than 7,000 papers at a scientific gathering in Monaco. A companion to a recent paper on the effect of a warming climate on land, lays out what's in store for oceans, glaciers and permafrost.

Oceans are rising faster and faster, becoming more acidic and warmer at a pace

that has doubled since 1993, Oxygen is disappearing from their upper layers

and currents that bring warm water north are weakening.

Glaciers, the source of rivers, are shrinking.

Permafrost, storing twice as much carbon as the atmosphere, is at record temperatures.

The changes are affecting people.

There have been outbreaks of vibrio poisoning, causing gastriontestinal illness

from shellfish living in warm water.

We are starting to see outbreaks of different vibrio species in places we did not previously see and that has been attributed to ocean warming. Arctic communities will be directly affected said Harper.

For both the Arctic and west of B.C. the report talks about how the decreased catch of fish and seafood will impact nutrition for the people who live tthere. We'll see anywhere from20 to 30 per cent decrease in their nutrient intake because of those climate impacts and on fish distribution.

By 2060 ~ within the lifetime of about half of Canadians now living ~

coastal floods off British Columbia and the Maritimes

that used to occur once a century ~ will be annual events.

Water availability across Western Canada will also be disrupted.

While the globe is now locked in to decades of disruption from current 'greenhouse gas levels'

almost all negative effects can be softened by reduced emissions. It ends with a plea for governments to co-operate and calls for 'profound economic and institutional transformative change.'

Teams in Quest for Arctic Secrets

Canadian archeologists are on their way to a remote island near the Arctic Circle to try to dig up the secrets held by the Franklin expedtition wrecks. Parks Canada and Inuit partners say it will be the largest and most complex underwater archeological event in Canadian history

HMS Terror and HMS Erebus are the remains of an expedition

launched by Britich explorer John Franklin in 1845 that became trapped in ice.

(Reported from Ottawa to The Canadian Press)

Tofino, British Columbia

Along the Pacific coast of this western province, is a place I've not been. Inland, I'm well acquainted with the Rocky Mountains, flowing rivers and gushing waterfalls. On a summer cruise with a teacher friend, we explored B.C.'s coast travelling on a CN 's Inside Passage cruise from Vancouver to Ketchikan, Alaska. From there one day we travelled by train into Yukon. It was an eventful cruise: Miriam, met Ed from Edmonton...a couple times he travelled east to our locale...spending Christmas with her family...then returning east again, on Valentine's Day they were engaged and married in the summer. She moved to Edmonton; so we've resigned to telephone and email correspondence.

Travelling B.C.'s coast is a cruise every Canadian should enjoy!

Several months ago, the Travel Section intrigued me:

Tofino near B.C.'s coast is a place I'd love to visit.

The Great Lakes

What a wonderful scenic trip it would be to travel these scenic wonders!

“Right in our own backyard,” is a cliche

yet there is much to be read and ample research,which one day I shall assemble.

A few introductory facts:

Lake Superior is by far the Biggest and Deepest lake.

The smallest two are Lake Erie and Lake Ontario.

Only one of the Lakes is located entirely in United States ~Michigan.

You can take a 6,500 mile drive around all the lakes.

The lakes contain more than 35,000 islands.

Its remarkable fact is that these lakes are 'fresh water'.

If I could return to years of youth, I'd happily take my 'mountain bike'

and proceed to travel each lake's coastline and snap photos of lighthouses.

Author: Merle Baird-Kerr...September 26, 2019

Comments welcome: mbairdkerr@cogeco.ca