Rosenberg International Forum on Water Policy, University of California Berkeley
10-Jun-2013
Biodiversity in watershed covering roughly 20% of Canada compared to Africa’s Serengeti; Alarm raised at melting of permafrost, ice that plays vital global climate role
Canada’s Mackenzie River basin — among the world’s most important major ecosystems — is poorly studied, inadequately monitored, and at serious risk due to climate change and resource exploitation, a panel of international scientists warn today.
In a report, nine Canadian, US and UK scientists convened by the US-based Rosenberg International Forum on Water Policy, say effective governance of the massive Basin, comprising an area three times larger than France — holds enormous national and global importance due to the watershed’s biodiversity and its role in hemispheric bird migrations, stabilizing climate and the health of the Arctic Ocean.
The panel agreed the largest single threat to the Basin is a potential breach in the tailings ponds at one of the large oil sands sites mining surface bitumen. A breach in winter sending tailings liquid under the ice of the tributary Athabasca River, “would be virtually impossible to remediate or clean-up,” says the report, available in full at http://bit.ly/13gc01K
News release in full, click here
Coverage by:
The Canadian Press, click here
The Tyee: click here
The Toronto Star, click here
CBC TV, click here
Nature, click here
Saskatoon Star-Phoenix Editorial, click here
Water Canada, click here
Agencia EFE (Spain), Spanish, click here, Portuguese, click here
Coverage summary: click here