We need to plan for ecosystem health of the region
By Lethbridge Herald on September 1, 2023.
Editor:
The decision by the UCP government to pause the development of renewable energy in the province for seven months is mystifying. Though there have been a series of excuses tested for public acceptance, the UCP seem to have settled on the need for better planning of the electricity grid to accommodate intermittent electricity production.
One has to wonder what amount of planning (required for the transition to a low-emission grid) has actually been done by successive governments over the past quarter-century, the span of time since it has been known that global emissions must be reduced to net-zero by 2050.
Nevertheless, that this notion has only recently filtered through to the UCP government is dismaying. That it was so sudden a revelation that a pause of renewable energy development was initiated without consultation or planning with the industry is nothing short of astonishing.
But, to be charitable, planning is good. And we should be grateful that the UCP has discovered the importance of it.
Planning might have been useful when the UCP government rescinded the Coal Policy endangering our water quality, or decided to close or privatize a number of provincial parks. This government may have applied the precautionary principle more broadly to the expansion and management of untreatable tailing ponds, or been more vigilant about the growing problem of orphaned oil and gas wells and associated uncontrolled methane emissions.
Even today, this government is granting approximately $300 million towards a 200,000-acre irrigation expansion project in southern Alberta.
An extremely large expansion in a semi-arid region with a limited (and diminishing) amount of water available to households, communities and the industries, as well as rivers, relying on it. Expanding water demand with diminishing supply is simply untenable, and one glance at Lake Mead and the dry mouth of the Colorado River will tell you that more storage doesn’t create water. In the spirit of precaution and planning, it would be a good time to pause this project until a proper environmental impact assessment has been completed with robust modelling of water flow trends in a warming world.
Already, we do not meet instream flows needed to maintain the health of our rivers and riparian areas.
A cynic might say that the pause in renewable energy development to allow for planning was simply political intrigue. Others might say incompetence. For some, both. SAGE, however, is more generous in its perspective. We look forward to the UCP government employing the principles of planning, public engagement, and the precautionary principle more broadly in the future.
It is a good time to begin planning for ecosystem health and the enduring prosperity of our region.
Braum Barber
Lethbridge
14-13
Chew on these details while you worship another 3400 acre site of persisting grass land, killing another golden goose.
https://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/irr15523/$file/economic-value-irrigation-alberta.pdf
From the Executive Summary:
The communities and industries supported by Alberta’s 13 irrigation districts are an excellent template for what a strong, vibrant rural economy can achieve – because of water.
My question for you, buckwheat: how strong and vibrant will any community be in the south, or for that matter across Canada, with repeated water crises.
https://news.usask.ca/media-release-pages/2022/the-state-of-water-security-in-canada-a-water-rich-nation-prepares-for-the-future-after-seasons-of-disaster.php#:~:text=The%20climate%20crisis%20is%20becoming,forests%2C%20animals%2C%20and%20crops.
A repeated comment in the Herald. One that clearly expresses the importance of planning (science-based), particularly as it relates to the health of the ecosystem we rely on for our prosperity, even our very existence. Planning for water, energy and ghg emissions is imperative.
Given this summer’s drought I don’t know what the answer is for water. Certainly there are some easy wins – like convince boomers to stop wasting it on lawns that do nothing but feed their egos. Or not polluting it with selenium for pointless coal mines to prop up UCP donors.
Agriculture is harder – we need food, and given that we’ve already done severe damage to the climate we rely on, moving the water where we need it may be our only option moving forward.
while the fetish of lawn grass is pretty much a waste in terms of water, as well as a source of nasty poisons in terms chemical use, water is essential to keep trees, shrubs and flowers going. those things help maintain a healthy ecosystem. we are, however, at a point where our population, our bulldozing over of natural spaces, and bringing in industries that usurp vast quantities of water are significant issues.