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CEA in the News |
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Climate 'crisis' fuelling new environmental threats, local report warns Doug Schmidt • Windsor Star / September 30, 2020 The first wild river otter in more than a century visited Point Pelee National Park last year — just the most recent bit of good news for the local environment, on a relative rebound for decades, the result of citizens pushing governments to step up efforts to curb ecosystem degradation and clean things up. Along the Detroit River and in Lake Erie’s western basin, some of the positive results can be easily seen — waters that are cleaner and eagles, osprey and peregrine falcons nesting again and building families. Lake sturgeon (about 6,000 in the Detroit River as of 2017) and lake whitefish are once again spawning, beavers have returned, and now the otters are back in Lake Erie. But a new report warns that the “climate change crisis” impacting so many parts of the world is threatening to reverse some of that hard-earned local progress. The “warmer, wetter, wilder weather” increasingly triggered by a rapidly changing climate has become a “multiplier” for threats to the local ecosystem, with some eco-health indicators approaching a tipping point, scientists caution. “We can take some lessons here from COVID — you can’t let your guard down,” said Mike McKay, executive director of the University of Windsor’s Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research (GLIER). “We’re constantly challenged by new things.” More than two years in the making, with contributions from dozens of scientists, researchers, non-government and public agencies, industry and citizen advocates from Canada and the U.S., the 516-page State of the Strait report released Tuesday provides an up-to-date review of what’s harming and what’s helping the local environment and the waters that surround Windsor and much of Essex County. “We are part of this ecosystem — what we do to the ecosystem, we do to ourselves,” said scientist John Hartig, a visiting GLIER scholar and senior author of Checkup: Assessing Ecosystem Health of the Detroit River and Western Lake Erie. “I worry about complacency — we need a sense of urgency in addressing these challenges,” said Hartig. The report is based on research findings presented at the 11th biennial State of the Strait conference held last fall at the University of Windsor. The latest report identifies a number of key pressing issues threatening the health of the local ecosystem, including algae blooms, invasive species, urban sprawl and habitat loss, and agricultural and other toxic contamination runoff. “Climate change makes solving these more difficult,” said Hartig. Harmful algae blooms, for example, which were a catalyst in the 1960s for the historic Canada-U.S. Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement in 1972 that launched large-scale cleanup efforts, have returned, fostered by the higher frequency and intensity of major storms leading to more nutrient runoff from agricultural and other lands. In addition to a long list of woes, the State of the Strait points to the successes as well and provides a long list of recommendations on how to make further improvements. Among those recommendations is for the City of Windsor to accelerate implementation of its climate change adaptation plan and community energy plan. “People often feel doom and gloom about climate change, but look at the Detroit River alone and the difference we’ve seen over the last 50 years,” said Claire Sanders, the Essex Region Conservation Authority’s climate change specialist. “Yes, this (climate change) is worrying and concerning — but we know we can work together and make major changes.” Sanders is working on a regional energy plan, similar to Windsor’s, set to go before Essex County council in the spring. The Paris Agreement might be focused at the national and global level, but it will take action at the local and regional level to help meet those greenhouse gas reduction goals. “We need to meet those targets,” said Sanders. “It’s important we address the factors we can control,” said McKay. The report contains up-to-date information on research into water quality, wetlands preservation, the health of native birds, plants, fish and other species and the changing impact of humans. It outlines who is doing what and issues a call for stronger support of science-based monitoring and management actions. The latest biennial report is dedicated to Ric Coronado, founder of the Citizens Environment Alliance, who died last year and is described as “a spirited mentor to countless environmental activists in the Windsor area and beyond.” twitter.com/schmidtcity © Copyright (c) Windsor Star |