Copout

The annual UN sponsored Conference Of the Parties on climate is currently underway in Egypt. This is #27 in a line that started in 1995 with targets and promises being made – with no tangible result to date.

Meanwhile the show goes on as a way for world political hubas to show themselves off in front of world media cameras and the hosting country to present a positive face to the world, rather than its back yard.

From my perspective, there is no point in arguing with the observed data indicating that weather patterns are changing towards prolonged extreme weather events of both heat and cold and less average precipitation where I live in the North West part of Turtle Island.

Whatever you believe the primary cause to be, there is a marked change from what used to happen, especially here in the far north.

So, the question becomes: How do we adapt, in my situation, to more heat and less moisture?

The answer is pretty straight forward: Get smart about how to use fresh water. It is a no-brainer really. Here in Alberta we waste water as if the supply was unlimited with no thoughts for the future, waiting for the next dump of rain.

Trouble is, long term observed trends are that we are getting less all the time.

One of the main pillars of our economy, agriculture, is particularly sensitive to this, as most of our products come from dry land farming.

At the end of our last major drought here in Alberta, in 2002, I travelled in Central/East Alberta and didn’t see farmland. I saw a desert, which revived memories of what I saw in the desert of Syria and Iraq through which I passed in 1961.

Adapt or else...