Glaciers may have the reputation of moving slowly, but deep below them, unseen by humans, things are moving more quickly every day. Global warming is melting our glaciers, creating streams of icy water and slush below the surface. If this water spreads out, it can lubricate the ice above it and cause the glaciers to flow faster. While this melt and the resulting glacier flow tells scientists how fast our climate is changing, it’s up to a new breed of scientist to tell us how fast we need to act.
Friday, February 2, marked the Ecohydrology Research Group’s sixth annual World Wetlands Day (WWD) celebration at the University of Waterloo. This year’s program featured research presentations, three-minute student presentations, a student poster competition, and an evening public lecture. The symposium had over 90 registrants and was attended by researchers from various universities across southwestern Ontario as well as members of the general public. The MP of Waterloo, Bardish Chagger, even Tweeted about the event:
A fear of dying plays a role in people buying bottled water, even though they know it may not be good for them or the planet, a study from the University of Waterloo has found.
The study suggests that most bottled-water advertising campaigns target a deep psychological vulnerability in humans, compelling them to buy and consume particular products. Bottled water ads specifically trigger our most subconscious fear — driving Canadians to buy billions of litres of water annually.
A study released today in Nature Geoscience describes how climate change played a major role in the massive catastrophic collapse of two glaciers in the Tibetan Plateau in July and September 2016.
Chris Parsons canoeing to a sampling site in Coot's Paradise near Toronto.
Today, 4.5 billion people live without a household toilet that safely disposes of their waste. World Toilet Day, which took place on Sunday, November 19, is about inspiring action to tackle the global sanitation crisis.
The presence and accumulation of plastic debris in the marine environment has seen a substantial increase, with global production of plastics having grown exponentially in the last 60 years, from 1.5 million tons of plastics around 1950 to more than 300 million tons annually in 2014. In 2010 alone, estimates show that between 4.8 and 12.7 million tons of plastic litter entered the marine environment (UNEP and GRID-Arendal, 2016. Marine Litter Vital Graphics. United Nations Environment Programme, Nairobi, Kenya).
Rebecca Rooney, Water Institute member and professor in the Department of Biology, studies wetlands ecology. Her work supports the implementation of invasive species management and the protection of species at risk. Currently, Rooney is exploring the interactions between invasive species and species at risk, especially Phragmites australis, which is considered one of the greatest dangers to coastal marshes.