News

On February 8, Water Institute member Blair Feltmate, head of the Intact Centre for Climate Adaptation, was a witness to the Standing Senate Committee on Energy, the Environment and Natural Resources discussion of a study on the effects of transitioning to a low carbon economy. The study looks at five key sectors responsible for 80 per cent of our emissions: electricity, oil and gas, transportation, buildings and trade-exposed industries, and how they can contribute to meeting Canada's emission goals.

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.

Cold regions are experiencing dramatic changes to regional climate and environmental conditions, bringing about more severe floods, longer drought periods and deterioration of water quality that are putting economies, communities and ecosystems at risk. Six new University of Waterloo-led research projects that are part of the Global Water Futures program, will catalyze interdisciplinary research to help tackle these environmental challenges.

In the 2017 fall term, the Department of Economics offered Waterloo’s graduate and undergraduate students a new elective course on Water Resources Economics (ECON 484/673).

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).