Award-winning broadcaster and author drew crowd of 220 people to region

Science journalist praises community efforts to protect water

Award-winning broadcaster Bob McDonald draws 220 people to presentation

An estimated 220 people converged at a Goderich location on Tuesday, June 23 to hear one of Canada’s foremost science journalists and broadcasters speak on water issues, climate change and the need for alternative energy sources.

The Ausable Bayfield Maitland Valley Drinking Water Source Protection Region invited Bob McDonald, host of CBC radio’s Quirks and Quarks and TV Ontario’s Heads Up!, to speak to the public on water protection.

There is no other known world that can support human life, according to McDonald. “It’s very beautiful, it’s exquisite, it’s unique,” he told the crowd at the Columbus Centre. The well-known author compared the Earth to the ‘Garden of Eden’ but he said it’s a very fragile planet too. “A (planet with a) thin film of water, a thin bubble of air – that’s where we live.”

He said the planet may look, from afar, like it is blue and has lots of water but he used a pitcher and a glass – removing the undrinkable water until only a drop was left – to illustrate that very little of the world’s water is fit for drinking. “Only 0.1 per cent of all the water in the world is available for us to drink,” he said.

McDonald complimented the people of this region for their active local involvement in protecting the fragile sources of drinking water. He said Canada has so much of the world’s scarce fresh water supplies that “we are the water keepers.”

The speaker made it clear there is no doubt the planet’s climate is changing. “Yes, the Earth is getting warmer,” he said. The problem is not just that the planet is getting warmer, he said, but that the planet is getting hotter at an unprecedented rate. The speaker’s visuals, showing the accelerated decline in northern sea ice, painted a stark picture for the audience. The anticipated melting of permafrost is likely to release methane and pose a greenhouse gas impact ten times more severe than carbon dioxide, he said.

The noted science journalist underscored the fragility of the planet but he also offered a message of hope. “Look how far we have come, look what we have done, I think we can apply the same creativity and the same ingenuity and figure out how to get through this (and find) new ways to turn wheels, other ways to keep ourselves warm, other ways to move from here to there,” he said. “We’ve got to take care of this beautiful (planet) because that’s all there is.”

Goderich Councillor David Yates introduced McDonald to the crowd. He also complimented the region on its “truly unique” efforts to include members of the public in local, community Source Protection working groups. The more than 75 community working group members have just completed a year and a half of study of water protection through an adult learning program and they presented planning policy suggestions to the Source Protection Committee on Tuesday. They will also be invited to provide feedback on the assessment reports being prepared in the upcoming year.

For more information on Drinking Water Source Protection in the Ausable Bayfield Maitland Valley region visit sourcewaterinfo.on.ca or phone 519-335-3557, 519-235-2610 or toll-free 1-888-286-2610. Stewardship funding is available for voluntary best-management-practice projects by owners of homes, farms, businesses and other properties in some of the region’s most vulnerable areas. For information visit sourceprotectionstewardship.on.ca or phone the numbers above.

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