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An impending water crisis in Canada's western prairie provinces
https://archives.whyte.org/en/permalink/catalogue24934
- Medium
- Library - Book (including soft-cover and pamphlets)
- Published Date
- 2006
- Author
- Schindler, D.W.
- Donahue, W.F.
- Publisher
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
- Call Number
- 03.5 Sc1a PAM
1 website
- Author
- Schindler, D.W.
- Donahue, W.F.
- Responsibility
- D.W. Schindler
- W.F. Donahue
- Publisher
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
- Published Date
- 2006
- Physical Description
- 6 pages ; illustrations , maps
- Abstract
- Canada is usually considered to be a country with abundant freshwater, but in its western prairie provinces (WPP), an area 1/5 the size of Europe, freshwater is scarce. European settlement of the WPP did not begin until the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Fortuitously, the period since European settlement appears to have been the wettest century of the past two millennia. The frequent, long periods of drought that characterized earlier centuries of the past two millennia were largely absent in the 20th century. Here, we show that climate warming and human modifications to catchments have already significantly reduced the flows of major rivers of the WPP during the summer months, when human demand and in-stream flow needs are greatest. We predict that in the near future climate warming, via its effects on glaciers, snowpacks, and evaporation, will combine with cyclic drought and rapidly increasing human activity in the WPP to cause a crisis in water quantity and quality with far-reaching implications.
- Notes
- In PNAS May 9, 2006 103 (19) 7210-7216
- Call Number
- 03.5 Sc1a PAM
- Collection
- Archives Library
- URL Notes
- Available online via PNAS's website
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Heart waters : sources of the Bow River
https://archives.whyte.org/en/permalink/catalogue25255
- Medium
- Library - Book (including soft-cover and pamphlets)
- Published Date
- 2015
- Author
- Van Tighem, Kevin
- Van Tighem, Brian
- Publisher
- [Victoria, British Columbia] : Rocky Mountain Books
- Edition
- First
- Call Number
- 03.5 V26h
1 website
- Responsibility
- Kevin Van Tighem (author)
- Brian Van Tighem (photographer)
- Edition
- First
- Publisher
- [Victoria, British Columbia] : Rocky Mountain Books
- Published Date
- 2015
- Physical Description
- 256 pages : colour illustrations, colour maps
- Abstract
- Water does not come from the river. It comes to the river. Heart Waters takes us to the sources of that water – and into the living beauty, human stories and future possibilities that also arise from the green uplands and valleys of Alberta’s Eastern Slopes, where the mighty Bow River is born. For more than a century the foothills and Front Range mountains of western Alberta have been recognized as being vital to the water supply for western Canada. Virtually all the water that sustains communities, ecosystems and the economy of prairie Canada comes from this narrow strip of land arrayed along the Continental Divide. For all its importance, however, water management decisions affecting this enormous region have ignored the significance of land health and focused almost exclusively on building dams. The result, as the author points out, is that the Bow River’s annual flows have decreased by more than a tenth, even as spring floods become more frequent and more destructive. The solutions to prairie Canada’s water challenges lie in healing the wounded landscapes of our headwaters. Heart Waters delves deeply into the history and ecology of a landscape whose critical value as a watershed is matched by its sheer beauty and diversity. A rich array of stunning images by Jasper-based photographer Brian Van Tighem complements the author’s well-researched explorations of the stories whispered by the living waters that drain from Banff National Park, Kananaskis Country and the famous ranchlands of the Bow River watershed. Kevin Van Tighem’s latest book is a deep exploration of place and an invitation to recognize that our water future depends upon knowing our headwaters better and caring for them more passionately — as our heart waters. (from publisher's website)
- Contents
- 1. Voices in the water -- 2. River origins: Bow River -- 3. A prodigal's return: Johnson Creek -- 4. Caterpillars and cutthroats: Quirk Creek -- 5. The past and future trout: Meadow Creek -- 6. Lake of the spirits: Cascade River and Ghost River -- 7. Dammed splendor: Kananaskis River -- 8. Buck-toothed volunteers: Bateman Creek -- 9. The under-river: Middle Bow River -- 10. Water and wildness: Sheep River -- 11. Cattle in the creek: Pekisko Creek -- 12. Mountains breathing: Highwood River -- 13. Healing the headwaters -- 14. Home and heart waters -- Index.
- Notes
- Shortlisted for the 2016 Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival award for Mountain & Wilderness Literature
- ISBN
- 9781771601399
- Accession Number
- P2020.07
- Call Number
- 03.5 V26h
- Collection
- Archives Library
- URL Notes
- Publisher's website
Websites
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Our vanishing glaciers : the snows of yesteryear and the future climate of the mountain West
https://archives.whyte.org/en/permalink/catalogue25256
- Medium
- Library - Book (including soft-cover and pamphlets)
- Published Date
- 2017
- Author
- Sandford, Robert W.
- Publisher
- [Victoria, British Columbia] : Rocky Mountain Books
- Edition
- First
- Call Number
- 03.4 Sa5o
1 website
- Author
- Sandford, Robert W.
- Responsibility
- Robert W. Sandford
- Edition
- First
- Publisher
- [Victoria, British Columbia] : Rocky Mountain Books
- Published Date
- 2017
- Physical Description
- 223 pages : illustrations (chiefly color), maps (chiefly color)
- Subjects
- Water
- Watersheds
- Rivers
- Glaciers
- Hydrology
- Hydrology - Alberta
- Rocky Mountains
- Climate change
- Abstract
- Written by one of the most respected experts in water and water-associated climate science and featuring stunning photography collected over the past four decades, Our Vanishing Glaciers explains and illustrates why water is such a unique substance and how it makes life on this planet possible. Focusing on the Columbia Icefield, the largest and most accessible mass of ice straddling the Continental Divide in western North America, and featuring photographs, illustrations, aerial surveys and thermal imaging collected over more than 40 years of the author’s personal observations, the book reveals the stunning magnitude of glacial ice in western Canada. Citing evidence to suggest that in the Canadian Rocky Mountain national parks alone, as many as 300 glaciers may have disappeared since 1920, this large-format, fully illustrated coffee table book graphically illustrates the projected rate of glacier recession in the mountain West over the rest of this century and serves as a profound testament to the beauty and importance of western Canada’s water, ice and snow. (from publisher's website)
- Contents
- 1. The wonder of water -- 2. What winter does to water -- 3. Ecology as defined by winter water -- 4. How ice fields and glaciers form -- 5. Canada's most accessible glaciers -- 6. The death of Peyto glacier : A case for more comprehensive -- 7. The Columbia ice field today -- 8. Glaciers in a changing climate -- 9. What we stand to lose -- 10. Water, climate and the National Parks ideal.
- Notes
- Winner, 2017 Lane Anderson Award for Best Canadian Science Writing
- ISBN
- 9781771602020
- Accession Number
- P2020.07
- Call Number
- 03.4 Sa5o
- Location
- Reading Room
- Collection
- Archives Library
- URL Notes
- Publisher's website
Websites
This material is presented as originally created; it may contain outdated cultural descriptions and
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Rain comin' down : water, memory and identity in a changed world
https://archives.whyte.org/en/permalink/catalogue25257
- Medium
- Library - Book (including soft-cover and pamphlets)
- Published Date
- 2019
- Author
- Sandford, Robert W.
- Publisher
- [Victoria, British Columbia] : Rocky Mountain Books
- Edition
- First
- Call Number
- 03.5 Sa5r
1 website
- Author
- Sandford, Robert W.
- Responsibility
- Robert W. Sandford
- Edition
- First
- Publisher
- [Victoria, British Columbia] : Rocky Mountain Books
- Published Date
- 2019
- Physical Description
- 330 pages
- Subjects
- Water
- Watersheds
- Rivers
- Glaciers
- Hydrology
- Hydrology - Alberta
- Rocky Mountains
- Climate change
- Abstract
- Robert Sandford has spent a lot time watching and thinking about water. This was not because he was predisposed to do so, but because the importance of water gradually caught up with who he was and what he was doing with his life. As this self-reflective book demonstrates, when one takes up the serious study of water, one cannot but be surprised at how far that interest can take you: from the very origins of the cosmos right down to the unique structure and remarkable qualities of water as a molecule. It takes you to the depths of the oceans, to the upper reaches of the Earth’s atmosphere, and into the centres of storms. You fall to Earth with raindrops, travel tiny streams and great rivers, go round and round in lakes and ponds. Your study takes you down to the very roots of trees, into the soil, along the dark, dank banks of underground rivers. It takes you from one person’s thirst to the thirst of nations; from the demographics of the past to how those may drastically change in the absence of water in decades to come. Following water takes one back and forth in time, linking us to what the Earth was like in the past; what it is now; and how water will shape what it will be in the future. (from publisher's website)
- Contents
- Invocation - Rain comin' down
- Celestial rivers
- Rivers of cold
- Rivers of heat
- Rivers of words
- The heart of dryness
- Irrigating Eden
- Rivers of memory
- Rivers of ice
- As the world burns
- Learning from the burning: The summer of 2018
- Afterword - Rivers of hope
- Appendix - a Canadian National Glacier Act
- Bookshelf
- ISBN
- 9781771603171
- Accession Number
- P2020.07
- Call Number
- 03.5 Sa5r
- Collection
- Archives Library
- URL Notes
- Publisher's website
Websites
This material is presented as originally created; it may contain outdated cultural descriptions and
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Stories of ice : adventure, commerce and creativity on Canada's glaciers
https://archives.whyte.org/en/permalink/catalogue25254
- Medium
- Library - Book (including soft-cover and pamphlets)
- Published Date
- 2020
- Author
- Martel, Lynn
- Publisher
- [Victoria, British Columbia] : Rocky Mountain Books Ltd.
- Edition
- First
- Call Number
- 03.4 M36s
1 website
- Author
- Martel, Lynn
- Responsibility
- Lynn Martel
- Edition
- First
- Publisher
- [Victoria, British Columbia] : Rocky Mountain Books Ltd.
- Published Date
- 2020
- Physical Description
- 336 pages ; illustrations (chiefly color), color map
- Subjects
- Ice
- Ice climbing
- Glaciers
- Hydrology
- Abstract
- With the state of global ice constantly in the news, one mountain journalist examines Canadian glaciers to uncover their secrets and their future. From a mother/daughter duo who spent five months skiing across icefields from Vancouver to Alaska, to scientists discovering biofilms deep inside glacier caverns, to protesters camping for weeks to protect their beloved local glacier, western Canada's glaciers are dynamic, enigmatic, exquisitely beautiful, sometimes dangerous environments where people play, work, run businesses, explore, and create art every single day. Author Lynn Martel is one of them. With gorgeous images by some of the country's best outdoor photographers, Stories of Ice shares the excitement, the mystery, and the wonder of Canada's glaciers and poses questions about their future. (From publisher's website)
- Contents
- Photographers
- Prologue
- Born to meld
- Adventure on ice
- Commerce from ice
- Study of ice
- Inspiration in ice
- Spiritual ice
- Epilogue
- Acknowledgements
- Select Bibliography
- ISBN
- 9781771603898
- Accession Number
- P2020.07
- Call Number
- 03.4 M36s
- Collection
- Archives Library
- URL Notes
- Publisher's website
Websites
This material is presented as originally created; it may contain outdated cultural descriptions and
potentially offensive content.
Read more.