Local and Global Water Issues

Why are Brook Trout important?

• Brook Trout (also known as speckled trout) are native to eastern North America.

• Brook Trout are a sensitive species that require healthy cold-water ecosystems to survive. Their on-going presence is a strong biological indicator of a healthy aquatic environment.

• Brook Trout survival relies on stream temperatures no greater than 19^oC – 20^oC for any sustained period of time.

• Brook Trout are in serious decline in Southern Ontario due to urbanization, over harvest, water pollution, climate change, invasive species, groundwater extraction, dam construction, habitat fragmentation and degradation.

• The West Credit River has a thriving population of Brook Trout that will be placed at risk of drastic demise as a result of waste water discharged from the Town of Erin’s proposed Wastewater Treatment Plant.

“The most productive brook trout spawning reaches and the best brook trout populations in the West Credit River are located downstream of Erin Village and the longest contiguous brook trout habitat in the Credit River watershed is the West Credit River between Erin and Belfountain.” – CVC Aquafor Beech Inc.

Blackport Hydrogrology Inc. 2011 Erin Servicing and Settlement Master Plan. Phase 1 – Environmental Component – Existing Conditions Report

Video: West Credit Brook Trout. Short version 2021 by David Williams

"In the past 20 years, the bottled water industry established a niche for its product to such an extent that approximately one third of Canadians drink bottled water as their primary source of drinking water.

Initially, Canadians saw the bottling and reselling of water for profit as a money ploy, since people had easy access to clean water from their taps at no extra charge. However, the bottled water industry had determination, financial backing and carefully planned marketing schemes to scare Canadians into believing that tap water was bad for your health, untrendy, not refreshing and inaccessible. The bottled water industry targets youth, mothers, the elderly, athletes, and the general public, eventually misleading and seducing people to opt for bottled water over tap water.

Public water systems are bottled water’s biggest competitors. The expanding bottled water market erodes people’s confidence in their public water systems, paving the way for higher prices and corporate control of our water resources."

https://www.polarisinstitute.org/bottled_water_industry

Article: Sept 26, 2014 CBC Bottle vs. Tap: 7 Things to Know About Drinking Water https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/bottle-vs-tap-7-things-to-know-about-drinking-water-1.2774182

Article: July 23, 2019 Bottled water's next trick is making the bottle disappear

https://www.fastcompany.com/90371888/bottled-waters-next-trick-is-making-the-bottle-disappear

http://thewaterbrothers.ca/bottlegate/

The Polaris Institute, an Ottawa-based non-profit, estimates that only 14% of water bottles in Ontario end up in recycling facilities, leaving the rest to wreak havoc on our health and the environment.

Video: End the Plastic Disaster 2020

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnCiY8biCAI&t=68s

Canadians dispose of about 3.3 million tonnes of plastic each year, according to a 2019 study commissioned by Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), almost half of which is packaging. Well over three-quarters currently goes to landfills, a small proportion is incinerated and about one per cent ends up directly in the environment.

Only nine per cent — or 305,000 tonnes — is recycled, the 2019 study found.

"Given current market prices, structures, business models and the low cost of disposal, there is limited direct economic incentive for plastics recycling and value recovery in Canada"

Mountains of Plastic - Countries around the world start banning single use plastics

https://blueocean.net/india-vows-to-ban-all-single-use-plastics-by-2022/

Using the plastic for roads in L.A.? https://www.lamag.com/citythinkblog/plastic-roads-los-angeles/

Overfishing, legally or illegally, is not sustainable and the fishing industry will need to see some major changes in the upcoming years to save particular species and to essentially, save ourselves. Some species are being selected due to their value in specific markets whether they are believed to have medicinal purposes or are used to show wealth.

One example is the practice of shark finning which due to many efforts is illegal but unfortunately keeps happening. Sharks are commonly finned and thrown overboard left to die but it is happening at a rate that we have lost 90% of our sharks in the past 50 years. What will happen if sharks are eliminated to a point of extinction? Due to the effects of the food chain and loss of balance of predator-prey that sharks provide: reefs would disappear, algal blooms suffocate the ocean, carbon imbalance would lead to further global warming, many other species would become extinct and further, the collapse of the fishing industry. Already being overfished by humans, the wasteful practice of throwing away half of what is caught overall as bycatch, is almost unfathomable. Sometimes we don't even know what we are eating...

Article: Fish mislabelling occurs all along supply chain, study reveals

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/kitchener-waterloo/guelph-study-seafood-food-canada-1.5011572

Video:

SeaSpiracy 2021 Movie trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Q5CXN7soQg

Revolution 2012 Movie synopsis: https://www.youtube.com/user/revolutionmovie2012

Want to learn more about Rob Stewart's life work? https://www.sharkwater.com/videos/w5-a-canadian-eco-warriors-shark-protection-mission/

Water and breast milk are both critical for human

survival, yet both are under threat from privatization

by profit-driven, multi-national corporations around

the world. Aggressive marketing strategies have discouraged breast feeding and has contributed to infant deaths and suffering especially in communities without access to clean water.

In 1981, health officials from around the world gathered at the World Health Assembly to address aggressive marketing tactics by the infant and young child feeding industry, which was promoting formula feeding over breastfeeding and causing a dramatic increase in infant morbidity and mortality. The result was the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes (the Code), a landmark policy framework designed to stop commercial interests from damaging breastfeeding rates and endangering the health and nutrition of the world’s youngest inhabitants. In 1981, the WHO estimated 1.5 million deaths of children under 5 could be prevented if mothers were supported to optimally breastfeed. Today, despite better access to healthcare, 800,000 children under 5 still die every year.

Last year, some marketers of baby foods exploited the COVID-19 pandemic to promote their products by invoking unfounded fears that breastfeeding could transmit COVID-19. WHO and UNICEF guidance is clear: mothers suspected or known to have COVID-19 should continue breastfeeding. These damaging marketing campaigns need to stop and allow mothers to care for their babies in the healthiest way possible without misleading and misinformation.

May 20, 2021 Article from WHO and Unicef https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/joint-statement-unicef-executive-director-henrietta-fore-and-who-director-general-dr