Boreal Forest Vulnerability: Part of the Healthy-Waters.org Story

Posted on | May 11, 2016 | 3 Comments

From "Drops of Life".

  Mike Magee

In 2005, in a piece addressing the health of the “planetary patient”, I wrote, “Water – it’s movement, forms, availability, and transportability – has directly shaped and continues to define the future of this planet and all of its inhabitants…As we have grown in numbers and in concentration; as we have built and infiltrated among, and at times, in opposition to other life forms, we have created future health challenges that must now be addressed.”

At the time, I saw water – its scarcity and unequal distribution and inaccessibility – as the most important planetary health issue of the day. I hit the road with a traveling show called “The Drops of Life”, a multimedia program prepared with the help of the Duarte Group which had produced Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth”. What I discovered is that most health professionals considered the issue a low priority. Water was as inconvenient as global warming.

I began focusing on other issues, and “Healthy Waters” lay dormant. Then recently, I was in Syracuse, NY, to talk to 150 PA students of Dept. Chair Mary Springston and faculty at LeMoyne College. I spoke on leadership and change. In the address I touched on the case of three chemical engineering PhD students at Virginia Tech, who, with the support of their professor, uncovered and revealed the Flint, Michigan, poisoning of public waters with lead. Some months later, they published their story, citing the engineering code of ethics which pledges a commitment to societal responsibility, and to protecting individuals above all else.

After the address, over lunch, Dr. Beth Mitchell, the Department Chair of Biological Sciences, asked me what had become of the Healthy Waters movement (the site was down). I explained that I had tried, but there had been little traction. She gently suggested, in the wake of Flint, Michigan, that I might try again.

As I was preparing to relaunch the new site, President Obama visited Flint, just as air filled with smoke and carbon-laden soot was beginning to approach the Midwest from fires in Fort McMurray, in northern Alberta. The juxtaposition nicely illustrates the urgent need for each of us to be better informed on our planetary health and critical issues like water. Let me explain.

By now, we all know that the lead in Flint’s water leached out of ancient pipes, made vulnerable by an engineering mistake. Less known is that 2000 other water systems in the US currently have dangerous lead levels. Cause and effect are clear. The will and resources to rebuild ancient infrastructure is less visible. It seems part of our populace would prefer to build a wall.

The situation in Alberta, Canada, is more convoluted, but inter-connected with planetary health and water as well. A few facts:

1. Alberta, Canada, is part of a heavily forested area in the Northern Hemisphere known as the Boreal (Northern) Forest, a belt of evergreens just below the Arctic Circle which includes Alaska, Canada, Scandinavia and Russia. The forest is made up of mostly resin producing, cone-bearing trees

2. For two decades, scientists have been predicting large scale fires and loss due to drying trees caused by increased temperatures, early snow melt, and secondary insect infestations. Temperature rises are greater in this Northern hemisphere belt than anywhere else on Earth.

3. The Boreal Forest represents 1/3 of all tree cover on Earth, and its capacity to absorb carbon is enormous.

4. In the last three years, both Russia and Alaska have had record breaking forest fires. The fires secondary impact, the deposition of heat absorbing soot onto the Greenland ice sheet, has accelerated the sheet’s disintegration. If we lose it, sea levels will rise 20 feet.

5. These are also heavy mining regions. As with Fort McMurray, mining leads to settlements, and their inhabitants carry an increase risk of accidental forest fires. These outposts generally do not have adequate forest fire fighting equipment or personnel, nor adequate exit plans. In Fort McMurray, 90,000 inhabitants had to be evacuated on a single highway.

Scientists see in the Boreal Forest multiple layers of vulnerability. Loss of the forests eliminates a critical carbon sink, while also acutely releasing large amounts of carbon into the atmosphere. The soot itself can magnify surface warming. The mining interests pollute surface and ground water reserves, while raising the risk of human caused fires, without adequate infrastructure to manage the calamity.

In 2005, in addition to the focus on integrated water cycles, I addressed the Water Crisis, Water and Health, Water and Agriculture, Water and Industry, Water and Energy, Water and Cities, and Natural Water Disasters. My timing was off. Healthy-Waters.org is again live, and “Drops of Life” has been updated. Whether we are ready or not, what recent events dramatically demonstrate, these issues are urgent and demand every citizen’s attention.

Comments

3 Responses to “Boreal Forest Vulnerability: Part of the Healthy-Waters.org Story”

Bill Tipton
May 13th, 2016 @ 10:31 am

Dr. Magee,

Thank you for sharing this thought-provoking and timely article. Water quality today is indeed a critically important issue. Your efforts to shed added attention and prioritization are both noble and necessary.

I’m proud that my daughter, Claire Tipton (Elon ’13) is pursuing her graduate degree in Hydrology at the Gillings School of Global Public Health at UNC Chapel Hill. My other daughter, Hillary (Oberlin ’11) works for ICF International as an Energy Efficiency Analyst. As such, I have forwarded your update to them.

God Speed to you, sir, on your good work!

Bill Tipton
Maineville, Ohio
Mike Magee
May 13th, 2016 @ 10:48 am

Thank you so much, Bill, for your kind comments – and congratulations to your daughters for their ongoing work on behalf of our planet! Best, Mike
Dr Juan | medical services Puerto vallarta
June 23rd, 2016 @ 11:34 am

On this planet we live in a rapidly changing geography, we must take care of our health and one way is to start with the decontamination of the environment. Everyone can contribute something, this can be anything from reducing consumption of regular fuel – by ecological.