USask water and health researcher part of new national network studying sepsis

July 24, 2020
Chris Putnam, College of Arts & Science News

A researcher in the University of Saskatchewan’s (USask) College of Arts and Science is one of the collaborators on a new national network to study deadly blood infections.

On July 23, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) announced the creation of Sepsis Canada, a new research network that will improve the treatment of sepsis, a life-threatening condition that can result from infection.

Dr. Corinne Schuster-Wallace (PhD), a faculty member in the College of Arts and Science’s Department of Geography and Planning, is a co-investigator on the project. Dr. Joann Kawchuk (MD) of the USask College of Medicine is another co-investigator.

Read the full article here.

Trailbreaker with Loren McGinnis

Aired on CBCListen, July 21, 2020

“Last week, leaked emails revealed that Alberta suspended its water monitoring without notifying the NWT. That’s in violation of a bilateral water agreement signed by the Government of the Northwest Territories and the government of Alberta in 2015. Monitoring have been paused due to public-health concerns raised by the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Hear the discussion between John Pomeroy and former NWT environment minister Michael Miltenberger here.

Read the related article, “Suspending water quality monitoring during pandemic a ‘serious oversight,’ says expert” from CBC News here.

Released On: 10 Jul 2020

Greta Thunberg describes the remarkable and tumultuous past year of her life on a BBC podcast. Hear her description of her visit to the Athabasca Glacier and discussions with John Pomeroy on chapter 6 (30:06).

Read the Time Magazine article: Six Months on a Planet in Crisis: Greta Thunberg’s Travel Diary from the U.S. to Davos, for a full transcription of the podcast here.

Jul 14, 2020
By USask Research Profile and Impact and Mark Ferguson

USask also placed in the top 100 universities in the world in three other research areas: environmental science/engineering (51-75th place), veterinary sciences (51-75th), and agricultural sciences (76-100th), according to the 2020 Shanghai Ranking Consultancy’s ARWU, an influential ranking of 1,800 universities around the world based on research performance indicators such as publications, citation impact, and international collaboration.

“These results are a reflection of the outstanding research that takes place at the University of Saskatchewan as we strive to be the university the world needs,” said USask Vice-President Karen Chad.

“Particularly notable is the fact we are among global leaders in our signature areas of water and food security, as well as in fields such as environmental sciences and new materials research that involve synchrotron-based studies at our Canadian Light Source, Canada’s only synchrotron.”

Read the full article here.

Peiris: Every phase of $4B irrigation project must be done with careful planning

Star Phoenix, July 7, 2020

“The Saskatchewan government is going back to the future by resurrecting an irrigation scheme that was shelved a half-century ago, with plans to more than double the irrigated farm acreage over the next decade at a whopping cost of about $4 billion — the largest single project in provincial history.

Certainly, the attraction of tapping the full potential of the massive Lake Diefenbaker to ensure water and food security for Saskatchewan is undeniable, especially in an era when the need to mitigate impacts of climate change is clearly evident.”

Read the full article here.

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“The six-year Monitoring and Evaluation of Climate Change Education (MECCE) partnership, led by USask College of Education professor Dr. Marcia McKenzie (PhD), is comprised of more than 80 prominent scholars and agencies in climate change and education. This includes the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and Environment and Climate Change Canada. Universities in the United Kingdom, Australia, South Africa and Germany are key partners…”

Read the full article here.

John Pomeroy gave an interview with CBC Homestretch on May 22nd, 2020, discussing flood risk in Calgary.

Listen to the full interview here.

Exerpt:
USask Nutrient App kit engages community to take lead on algal blooms

The University of Saskatchewan’s Global Institute for Water Security has designed a new community-based sampling app kit to engage citizens, farmers and water quality managers in identifying and remediating algal bloom hotspots through the real-time monitoring of dissolved nutrient concentrations in wells, streams, wetlands and lakes.

Called the Nutrient App, the mobile application allows users to dip and photograph test strips for nitrates and phosphates to instantaneously measure nutrient loads with an accuracy of <30% based on inexpensive commercially available test kits.

Read the rest of the article here.

The new Canada Water Agency—a mandated commitment of the federal government—will provide much-needed solutions to the emerging water crisis, according to Tom Axworthy, chair of a national water policy panel organized by Global Water Futures (GWF) at the University of Saskatchewan (USask).

“The pandemic has shown us what is possible when we work together to protect the health of Canadians,” said Axworthy, public policy chair at Toronto’s Massey College and former principal secretary to Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.
“Similarly, we need to work together to address water security challenges that have been underscored by climate change impacts in communities across Canada. Water-related natural disasters such as floods and fires have cost Canadians $28 billion between 2000 and 2017 alone.”
In mandate letters last December, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called on the ministers of the departments of Environment and Climate Change and Agriculture and Agri-Food to create the new agency to “work together with the provinces, territories, Indigenous communities, local authorities, scientists, and others to find the best ways to keep our water safe, clean and well-managed.”
Axworthy noted that the focus on co-operative federalism in the Canadian constitution—from the British North America Act to its current form—has paved the way for a Canada Water Agency, which he said is critically important in the face of water security challenges that transcend national boundaries.
He pointed out that the multi-faceted issue of water security is spread out across more 20 departments in the federal government alone. The Canada Water Agency, he said, could begin to address this siloed approach “to protect and manage our freshwater for generations to come.”
The May 13 online national panel discussion, involving more than 650 scientists and water management professionals, marked the start of a series of national and regional discussions though the USask-led Global Water Futures program. Recommendations from these consultations are expected to inform the development of the new agency.

Read the full article here.

Additional article from Environmental Science and Engineering Magazine is available here.