The Climate Nexus

Water, Food, Energy and Biodiversity in a Changing World

by Dr. Jon O'Riordan & Robert William Sandford

tagged: environmental conservation & protection, environmental policy, hydrology

Description

Secure supplies of water, food and energy are essential to human dignity and well-being around the globe. In turn, the vitality of these three depends on a thriving biodiversity supported by healthy ecosystems. The complex interdependence among these four factors is known as the Nexus.

Global demand for the first three elements is increasing due to population growth and rising per capita incomes in developing countries, with steadily worsening consequences for the fourth of these elements.

The four Nexus elements are also coming under increasing pressure from climate disruption: more frequent and severe flooding and storms, droughts, extreme heat, and pest outbreaks. What’s more, Nature’s capacity to moderate these impacts is being steadily eroded by rapid, widespread land-use development and associated pollution.

This impending “perfect storm” of increasing demand, decreasing supplies and rapidly changing hydro-climatic conditions throughout the Nexus requires transformative policy responses that encompass economy, equity, social justice, fairness and the environment.

This book outlines these challenges and offers a pathway to resolving them.

About the Authors

Dr. Jon O'Riordan

Dr. Jon O’Riordan is senior policy and research adviser to ACT, providing science-based and strategic advice. Formerly a deputy minister of sustainable resource management and an assistant deputy minister of environment with the British Columbia government, Jon is currently an adjunct professor with the School of Community and Regional Planning at the University of British Columbia, where he teaches resource planning and governance. He is also a research associate with the Polis Project on Ecological Governance at the University of Victoria. He lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Robert William Sandford

Robert Sandford is the EPCOR Chair of the Canadian Partnership Initiative in support of the United Nations "Water for Life" Decade and also sits on the Advisory Committee for the prestigious Rosenberg International Forum on Water Policy. He is a director of the Western Watersheds Climate Research Collaborative; an associate of the Centre for Hydrology at the University of Saskatchewan and a fellow of the Biogeoscience Institute at the University of Calgary. As well, he sits on the advisory board of Living Lakes Canada and is co-chair of the Forum for Leadership on Water and a member of the Advisory Panel for the RBC Blue Water Project. In 2011, he was invited to be an advisor on water issues by the InterAction Council, a global public policy think tank composed of more than 20 former national leaders, including Jean Chrétien, Bill Clinton, and Vicente Fox.

Robert is the author of some 20 books on the history and heritage of the Canadian mountain West, including Ecology and Wonder in the Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks World Heritage Site (AU Press, 2010), Water, Weather and the Mountain West (RMB, 2007), Restoring the Flow: Confronting the World's Water Woes (RMB, 2009) and Ethical Water: Learning to Value What Matters Most (RMB, 2011). He lives in Canmore, Alberta.

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