“We are at the tipping point, so it is a critical time,” said University of Saskatchewan climate change researcher Yanping Li. “What we are going to do now will have great significance.”
With greenhouse gases causing global temperatures to rise and polar ice caps, mountain glaciers and permafrost to melt, rapid climate change is resulting in more extreme weather events, including increasingly damaging floods and droughts, creating the tinderbox fuel for wildfires. Li is part of the large team of U of S researchers who are studying the effects of climate change on Canada’s water security in the Global Water Futures (GWF) project, the world’s largest university-led water research program.
“Water is life,” said Li, an assistant professor in the School of Environment and Sustainability who is based out of the National Hydrology Research Centre on campus. “Clean freshwater is the most important, irreplaceable resource for the economy and environment. The apparent abundance of water and the water cycle often give the false impression that we have an unlimited source of water. However, the availability of freshwater for a semi-arid region such as the Prairies, in a changing climate, is highly variable and uncertain.”
Li’s latest study—Short-Term Extreme Precipitation in Future Climate—is one of the 21 new GWF research projects that were part of a $10-million funding announcement on Dec. 11.
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Image via University of Saskatchewan.