The core idea behind Chris Wood's Dry Spring: The Coming Water Crisis of North America is that climate change is felt most acutely when it comes to water distribution. Basically, some places are getting more water, some less, and some are getting water in a different shape (rain versus snow or vice versa), or at a different time of year than in the past.

"Here in BC we've been getting more water year over year as the warmed atmosphere absorbs more water,"; says Wood. "Even all the snow over Christmas was compatible with the observed trend to more variable and, here, wetter-but not always warmer-weather.";

Wood believes the dominant Canadian left-green trope that 'American corporations are coming to get our water' is unsubstantiated by anything more than xenophobic paranoia.

"The vigour of that chorus tends to drown out the discussions that every serious analyst I interview agrees are much more important, such as how to put a price on water reflecting its real economic value (while of course protecting the needs of poorer families) and how to manage land-use on a whole watershed scale to protect water sources and quality.

"The last is both particularly important and particularly provocative to many who are aqua-nationalists because it requires that we work with our American neighbours, with whom we share most of our most important river basins (e.g.: Columbia, Red, Great Lakes/St. Lawrence).";

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[BCBW 2009]