Scientists rally to stop feds in pulling the plug on one-of-a-kind water research facility
WINNIPEG, May 23, 2012 /CNW/ - A national, public petition has been launched today to officially oppose the federal decision to close the Experimental Lakes Area (ELA), a Canadian freshwater research facility unlike any other in the world.
Today, the Coalition to Save ELA is urging all Canadians to sign their petition, available at saveela.org. The petition calls upon the Government of Canada to recognize the value of ELA in studying, preserving and protecting freshwater ecosystems by reversing their recent decision to close its doors.
The coalition is hopeful the petition will send a strong message to the government—that Canadians value clean water, healthy lakes and plentiful fish populations and are willing to stand up and fight for it.
Canada's scientific and environmental community received a huge blow last week with news that the Government of Canada plans to shut down the ELA. Employees of Fisheries & Oceans Canada learned on May 17, 2012 that research at ELA no longer fits within the government's mandate and the world-renowned facility will be terminated in March 2013.
The abrupt closure means invaluable water research projects—not being done anywhere else in the world—will be lost, and their future findings lost with them. This includes a one-of-a-kind climate change study and the only investigation in the world looking at what happens in a lake polluted by nanosilver, the increasingly popular antimicrobial agent found in everything from household cleaning sponges to socks and even children's teddy bears.
Outrage from the national and international scientific community, as well as Canadian citizen groups, has rung out since this appalling announcement.
"The ELA is the best known freshwater research facility in the world," says Dr. John P. Smol, PhD, FRSC and Canada Research Chair in Environmental Change at Queen's University. "Canada's environmental reputation continues to be eroded—this will just speed up our race to the bottom."
Dr. Stephen R. Carpenter, S.A. Forbes Professor and Director of the Center for Limnology in Madison, Wisconsin, remarked, "The loss of this facility is a devastating loss at a time when climate change and other human activities are degrading freshwaters world wide."
The "Government is waging war on Canada's freshwater, and the defunding of the Experimental Lakes Area, one of Canada's most vital freshwater research stations, is just the latest victim," says Maude Barlow, national chairperson with the Council of Canadians. "Our members from coast-to-coast are outraged, and will be speaking up with other Canadians to demand the Harper government reverse this terrible decision."
The Experimental Lakes Area is a unique Canadian facility for ground breaking freshwater research. For more than 40 years, the ELA has provided the world with vital information about managing algal blooms, acid rain, climate change, mercury pollution, greenhouse gases, hydro power development, fish-farming and much more.
The Coalition to Save ELA is a non-partisan group of scientists and citizens concerned about the future of Canada's Experimental Lakes Area.
Media contact:
Diane Orihel
Coalition to Save ELA
204-880-4728
[email protected]
For background on ELA: saveela.org
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