The Toll of Global Warming on Stanley Park

This is Beaver Lake in Stanley Park, minus the lake

This afternoon I met up with an ex-colleague who I haven't seen since 2007. He now lives in France and came to Vancouver for a short trip. 

One of his requests was to walk around the Stanley Park Seawall so I helped him cross it off his bucket list. We walked from 4th Avenue and Balsam, across the Burrard Street Bridge, got a bite to eat at the food court in Pacific Centre and then set off to the park.

We almost walked the entire circumference, though he wanted to stay in the shade as much as possible so we cut through part of the park.

This is what Beaver Lake used to look like

He wanted to see Beaver Lake, a place he last visited 13 years ago. But we were shocked to find that it wasn't a lake -- most of the water had evaporated and what was left was a "lake" filled with greenery. 

When we made this remark, a middle-aged woman sitting on the park bench nearby echoed the same sentiment. She'd lived in Vancouver for 50 years, hadn't been to Beaver Lake for a while and decided to come take a look and was as shocked as we were.

We had a discussion about global warming and were dismayed by what had happened to this lake. We could only see a small patch of water off to the side which barely even fit the definition of a pond. There was a lone duck there, enjoying what was left of the water there.

Metro Vancouver has now stepped up to Level 2 water restrictions, which means absolutely no lawn watering, and only the watering of flowers and vegetable patches with a hose. Anyone violating the Level 2 restrictions will be fined C$500. Water elements like fountains cannot be refilled either, which probably applies to Beaver Lake too.

This was the only patch of water we could see

What's shocking is that water usage in Metro Vancouver is up 20 percent -- there couldn't be a 20 percent jump in the population in the past year, could there?

What are people using water for these days? Everyone has been told not to wash their cars with a hose, and to leave their lawns dry. 

But it was quite sad going through Stanley Park to see a lot of dead trees. Granted I didn't know when they turned brown and waiting to fall down, though my friend pointed this out and the sorry state of the yellow grass.

Towards the end of our walk we took a break by the concession stand where I bought two glasses of lemonade for over C$13, seriously equivalent to Hong Kong prices. As we sat cooling down with our cold drinks, I was shocked to see a young woman next to us, wasting her bottle of water by dumping part of it on the ground and not behind her on the parched grass. She did it in an attempt to pour her lemonade into the bottle, with limited success.

A lone duck in the "lake" of Beaver Lake

Why are people wasting water like that?!

In the end we walked over 16km around the city and my friend was pleased we'd accomplished so much walking.

He was impressed I'd managed to keep going in the heat and I remarked it might have been from all those days walking in the heat in Hong Kong...