For communities who have lived beside rivers for thousands of years, change in the water is never just a data point —it is a message.
Water as a Living Relative
In many Indigenous traditions across Canada, water is not a resource to be measured and managed. It is a relative, a living system with memory, voice, and place in the web of life. And this worldview, far from being incompatible with environmental science, turns out to produce some of the most sensitive monitoring on the continent. Because Indigenous communities live in close, generations-long relationship with rivers, lakes, and wetlands, they notice changes early and they notice things that instruments alone often miss.
What Elders Knew Before the Data Arrived
Along the Peace-Athabasca Delta in northern Alberta, a wetland of international ecological significance and Ramsar World Heritage status —Dene and Cree community members were observing changes in river flow, ice formation, and water quality for decades before formal scientific monitoring confirmed their observations. Mikisew Cree guides and Elders who have navigated the delta’s waters across a lifetime track changes in water depth at critical passages, noting that summer flows have declined and that boat navigation is increasingly difficult in areas that were once reliably deep.¹ Research confirms that ice conditions and break-up patterns in the Peace-Athabasca Delta have changed measurably, with Mikisew Cree First Nation Elders reporting that ice “just melts away” where dramatic break-ups once occurred.²
The Keepers of the Water
Organizations like Keepers of the Water, an Indigenous-led network working across the Arctic Drainage Basin, have built formal programs that combine Elder observation with modern tools measuring oxygen, salinity, temperature, and pH.³ In the Inuvialuit Settlement Region, community-owned aquatic monitoring programs near Sachs Harbour and Ulukhaktok have been collecting water quality data since 2019, producing novel long-term datasets from areas where government monitoring has historically been absent.⁴
A National Network of Indigenous Monitors
Through the federal Indigenous Community-Based Climate Monitoring Program —which provides approximately $8 million per year; dozens of First Nations, Métis Settlements, and Inuit communities across Canada have established their own water and environmental monitoring programs.⁵ In the Peace-Athabasca Delta, this funding has supported hydrometric stations, buoys, and trail cameras providing real-time data on water and ice conditions. These programs produce ecological intelligence that no southern laboratory can replicate.
Why This Matters for All of Canada
University of Saskatchewan researcher Dr. John Pomeroy, Canada Research Chair in Water Resources and Climate Change (2003-2024), has described the current situation plainly: western Canada is entering new climate territory, with more severe droughts and more intense rainfall events.⁶ The rivers and lakes that Indigenous communities have observed through ceremony and practice for millennia are now among the most important early warning systems Canada has. Integrating that knowledge respectfully and in genuine partnership into national water policy is both good science and a long-overdue recognition of who has been watching longest.
Passing the Knowledge Forward
In communities across the north, Elders speak about passing water knowledge to their children not as nostalgia, but as urgent practical preparation for a changing world. That ethic captures what Indigenous-led water monitoring represents at its core: an ancient responsibility made newly urgent by a crisis these communities did not create but are among the first to confront.
Blog by Rye Karonhiowanen Barberstock
Photo by Philip Davis on Unsplash
References
[1] CBC News. (2022, October 3). Climate change is drying up the Peace-Athabasca Delta. Can the people who live there adapt? https://www.cbc.ca/newsinteractives/features/climate-change-Indigenous-adaption-Peace-Athabasca-Delta
[2] State of the Athabasca-Bow-North Saskatchewan River Basin (SOAER). Peace – Water Quantity. https://soaer.ca/peace-water-quantity/ [Mikisew Cree First Nation Elders reporting on ice conditions and break-ups]
[3] Keepers of the Water. (2024). About Keepers of the Water. https://www.keepersofthewater.ca/
[4] Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada (CIRNAC). (2024). Indigenous Community-Based Climate Monitoring Program. Government of Canada.
[5] CIRNAC. (2024). Indigenous Community-Based Climate Monitoring Program. Government of Canada. Approx. $8 million per year.
[6] Pomeroy, J. (Various). Canada Research Chair in Water Resources and Climate Change. University of Saskatchewan. https://www.usask.ca/research/chairs/pomeroy.php
The post The River Is Telling Us Something: Indigenous-Led Water Monitoring as Canada’s Climate Early Warning System appeared first on Indigenous Climate Hub.
Saturday, 17 October 2026
7.18 AM AWST
Hi folks! We’re joining you live from the Rainbow Warrior where we will be providing you with updates as our four activists continue scaling and occupying Woodside’s gas platform. The activists are peacefully protesting against Woodside’s latest gas expansion plans, the Browse project, which would see up to 57 toxic wells drilled at Scott Reef.
“Right now our activists are scaling Woodside’s massive Floating Production Unit. They are scaling the South-East pillar and the underside of the Helideck. They’ll be setting up camp soon and have plenty of provisions with them – so stick around!”
5:45 AM AWST
Our RHIBS are in the water! We’ve deployed our four activists and our ship crew on our small fast boats, headed to the gas platform. We’re carrying crew and equipment, plenty of food, all of our safety climbing gear, some big banners, cameras and a whole lot of heart… someone even has something to read after they get settled in.
5:26 AM AWST
Before sunrise activists prepared to launch RHIBS from the Rainbow Warrior.
Looking for a front seat view?
You can follow along with the Live Rainbow Warrior bow cam here!
Looking for more?
Follow us on Instagram for a peek behind the scenes and hear from our Rainbow Warrior crew.
Live blog: Greenpeace activists occupy Woodside gas project to save Scott Reef
Climate Change
Greenpeace activists climb and occupy Woodside’s Scarborough gas project calling on the Australian government to “Stop Woodside’s Dirty Gas” and “Save Scott Reef”
PERTH, Saturday 17 October 2026 — Four Greenpeace Australia Pacific activists are scaling and occupying a Floating Production Unit at Woodside’s Scarborough gas project off the coast of Western Australia, displaying banners reading: “Stop Woodside’s Dirty Gas. Save Scott Reef.”
- Photos and video available here and here. More will be uploaded throughout the day.
- Content and live updates will be uploaded to a live blog and to Instagram
Early this morning at 05:45 AWST, Greenpeace Australia Pacific activists launched from the Rainbow Warrior, Greenpeace’s flagship vessel, scaling and attaching themselves to a Floating Production Unit (FPU), a key piece of gas processing infrastructure at the Scarborough gas field over 200km off the coast of Exmouth.
Woodside has since confirmed it has initiated a temporary shut down of the FPU.
Greenpeace Australia Pacific is occupying the gas platform in peaceful protest of Woodside’s plans to drill for oil and gas at Scott Reef as part of its Browse proposal.
David Ritter, CEO at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said: “Greenpeace Australia Pacific is taking action today to expose the unacceptable risk to Scott Reef posed by Woodside’s plans.
“Australians love our oceans. Woodside’s reckless Browse gas proposal would turn the magnificent Scott Reef into an industrial gas zone. Woodside wants to drill up to 57 toxic wells around Scott Reef, Australia’s largest oceanic reef, home to nesting green sea turtles, and endangered species like pygmy blue whales and the dusky sea snake; it is a place like nowhere else on Earth.
“Woodside has an alarming track record of oil spills, incidents and environmental neglect, and can’t be trusted with our oceans. From whaling in Albany in the seventies, to Woodside’s threat to Scott Reef today, there’s more than fifty years of history, of Greenpeace taking action off WA’s coasts to protect our oceans.
“There’s no future in new gas projects. Our future is in secure homegrown renewable energy, green industry and exports, where communities and places like Scott Reef are protected — there’s no future in dirty gas shipped offshore.
“The prospect of drilling for oil or gas on the Great Barrier Reef would be considered absolute madness today, but that is exactly the decision before the government: save Scott Reef or risk its destruction at the hands of a gas corporation.”
From aboard the Floating Production Unit, Dr Chris Holden, Greenpeace Australia Pacific activist said: “As a doctor, when I see new fossil fuel projects like Woodside’s Browse project being put forward, I can’t help but think about the impact this is going to have on the health of our communities and planet, and feel a sense of duty to act.
“Not only will this project do irrevocable harm to nature at Scott Reef, it will have a terrible impact on our climate, putting all of our lives at risk.
“On the Rainbow Warrior I’m carrying a copy of the 2025 Lancet countdown report, which warns that health impacts of climate change are worsening, with millions dying needlessly each year due to fossil fuel dependence, growing emissions, and failure to adequately adapt.
“With warnings like this from the leading global health professionals, our government simply can’t allow fossil fuel projects like Woodside’s Browse project to go ahead. It is their duty to do what is in the best interest of our communities.”
Almost half a million people have signed a petition calling on the government to Save Scott Reef and Woodside’s Browse gas project.
-ENDS-
Notes:
- Dial-in, SimSat and Zoom interviews with Geoff Bice, WA Campaign Lead at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, currently aboard the Rainbow Warrior, can be organised separately
Media contact:
Greenpeace Australia Pacific media team on +61 406 231 892 or +61 407 581 404
The board of the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage (FRLD) will decide on Thursday on whether to “provisionally set aside” $20 million for Nepal to deal with some of the effects of the climate-driven flood it suffered in August.
The motion, seen by Climate Home News, has been drafted by a group of board members from both developed and developing countries and so is likely to pass easily at the fund’s first-ever extraordinary board meeting on October 22.
It invites the government of Nepal to submit a proposal for how to use the money, with the board then deciding at one of its regular board meetings whether to approve the proposal or not.
While Nepali officials have described $20 million as merely “symbolic” in the face of the $4.8 billion estimated costs of recovery and reconstruction, it would be the first time the new FRLD – agreed in 2022 months after devastating floods in Pakistan – has set aside money for a specific disaster.
Until now the fund has only taken requests through a single call for proposals, launched at COP30 in Belém last November, that gave countries six months to submit requests.
Most of the 180 projects the FRLD is currently considering are designed to help countries avoid damage from future climate disasters, for example by strengthening responses to floods in Bangladesh and Lagos.
The draft decision says Nepal’s proposal will serve as a pilot for how funding requests can be submitted outside of the fund’s current timetable. That could let governments seek funds quickly after a climate disaster strikes, rather than waiting for the next call.
This arrangement would set the fund apart from other United Nations funds designed for climate adaptation or cutting emissions like the Green Climate Fund.
Climate campaigners from Fill the Fund said the draft decision is “a real step forward” as it is “the first time this Fund has moved to respond to a specific disaster”.
Too little, too late
The FRLD was agreed by governments at COP27, set up and operationalised at COP28 in 2023 but has yet to award any money. The 180 funding requests it is currently considering would cost around $2.8 billion, but it only has $350 million to allocate.
The United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has described the amount of money available in the fund as “ridiculously small” and Fill the Fund said $20 million “is a meaningful signal but it is a drop against an ocean of need”.
A glacial rock and ice collapse sent a torrent of water and debris through Nepal and the Chinese-administered region of Tibet on August 26. It killed more than 1,400 people, left thousands more missing and destroyed homes, bridges, roads and hydropower plants. Nepal’s finance and environment ministers quickly appealed to the FRLD board for funds, saying that “time is of the essence”.
Their call was followed swiftly by a letter from developing country FRLD board members urging the board’s co-chairs to organise an extraordinary meeting to allocate funds to Nepal.
But developed countries initially called for an informal consultation rather than a full board meeting. It took a further 45 days for the board’s co-chairs to organise an extraordinary board meeting for October 22 and to draft a motion for adoption.
Fill the Fund called for a permanent way of the fund rapid responding to disasters as “Nepal should not have required historic letters, an informal drafting group and the Fund’s first-ever extraordinary meeting simply to unlock an emergency response. The next country cannot wait two months and a bureaucratic marathon. Speed must be built in, not improvised.”
The post UN’s loss and damage fund set to give Nepal $20m for flood recovery appeared first on Climate Home News.
UN’s loss and damage fund set to give Nepal $20m for flood recovery
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Live blog: Greenpeace activists occupy Woodside gas project to save Scott Reef
Greenpeace activists climb and occupy Woodside’s Scarborough gas project calling on the Australian government to “Stop Woodside’s Dirty Gas” and “Save Scott Reef”
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