A world renowned Canadian scientist sounded an environmental change alarm bell at a major conference in Boston Sunday.

"The world is facing a crisis in water unsustainability and is just waking up to that idea," Prof. Howard Wheater, the director of the Global Institute for Water Security at the University of Saskatchewan, said in a statement. "There's a need for new science to understand environmental change, because rapid environmental change is happening — not just the climate but the way we are managing the land."

Wheater, who holds a Canada Excellence Research Chair in in Water Security, says we need to take new approaches to "managing uncertain water futures, making science available to policyholders and building dialogue with stakeholders too."

Wheater's research is helping global organizations, including NASA, improve their tools for climate change projection.

"Water futures depend on what society chooses," said Wheater, who spoke at the American Association for the Advancement of Science's annual conference. "We're providing the tools to help society make those choices."