Shock was my first reaction to this front page headline from the Toronto Star's - Greater Toronto section (2/10/11), but as it turns out the facts speak for themselves. The article referenced a report called: Cities and Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Moving Forward, published in January’s Environment and Urbanization.
The writer’s (Dan Hoornwed, Lead Urban Specialist at the World Bank and University of Toronto masters student, Lorraine Sugar) analyzed residential greenhouse gas emissions in the Great Toronto Area, and found, amazingly, that some Toronto suburbs produced 10x more CO2 emissions per capita than their downtown cousins. Yes 10 times more CO2! This is NOT a typo.
How could this be? Isn’t the big bad city the problem?
The report cited increase heating and electrical used to manage the bigger houses (not to mention the environmental impact of more raw materials used to build the houses). In addition Toronto suburbs (read “every North American suburb”) have transportation issues as they have “developed a way of life that is highly automotive dependant”. The suggested solutions to the problem seemed sparse: take public transit, retro-fit your home to make it more energy efficient, protect farmland, etc. No new news here. Don’t get me wrong these are all good ideas but there is a growing belief that only way to curb our C02 problem is if society makes a significant shift away from the suburban “slave-to-car” lifestyle.
The good news is there IS a solution to the problem and, perhaps most importantly, it is doable and there already exists significant support for the idea!
In my next blog I will detail this idea. But I will give you a hint – It’s where Frank Sinatra said “we can forget all our troubles and forget all our cares”.
Next Blog: Greenhouse Gas Solution? - Listen to Frank Sinatra
No comments:
Post a Comment