In a recent post, we discussed the difference between mitigation and adaptation: the two popular ways of dealing with Climate Change. Toronto is one of the many Canadian cities on board with bringing out initiates to help fight Climate Change. Some of these ways are through mitigation & they include:
- Deep water cooling: This is a process where cold water is taken from the deeper & colder parts of lake Ontario. This is to help with the process of running Air Conditioners to cool off buildings during the summer. Deep water cooling falls under the category of mitigation as it is trying to use alternative energy to cool buildings.
- Green roof bylaw: The green roof bylaw was set up in 2010 & it basically requires all buildings (commercial & residential) to have green roofs with a minimum grass floor area of 2000 m².
- Commitment to increase tree canopy from 17% to 40%: This is a very ambitious goal and it is very exciting as it will help bring more green to Toronto.
It’s Not all Sunshines & Flowers
It is easy to say that “yeah, yeah Climate Change is real but it’s not happening yet” until you see its effects happen right in front of you. If you live in Toronto, for example, you might have noticed that it has been experiencing frequent & severe rain storms this month of May. So, while the “April showers” did bring “May flowers”, they also brought on more showers. A lot of places are being affected, however, the one being hit the hardest has to be the Toronto Island. Severe flooding has caused the Island to close with an indefinite re-opening date. Despite being indefinite, this date keeps getting pushed back well into the summer.
In this case, immediate action must be taken to help deal with the floods but to also help deal with future floods. It will not help to only have short term solutions, the future has to be thought of too. Especially since predictions for the future of Toronto’s climate include many more severe rain storms. However, city council is very ambigious about their plans and they seem to be more interested in short term solutions as they are cheaper. We hope that changes soon or else we might be facing a lot more problems.
Is Toronto taking Climate Change seriously enough? What do you think? Let us know in the comments below!
& while you’re here, check out other many other posts on Climate Change on our blog: www.upsbatterycenter.com
Related:
