A Climate Christmas Carol

Deja Vu?– A Community Carbon Challenge from December, 2021

We will take climate action together for the people we love and for the planet. For our children, our grandchildren, and future generations we all must act now. Change can happen overnight.

The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come

In Charles Dickens “A Christmas Carol” we witness the transformation of Ebenezer Scrooge through the intervention of 3 spirits. Past, present, and future.

We have seen the past. A time when many of us enjoyed the benefits of a relatively stable climate and cheap energy. We in the Global North flourished!

We see in the present the result of our excessive exploitation of the planet’s resources and our disregard for the effects of pollution on land, air, and water. We see the effects of changing climate already altering the lives of many.

We read the dire predictions for the future by climate scientists if we continue with business as usual.

In Dickens’ story, the Ghost of Christmas Yet-To-Come shows Scrooge that his future fate is not set in stone. The future depends on the actions we take in the present.

We too can make decisions that will ensure a better future for all.

We can do it. We must do it.

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Ontario’s Bill 212 passed: Highway 413 is in and bike lanes are out. What now?

Nov. 26, 2024 – Emma McIntosh – the Narwhal

The new law empowers Doug Ford’s government to move ahead with the highway without an environmental assessment, and with little recourse for First Nations and other landowners along the route.

… Bill 212, also known as the Reducing Gridlock, Saving You Time Act, passed Monday night after a chaotic, divisive month of protests, capped off when the government pushed through a raft of last-minute additions. Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria has argued the package will help relieve the Greater Toronto Area’s major traffic problems, even though decades of evidence shows new highways make congestion worse in the long run and new bike lanes can often make it better. 

Update Dec 16, 2024 – Cyclists Mount Charter Challenge Against Ontario Bike Lane Removals

Update Dec 18, 2024 – Cycling advocates in Toronto are celebrating a small victory

The Ontario government revealed that it won’t be removing bike lanes on Yonge Street, Bloor Street, and University Avenue until at least March 2025. The delay comes after advocacy and charity organization Cycle Toronto filed a legal challenge against Bill 212, which recently passed at Queen’s Park and gives the provincial government control over the installation and removal of municipal bike lanes.

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Active Transportation for Muskoka — Climate Action Muskoka

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Low-carbon tech needs much fewer materials than it used to; this matters for resource extraction in the future

Improvements in material efficiency + recycling = super-circularity.

Nov 12, 2024 – Hannah Ritchie – Sustainability by numbers

A solar panel installed in 2004 will be reaching the end of its life sometime this decade. Now, if we could recover most of that silicon (which isn’t common today, but scientists are making progress on methods to recycle it back into silicon suitable for new panels), then theoretically it could be enough to make eight new panels.1 Realistically, recovery rates wouldn’t reach 100%, so let’s assume it’s only 80%—that would still be enough for six new panels.

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A household in Toronto that replaces gas-powered vehicles with equivalent electric versions, installs a heat pump, forgoes natural gas appliances and makes a few other energy efficiency upgrades could save $550 per month. That’s $6,600 per year.

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Let’s stop pretending ‘natural’ gas is in any way good for the environment

Nov 7, 2024 – David Miller – C40 Cities

… The fossil-fuel industry – and many Canadian politicians, particularly, but not exclusively, those from Conservative parties – pretend that natural gas is somehow good for the environment as it displaces dirtier coal. Such natural-gas boosters are pushing for this country to export more. But natural gas is not a transition fuel to clean energy in any way whatsoever, and we need to avoid its use everywhere possible if we are going to avoid irreversible climate breakdown, with its huge consequences – environmentally, socially and economically. In fact, from a climate-change perspective, “natural” gas is nearly as dirty as coal, and LNG is even worse. –More

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Artists For Real Climate Action Presents Meet The Big Oil Alliance: Four Oil Execs and a Vampire Walk Into a Boardroom