Blogs
Blog Post #2: My topic is about the impact transportation and housing has towards climate change in Toronto. I used multiple sources to learn more about this topic. Sources like CBC and the Star increased my knowledge about carbon taxes, future TTC plans and housing solutions to help reduce greenhouse gases. Another big source was from a guest speaker who came to my school to talk to our class about climate change. Gideon Forman, who works for the David Suzuki Foundation, increased my knowledge about the importance of climate change and why it is important to address this problem. I learned that transportation and housing are the largest sources of air pollution. This is the case because vehicles and houses exhaust heat which goes to the atmosphere and impacts our climate. Transportation is responsible for more than 35% of Toronto’s total greenhouse gases emissions and housing is responsible for 53% of it. To add on, I also learned more about Toronto’s future plans to help make the city a greener place. The city is planning an map extension project to increase their quality service, reduce less carbon in the air and to have less cars on the road. Toronto is trying to solve all these problems by 2050. Carbon taxes are supposed to be effective soon to make users use less so there’s less gas in the air. They are also trying to explore how electric cars can fit into our Toronto streets. This will also reduce greenhouse gases because vehicles won’t be releasing carbon in the air. I also learned about the possible consequences there can be if we don’t try to make a change. By 2050, Toronto is expected to see max daily temperatures rise to 44C from 37C today, more hot days, summer long heat waves and more intense rainfall. Today, there are current effects happening in Toronto due to climate change. In february 2015, it was recorded to be Toronto’s coldest month ever. On July 8th 2013, there was rainfall which led to a flood and $850M insurance claims. On December 2013, there was an ice storm which cause power outages lasting up to two weeks. It also seems like winter is shortening with spring like weathers in February this year. Organizations like CELA works to protect our environment and human health. They make a big difference to try to change our city. I made many conclusions after learning all of this. I realized that this is something we should take in as a serious matter and not be selfish because everything we do is affecting next generations. I believe we are on the right step, we just need to move at a faster pace to reverse this problem. Climate change is an international problem but we gotta start somewhere and that’s our job.
