Climate solutions can cut household costs, improve health

The challenge for groups like Climate Action Newmarket Aurora is to get people to think seriously about climate change when we have not yet been exposed to climate disasters

Summertime and the living is …. Not easy. The George Gershwin tune does not ring so true these days. This summer has seen wildfires raging in northwestern Ontario and in many parts of western Canada. Soaring record high temperatures have been roasting most of Europe and south Asia. The recent floods in Nepal have been devastating. Climate change as a result of global warming is the cause.

Although there are a small group of climate change deniers, the scientific evidence is clear (see Canada’s Changing Climate Report 2026). Current global warming is a result of human activity — the releasing of large quantities of carbon and methane into the atmosphere since the beginning of the industrial revolution amplified by increasing emissions each decade.

Polls show that climate change is a large concern for Canadians (75 per cent of Canadians are concerned it is about climate change and its potential impact on the future. However when prioritizing, climate change is lower on the list than things like inflation, housing and the economy. And this is understandable as people look at what is impacting them now as opposed to further down the road. Although if you live in the Okanagan Valley in B.C. or on a reserve in northwestern Ontario and your house has burned down, there is an immediate effect.

Here in Newmarket and Aurora, we seem to avoid catastrophic weather events (for now). We did have darkened skies, and the GTA was the most polluted city in the world for a couple of days as the smoke from northwestern Ontario wildfires spread south, but generally we have not had the emergencies other jurisdictions have had.

The challenge for groups like Climate Action Newmarket Aurora is to get people to think seriously about climate change when we have not yet been exposed to climate disasters. There are immediate impacts such as increased summer heat waves and heavier rainfall as experienced in Toronto recently, but the impacts seem subtler. But when we can link climate change to the other priorities perhaps people will start paying more attention. Addressing climate change can reduce costs and stimulate the economy.

For some, the challenges seem too great. It seems inevitable and there is nothing we can do about it. But there are signs that we are making progress, things are ramping up, and before you know it things may turn around. For this to happen, we need to do more and do it more quickly. But hope is busting out all over.

One of the key pieces is related to the concerns Canadians have about inflation. Renewable energy resources have become cheaper than oil and gas. Solar and wind power costs have come down significantly over the past 10 years. Heating and air conditioning your house by heat pump and refuelling your electric vehicle will be a huge savings for households.

Building wind and solar farms is far cheaper for the government than gas and nuclear power plants. Insurance costs as a result of fire and floods are rising and in some cases making some areas uninsurable.

Critics keep talking about the costs and how we cannot afford to move to renewables. This just is not the case anymore. Addressing climate change will bring costs down and spur the economy. Resourcing renewable power generation and battery technology will produce jobs and grow the economy.

It is not only the climate that is affected by emissions, pollution affects the health of our families (and increases the burden on our health care systems). Check out our website for information about school bus diesel fumes and our children’s health. When Ontario finished closing all the coal energy plants in 2014, air quality became significantly better and the GTA rarely has smog days anymore.

The good news is other parts of the world are changing to renewable clean energy at a pretty fast pace. This is good for the world climate, but Canada needs to jump in and be part of this change both for the climate and for the economy. We do not want to be left behind in the creation of the 21st century renewable energy economy.

So there are positive things happening, it is feasible to address global warming, we know the solutions. We just have to make them happen. As citizens, we need to ensure our politicians and governments are doing the right thing. We have municipal elections coming up in October and our next Power of Yes column will provide some guidance on what to demand from our mayors, councillors and trustees.

We have successfully handled acid rain and the ozone crisis. We could be on the cusp of a great transition that will hopefully avoid the worst of global warming. Hope is abundant. Lets push the powers that be in the right direction.

Read this article on Newmarket Today.

Canada can tackle climate change by repeating ozone-era co-operation

Yes, we can tackle climate change. We have done it before; we can do it again!

Just as wildfire smoke knows no borders, and cannot be halted with tariffs, but eventually affects every country in the world, so it is with greenhouse gases, and deadly radiation.

In a rare moment of international solidarity, 46 countries came together in September 1987 to sign an international treaty known as the Montreal Protocol. The purpose of this treaty was to reduce the production of ozone depleting substances.

Loss of the ozone layer would have a profound effect on Earth’s climate because the ozone layer protects life on Earth from harmful ultraviolet (UV) radiation. In our use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) for refrigeration, fire extinguishers and other domestic and industrial applications, the effect on the ozone layer was not immediately recognized.

The treaty entered into force in January 1989. It has since been ratified by 198 nations, and the hole in the ozone layer is slowly healing as depleting gases are being phased out. This was made possible because scientific evidence was more widely accepted at that time. Political leaders accepted their responsibility to act for the well-being of the global population.

A comparable situation exists with our embrace of fossil fuels to power our industries and our lives, but which is now recognized as the main contributor to climate change. When the decision was made to destroy a vast area of land and boreal forest in Alberta known as the Athabasca Tar Sands, there was little consideration given to the effects on the atmosphere and biosphere.

The enormity of what was done to Earth was lost in the race to exploit the bitumen resource. Tailings ponds, built to store toxic wastewater from bitumen mining operations, now cover more than 300 square kilometres of land across northern Alberta’s Athabasca, Peace River, and Cold Lake regions, while 1.2 trillion litres of toxic wastewater are steadily leaking into the watershed and affecting residents and communities downstream.

While the fossil fuel industry's developed physical footprint is relatively small, its greenhouse gas emissions contribute massively to climate change, which increases the frequency and intensity of the hot, dry conditions that make large wildfires more likely.

Damage done to the planet and its atmosphere from the oil and gas industry, with its oil wells, tankers, and leaking pipelines, all in the name of progress, does not need to continue. With all nations working toward transitioning to renewable energy sources, a brighter future is within reach.

Oil companies such as Exxon have succeeded in casting doubt on the science of climate change, and continue to function as if they can drill, mine and frack indefinitely, without consequences. Scientists have proven that the burning of fossil fuels is the leading cause of climate change. The evidence is all around us in the form of heat domes, severe storms, flooding, melting glaciers, and more intense wildfires.

When Canada learned about the destruction of the ozone layer in 1987, we acted with global responsibility. To safeguard a livable Earth, we began phasing out the use of ozone-depleting substances. Now we need to move on from the production of fossil fuels to clean, abundant, cheaper sustainable sources of energy. Canada is currently losing the economic race by not urgently developing and producing the sustainable technologies available to us.

Where is the political will to face up to the problem? The solutions are known. We must act now for the sake of our children and all who follow. We can solve this problem by acting together.

We have done so before and we can do it again!

Read this article on Newmarket Today.

Residents felt more informed after presentations on municipal green initiatives

Climate Action Newmarket-Aurora brought residents together for a town hall where Newmarket and York Region staff outlined local efforts to cut emissions and prepare for climate impacts

Climate Action Newmarket-Aurora (CANA) hosted a town hall event “Local Action Brings Hope” last May. Town of Newmarket and York Region staff with specific responsibilities for climate-related policies gave short presentations on some of the actions being taken to both reduce climate emissions and prepare for the effects of climate change.

CANA asked how well informed participants felt about local municipal green solutions efforts, before and after the presentations. The responses showed that the presentations were effective; people felt much better informed after the presentations. Even some CANA members felt better informed after.

In their written comments, many participants felt more hopeful after the presentations. They wrote about local government green initiatives, such as electrification of buses and other vehicles; supports for active transportation; local green building standard proposals; storm water management; and other policies. There were also comments about the lack of climate progress, and even ambition, on the part of provincial and federal governments.

Other input concerned the barriers and challenges for individuals to demand more progress from government and business. There were concerns about the costs, especially with the cancellation of support programs, but also about a sense that government and business do not really care about the climate concerns of individuals.

MPs and MPPs seem to respond, if at all, by returning the party line and links to government web pages that don’t address concerns. People also find it hard to learn just who to contact; nobody seems to have “climate change” in their job description. This leads to people giving up.

Added to this is the amount of misinformation on climate change, and the way it has been politicized and polarized as an issue. This makes it hard to talk rationally with family and friends, and for some it feels dangerous to speak about it at work.

A number of ways to break those barriers were shared. Many centred on how to speak on the issue with family, friends and politicians, and how to connect with supportive community groups. Doing so helps educate, and more knowledge builds more confidence, and more ability to counter misinformation with facts, without confrontation.

Want to know more about the town hall? Read the Power of Yes column on Nov. 18 and the article just after the event, on May 8.

Read this article on Newmarket Today.