Ecology Ottawa

News Clippings

Today's letters: More questions on the LRT

By Mark MacDonald, Ottawa Citizen Letter to the Editor, November 14, 2018

Five other questions on the LRT

Re: Waiting on a train, Nov. 14.

As mentioned in the article, the taxpayer is constantly told that the LRT delay is related to the sinkhole and two missing computer modules. Yet a trip down Scott Street or Lees Avenue shows the stations themselves are clearly nowhere near completion, and who knows what is really going on below Rideau Street?

Loosely based on the five questions put forth by reporter Jon Willing, may I suggest five questions that the mayor may not have a prepared answer for:

Frustrated volunteers ditching city advisory committees

By Kate Porter, CBC News Ottawa, November 23, 2018

The City of Ottawa is once again recruiting volunteers to serve on its five citizen advisory committees, but some of the people who answered the call last term say they wouldn't raise their hands again.

• City seeks 100+ volunteers for committees, advisory boards

Some even quit in frustration before completing their four-year stint.

I just felt there would be better ways to use my time.

- Adrienne Yuen , former advisory committee vice-chair

Members of the city's environmental stewardship advisory committee summed up the experience by saying they felt "underutilized and often ignored" by councillors on the standing committee to which they reported.

Environmental movement needs hope to survive, activist says

By CBC News Ottawa, November 20, 2018

The greatest challenge facing the environmental movement today isn't global warming, deforestation or the pollution of the Earth's oceans, but an absence of hope in the messaging meant to motivate people to care, a local activist says.

Curious about what he perceived as a waning interest in the cause, Graham Saul, who founded Ecology Ottawa and is now executive director of Nature Canada, interviewed 116 environmentalists to ask them what they're fighting for.

Drop in city's emissions chalked up to coal plant closures

By Kate Porter, CBC News Ottawa, November 20, 2018

Ottawa's greenhouse gas emissions decreased by 11 per cent between 2012 and 2016, but it appears the drop was mostly due to the closure of the province's coal-fired power plants.

Every four years, the city calculates emissions generated both by the wider community and by its own operations as it aims to hit its targets to combat climate change.

The latest report is to be tabled Thursday.

Saul: The environmental crisis is a moral challenge, not just a practical one

By Graham Saul, Ottawa Citizen, November 20, 2018

The data on rising levels of toxic contamination, ecosystem destruction, species extinction and global warming is not just a collection of scientific facts. It’s an ethical indictment of human values.

Chemicals from industry and agriculture are polluting our waterways; grasslands, and wetlands are being converted into farms and urban areas at an alarming rate; and climate change is killing people and destroying and displacing communities. As a result, humanity is driving species to extinction at 1,000 to 10,000 times the pre-human or normal background rate. Dozens of species are becoming extinct every day.

Saul: The environmental crisis is a moral challenge, not just a practical one

By Graham Saul, Ottawa Citizen, November 20, 2018

The data on rising levels of toxic contamination, ecosystem destruction, species extinction and global warming is not just a collection of scientific facts. It’s an ethical indictment of human values.

Chemicals from industry and agriculture are polluting our waterways; grasslands, and wetlands are being converted into farms and urban areas at an alarming rate; and climate change is killing people and destroying and displacing communities. As a result, humanity is driving species to extinction at 1,000 to 10,000 times the pre-human or normal background rate. Dozens of species are becoming extinct every day.

Today's letters: Off the hook on LRT, and corporate responsibility questions

By Gary Larkin and Carolyn Herbert, Ottawa Citizen Letters to the Editor, November 16, 2018

Voters let them off the hook

Re: No firm launch date for LRT but signs of progress; and How tricky infill blew up an old family home, Nov, 14.

Ottawans had a chance to voice their concerns on the failure to launch LRT on time, and infill nightmares, in our recent election. The major’s election was a cakewalk with no real opposition, and most councillors were re-elected without any real opposition as well.

(...)There’s profit in diversifying

Re: Is corporate social responsibility killing Alberta oil? Nov. 14.

Terence Corcoran criticizes those banks and corporations that apply corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainable development, environmental and social corporate governance (ESG) as they recognize that climate change is one of the most pressing issues of our time.

Two Ottawa 'gateway' speed limit zones now in effect

By Mike Vlasveld, 1310 News, November 9, 2018

The City of Ottawa recently installed special signage in neighbourhoods where the gateway speed limit has been reduced below 50 km/hr.

Gateway speed limit signs are now up in Sandy Hill and Somerset Street.

In these areas, there are no speed limit signs, other than those posted at the entry and exit to these areas.

Ottawa police say it is incumbent upon drivers to make note of the speed limit when they enter the zone and obey the designated speed.

This is part of the city's Safer Roads Ottawa Program, which is a community partnership between Ottawa Fire Services, Ottawa Paramedic Service, Ottawa Police Service, Ottawa Public Health and the Transportation Services Department. It's committed to preventing or eliminating road deaths and serious injuries for all people in the City of Ottawa, through culture change, community engagement, and development of a sustainable safe transportation environment.

Deer and drivers: What to do (and what not to do) to avoid a serious collision

By Megan Gillis, Ottawa Sun, November 10, 2018

“To swerve or not to swerve? That is the question,” according to Leeds County OPP.

Spoiler: Don’t swerve.

Officers in the Brockville-area detachment have mopped up a string of recent car versus deer crashes. No humans were hurt, but police still offered some advice for motorists in a release:

• Be especially on guard from sunset to midnight and around dusk and dawn, the highest risk times for deer-vehicle collisions. Drive with caution in areas with large deer populations and remember that deer seldom run alone.

Spider scare sends federal government workers home — twice

By Ryan Tumilty, CBC News Ottawa, November 9, 2018

In a predicament that would surely elicit sympathy from Little Miss Muffet, 50 federal government employees were frightened away from their Ottawa office building not once, but twice, after someone spotted a potentially dangerous spider.

In June, managers at 2300 St. Laurent Blvd., a Shared Services Canada building, sent employees home for two days after someone spotted an unusual spider in the office. The building's owner paid to have the offices fumigated before employees returned.

Then, on Oct. 18, there was another spider sighting, but this time it was caught. Over fears it might be a venomous brown recluse, one of only a handful of spiders in North America whose bite can harm humans, the arachnid was sent to an entomologist to be identified.

'We have no choice': Protesters demand climate action at Parliament Hill rally

By Krystalle Ramlakhan, CBC News Ottawa, November 10, 2018

More than 150 people rallied and protested on Parliament Hill Saturday afternoon, calling for Canada's governments to take action to protect the environment and address climate change.

Rallies were also held in Montreal and Sherbrooke, Que., which organizer Camille Goulet said should send a strong signal to the country's political parties.

• 50,000 people march in Montreal to demand more climate action

• Ottawa too 'timid' in its fight against climate change, says environment reporter

(...)"It's going to be my first time voting next year, and I want to send a message that I will vote for a government that will put our environment first," said the 17-year-old, who lives in Gatineau.

"We have no choice. It's our planet, it's our home and we have to do something now or we will lose it."

 

Towers proposed for Gladstone Avenue arts mecca

By Kate Porter, CBC News Ottawa, November 10, 2018

A developer is proposing to build three towers at the future Gladstone light rail station in Hintonburg, on a site that currently houses the largest concentration of artist studios in the city.

Those artists and Kitchissippi ward's councillor are pushing Trinity Development Group Inc. to incorporate affordable studio space as the site overlooking the O-Train tracks — which also includes a brewery and a music venue — is redeveloped.

Trinity is also behind what will be the city's tallest building: a 65-storey tower to be built one station down the line at Bayview.