By Leah Matthews, Capital Current, November 14, 2021
Faced with a shorter-than-expected timeframe, the City of Ottawa is exploring ways to extend the life of the Trail Road Waste Facility, the community’s main dump.
...The strategy, “seeks to change lifestyles and practices over the long-term by maximizing recycling, minimizing waste, reducing consumption and sending next to zero waste to the landfill,” Farley said.
By Tony Shoebridge, InsideOttawaValley, November 13, 2021
Susan Bamber rides her bicycle all year round, no matter what the weather, but she doesn’t see herself as an eco-warrior. She grew up in a family that was aware of our impact on the planet and followed a waste-not-want-not- lifestyle, and she has just organized her life around those same principles.
By Madeline Kerr, Ottawa Citizen Op-Ed, November 13, 2021
A manicured, grassy yard is in fact unnatural at best, and at worst it is an ecologically devastating instrument of colonization.
...The grass that we commonly see surrounding suburban homes, in parks, and on golf courses is an invasive species that has dramatically altered native ecosystems across Canada.
By Kate Porter, CBC News Ottawa, November 13, 2021
As the global climate summit winds down in Scotland, residents here in Ottawa face their own challenges in order to hit local targets for cutting greenhouse gases.
The City of Ottawa released its annual inventory a few weeks ago, which showed a decrease of 10 per cent in emissions in 2020 compared to 2019. Staff attribute that to people staying home during pandemic lockdowns with their vehicles parked.
By Ted Raymond, CTV News Ottawa, November 8, 2021
The mayor-elect of Gatineau, Que. says she wants to make city hall more transparent for residents and connect in many ways with her counterpart on the Ontario side of the Ottawa River.
...Bélisle also noted the impact of climate change on Gatineau.
"Environment is a dear topic to our citizens. We were hit by two floods and one tornado in the last few years," she said. "So, this is also a very important topic."
By Kimberley Molina, CBC, November 8, 2021
A made-in-Ottawa technology meant to protect cyclists at some controlled intersections is posing a whole new risk, according to one city councillor.
Revert reds — also known as red reverts — have been in place for years. They occur when vehicles, including bicycles, cause sensors in the road to trigger a traffic light change.
The sensor technology is meant to speed the flow of traffic through intersections and cut down on emissions from idling vehicles. But if the vehicle or bicycle moves past the sensors too soon, the signal immediately switches back to red and the cross traffic gets a green light again, posing a potential danger for cyclists.
Letters to the Editor, Ottawa Citizen, November 6, 2021
Read two environmentally focussed letters, one by by Douglas Cornish, the other by Dr. Riccomini of the CNIB
By Céleste Décaire, CBC News Ottawa, November 7, 2021
A conservation authority is working to update flood hazard maps for parts of eastern Ontario, which will help municipal governments assess the risk of flooding when planning for the future.
The South Nation Conservation (SNC), an organization dedicated to the protection and restoration of ecosystems in the region, is leading the efforts to update the maps, which hasn't been done for many years.
By Adrienne Tanner, National Observer, November 4, 2021
It’s no stretch to call Canada’s Yuill Herbert a climate adaptation guru. The principal of Sustainability Solutions Group (SSG) has worked on climate action plans for 40 communities, including some of Canada’s largest cities, Toronto and Vancouver among them.
His latest venture — a decarbonization strategy for all federal buildings in the National Capital Region — is a roadmap for a doozy of a project that could lead to Canada’s largest ever mass building retrofit scheme.
By Nick Grover, Ottawa Citizen Op-Ed
What if riders and bus operators, who have the deepest understanding of what quality transit requires, actually had some control over the service OC Transpo provides?
...But, as any casual bus rider knows, the issues with transit go well beyond LRT. Our bus network is expensive, slow and unreliable. We should take this opportunity to ask why our nominally “public” transit system is so terrible at meeting people’s needs. It could be because there are no actual bus riders or operators guiding the agenda.
By Clive Doucet, Ottawa Citizen Op-Ed, November 2, 2021
The prime minister has been quoted from Europe saying he’s worried about the gap between climate change promises and action. Well, there’s no better example of that than his acquiescence on the site of the new Civic hospital campus.
Op-Ed by Mathieu Fleury, Ottawa Citizen, November 1, 2021
The end of Ottawa’s second year of piloting electric-scooter technology can’t come soon enough for many.
Streets and sidewalks in the city’s core are littered with wayward wheels — a total of 1,200 e-scooters from three providers: Neuron, Lime and Bird. Abandoned e-scooters are, all too frequently, left by users to block shop entrances, sidewalks and crosswalks.