Ecology Ottawa

News Clippings

Air quality in Kitchener improves during pandemic, researcher says

By Juliane Hazelwood, CBC News, April 19, 2020

More people working from home and fewer cars on the road is improving the air quality in some Ontario cities, according to a researcher at Wilfrid Laurier University.

Hind Al-Abadleh, a chemistry professor and chair of the environment division at the Chemical Institute of Canada, has been studying the impact of the pandemic on air quality in the province.

"When we reduce the sources of pollution...we effectively can see the reduction in pollutants in the atmosphere that we know causes health effects and has other adverse effects on the ecosystem," said Al-Abadleh.

So far, she's examined measurements from provincial air quality stations in four Ontario metropolitan areas, starting from January until April 10.

Up to 40 per cent reduction

Her preliminary results show there's been:

• A 40 per cent reduction in nitrogen dioxide in Kitchener.
• Between 30 and 40 per cent reduction in Toronto (the west end of the city rates better than downtown).
• A 40 per cent reduction in Ottawa.

Advocates send province safety guidelines in push to get community gardens opened

By Lily Lamberink, CBC News, April 20, 2020

A group of healthy food and farming advocates have sent the province a list of safety recommendations for community gardens, in a push to have the spaces declared essential amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ontario lumped community gardens in with other "recreational amenities" that were closed March 30 to prevent the spread of the respiratory illness. But now, more than ever, is when community gardens are needed, said Moe Garahan, the co-chair of Sustain Ontario's Community Growing Network.

"Food insecurity was already at unacceptable levels in our country, before COVID-19. Households use community gardens to supplement their food supply during the growing season, and many participate in preservation techniques to continue that harvest into the winter season," said Garahan.

Garahan said there's no province-wide data about who uses community gardens, but said a minimum of 7,000 people use them as a source of food in Ottawa. Ben Hill, chairperson of the Middlesex London Food Policy Council, told CBC News there are 464 community garden plots in London and 65 per cent of people who responded to a survey last year said access to healthy food was their primary reason for using them.

Polluter bailouts and lobbying during Covid-19 pandemic

By Damian Carrington, National Observer, April 19, 2020

This story was originally published by The Guardian and appears here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration

Polluting industries around the world are using the coronavirus pandemic to gain billions of dollars in bailouts and to weaken and delay environmental protections.

The moves have been described as dangerous and irresponsible by senior figures. They say the unprecedented sums of money being committed to the global recovery are a historic opportunity to tackle the climate crisis, but such action has not been taken to date.

 

A wonderful surprise': Ottawans flock to closed-off Queen Elizabeth Driveway

By Natasha Goodwin, CBC News Ottawa, April 19, 2020

As Ottawa residents cheer the decision to close a stretch of the Queen Elizabeth Driveway to vehicle traffic, calls are being made to shut down even more streets during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The closure began Saturday morning and will run until at least the following Sunday, April 26, according to the National Capital Commission.

The road is blocked between Laurier and Fifth avenues from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

• Queen Elizabeth Driveway partially closes this weekend to vehicles

"It was a wonderful surprise today, because we hadn't heard the news," said Marcia Krawll, who lives close to the Rideau Canal and the driveway.

Nussbaum: Here's why the NCC is opening up part of The Queen Elizabeth Driveway

By Tobi Nussbaum, Ottawa Citizen, April 18, 2020

The National Capital Commission has a proud history of supporting healthy living in the capital — including walking and cycling – and of making it easier and more enjoyable for residents and visitors to make use of its many trails, paths, roads and parkways.

(...)At the NCC, we have been working over the last month to try to achieve this balance. On the one hand, we facilitated local access to most of our pathway network by expediting the clearing of ice and snow. We have continued to allow local access to our trails in the Greenbelt, to ensure people living close by can continue to use them.

On the other hand, we have closed our parking lots to discourage people who don’t live near a particular trail or pathway from making them a “destination” and accessing them via non-essential trips in motor vehicles.

This distinction is important: When outdoor spaces become destinations, they attract crowds from farther afield – which runs contrary to the directive to stay local and the purpose of physical distancing, which we know is critical to controlling the spread of COVID-19. At the same time, we understand that residents of the capital who live in denser urban areas have a greater challenge in exercising locally while respecting physical distancing.

Cities face growing calls to expand streets, re-open parks amid COVID-19 outbreak

By Lori Ewing, Global News, April 18, 2020

Lloyd Alter was running on a Toronto sidewalk recently when he stepped into a busy street without thinking to avoid a woman pushing a baby stroller.

Realizing later how easily he could have been struck by a car, Alter has started running on the city’s streetcar tracks, saying the wide expanse of the tracks that stretch about three metres across are “quite a lifesaver right now.”

(...)In Ottawa, the National Capital Commission (NCC) announced Friday that it’s closing a stretch of the Queen Elizabeth Driveway between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. daily. The pilot project began Saturday and runs through April 26.

PARTIAL CLOSURE: NCC to narrow parts of Queen Elizabeth Driveway for vehicular traffic

By Joanne Laucius, Ottawa Sun, April 14, 2020

The National Capital Commission is working on a pilot project to close parts of the Queen Elizabeth Driveway to vehicular traffic.

While the details have not been released, the NCC said the measure will allow greater social distancing for residents and it is working with stakeholders and partners to co-ordinate the project.

The NCC is also reassessing options for road closures, including Sunday Bikedays.

Birds and other wildlife could benefit from the pandemic

By the Canadian Press, National Observer, April 15, 2020

Ontario's wildlife will likely experience a population boom thanks to an ongoing state of emergency that is keeping most people in the province at home, a pair of experts say.

It's not just that there are fewer cars on the roads or less pollutants in the environment, the experts say — although both factors are important.

It's the timing of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the ensuing physical distancing and isolation measures to fight, that could boost the life expectancy of wildlife.

 

Editorial: Exercise in the time of COVID-19 – let's open more roads to pedestrians

By the Editor, Ottawa Citizen, April 12, 2020

The decision by various levels of government, including the City of Ottawa, to release COVID-19 modelling “projections” just before Easter weekend was clever. The models suggest that large numbers of deaths are possible if we don’t closely follow physical distancing guidelines. Many fewer deaths are likely if we stay home or keep a safe distance when outside. On a “long” weekend, the temptation to go out – or perhaps bend the distancing rules a bit by mingling with dinner guests – may be strong. These stark new numbers may dissuade us.

But fear only accomplishes so much. Our desire to be active or go outdoors will only grow as the weather improves. How to keep people behaving as they must when the sun starts to warm us, the cycling season moves into high gear and people yearn for their cottages?

Drop in noise pollution a bonanza for earthquake scientists

By Mia Rabson, National Observer, April 14, 2020

For earthquake scientists, having hundreds of millions of people off the streets and out of the skies is providing a bonanza of data about the planet.

All those planes, trains and automobiles that aren't running because of stay-home policies meant to fight the spread of COVID-19 have cut noise pollution in some cities by more than half, allowing seismologists to record sounds from inside Earth they never could before.

John Cassidy, an earthquake seismologist with Natural Resources Canada, says holidays like Christmas are the closest we ever get to these low levels of background noise and that's only for a day at a time.

 

Don't let COVID-19 take down our clean tech sector

By Barnabe Geis and Jeanette Jackson, National Observer, April 14, 2020

 

Moment by moment, the COVID-19 crisis is isolating people, threatening to overwhelm our health-care system, and shutting down the economy. In the midst of this, the federal government is planning perhaps the most important economic recovery in Canadian history.

This stimulus is an opportunity to do something transformative and pivot — right now — to a green economy powered by clean energy and enabled by clean technology. This must happen within a comprehensive framework, such as a Green New Deal that prioritizes a just transition for workers and their communities.

Cleantech has a key role to play in tackling the climate crisis, and the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate found doing so could deliver at least US$26 trillion in economic benefits by 2030.

 

Staff reject Councillor's request to deactivate beg buttons at Ottawa intersections

By Josh Pringle, CTV News Ottawa, April 10, 2020

OTTAWA -- The City of Ottawa has hit the brakes on a push to deactivate beg buttons at intersections across the city during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Councillor Shawn Menard asked staff to look at the “feasibility of reprogramming automated push buttons where safe to do so, in order to reduce the need for people to physically touch these buttons to safely cross a street.”

Automated push buttons are located at Ottawa intersections, prompting pedestrians to press the button to activate the walk signal to cross the street. According to the City of Ottawa, approximately 80 per cent of traffic signals are equipped with pedestrian push buttons and traffic sensors.

After reviewing the request, city staff do not recommend deactivating the beg buttons at intersections, citing advice from Ottawa Public Health, increased delays for pedestrians and vehicles at intersections and the possibility of public complaints.