Ecology Ottawa

News Clippings

Charlebois: Forget flight shaming — how about food shaming?

By Sylvain Charlebois, Ottawa Citizen, January 6, 2020

Move over flight shaming. In 2020, we may see environmentalists target a new group of individuals: Overeaters.

For months now, some have taken to social media to spread their concern about choices made when travelling. Environmentalists have targeted several means of travel, especially by plane, using guilt and public shaming to get people to think differently about their lifestyle.

Even if air travel is responsible for less than two per cent of all greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, discrediting those who travel by plane is a continuing practice. Air travel does emit GHGs, but this industry is far from being the worse culprit, and many travellers have no other option but to fly to reach their destination. Studies have suggested that reducing the number of flights could lower our carbon footprint. Perhaps, although in some cases, weaponizing science to support a social movement or political campaign has lead to contentious debate.

Forster: Struggling with Australia's wildfires, we're on the leading edge of climate change

By Anne Forster, Ottawa Citizen, January 7, 2020

The following is excerpted from a letter by Anne Forster, a former Ottawa resident, to her Canadian friends recently. She lives in Australia.

I have had so many messages from you over the last few days; you must be receiving the dramatic news and video of the horror scenes in the southeast. Please accept this letter to you all:

I gave my family face masks for Christmas, and room air purifiers. People in Australia’s cities are worried about the long-term effects of smoke; people in the regions are battling fires and losing their homes. It’s surreal.

lf you overlay a map of Australia on Canada, the fires cover the equivalent of a crescent from Prince Edward Island along the southern parts of Newfoundland, Quebec and Ontario, missing the big urban centres and hitting again below Winnipeg and Calgary. These are our rich farming areas, dairies, fishing villages, snow country, ski areas and cottage areas, where artisans, organic farmers and creatives live in beautiful bush and seaside villages, with isolated, pristine beaches. Surrounded by dense national parks. The whole area  teeming with wildlife, and retirees live there.

Construction, closures, and completions: A 2020 forecast for Ottawa infrastructure

By Taylor Blewett, Ottawa Citizen, January 6, 2019

(...)Just east of downtown, Montreal Road is undergoing an Elgin-esque revitalization along a two-kilometre stretch between North River Road and St. Laurent Boulevard, scheduled to continue into 2022. This year’s schedule includes utility work, water main and sewer replacements and sidewalk construction.

Rideau Street between Sussex Drive and Dalhousie Street has been closed to general traffic for years. Starting this spring, all vehicular traffic — including buses — will also be barred from the area during work to spruce up the street and make it more appealing for transit riders, cyclists and pedestrians. Detours will be set up and pedestrian access will be maintained throughout construction, slated for completion by year end. (

Top 5 of 2019 by Jock McCleary

By Jock McCleary, InsideOttawaValley, January 7, 2020

(...)The five I have chosen this year aren’t necessarily the best five I have driven, but driving them has left a certain memory with me that sticks out in my mind, whether it be new technologies, performance or where I drove it.

(...)First - Hyundai Kona Electric 2019

(...)I drove the Kona for a week, as I would have had any other car. I didn’t try to hyper mile and carried out my daily tasks, as I would have normally. I really could drive this car on a regular basis even without having a level-2 charger fitted in my house.

I was even seriously considering buying a fully electric car, but then the $13,000 incentive in Ontario disappeared making it a rather expensive option.

I think the Kona Electric is at the top of my list is that it actually changed my outlook on what the future will be like and that there are not any real changes needed to be able to transition onto a fully electric driving world.

'It's going to help:' Changes to bus routes take effect

By CFRA News, January 5, 2020

OTTAWA -- More than three dozen changes to bus routes took effect Sunday in an effort to improve transit, especially in the suburbs and rural areas.

“There’s not enough buses, we need the big buses,” one rider exiting Tunney’s Pasture told CTV News Sunday.

Riders had been voicing their frustration since the launch of the Confederation Line LRT service in September. Many of the complaints take aim at bus service, how buses often don't show up or if they do, there is overcrowding.

“I think more buses would be excellent,” said one transit user waiting for the 61 bus in Kanata Sunday afternoon.

Governments lack transparency on climate change efforts

By Russ Corbett, InsideOttawaValley Letter to the Editor, January 2, 2020 To the editor: Re. "Ottawa River Named News Maker of The Year" Jan. 2, 2020. Is this not a hoax perpetrated on the public, aided and abetted by the media and all levels of government?

Let's start with the federal level. Canadians are dictated to and supposed to believe the carbon tax is going to reduce carbon emissions by reducing consumption of gasoline and heating fuels. As the Canadian Taxpayers Federation has stated, in spite of the carbon tax, gas/diesel consumption keeps rising along with carbon emissions, and $30 per tonne is about to rise to $50 per tonne in 2021.

Promises of "revenue neutral," because other tax cuts would offset the carbon tax, are total deception.  

Anxiety about the environment has become the plague of our times

By Rosie DiManno, InsideOttawaValley, January 3, 2020 When I was in Grade 1, our teacher informed us that the sun was actually a star and would burn itself out within a billion years. Which sent me into paroxysms of terror. WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE.

For months afterwards, on overcast days, even when a cloud passed over the sun for a few seconds, I was convinced the end was nigh. Oceans would boil, Earth would become uninhabitable.

(...)With good reason, youth are feeling betrayed and even abandoned by a generation whose legacy will be a crippled, endangered orb spinning off its axis. Fast-stepped from street-smartened — stranger danger — to global hyperawareness, bombarded with climate change alarms and apocalyptic scenarios.

Six New Year's resolutions for Ottawa to make 2020 its greenest year yet

By Dani-Elle Dubé, 1310 News, January 2, 2020

When it comes to New Year's resolutions, some choose to eat healthier while others vow to tackle debt. Ecology Ottawa, on the other hand, hopes Ottawans will consider adding one more resolution to their list: to help their city become a greener place to live.

To celebrate both a new year and new decade, the non-profit organization has come up with a list of six resolutions for Canada's capital - resolutions they hope will get residents and city hall considering environmentally friendly solutions, as Ottawa's population, infrastructure and boundaries continue to grow and expand.

Accelerate the city's climate ambition

"Last year the city passed an emergency climate declaration and has done a lot of good work studying what it means, in terms of what it needs to do with the policy mechanisms it needs to use to get emissions to where they need to go," Rob Barnes, executive director of Ecology Ottawa, said. "And 2020 is really going to be about doing it - doing the hard work of reducing the emissions in our city."

Ottawa’s LRT and the failure of joined-up government

By Alan Freeman, IPolitics, January 3, 2020

Ottawa finally has a mass transit system. The city’s $2.1-billion LRT (light-rail transit) opened in the fall and is still suffering what can be called extended teething problems.

The incompetence demonstrated in building the system could be the subject of a whole other column but not today. I’m assuming that these difficulties will eventually be worked out, adding tens of millions of dollars to the already-inflated cost, but the city will ultimately benefit.

(...)“What this means for the residents of the City of Ottawa is a better transit system and an improved environment. It means more choice and it helps get people out of their cars and into public transit,” Baird said at the time. If only.

The kink in this vision and the massive failure of joined-up government sits across the street from Rideau Centre, where that huge federal office complex, the Major-General G.R. Pearkes Building, will soon be 60 per cent empty. By the end of 2020, there will be only 1,675 employees left in a building with a capacity for 4,500, according to the Ottawa Citizen.

That’s because the federal government, just months after announcing cash for the LRT, decided to spend $208-million to buy the suburban campus of the defunct high-tech firm, Nortel. It happened to be in Baird’s riding.

In its infinite wisdom, the government then decided to move the headquarters of the Department of National Defence out of the city centre and to the Nortel campus, a throwback to the 1970s and 1980s when corporate America fled dying city centres for the pristine burbs. Like regional shopping malls, suburban corporate campuses are now seen as obsolete, but not in Ottawa.

What you can do with your leftover Christmas tree

By Krystalle Ramlakhan, CBC News Ottawa, December 28, 2019

As the holidays come to a close, it's time to start cleaning up and that includes getting rid of your Christmas tree. Here are three things you can do with the leftover evergreen.

In the backyard for the birds

The Nature Conservancy of Canada says leaving your Christmas tree in the backyard instead of sending it to the landfill will provide important habitat for bird populations during the winter months, especially on cold nights and during storms.

You can prop it up near another tree, against a fence or lay it in your garden. Redecorating it with pine cones filled with peanut butter and/or strings of peanuts will provide food for birds while they find shelter in the tree.

Today's letters: Thanks for the kindness, Ottawa

By Aviva King, Ottawa Citizen Letter to the Editor, December 24, 2019

(..)Why is it OK to chop a Christmas tree?

I probably open a Pandora’s box but I am wondering  how is it that people who condemn cutting or harming any tree have no problems cutting or buying Christmas trees?

Why is a Christmas tree different from any other tree? If this is not hypocrisy, then I don’t know what is.

Empower your home to be green by learning to conduct a waste audit

By InsideOttawaValley.com, December 24, 2019 Information is power, and in the case of green initiatives, the right information can propel your household closer to a zero-waste footprint. The Rideau Environmental Action League (REAL) Journey to Sustainability committee invites the public to learn how they can perform a quick and informative waste audit in their home, at the Jan. 16 information session to be held at Trinity United Church in Smiths Falls. The doors open at 6:45 p.m., and the presentation begins at 7 p.m. The meeting is free and open to anyone.

All it takes to complete an audit at home is your paper and plastic bins, a garbage can, compost container and a sample garbage bag from your home to sort through. Don’t forget those gloves and an apron for protection!