Using fun to encourage recycling
Recycling and other forms of waste diversion are not usually considered “fun”. Sorting bottles and cans, lugging out the sometimes smelly compost, and taking empties to the Beer Store are the things we do because we should, not necessarily because we enjoy them. Volkswagen’s initiative The F…
View the post titled Using fun to encourage recyclingEquivalent wetland dedication is expropriation?
The Quebec Court of Appeal will soon decide an appeal on whether applications to destroy wetlands can be required to dedicate offsetting lands to become protected areas. However, the trial decision has already been overruled by the National Assembly. In Atocas de l’érable inc. c. Québe…
View the post titled Equivalent wetland dedication is expropriation?The 32 most alarming climate change charts
Grist has assembled the 32 most alarming climate change charts from the draft report of the US National Climate Assessment and Development Advisory Committee, including sea level rise; billion-dollar weather disasters; annual days over 100°F; observed changes in heavy precipitation; increas…
View the post titled The 32 most alarming climate change chartsWhat counts as pollution?
Two recent cases have reached opposite conclusions about what counts as a “contaminant” under Ontario’s Environmental Protection Act (EPA). Neither case seems to make much environmental sense. Why is flyrock a “contaminant”, when reflected light that lures millions of birds to their deaths i…
View the post titled What counts as pollution?Climate change burns while governments fiddle
Everywhere I look, I see galloping evidence of climate change. Last weekend, southern Ontario watched ski trails and ice rinks melt under the onslaught of record high temperatures and heavy rain. Spring perennials and bulbs were blooming in Toronto gardens, blooms that will be destroyed for …
View the post titled Climate change burns while governments fiddleChemtura fined $150,000 for air pollution leak
As environmental fines continue to increase, Chemtura Canada Inc. was fined $150,000, plus the victim fine surcharge of $37,500, for spilling sulphuric acid mist into the air, contrary to the Environmental Protection Act. Chemtura’s Toronto manufacturing facility produces sulfonates an…
View the post titled Chemtura fined $150,000 for air pollution leakAir pollution: They're cleaner than you think?
Ontario’s air pollution regulation, 419/05, uses an American computer model to estimate how much air pollution from a stationary source reaches a point of impingement, usually the property boundary. This model, AERMOD, is used to determine whether organizations are complying with air e…
View the post titled Air pollution: They're cleaner than you think?A new twist on anti-wind litigation: the Charter
Because of the social, environmental, and political importance of reducing carbon emissions and switching to renewable sources of energy, the Environmental Protection Act requires wind opponents to show that a renewable energy project will cause serious harm to human health, or serious and i…
View the post titled A new twist on anti-wind litigation: the CharterFine for breach of court order to cleanup waste
A Toronto company was fined $45,000 plus victim fine surcharges of $11,250 for failing to comply with a Court Order to remove waste materials from a mill site. 2023682 Ontario Inc. operate a mill site in Coleman Township. The company was originally convicted of failing to comply with a Minis…
View the post titled Fine for breach of court order to cleanup wasteEnergy transparency in Ontario public schools, a small step in the right direction
Congratulations to Gord Miller, Ontario’s Environmental Commissioner. Hours after he chided the province for concealing energy consumption information in public buildings, the province announced that energy consumption information for schools will be made public by July 1. It’s a…
View the post titled Energy transparency in Ontario public schools, a small step in the right directionReceive Blog Posts
By subscribing to our blog, you will receive an email when a new post is added. You can unsubscribe at any time by sending an email to us at [email protected] with the word “unsubscribe” in the subject line.