Almost every sector of the economy would benefit from oil sand development. But through all the positive economic growth Canada would receive, it is necessary to look at the impact on the environment it will have.

The refined oil will be transported through pipelines. Any released bitumen through a spill, leak, or rupture can contaminate the surrounding land or water. Tailing ponds to store the liquid to retrieve the oil can be shown to leak chemicals into the surrounding water supply like the Athabasca River and the Mackenzie River. Additionally, the environmental impact assessment (EIA) conducted in the area shows that the overall quantity of chemicals (PAH) is lower than that which naturally occurs in recovering petrol. A change in formula can have health risks to the surrounding population.

These chemicals can cause upper respiratory issues on site. Moreover, the chemicals that are released through a spill, leak, or rupture, that do not work directly on-site will soon have more complicated issues like headache, nausea, skin rashes, and respiratory symptoms which coincide with exposure to crude oil.

Working on the oil sands can have an increased health risk, and during the current COVID-19 pandemic it will make it much worse. According to unnamed contractors, workers did not have inadequate distancing, testing, or sanitization Those that currently work at CNRL Horizon in the Alberta Oil sands have stated, “We don’t feel safe here, but we keep working because everybody wants to work,” one contractor at Horizon said.

It is difficult for these workers to bring complaints about these safety issues to those higher on the corporate ladder,  due to fear of losing their job. The liability does not fall on the oil sand operators anymore regarding the environment or the health and safety of the workers.

“We’re all feeling like, head down, blinders on. Don’t even look around you and just try to get through your shift without getting sick.”

It is frivolous to think that mining for crude oil will disappear in the next 10 years. But companies should have federal and provincial policies in place to protect the health of their workers – and the general public – from irreversible harm. “Personally, with experience in seeing all sides of corporate and environmental relationships, I know products must exist for now. But it is difficult for me to understand why an unexplored market could be so scary to a company when investments are made all the time for new products. 

Do you think you could help me understand?

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Human activities have thrusted our planet into a climate emergency. This calls for an urgent need for adaptation—adjusting our natural and human systems to minimize climate hazards, exploit climate opportunities, and mitigate—the conscious actions to minimize the emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and to remove existing GHGs through improving carbon sinks. Climate change is real, and the consequences are vivid. From the melting polar caps of Alaska all the way to Kiribati’s dissipating beaches, climate change stymies our livelihoods and heightens vulnerability to environmental hazards. So, why is there even the existence of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)? According to their official website, “the IPCC was created to provide policymakers on climate change, its implications and potential future risks, as well as to put forward adaptation and mitigation options,” (IPCC, 2020). Some of the solutions often floated around by this and other giant institutions include constructing greenhouses to support agricultural food systems in drylands, building reservoirs to collect excess runoff, and providing crop insurance to tackle crop failure. In their “infinite” wisdom, these bureaucrats placed a caveat that we should adopt these strategies in ways that support the national, regional, and local contexts. Interesting, huh? But with the lenses of reality on, how can Kiribati people, who have almost nothing, adapt to their rising sea levels and dissipating coastline, build reservoirs to tackle flooding, and provide farmland insurance for farmers whose farmlands turned into water bodies overnight?

Even though there is a lot of attention to tackle climate change, Nature-based Solutions (NBS)—using traditional and naturally producing resources to mitigate environmental hazards—have been side-lined for technocratic solutions, and sometimes retrogressive—climate wise—technological innovations. Moreover, much of these current approaches are usually bogged down in faulty rhetoric. For instance, everyone wants a better environment, at the same time, also wanting the comfort of owning a luxury and eco-unfriendly car.  Who takes the buses then? It cannot work that way; you must pick your poison! In retrospect, Greta Thunberg was precisely correct when she called economic growth ‘a fairytale.’ The questions that remain unanswered are: why are we so ever focused on the use of artificial methodologies in reverting the world to a more natural state? Would it not help to use a nature-based approach instead? For instance, in the illustration of Megan Leslie—President, and CEO of World Wildlife Fund Canada, the need for NBS could not be more apparent:

“If you think about the increasing floods we are seeing, for example, concrete culverts and breakwaters can only handle so much water. Silver maple can absorb 220 liters of water [an hour]! If we replace all this concrete with natural infrastructure, with green infrastructure, firstly, it can handle the floods. Secondly, it’s resilient… it bounces back.” –Megan Leslie

NBS have emerged as cost-effective mitigation and adaptation strategies that simultaneously provide socio-ecological and economic benefits while boosting resilience among people. According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), NBS involves the intentional use of nature for sustainably managing ecosystems and tackling socio-environmental challenges. The nature-based solutions are rooted in the oxymoronic ideals of going back to move forward, looking into naturally occurring solutions that can be humanly instigated and controlled to increase resiliency and fight climate change. These suggestions are topical as they are relevant and include reimagining green housing, utilizing natural resources for construction and plant growth to fight climate change. NBS to climate change emphasizes harnessing the myriad potentiality of nature to reduce GHGs while also adapting to climate-related stresses such as human health, food and water insecurity. NBS to climate change is considered a win-win approach. We get to protect, restore, and sustain our ecosystem while efficiently addressing an existential threat. Further, NBS can be adopted in both rural and urban settings—an attribute which makes NBS more practical and comprehensive.

Rural areas

Although climate change is omnipresent, there are differences in the intensity of these impacts because of two factors: (1) your location in the world and (2), the level of disposable resources with wealth at its core. Sadly, folks in the Global South or the developing worlds, are particularly more affected by climate change due to their heavy dependence on natural resources from which they derive their livelihoods, and their limited availability to adapt to the changing environmental conditions. As dire as these conditions may be, they are also being exacerbated by prevailing adaptation strategies. For example, to stimulate agriculture, the current use of high-nitrogen-fertilizers over time makes the land progressively barren while leaching nitrous oxide into the drainage system and polluting vital drinking water sources for millions of people. With NBS, however, simple practices like mulching (yes, good old mulching), could prove essential for revitalizing smallholder farmlands through soil moisture conservation and sustainably improving soil fertility. Typically, mulching involves collecting and applying decomposing organic matter (e.g. sawdust, wood, grass, food scraps) over arable lands’ topsoil. The best part is that mulching materials are free and readily available. This process could solve the triple problem of utilizing food waste, soil infertility, and improving biodiversity.

A smallholder farming household practicing mulching // Source: Bryan Waters

Another NBS that could be employed in these areas is the utilization of bamboo grass. Bamboo (Subfamily: Bambusoideae) is a fast-growing, drought-resistant grass. It can be the best crop that can grow in some environments. This ancient grass serves many purposes. In fact, there is evidence of its utility in building construction, making furniture, serving as windbreaks, and where native, could even be planted around your luxurious million-dollar home as a living privacy screen (you know, against those shady neighbors). In other words, bamboo is the gift that keeps on giving and there is something in it for everyone. As climate change continues to wreak havoc globally, substituting bamboo in place of plastic in privacy screens or in place of destroying mature Mahogany trees from the rainforest (which take 25 years to grow) are great strides toward reductions in carbon footprint. The bamboo plant thus serves as a stylish, classy, and sustainable alternative. As we begin to care for and incorporate bamboo use in our daily lives, we will also be indirectly preserving biodiversity since it serves as the main diet and habitat for some of the world’s cutest animals.

Locals putting bamboo to use // Source: Panos Pictures/Felix Features

Urban areas

Urban centers or cities are characteristic of high-density infrastructure—roads, bridges, airports, residential and commercial buildings, etc. Many cities like New York and Toronto, struggle with creating and developing spaces for nature. But with a switch to NBS, vegetation can be used to cover the walls or roofs of buildings in urban centers. Green roofs and walls have numerous benefits to the ecosystem and human health. Some of these benefits include insulation provision (thus reducing energy consumption), absorbing rainwater (potential to reduce floods), minimizing the urban heat island effects, and serving as carbon sinks. Green roofs and walls make urban settings aesthetically pleasing as well, which could reduce the stress associated with these busy, noisy, and chaotic systems. Roofs absorb rainwater and can cool the tops of buildings, thereby creating milder microclimatic conditions. The concept of green roofs has taken shape in some cities including Toronto, which in 2009 was the first city to promulgate a bylaw that regulates and governs the construction of green roofs.

 Green walling in urban structures // Source: WikiCommons

Green roofing in urban settings // Source: Urbanscape

Overall, NBS provide sustainable toolkits for adapting and mitigating climate change; they are available and accessible to people in all socio-economic classes. NBS is part of existing ways of life and requires minimal special initiatives to implement. They are cheaper to implement, good for the environment, utilize indigenous knowledge, and are often community based. This also leads to empowerment, which makes implementation and sustainability more feasible. Combating climate change is imperative in every dimension—politically, economically, and morally, because it embodies our collective attempt at saving the lives and livelihoods of billions of people.

This article is part of our March 2021 Western Student Editorial Series – a series that showcases the works of students in the Collaborative Specialization in Environment and Sustainability program. Read more articles from this series here!

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What is a Walkable City?

Paul Hawken’s book, Drawdown, defines walkable cities to include areas where there are safe pedestrian crossings, mass transit connectivity, walkways that are well lit, wide and tree lined, along with a density of homes, workplaces and other spaces. 

Walkable villages, communities, towns and cities have existed since the dawn of time. However, since the invention of the wheel and industrialization, modern urban planning and lifestyle has demanded that more people use some form of transportation to get from one point to another in their daily routines. The use of bicycles, private vehicles and public transit have become necessary to get to jobs, schools, groceries and run errands. Due to this, the distance between people and businesses continues to increase simultaneously with development.

However, decreasing the distance between where people live and where they need to get to on a daily basis without the need for cars and heavy dependence on public transit can greatly reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emissions, improve mental and physical health and increase human interaction. 

Proper planning and safety are of high importance when promoting a walkable city, as expressed by experts Kristen Agnello, representative from the Canadian Institute of Planners and Dr. Jill Grant, Professor Emeritus, School of Planning, Dalhousie University. Dr. Grant noted that if people are not confident that a physical space is safe and free from crime or violence and even the fear of disease that is being experienced with COVID-19, then people will not go out to walk. Agnello said that safety is impacted by the social and cultural legacy of a city and sometimes the reputation of a city impacts its walkability.

Factors that Promote Walkability

Agnello emphasized that knowing who you are designing for in a city is what makes the difference. If you design a city to encourage the movement of cars, then that’s what you’ll get -the same applies for walkability. To design for walkability Agnello said that walkability is not just encouraged through the implementation of wide sidewalks with curb cuts but also places that are safe and harassment-free. As well as, welcoming for everybody regardless of their socio-spatial factors including race, gender, age, ability and their income. Dr. Grant and Agnello also alluded to the physical elements that promote walkability which included wide, clear pathways (around 1.5 – 3m wide) without tripping elements that are optimal for people with disabilities (wheelchair and cane-safe) and strollers. It also gives space for people to pass each other comfortably.

Regarding other elements, Agnello stated that art incorporated into the architectural design such as on street walls and buildings, as well as, art installations on streets are important. Similarly, someone’s walk is made more interesting, comfortable and walkability is promoted when small pocket parks with seating near architecture exist and when spaces have a sense of enclosure, such as when tree canopies are incorporated into the surrounding space. Dr. Grant said that greenspaces, paths near water and other picturesque elements encourage walkability as well. She also mentioned that connectivity and predictability of pathways such as a route without dead-ends or one that brings someone back to their starting point can also encourage more walking.

Weather and the seasons also play a big factor in enticing the public to walk. Dr. Grant noted that an example includes heated sidewalks being installed in Scandinavia which promotes walkability in the winter. Shading from trees is also important, especially during the summer. Agnello brought up the point of the temporal aspect of a day where foot traffic varies and suggested that good lighting at night is important for providing a sense of safety.

While the focus is usually on people needing somewhere to walk to, emphasis should also be placed on where people need to walk from. Having housing closer to a destination like stores, jobs, school and places for recreation and other services similar to that of a compact community can promote walkability. Agnello pointed out that having a mix of commercial and residential land use is critical. She also said that while walking is vital, a city with mixed land uses and modes of vehicles such bicycles, transit and pedestrians is important since not everyone can walk for long periods of time. An inclusive environment is promoted with rest points where people can meet new individuals, converse or simply observe the surroundings. Having transit within 10 minute walk nodes is also convenient.

Promoting a walkable city comes with benefits which include physical and mental health, community cohesion and economic gain. Health benefits from exercise and walking can have positive impacts on cholesterol, diabetes and obesity. Mental health benefits would be on the rise especially for seniors who may be isolated and confined to their homes with little human interaction. Walking will help with community cohesion as it promotes more public interaction. Economically, walking makes it easier for you to make purchases from shops along your route compared to if you were driving.

The success of the city being walkable can be obtained when community engagement is considered in the process as the public will be able to make decision-makers aware of factors that are important in the planning process. Dr. Grant mentioned that people have always been interested in trails, bike-ways and other infrastructure for walking and hiking. Ensuring that greenspace and recreational activity are incorporated into walkable spaces will promote walking as a norm. More information on this can be found in the following article on greenways and greenbelts.

The Present, Past and Future of Walkable Cities 

Cities like Vancouver, Montreal and Banff have small pockets of walkable areas. Agnello said Banff particularly did a great job in the design and functionality of the streetscape making it simple for a small tourist town by having great signage, scramble intersections allowing for efficient crossing and having a mix of different conditions in the sidewalk. Dr. Grant mentioned that the size of the city also impacts walkability and its efficiency increases in areas with small –scale streets such as in Kingston and Halifax.

In the past, cities were set up differently from what we see today. During the time of urban planning and development’s guru, Jane Jacobs, in her book, ‘The Death and Life of Great American Cities’ she wrote about sidewalks and its relationship with safety and for children’s play, parks, neighbourhoods, diversification and densification for lively cities. According to Dr. Grant, Jane Jacobs focused on making cities more mixed use and interactive. Agnello stated that Jacobs sheds light on the fact that cities have an impact on us but we need to understand that everyone has a right to exist and benefit from a space but in order to have an equitable walkable city this factor must be addressed. 

Car-dominant cities can transition into being more walkable cities if governments and municipalities find walkability measures, measure those parameters and monitor them over time. Agnello said that it is also important for the policies, designs and plans of cities to be scrutinized for exclusionary language (e.g. in terms of diversity and equity) and also for preferential treatment of vehicles (e.g. excessive parking requirements especially heritage buildings). She also stated that we need to be cognizant of the fact that policies in one area may affect the walkability of a community in another location since it was not necessarily tailored to that particular time or place.

In modern society Walk Scores are available for places (see table). The closer the walk score is to 100, the easier it is to walk to get errands done. In the “Walking the Walk” study by CEO’s for Cities, it was seen that a one point increase in a Walk Score can increase property value in a variety of housing markets by US$500 to US$3,000. Despite this price varying with location, this shows that having walkable cities not only benefit the physical health of residents and the nearby businesses they patronize, but also help the real estate market.

Walkability of a city promotes improvement in mental and physical health, as well as, stimulates the local economy. It can be observed that cities are seen as more walkable if the architecture and landscape are appealing. However walkability of a city works best when the planning, designing and implementation of infrastructure are considered from an inclusive lens. 

Want more stories like this? This article is featured in our next issue, Getting There: The Ecosystem of Human Movement. Check out the next issue for more!

References

Cortright, J. (2009, August). Walking the Walk: How Walkability Raises Home Values in U.S. Cities [PDF]. Impresa Inc.

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Today, Alternatives Journal is releasing our latest issue, Getting There: The Ecosystem of Human Movement.

The carbon footprint of an individual within a developed country is drastically higher than someone in a developing country. The reason behind this is partly in how we choose to get around. We drive to work every morning. We board cruises and airplanes to glamorous, far away destinations. We like to be always on the move.

The question becomes; how do we move from point A to point B and design the systems that help us to do so in a way that lowers our carbon footprint and leaves behind a positive lasting impact on the natural, social and economic environment? These questions will be answered in our latest issue, Getting There: The Ecosystem of Human Movement.

In this issue, we will discuss population growth and planning. As our population changes, we have become required to rethink city planning and discover the positive impacts of sustainable solutions such as greenways, bike lanes, improving city walkability, and retrofitting existing transportation infrastructure to better facilitate the movement of people and goods.

This issue will also explore the sustainability of traveling and the tourism industry. In the last few months, many airlines and cruise ships have had to park their fleets and seen a massive decline in customers. However, in the wake of a global pandemic that forced us to cancel our vacation plans, we were presented with the opportunity to reflect on how we travel and what tools we can use, like carbon offsetting, to help mitigate the impact we have.

Finally, this issue will critically assess our public transportation systems. How do we move away from a single car culture to a transit culture? What is the economic value of public transportation? How are other communities making their public transportation systems more sustainable? Asking these questions will have positive trickle-down effects to the entire community – whether that be through improving our physical and mental health, ability to access employment, or by protecting our natural spaces.  This issue will answer these questions and hopefully prompt you to ask a few new ones.

This was an incredibly special issue. In the summer of 2020, four students from the Centre for Environment and Sustainability (CES) at Western University undertook this issue as co-op placements. There is an old Persian saying: “If you want to make God laugh, make a plan”. At A\J, we had lots of plans for how this summer was supposed to unfurl. We had a great team and a great work plan arranged in the early winter to start in May 2020. Of course, those plans were made oblivious to the deadly and tragic impacts of Covid-19 that were about to ensue.

Thankfully, the ‘sustainability’ focus of their education – with strong leadership from our issue’s guest editor, Professor Stephan Vachon (and the CES director) – allowed the team to dodge the flaming chainsaws of uncertainty and chase the golden unicorns of new opportunities. This issue is a testament to the power and capacity that emanates from campuses in London, Ontario and across the country, from coast to coast to coast. 

ABOUT AJ

Small but mighty, Alternatives Journal (A\J) is Canada’s environmental voice. Publishing intelligent and informed environmental journalism since 1971, A\J fosters positive change and seeks sustainable solutions that our 30,000+ readers can use to improve their communities and our world.

References to this issue can be found at this link. 

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The Green New Deal (GND) has gotten a lot of attention since legislation was proposed in the U.S. Congress in February. The term derives from Roosevelt’s New Deal policies during the Great Depression. The Green New Deal, however, addresses today’s two most urgent problems simultaneously: climate change and rising inequality. This approach may lessen the current appeal of climate denying populism for some. Canadian jurisdictions should consider a similar approach.

The inequality gap between the rich and everyone else has increased continuously since the late 1970s. Since 1978, controlling for inflation, most wages in America have only increased by 6% while executive’s incomes have gone up 937%. The upper 1% now make twice what the bottom half of the population do. Canada is slightly less unequal, but our CEOs earn 300 times the minimum wage — not enough, of course, to keep some of them from objecting to a $15 minimum hourly wage.

 The polar opposite of simultaneous progress are the policies of Trump and Ford who do all they can to increase fossil fuel consumption and the wealth gap.”

Climate change has been underway for at least 40 years. Yet global carbon emissions are still rising despite the efforts of some nations. In Europe and elsewhere, a few have achieved year over year reductions, but Canada and most others have not. The world as a whole has not even started on reducing emissions.

The GND urges rapid progress on both problems, an ambition that is wonderfully out of step with North American politics-as-usual. The norm on this continent as a whole is decades of delay (though B.C. and California have stepped up as did Ontario until recently). The polar opposite of simultaneous progress are the policies of Trump and Ford who do all they can to increase fossil fuel consumption and the wealth gap.

GND policies are labelled as radical merely because they assume that governments should, and can successfully, address both. Addressing the two jointly may actually be easier than taking them on separately. As Van Jones argued a decade ago, more good jobs are created addressing climate than are produced in continuing with a carbon intensive economy. Both America and Canada would gain more jobs building a post-carbon economy than would be lost in completely phasing out all fossil fuels. As a bonus, the jobs would be distributed geographically much more widely than fossil energy jobs. Renewable energy is also owned more broadly – often by homeowners, farmers, communities, utilities, non-energy businesses, coops and landowners.

America’s GND proposal includes an equality-building job guarantee, increased energy efficiency, regenerative soil management, energy storage research, and comprehensive retraining opportunities for those in vulnerable jobs. It even advocates a guaranteed annual income in response to the looming age of artificial intelligence and self-driving vehicles. Indeed, GND House of Representatives legislative sponsor Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has said ‘no one should have to fear automation, but all should instead welcome it’.

A key political strength of the GND is that it explicitly opposes blaming job losses on scapegoats (immigrants or other nations). It understands that there is more than enough worthwhile work to do on better health care and education, healthier food, improved infrastructure, new technologies and, above all, on transforming our energy systems. Underfunding these needs are, in effect, needed jobs that never happen.

We will also need to deal with carbon removal from the atmosphere and protecting biodiversity and habitat. Crucially, everything mentioned above is only affordable before we are overwhelmed by the high cost of serious climate impacts.

Finally, the most important political argument for a Green New Deal is this: it can be adopted at any level of governance – globally, nationally, provincially, municipally or regionally. This is crucial because the progress we need only rarely has all governments on side simultaneously and continuously. To succeed globally many cities and nations must relentlessly demonstrate that positive change is possible.

Those who would deny the possibility of reversing inequality and the need to stop climate change must be proven wrong continuously. With most of the world moving forward on both fronts we can decisively reject political claims of harm to the economy or the non-importance of climate change. 

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Perhaps unsurprisingly, the book is far from a leisure read. And not having read Dale’s first book, I was unfamiliar with her personal history, which she weaves throughout the book. It took time to appreciate how deftly she integrates personal disclosures with the current hurdles facing environmental policy and cultural change across Canada.

Each paragraph is tightly packed with case studies, anecdotes and allusions, with Dale often leaving the reader to unpack each connection to build a fuller picture in their mind. As such, post-secondary students to “lifer Environmentalists,” as she calls them, would read Edging Forward in completely differently ways and find value all the same.

Depending on your familiarity with the subject, Edging Forward is either a primer or a pit-stop. There are so many layered ideas contained within its pages that, at times, its messaging comes off as rushed or hurried. Though I don’t agree with all Dale suggested in the book, I do appreciate that her hurried pace is purposeful. It’s the kind of book that appears meant to entice readers into taking action rather than bog them down in the details.  

Depending on your familiarity with the subject, Edging Forward is either a primer or a pit-stop.

Yet the details are at-hand in the supporting material, reams of them in the endnotes and a corresponding website, all of which are organized in a masterful way. In these resources, the eco-conscience Canadian can find information and tools to assist them in however they are advocating for sustainable change in their community.

I was excited to dive into Edging Forward with its promise of weaving the “power of stories” into imperatives to drive sustainable development across the country. But while I appreciate that each chapter began with allusion, not all tied together as effectively as intended. Dale bravely shares her own personal story in what it took to overcome her own life’s hurdles; here I believe Dale is showcasing how a single human can become an agent of change despite grappling with despair. That acknowledging and acting on one’s agency in their own life is the same exercise (perhaps on a different scale) as it is to move an entire community to act on behalf of the environment.

Despite this, can Edging Forward shift environmental discussions and practice in Canada or around the world? Perhaps not. The book did not read to me as though Dale was trying to reinvent the wheel when it comes to sustainability in Canada; rather, given political climates at home and abroad that fail to grasp the magnitude of the global challenges we face as a species, I think she was simply trying to keep those wheels moving forward.

Which is noble enough in itself.

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