Vaughan challenges you to take action on climate change

Vaughan Citizen
March 27, 2014

While it would be all too easy to dismiss climate change as a global issue that we, as individuals, have little role to play in combating, a forward-thinking new initiative rolled out this week by the city blows that out of the water.

Dubbed the community climate action plan, it lays out Vaughan’s challenge to each and every one of you to reduce the amount of climate-impacting greenhouse gas emissions you produce at home, at work and as you go about your daily activities in the city by 1.5 tonnes a year - or about enough to fill an average family-sized home.

For its part, the city’s municipal operations only account for about 1 per cent of Vaughan’s greenhouse gas emissions. That includes such things as powering its buildings, vehicles and streetlights.

The remaining 99 per cent - that’s us - we’re responsible, for instance, for producing 1.7 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions in 2006, the earliest year that complete data was available.

To put it all in perspective, according to the city’s comprehensive and first-rate action plan, that’s the same amount of emissions produced by 353,253 vehicles on the road each year or average amount of energy used by 84,696 homes during that same period.

It would also mean we would need 20 forests about the same size as Vaughan to be able to capture and store all the emissions produced here in 2006, the city’s plan states.

And make no mistake about it: the city is absolutely correct in that the kind of activities that contribute to greenhouse gas emissions are largely a result of decisions made locally by businesses, industry, schools and individuals.

Given the fact Vaughan’s population is expected to double by 2026 and our growth is predicted to continue, most of you might agree we can’t adopt a business-as-usual approach to the warming of the planet.

So, here are some of the measures we can take as a community, as identified in Vaughan’s action plan: reduce energy use such as turning off lights and lowering your water heater; generate some of your own green power with solar panels; reduce the amount of waste generated in our homes that ends up in landfill and choose more efficient vehicles or make use of public transit more often.

If Vaughan and its citizens are to meet the target of reducing the greenhouse gas emissions we produce by 20 per cent by 2026, we will need to educate ourselves  and our families and take action.

Seemingly small changes in behaviour can add up over time. Take, for example, the fact that during last year’s Earth Hour, residents who turned out the lights from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. in PowerStream’s service area were the catalyst for a 5-per cent, territory-wide reduction in electricity use.

We encourage you to join this growing movement that will benefit the planet.