Good day, Earthlings! That is our weekly e-newsletter on all issues environmental, the place we spotlight developments and options which might be transferring us to a extra sustainable world. Sustain with the newest information on our Climate and Environment page.
Sign up here to get this article in your inbox each Thursday.
This week:
- How eliminating necessary parking minimums helps the local weather
- The Huge Image: File-breaking soften
- Treeless-yard tax helps combat warmth islands in a Quebec city
How eliminating necessary parking minimums helps the local weather
Final October, I used to be sitting on a streetcar, stopped at a lightweight on Queen Road East in Toronto, when one thing caught my eye. It was a metropolis discover a couple of proposed 60-storey condominium with 701 residences that will have parking for 701 bicycles — and simply 9 vehicles.
I used to be stunned over simply how few areas there have been for vehicles. 9? For greater than 700 items? I advised my colleague Emily Chung, who wasn’t stunned in any respect. She defined that, till not too long ago, the Metropolis of Toronto had necessary parking minimums, the place buildings had been required to have a sure variety of parking areas relying on their measurement.
It seems that an increasing number of cities in North America are removing these minimums. And the excellent news is that it is nice for the local weather and the atmosphere.
Let’s discuss parking with regards to condominiums and residence buildings relatively than above-ground parking for malls and houses, since large cities are regularly increase relatively than out.
A 2022 study for the Metropolis of Vancouver estimated {that a} lower of 10 underground parking areas might cut back CO2 emissions between 50 tonnes to as excessive as 8,500 tonnes.
In addition they famous that the minimal affect of setting up one parking house is nearly equal to 1 12 months of the operation of a automotive, and the utmost affect is near the operation of a automotive for near 19 years.
That is loads of CO2 emissions.
“For every stage of parking you take away, you possibly can cut back the [greenhouse gas emissions] of a constructing by about 15 per cent,” stated Shoshanna Saxe, an affiliate professor on the College of Toronto’s division of civil and mineral engineering and Canada Analysis Chair in Sustainable Infrastructure.
“The best, best factor you are able to do to make your constructing extra sustainable shouldn’t be have an entire bunch of underground parking.”
Another study, by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Company (CMHC) that was launched in 2024, famous that the environmental impacts of setting up underground parking areas are far-reaching, together with the displacement of soil that’s taken elsewhere and probably passing on harmful microorganisms, together with e.coli.
And eradicating the soil additionally means a bigger carbon footprint as these vehicles might have to drive lots of of kilometres to get rid of it.
And let’s not overlook that when the bottom is dug up, trapped CO2 can be launched into the environment.
Now, whereas cities throughout Canada and the U.S. are transferring away from these parking minimums, they are not doing so for the local weather or the atmosphere, Saxe famous.
It is the fee.
A 2024 study by the Altus Group, which offers asset and fund data for industrial actual property, discovered that constructing underground parking in Vancouver ranges wherever from $160 to $250 per sq. foot. For comparability, floor parking would price between $12 to $25 per sq. foot. In Toronto, underground parking ranges $175 to $300 per sq. foot, whereas floor parking ranges from $15 to $30.
Lowering parking minimums means housing turns into extra reasonably priced.
“Earlier than Toronto rolled again necessary minimal parking necessities, you had been seeing … numerous buildings the place that they had far more parking than anyone needed,” Saxe stated. “Folks simply would not declare them, and so they must be absorbed, on the whole, by the prices within the constructing.”
The CMHC examine additionally famous that there’s much less want for parking minimums, as our life have modified. Extra persons are turning to experience shares, they famous. And after the COVID pandemic, extra persons are working from house, even when it is solely a part of the time.
In fact, eliminating parking means there must be a sturdy transit system in place, one thing that some cities, like Toronto, are aiming to enhance by constructing new transit strains. Bike lanes are one other necessary issue, she famous.
Lastly, Saxe stated that we have to cease making driving such a beautiful technique of getting round.
“Folks behave inside the system that we construct for them. And so if we are saying this can be a place you get to by parking, we sign it with offering loads of parking,” she stated. “Then we’re incentivizing individuals to drive, which results in extra air air pollution of all types.”
Saxe stated she is completely satisfied to see extra cities transfer away from necessary parking minimums.
“I believe that in some ways, whereas it was pushed by price, eliminating necessary minimums is among the finest sustainability insurance policies that is been handed in lots of cities round North America within the final 10 years,” she stated.
— Nicole Mortillaro
Previous problems with What on Earth? are here. The CBC Information local weather web page is here.
Try our podcast and radio present. In our newest episode: Local weather-friendly menstrual merchandise include loads of advanced issues, like private preferences, stigma and price. We go to a start-up in Nova Scotia that is making compostable pads. Then, we hear concerning the coverage and social adjustments that would assist make sustainable choices extra accessible.
What On Earth28:11It’s about bloody time we talked about intervals and local weather
What On Earth drops new podcast episodes each Wednesday and Saturday. You could find them in your favorite podcast app or on demand at CBC Listen. The radio present airs Sundays at 11 a.m., 11:30 a.m. in Newfoundland and Labrador.
Have a compelling private story about local weather change you wish to share with CBC Information? Pitch a First Person column here.
Reader Suggestions
We obtained extra mail concerning the student science project to test eco-friendly laundry water for watering garden plants.
Whereas some readers stated they water houseplants or fill the bathroom tank with “gray water” from issues like bathing, Marek Gomolka, a septic system specialist in Victoria, B.C., cautions that discharging family gray water outdoors is commonly prohibited by public well being laws. “Extra importantly, untreated gray water can return and contaminate aquifers, streams and so forth,” he wrote.
Michael Storoszko wrote: “Do you know that computerized washing machines, about 40 years in the past, recycled laundry water? My mom’s washer would drain the gray water into the utility sink after washing one load and when the subsequent load began, it could suck up the water and reuse. My mom by no means had a grievance about how clear the whites had been or how vibrant the colored garments got here out after washing this fashion. She missed this function when she needed to substitute the machine after greater than 25 years of service! Maybe washer producers ought to take into account reintroducing this function?”
Write us at whatonearth@cbc.ca. (And be at liberty to ship images, too!)
The Huge Image: File-breaking soften
The NASA satellite tv for pc picture above exhibits Antarctic ice extent at its annual low on March 1, 2025. This 12 months’s was the second-lowest on file — the yellow line exhibits the way it compares to the median between 1981 to 2010. In the meantime, within the Arctic, sea ice in February hit its lowest level on record for that month, thanks to a heat anomaly at the start of the month that induced temperatures to soar 20 C above common and above the melting level. Collectively, the dwindling ice at each the North and South Poles led to a worldwide file for lowest sea ice extent on Feb. 5, the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service reported. The lack of sea ice worries scientists as a result of the white ice reflects sunlight, while darker water absorbs more heat, speeding up climate change. CBC’s Susan Ormiston and Jill English not too long ago returned from a Canadian scientific mission in Antarctica, the place they reported on how Antarctica’s ice and cold oceans play an outsized role in regulating the global climate.
— Emily Chung
Scorching and bothered: Provocative concepts from across the internet
Treeless-yard tax helps combat warmth islands in Quebec city
A small city in Quebec’s Montérégie area is attempting a novel method to assist mitigate the impacts of local weather change and speed up the greening of the neighborhood.
As of 2025, owners in Saint-Amable, Que., roughly 40 kilometres east of Montreal, are being charged an annual surtax of $200 if they do not have at the least one leafy, deciduous tree of their entrance yard.
A latest report out of Université Laval confirmed the town’s high vulnerability and exposure to extreme heat events.
Saint-Amable basic supervisor Jean-Sébastien Ménard stated the report was a wake-up name.
“It was like a punch,” he stated.
Ménard stated the eco tax was put in place to encourage residents to undertake extra environmentally pleasant behaviours and plant extra bushes.
The bushes, he stated, are wanted to fight the phenomenon of warmth islands.
Warmth islands can result in the deterioration of air high quality and can even adversely have an effect on human well being and well-being, rising the burden on well being services.
The cash collected from the tax is being reinvested into greening initiatives within the municipality, Ménard stated.
New city developments typically lack tree cowl
At first look, it could be stunning to seek out {that a} small city with a inhabitants of 13,322, nestled amongst agricultural fields, is grappling with warmth islands. However a more in-depth look reveals the true concern.
“There is a particular lack of huge bushes,” stated David Wees, a college lecturer with McGill College’s division of plant science.
He added it is not unusual in new city developments.
In response to Centris.ca, an online real-estate brokerage website, 45 per cent of houses within the space had been constructed after the 12 months 2000, together with 14 per cent that had been constructed after 2011.
“It is a new suburb,” Wees stated. “And whereas it is true there’s loads of lawns, massive bushes have a a lot larger affect on the local weather than lawns do.”
What’s taking place, he stated, is that each one the streets, all of the parking and all of the roofs on buildings are absorbing photo voltaic radiation in the course of the day and re-radiating it out at evening so the air heats up.
Timber assist cut back air temperature by offering shade and evaporating water, however that is not all they do.
Timber, Wees stated, produce other advantages akin to decreasing wind velocity, absorbing sure air pollution and capturing rainwater.
“So each time it rains, as a substitute of all that rain going into the sewage, storm sewers or flooding individuals’s houses, the bushes soak up massive parts of it,” he stated.
Tree tax ‘is smart’
Ménard stated , nevertheless, the primary impetus for the tax was to hurry up the greening course of.
“We have to double our cover,” he stated. “We have now loads of catching as much as do.”
Whereas Ménard stated the one-tree rule is not new, it was by no means actually noticed or enforced earlier than.
The city teamed up with mapping service Jakarto and used synthetic intelligence, sending out tiny automobiles outfitted with cameras to go up and down neighbourhood streets to detect the presence of bushes.
That was accomplished in 2024 with notices despatched out to about 1,200 properties that had been discovered to be non-compliant. Of these, 800 took the required steps to plant a tree, Ménard stated.
The plan is to ship out the automobiles once more this spring.
Rising pains
Whereas Ménard is touting the success of the initiative, there have been some points with its implementation.
Caroline Skucas stated she was a bit confused when she obtained a discover from the city saying she wasn’t in compliance with the principles.
“There wasn’t actually room to barter. We have now like an enormous tree within the entrance and so they’re like, ‘Oh it needs to be within the again,'” she stated.
Skucas ended up planting two apple bushes, however stated she felt it was an imposition.
She stated there’s not a lot house in her yard, and with the big tree within the entrance and a cedar hedge across the property, she would not have chosen so as to add extra bushes.
Ménard clarified that in sure instances, like when a house is positioned on a avenue nook, there might be tree necessities for elements of the yard dealing with the general public avenue — even when it is within the again.
The kind of tree individuals plant can be necessary, with Ménard specifying that shrubs do not qualify as bushes.
Wees agreed it made sense.
“In case your important purpose is to scale back the heat-island impact, the larger the higher,” he stated. “Extra leaves, extra shade, and so forth and so forth.”
Regardless of some bumps within the highway, Ménard stated he is assured that by the top of the 12 months, all remaining properties might be tree compliant.
He added the municipality can be doing its half by planting 12,000 bushes on public land.
— Annabelle Olivier
Thanks for studying. If in case you have questions, criticisms or story ideas, please ship them to whatonearth@cbc.ca.
What on Earth? comes straight to your inbox each Thursday.
Editors: Emily Chung and Hannah Hoag | Emblem design: Sködt McNalty
Source link