My Pet Global Warming Iniative

Reduce greenhouse emmisions by closing the City Hall Parking facility. Now I will be pushing that all food not only have a Best Before date but also a Number Of Kilometer label.

Jumping on the green bandwagon
By ROB GRANATSTEIN

The day before November’s municipal election, Gord Perks sat across from me at a Roncesvalles diner and started talking about the environment.

It seemed like a strange spot for someone on the verge of being elected to deal with everything from pot holes to planning to the TTC, to put on his last big push.

But the candidate for Parkdale-High Park, who has been immersed in the environment since 1987 and wears his NDP colours proudly, said locally is the place where the attack on climate change really begins.

Sure, all the big talk about Kyoto and the battles among the federal Liberals, Tories, NDP and Greens about how Canada is going to radically change its ways is an important part of this hot-button issue.

But at some point, it has to go beyond simply demanding better from the oil sands, shutting down coal-fired hydro plants and hoping cows stop farting and burping. None of these polluters can or will change overnight.

A giant part of easing off the greenhouse gas pedal will come down to what local governments do and the choices you make.

So, are you are in or out?

If you dare, tape your ankles and make the leap on to the green, hybrid bandwagon. Perks got on board early and he isn’t about to leave. We asked him to walk us through the best ways to reduce our carbon footprint. Here are his four suggestions:

n Green up your home. Get an energy audit done by a company like Greensaver, retrofit the place with a more energy-efficient furnace, add insulation. The Tories have reinstated the rebate program — finally figuring out they goofed the first time — to help with the costs.

“You can really cut your energy bill and save the planet at the same time,” Perks said.

Think about your transportation. Do you drive your car to get a bag of milk? Do you live close to where you work? Cut the number of miles you travel. See if you can shift modes from your car to cycling or walking or public transit. Look at what you’re driving. Can it be more energy efficient? Are you willing to dump your SUV for a hybrid?

Watch your water usage. “The city of Toronto uses more electricity to pump water than all the street lights, the entire transit system and lighting all of the city-owned buildings combined,” Perks said.

Get the most efficient toilets, faucets, shower heads and dishwashers, use a rain barrel instead of city water to water your lawn.

Buy locally. Perks says the average meal eaten by a Canadian travels 2,000 km to get to their plate. Shipping the food uses a lot of fossil fuels. Ask yourself if there’s a way to replace the foreign food with Ontario-grown produce, or even plant something in your yard. To do his part, Perks is re-examining whether sucking back some of Juan Valdez’s finest offerings from South America is all that smart, although we all know that kicking a coffee addiction is a hard thing to do.

The city has been doing a number of good things, everything from using Toronto Hydro to push conservation, to air conditioning buildings using deep lake water cooling through its large stake in Enwave, to greening the TTC fleet and city vehicles.

In the last 15 years the city has cut its own greenhouse gas emissions by 40%.

“That’s fantastic,” Perks said. “What we haven’t done is help people in the general community cut their emissions. That has to be our next step.”

In March, the city is expected to roll out its green plan. At that point it will start to look at the tools that can be used to make Torontonians greener.

This is where we all start to get the climate-uncontrolled sweats. How much will it cost us? What will be mandated? Will new powers in the City of Toronto Act be used to attack us? These are the typical questions.

It’s also where we decide how serious we, personally, are about climate change. Are we willing to pay to be green? Things like higher gas prices, higher water costs, enforcing water restrictions, new efficiency standards for new construction and the dreaded tolls?

It’s all on the table under Mayor David Miller’s watch. Whatever his plans, these must be region-wide. Any new Toronto-only fees or obstacles will continue to hurt a city that can’t afford any more weaknesses.

Feel free to jump off the bandwagon at any time.