Environmental Impacts Of The Future Of Ontario

We once lived in a world lush and plentiful where we enjoyed all the natural resources peacefully. However at the beginning of the industrial revolution more people moved to the cities therefore increasing their dependency load. Fastforward to today and the world has seen a drastic change in the loss of natural resources as well as a number of health related illnesses like asthma. This is mainly due to the effects from carbon pollution, greenhouse gases and global warming. Canada as a country is thought of as environmentally aware and progressive. Actually has many issues regarding this topic and if it is not taken care of it will affect the future of the nation. I care about this topic because it has to

Florida Public Service Commission forecasts from current trends that by 2024 the use of environmentally harmful energy sources such as coal, nuclear power, and oil will decrease (2). The use of natural gas is forecasted to rise to generate 64.73% of Florida’s energy (Florida Public Service Commission, 2). According to the forecast by Florida Public Service Commission, the use of other sources to generate energy will also decrease

Carbon emissions are changing the planet for the worse. Energy production (mostly coal) is producing a one third of the US 's global warming emissions. Renewable sources produce little to zero percent. The balance of coal and renewable energy in the U.S. needs to be evened out with renewable techniques. Statistics from the Union of Concerned Scientist’s “Benefits of Renewable Energy Use” show that most renewable resources emit less than one pound of CO2E/kWh. These have significantly less of a carbon footprint than coal, which emits 1.4 to 3.6 lbs. CO2E/kWh or natural gas, which emits .6 to 2 lbs. CO2E/kWh. This impressive difference of carbon emissions between renewable and fossil fuel is the key to caring for our environment. A 2009 USC study found that if 25 percent of the US 's

Manitoba Hydro is Manitoba’s major energy utility provider, serving 561,869 electric customers and 274,817 natural gas customers throughout the province (2). Manitoba Hydro provides services that run from exporting electricity worldwide, to providing customers with tips on how to save money on their electricity bills. Hydro provides services such as Power Smart technologies, which help to reduce a client 's energy consumption while reducing their environmental impact. Manitoba Hydro is a large believer in protecting the environment. Environmental protection was seen with their large-scale capital projects such as environmental protection and monitoring programs, climate change initiatives, energy efficiency initiatives, and environmental research and development (2). Manitoba Hydro became a crown corporation in 1961 through the Manitoba Hydro Act; the utility was governed by the Manitoba Hydro-Electric Board (17). Manitoba Hydro controlled the gas and electric consumptions within Manitoba except Winnipeg Hydro. In 2002, an acquisition occurred meaning that Manitoba Hydro now owns Winnipeg Hydro. Today Manitoba Hydro is a major energy utility providing the lowest electricity rates in Canada. We operate 15 hydroelectric facilities on the Saskatchewan, Winnipeg, Burntwood, Laurie and Nelson rivers, two thermal and four diesel generating stations (1).

Nearly fourteen years ago, the Calgary-based oil enterprise "Enbridge" announced its most controversial project yet; to build a $6.5-billion oil-duct from Bruderheim, Alberta to Kitimat, British Columbia (Canadian Press, 2013, para. 1). It was to be named the "Northern Gateway Pipeline”.Enbridge 's preliminary announcement on the sixth of March, 2002, not only divided the province of British Columbia on whether environmental or economic prosperity was more important, but the country of Canada as a whole. Although the name "Northern Gateway" is well-known in many Western-Canadian households, few truly know the details of what this project entails. Many environmentalists and economists (Mortillara, Nicole, Global News, 2014) debate the benefits and the negative-impacts that this pipeline will have on Canadians and Canadian society. Others, though, are trying to understand what steps are being taken to ensure environmental sustainability during construction, and for the many years after its projected completion.This multi-billion dollar project has many vocal opposers, and a seemingly equal amount of environmental risks that accompanies it, all adding up to the general consensus that this duct is not worth the economic benefits that it would produce.

In 2007, Canada’s industries saved 2.1 billion U.S. dollars of energy costs (2007). All these numbers show Canada’s efforts in general public utilities.

Canada has the potential to be a “sustainable energy superpower” due to the vast amount of resources it contains. It has a large landmass and diversified geography which can be used to produce renewable energy from such resources; watermill, wind, biomass, solar, geothermal, and ocean energy. Renewable energy is energy obtained from natural resources that are able to be naturally replenished within a human lifespan (Natural Resource Canada, 2014). Currently, fossil fuel burning is the major source of energy in Canada and although it can be re-used, the process is so long that it is considered to be non-renewable. Also, fossil fuel burning for coal, natural gas, and petroleum gas pollutes the environment with greenhouse gases on a large scale, causing global warming. Non-renewable energy is taken from sources that re available on Earth in limited quantity, likely vanishing within fifty to sixty years from today (Conserve Energy Future, 2014). Thus, it is important for Canada to invest their money on resorting to more environmentally friendly and renewable ways to make electricity. Being a developed country, Canada has the financial stability to purchase the technologies over time in order to produce renewable energy. In addition, many organizations and the government have taken a step to educate the society about issues regarding energy usage, and to create programs which conserve energy for the future. In the future generations, Canada will be able to generate sufficient

ISSUE: The new supply of natural gas reachable by fracking is now changing the overall picture for U.S. electricity generation, with consequences for air quality.

Ontario has its own creative and effective strategies to combat climate change. One of Ontario’s goal is a low-carbon future. To accomplish this the province started making carbon reductions in 1990 and are on track to reduce carbon emissions by 15% in 2020, 37 per cent in 2030 and 80 per cent in 2050 (Climate Change Action Plan, 2017). Ontario’s target of reducing emissions by 6% was met on schedule in 2014 (Climate Change Action Plan, 2017). One of the reasons this has been made possible is because of Ontario’s investment in carbon reduction. For example, in 2015 Ontario committed $325-million payment to Ontario’s Green Investment Fund to support programs that help households and businesses implement

About education defines energy as “the ability to do work” (Helmenstine, A. 2016) which conveys that it can be used to produce electricity, cooling, heating and many more for our homes, office, and indeed for our environment. Although, it have undoubtedly became an important part of our life, making our task easier to achieve; it still has a lot of negative impacts whether it be on the environment, the health of humans, or the animals. The most common type of energy that is being used today is fossil fuels. “For many years, Aboriginal communities in Northern Canada have relied on technologies that use fossil fuels” (Issues Related to Energy Changes, 2016). Many of the negative impacts that fossil fuel has on the environment are global warming,

The importance of natural gas is to replace the role of oil in the economy. Natural gas is good for the US because it can produce natural gas domestically. It has plenty of energy for use in people’s homes and in industry. It will help the US economy cope with the depletion of peak oil production. Crude oil is nearly three times as expensive as Natural gas. (Pipeline, 2009-2013)

(LLNL, 2010) The difference, however, is that the world is trying to get away from high Carbon emitting fuels such as petroleum and coal. Since this is the case natural gas is currently the front runner for alternative methods with politicians and scientist agreeing that there must be a change to the old habits of achieving energy without costs. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) natural gas has edge out all other fuel sources for electricity generation in the United States with 31.7%, however, coal is still only 1.6% behind with 30.1% overall. As coal based power plants are retired or converted into natural gas based plants hopefully we can see these number start to separate in favor of natural gas as carbon emissions will drop

Using the process for significance determination it is clear which environmental aspects are affecting the University of Waterloo to an extent that action must be taken. The first activity that was looked at was buildings, equipment, lighting, and use devices across campus. The environmental aspect of this is the electricity used from the Ontario grid, which is approximated to be 95,000,000 kWh per year. It was concluded that this activity impacts the organization’s energy usage, and well as resource usage (Table 2). Taking this into consideration with questions for significance is when it was realized that the organization should take action. This is because the severity of this activity was rated a 3/5, the probability a 4/5, and the frequency a 5/5 (Table 2.1). This activity was given this ranking on the grounds that this activity is dramatically affecting the air quality, water quality, and impacting climate change. Also the organization can only control the usage of electricity so much as it is needed in the daily operations of the university. The university also cannot control of influence type or source of power generation. Due to this, the activity was given an overall ranking of 12. Following #4 from the process for significance determination any activity given a ranking of over 10 calls for action from the organization.

According to Canada’s Emissions Trend report, the two provinces that contributed the most to the country’s emissions are the province of Alberta and Ontario. Alberta has suffered many first hand consequences of high GHG emissions, notably the massive wildfire in Fort McMurray, a fire that burned 85 000 hectares of land (MacCleans, n.d.). Ontario on the other hand faced a cooler and wetter summer for 2017. Due to the high contributions of emissions by Albert and Ontario, these provinces have high priorities to establish legislation and policies to reduce emissions. However, they have enacted multiple provincial legislation targeting environmentally sustainable

With the carbon emission regulations recently introduced by US government, natural gas is the most likely substitution to coal for electricity generation for years to come. Latest price reductions made natural gas from a cost perspective much more attractive than coal.