| Panel members:
Dr. Gordon
McBean PhD – Chair in
Policy, Institute for Catastrophic Loss
Reduction, Professor, Departments of
Geography and Political Science UWO
Ralph Torrie –
President of Torrie Smith Associates,
International Energy Consultant, Ottawa
Dr. Quentin Chiotti PhD,
Air Programme Director, Senior Scientist,
Pollution Probe, Toronto
Dr. Isaac Luginaah PhD,
Assistant Professor, Department of Geography,
UWO
The panel was presented
with the following questions for consideration:
1. How significant is climate
change and air quality as a health issue
in Canada/southern Ontario?
2. How adaptive is the health care system
to the risks associated with
climate change and air quality?
3. What are the key health
risks that require an effective adaptive
response?
4. What role can health impacts play
in informing/educating the Canadian
public on climate change and air quality?
5. What key mitigation
and adaptation measures should Canadians
be
implementing?
|
| 1.
CURRICULUM - EDUCATION TOOLS
FACILITATOR – Dr. Aniko
Varpalotai, PhD, Associate Professor,
Faculty of Education, UWO
A. Presenter - Elizabeth Eberhardus,
Pollution Probe
“Climate Change and Human Health”
one of a primer series – Pollution
Probe. Can be downloaded from: www.pollutionprobe.org/Publications/
Primers.htm under Air Pollution. Describes
the potential effects that a warmer
and more variable climate can have on
our health. Discusses climate change
impacts expected, some actions being
taken by various levels of government
to reduce greenhouse gases and help
for Canadians to adapt to a changing
climate. Pollution Probe, 625 Church
Street, Suite 402, Toronto, ON M4Y 2G1
(416) 926-1907, Fax (416) 926-1601.
B. Presenters
- Catherine Mahler, EcoSchools and Jill
McDowell, Toronto Public Health
“EcoSchools” (elementary
and high school) provides a five-step
process to identify priorities and implement
an action plan along with documents
to help schools minimize waste, make
curriculum connections, undertake school
ground greening projects, hold school
environmental festivals and take action
at home. Certification is available.
In addition, a 20/20 planner developed
by the Toronto Public Health to reduce
energy and vehicle use by 20% has been
developed. Visit: www.yorku.ca/fes/envedu/ecoschools.asp.
EcoSchools, 1 Civic Centre Court, Toronto,
ON M9C 2B3, (416) 394-7239, Fax (416)
394-7364.
C. Presenter
- Power point presentation provided
by David Lunn, SEEDS
“Creating a Climate of Change”
(high school) ISBN 0-9689830-0-6 instructional
resources including a video, transparencies.
Designed for science, social studies,
geography and environmental studies.
Includes: weather and climate, greenhouse
effect, greenhouse gases and global
warming, social, political and economic
factors, natural and human factors,
the importance of and how to develop
strategies and person initiatives at
home, in the workplace and in transportation
in responding to climate change. Visit:
http://greenschools.ca/seeds.
Contact: David Lunn, dlunn@rife.com,
Society, Environment and Energy Development
Studies (SEEDS) Foundation, 400-144-4
Avenue SW, Calgary, ALTA T2P 3N4, (403)
221-0873, Fax (403) 221-0888.
D. Presenter
- Laureen Wingert, London and Area Active
& Safe Routes to School program
hosted by Thames Region Ecological Association
Active and Safe Routes to School (community
action and school resource guide). Tools
to develop program and strategies that
encourage active transportation to and
from school, thereby reducing reliance
on the automobile. Activities include:
International Walk to School Day, active
travel modes such as the Walking School
Bus, and Walking Wednesdays, no idling
zones, neighbourhood walkabouts, Blazing
Trails (grades 4-6) and school walking
routes. Visit: www.saferoutestoschool.ca.
A curriculum connections document has
been developed for elementary schools
by grade, curriculum area, strand and
associated expectations. Contact: Jacky
Kennedy, Provincial Active & Safe
Routes to School program, Green Communities
Association, Jacky Kennedy, 57 Douglas
Avenue, Toronto, ON M5M 1G4, (416) 488-7263,
Fax (416) 488-2296, Email: info@saferoutestoschool.ca.
|
| SCHOOL
SITES DISCUSSION A brainstorming
of adaptive actions school sites as
a whole can establish pertaining to
climate change and air quality concerns.
(high school and elementary school)
as follows:
What can we do in and through schools?
• Integration
with curriculum
• Information
to teachers and media
• School “Climate”
• Learn from
other successes re:
•
Social marketing
• Walking –
friendly spaces:
•
Paths
•
Car-free
•
Green spaces
•
Snow ploughed walkways
•
Lights for trails (pm and early am)
• More bikeway
lanes
•
Include for:
•
Roller blades
•
Skate boards
• Make appealing
to kids – more fun
• Lifestyle
– Phys Ed Curriculum
•
Contradictory messages
•
Active participation during schools
• Curriculum
•
Local ecosystems
•
Include Ministry
•
Species @ risk
•
Not pandas, dinosaurs but local species
• Children can
identify 3000 logos but only 3 trees
• Car audit
/ pollution at schools
•
Parking / stop zones
•
Consider the kids
• Walk to school
•
Exercise
•
Clears head for learning
•
Obesity
• Safety perceptions
vs. reality
•
Cars
•
Predators / fear
• Lifestyle
Changes
•
Knowledge to action
•
Eco-schools
•
Policies / decisions
•
Implementation
•
Enforcement
•
Media
• Police presence in school zones
•
Speed, etc.
• Cost of Convenience?
•
Social responsibility
•
Peer pressure
• Child centred
curiosity and questions
•
Projects
•
Interviews
•
Children run experiments
• Holistic planning
•
School size and location
• Working with
hands and nature
• Look at Canadian
Nature Federation
•
Worm Watch
•
Frog Watch
•
Kids do scientific research
• Eco-Schools
•
Enthusiasm
•
Targeting Grade 5
•
Different emphasis:
•
Curriculum
•
Facility-energy, waste
•
Subject association presentations
• Resources
– People – Action
• Environmental
Clubs in Schools
• Cafeteria
recycling
• Greening school
environment
•
Trees
•
Gardens
• Audit!
• Civics –
Political Action
• City Hall
– total recycling
• Measure change
• Before and
after
• CELEBRATE!!!
• Parent Volunteers
as a resource
• Designated
educators regarding programs
• Change:
• Plans
• Incremental
• Manageable
• Grassroots
•
Students – community
• Positive Government
• Funding of
environmental resources
•
Westminister Pond
•
Naturalists
•
Outdoor Education
•
Ie Claremont Field Centre in Toronto
• Key partnerships
•
Environmental
•
Education
•
Health
• Forest City
150th anniversary
•
Every school plants a tree and cares
for it
• School grounds
•
As natural places
•
Protect nature
•
Use in curriculum
•
Scavenger hunts
•
Parking lots into natural area
• Teacher education
•
Comfort in teaching outdoors
• Vision
•
Imagine future commuting questioning
what we do
•
Long term
• Videos of
school parking lot action, or Toronto
congestion
• Expectations
•
Planned schools
•
Communities
•
Transportation
• Clean Air
Champions
•
Ambassadors, athletes, fitness
• Leadership
•
Parents
•
Teachers
•
Students
• Balance
•
Wear and tear on ecosystem
OTHER:
• Schools are
some of the most polluted areas in the
city.
•
Kids are learning in smog!
• Walk to school
provides exercise leading to increased
learning
•
Breakfast and exercise
•
Reduce obesity
• Schools are
actually safer than what is perceived
•
Paul Bernardo reeks fear in parents
even until today
• Kids can walk
in groups to make it even more safe
• Danger exists
when competing with cars
• Provide knowledge
for action
• Enforcement
of programs
•
Police catching speeders during IWALK
•
Involve media with that angle
•
To relate safety with walking to school
• Parents =
my right
•
Cost of convenience
•
Peer pressure solutions
• Friendly spaces
accessible all season long
• Create bike
lanes
• PhysEd. out
results in a mixed message
•
Curriculum
• Home connections
to local ecosystems for ministry
• Must tie into
curriculum
• Go and talk
with someone and ask questions
•
Provide all NGO contact numbers to schools
• Force environmental
education in all aspects
• Holistic planning
• Search Canadian
Nature Federation
•
Worm Watch
•
Frog Watch
• Eco-Schools
not compulsive
•
Pilot program in only 23 schools
•
Curriculum to support partnerships
• Teachers are
too busy
• How do we
get it to the classroom
•
Start environmental clubs
•
Planting trees
•
Measure waste reduction
• Celebrate
the Environment and its successes
• Parent volunteers
– use them
• Change implemented
broken down to small components at a
grass roots level for parents to children
for comprehension
• Positive Government
•
ie. funding of environmental resources
• Forest City
150th anniversary where each school
plants a tree and maintains it
• Create a scavenger
hunt program during class recess
• Teach outside!!
• Teacher education
where teaching outdoors becomes a norm
• Map out expectations
• Kids at 16
want to drive, at 18 own their own car
and so on….
• Self sustaining
/ renewable energy schools
• Turn parking
lots into naturalized areas
• Clean air
champions into schools leading in programs
• Role models,
athletes
• Create an
environment where parents and schools
work together
• Follow successful
programs
• Stay practical
|
| 2.
HUMAN HEALTH IMPACTS
FACILITATOR –
Dr. Gordon McBean PhD, Chair in Policy,
Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction,
Professor, Departments of Geography
and Political Science UWO
Direct Impacts
• Hot days
• Extreme weather
events
•
Heavy precipitation
•
Flash floods
•
Contaminated water supply
•
Tornado
•
Drought
•
Stronger Hurricanes
•
Sea levels rise due to warmer water
expanding
Indirect Impacts
• Air pollution
• Ozone depletion
• Habitat stress
• West Nile
Virus
• Winter storms
(ice storms, excess snow)
• Great lakes
water levels drop (evaporation with
little additional precipitation)
Things we can do – Adaptations
• Building code
changes
•
Roof changes
•
Number of nails and type
• Three little
pigs project – UWO
Mitigations
• Reducing greenhouse
gases
•
Tailpipe
• Conservation
•
Need knowledge to see direct costs
•
Water and energy meters
Individual Actions
• Link air quality
to climate change
•
Be more direct
• Push up from
grassroots
• Need action
on tail pipes for:
•
Conservation
•
Education
•
Behaviour changes
•
Education
•
Regulation
•
Cost
Health Impacts
• Mitigation
is what will really matter
•
However how can we adapt?
• Air quality
directly impacts cardio, vascular, respiratory
systems
•
Allergies
• Emerging diseases
•
Training of MD’s
•
Lyme disease
•
Impacts of air quality
• Moral imperative
regarding quality of life for future
generations
•
Climate change
•
PCB’s
•
Other impacts
• Impacts our
agriculture
•
Food supply
• Eco-health
•
Laurgair and Howard
• Safe buildings
vs sick buildings
• Loss of traditional
livelihood ties to the land
• Mental health
•
Sense of powerlessness
•
Spirituality
•
Stress
Health Impacts
• Adaptation
/ Prevention
• WHO / HC
•
Monitoring
•
Pandemics
•
New diseases
•
Action vs response
• Funding public
health/ prevention
• Education
in schools
•
As young as possible so it becomes natural
thought
• Cohorts
•
Behaviour of age groups change
• Design of
public spaces – ie shade trees,
planning for liveable communities
•Green buildings
•
Big impacts
•
Tailor messages
• Education
to change behaviour stressed by regulation
change
•
Incentives
•
Save $$
•
Fiscal policies
•
Short term returns
How to effect change
• High probability,
frequent events
• Quality of
life over time
• Urgency
• Depends on
the messenger
•
OMA, Suzuki - regarding air quality
• Health care
threats
•
By issue
• Convince the
smart / push the uneducated = leadership
• Political
imperatives with repercussions
•
Social acceptance
• Find people
doing good things and reward them
• Power of media
•
Green Peace wind turbines
|
| 3.
COMMUNITY POLICY REVIEW
FACILITATOR - Dr.
Quentin Chiotti PhD, Air Programme Director,
Senior Scientist, Pollution Probe, Toronto
1. What info
• Air Quality
= 20 ppm
•
Projected 60ppm
What purpose
• How to present
and to who
•
Driver adaptation and mitigation
I.D. New Kinds of Factors Related to
Climate Change
• Ie Driving
incidents
International best sustainability practice
2. Monitor what
• Progress to
targets relative to international protection
• Agriculture
•
Source water
• Infrastructure
Capacity
•
Municipal
•
Electricity
• Grass roots
impact
3. Which Health Effects
• Hot spots
•
A/Q ties – Ie borders and health
•
Part time sources
•
Dispersion
• Occupational
/ Environmental at health institutes
4. Who Collects Reports
• Provincial
Reports and defers international progress
• Correct uneven
landscape of enforcement/ (urisdiction)
and monitoring authority
• Local Health
workers
5. Other Issues
• Grass roots
policy makers
•
Influencers
• Tracking Progress
•
Relatively
• Understanding
vs. relationships and international
obligations
• Spot opportunities
for adaptive measures with mitigative
results
• Engaging the
individual by active learning
OTHER:
• Need to differentiate
between prevention, mitigation and adaptation
•
Prevention = some change will occur
•
Mitigation = slowing changing
•
Adaptation = no change in environment
but ourselves
• Points made:
•
Public education on UV well understood
for kids
•
New environmental science students misinformed
•
Sunoco Ultra 94 – MMT FREE
• Research is
broad and no science is good enough
• Monitoring
is individual practitioners and meteorological
experts
•
Have surprisingly little data but it
may be best in Air Quality and best
in Ontario
• Education
is senior decision makers, grade 8 level
of reading, little basic education of
the issues
• Infrastructure
is public health authorities having
minimal capacity and multiple issues
• Adaptation
is the front page in action plan’s
framework for 5 issues of climate change.
|
