Reduced ocean oxygen has led to mass extinction in the past

...Warming ocean temperatures reduce the water’s oxygen content, and rising atmospheric carbon dioxide is altering the basic chemistry of the ocean, making it more acidic. There is no shortage of evidence that both of these effects have begun to wreak havoc on certain important creatures.

Human beings created these problems, largely in the two centuries since the Industrial Revolution, but for some researchers, they bring to mind the ancient past. The Earth has seen several mass extinctions, including five that annihilated more than half the planet’s species. Experts now believe Earth is in the midst of a sixth event, the first one caused by humans.... Canadians for Action on Climate Change

Toronto TTC needs to be fare-free and accessible

Toronto Star calls for free public transit

...Rather than freezing the public sector, this moment should be an opportunity to address the crisis in the transportation sector that is so vital to Ontario’s whole economy, as measured not only in auto industry shutdowns and layoffs but in notorious traffic congestion on our roads.

This would mean converting auto assembly and parts plants to the production of energy efficient mass transit vehicles and using the tax revenues from the jobs generated thereby to fund free public transit. If there was ever a time to use Ontario’s capacity to raise funds in bond markets for this, it is now. Far from placing a burden on future generations, it would guarantee them a future.... TheStar

Why not offer free public transit?

City council is now considering bus service and this is a good opportunity to consider another option: Make them free.

Ridership provides a substantial part of the cost of running the bus system, and city taxes and provincial subsidies provide the rest, but these subsidies are being wasted if they are running empty a large part of the time.

Making bus rides free will increase ridership, reduce the use of automobiles, decrease pollu- tion, decrease traffic and no doubt free up parking spaces....

Rob Gordon Stratford - letter to the Beacon Herald

Green Party Candidate wants free public transit in Cornwall

It's a Green Party - photo by Jason Setnyk

Gilcig Wins Nomination to Represent the Green Party - Local - News - Seaway News: "Gilcig regularly attends the Cornwall Farmer’s Market and promotes it on his website. According to Gilcig buying food from local farmers is a way to reduce greenhouse emissions. At the interview, Gilcig was eating a green salad at Caf�Connectionz.
Gilcig wants SDSG to become more green, and a part of that vision is free public transportation in Cornwall. “I’d like to initiate a three year pilot project, and I would work with the provincial and municipal governments to make that possibility a reality.'"

Pump price doesn’t cover gasoline cost / LJWorld.com

Pump price doesn’t cover gasoline cost / LJWorld.com: "That means the gasoline you’re buying at the pump is — stick with me here — too cheap. The price you pay is less than the product’s true cost. A lot less, actually. And it’s not just catastrophic spills and dramatic disruptions in the Middle East that add to the price. Gasoline has so many hidden costs that there’s a cottage industry devoted to tallying them up. At least the ones that can be tallied up."

Cities should be like college campuses - with free public transit

"The Disneyland approach - making poverty disappear by excluding the poor – is cheap and effective, but unfortunately not generalizable to society as a whole.

Society already follows the Disneyland approach by consigning the poor to low-income districts, public housing tenements, and depressed rural communities that are out of sight to many. A suburbanite can get through his day without seeing any poor people: he lives away from poverty, shops away from poverty, and can often work away from poverty.

I've always thought that urban planners should try to mimic certain university campuses: bike- and pedestrian-centric, free public transit (the larger ones, at least), medium- to high-density housing, not-for-profit housing, and plenty of greenery to compensate for the tighter living arrangements. Fountains are underutilized, too, in my opinion. Frances Woolley - comment on - Worthwhile

Heat Alert for the City of Brampton

Heat Alert for the City of Brampton: "Brampton - Peel Public Health has issued a heat alert for the City of Brampton. Temperatures are expected to reach 33 degrees for today and possibly throughout the week.

Peel Public Health encourages residents to restrict outdoor activity. It is also recommended that the public stay out of the sun, drink lots of water and stay in air conditioned places. Seniors and young children are particularly at risk."

Newcomer challenges McMullan for city's top job - St. Catharines Standard - Ontario, CA

Newcomer challenges McMullan for city's top job - St. Catharines Standard - Ontario, CA: "But the two-time mayoral candidate in Niagara Falls wants to assure Garden City residents his campaign is no laughing matter."
"The wonders of Niagara Falls thing was just for fun. I'm a fun guy. If some people take me as a joke, well, I take them with a grain of salt," he said. "I want to be mayor of St. Catharines and I have some good ideas."

Among those ideas, free public transit...