More than 115 cases of eye damage reported in Ontario after solar eclipse
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
When it comes to fighting climate change, a Toronto-based architect says personal actions have more of an impact than most people would expect.
Lloyd Alter, who teaches sustainable design at Ryerson University's School of Interior Design, is the author of the book, "Living the 1.5 Degree Lifestyle: Why Individual Climate Action Matters More Than Ever." In the book, he argues that the climate impact of actions such as driving less or limiting red meat consumption can go a long way.
"When we make these changes in our lifestyles, they add up," Alter told CTV's Your Morning on Monday.
A 2019 European study found that household consumer behaviour was responsible for 72 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Car usage, meat and dairy consumption and home heating were the biggest components of household emissions.
"The biggest offender for Canadian households is basically their cars. We buy big cars. We put a lot of gas in them. We drive longer distance than other people," Alter said. "Obviously that goes way down if people start doing things like biking and walking instead of driving."
Alter also points out that 74 per cent of Canadians live in suburban single-family detached houses. It takes far more natural gas to heat these types of homes compared to townhouses or apartments, given that these houses are larger and are exposed to the weather on all four walls.
But for many Canadians, it's not practical to change where they live or completely ditch their cars. Alter says making smaller lifestyle changes, such as eating less red meat or choosing to buy local produce, can still "significantly reduce our footprints without changing our lives dramatically."
Last October, Swiss investment bank Credit Suisse's "Treeprint" report calculated that it takes 44 birch trees to offset eating a 200-gram piece of steak three times a week. On the other hand, eating the same amount of chicken three times a week is only equivalent to six birch trees.
"When you put it into trees, it's something that people can wrap their heads around and understand because everybody knows what a tree looks like," Alter said.
"You could still eat a bit of chicken. You can still eat a bit of pork. You can eat these other meats that have a much, much lower carbon impact"
Some environmentalists have argued over-emphasizing personal carbon footprints shifts too much of the responsibility away from large corporations. A 2017 report from the non-profit group CDP found that 100 companies – almost all from the fossil fuel industry – are responsible for 71 per cent of the world's emissions since 1988.
However, Alter says energy production from these companies is driven by demand from consumers at the end of the day.
"You've got to look at it from a consumer point of view rather than a production point of view. Everyone says 100 oil companies are responsible for all the emissions, but we're buying what they're selling and we're putting that in our gas tanks," he said.
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
A Sherwood Park family says their new house is uninhabitable. The McNaughton's say they were forced to leave the house after living there for only a week because contaminants inside made it difficult to breathe.
A man has been handed a lengthy hunting ban and fined thousands of dollars for illegally killing a grizzly bear, B.C. conservation officers say.
The B.C. NDP has asked the federal government to recriminalize public drug use, marking a major shift in the province's approach to addressing the deadly overdose crisis.
The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) says it's investigating an interaction between a uniformed officer and anti-Trudeau government protestors after a video circulated on social media.
An emergency slide fell off a Delta Air Lines jetliner shortly after takeoff Friday from New York, and pilots who felt a vibration in the plane circled back to land safely at JFK Airport.
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau says there is 'still so much love' between her and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as they navigate their post-separation relationship co-parenting their three children.
George Mallory is renowned for being one of the first British mountaineers to attempt to scale the dizzying heights of Mount Everest during the 1920s. Nearly a century later, newly digitized letters shed light on Mallory’s hopes and fears about ascending Everest.
A loud explosion was heard across Hamilton on Friday after a propane tank was accidentally destroyed and detonated at a local scrap metal yard, police say.
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Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
A property tax bill is perplexing a small townhouse community in Fergus, Ont.
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The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”