PRINTPollution and the resulting climate change have a tremendous impact on the biodiversity of our environment. All life forms and organisms are interconnected, and as one is reduced or eliminated a snowball effect occurs that impacts the balance of nature and the quality of life. Species particularly at risk include the butterfly. The butterfly plays a huge role in pollination, and without it, we would lose a tremendous number of plants that are important to human health and well-being.
Humans are creating more pollution than the ecosystems can recycle. Greenhouse Gas Emissions are created by everyone in their daily lives without really realizing it. Everytime we heat or cool our homes, or turn on our cars, we are creating Greenhouse Gases. In Ontario alone we are creating 56 million tonnes of carbon dioxide each year through operating our cars, and operating our households. Each month the average household creates 1 tonne of carbon dioxide. But at least 10% of these Greenhouse Gases are created because we are still stuck in old behavioural patterns that are wasteful. For instance, if you only did full loads of laundry, turn off lights when you're not in the room, turn the TV off when you are not watching it, turned your car off when it is parked instead of leaving it idling. These changes don't even need to impact your life, they just make more sensible use of your resources. If eveyone looked at their behaviours in terms of "how can I reduce my GHG emissions by 10 minutes a day" there is a large variety of ways you could do this: take a one-minute shorter shower; don't leave the hot water tap running unless you are immediately using it; turn the thermostat down by one degree; only turn the car engine on when everyone is in the car and buckled up. These are just to name a few, but the end result is huge in terms of GHG emissions. If every household did this, then we could reduce GHG emissions by 4.5 million tonnes each year in Ontario.