Toronto, situated in southern Ontario, Canada, directly resting on the bank of Lake Ontario, is the province’s capitol. Comprised of 140 neighbourhoods, Toronto boasts as one of the most diverse cities in the country. The city’s downtown hosts a population of approximately 3 million people, while the greater Toronto area (GTA) is home to over 5 million people.
Though Toronto is home to an impressive number of tech start-ups, law firms and other forms of industry that contribute to its growing economy, it is still faces some socioeconomic extremes. The city’s middle class is rapidly disappearing making it a bipolar city of those with extreme wealth and those with none. This is especially enforced through divisive neighbourhoods. The downtown centre is mostly comprised of high earning residents who are living within the lines of public transit, but as you move out towards the transit-starved suburbs, the concentration of low-income families is dense. In a paper published in 2006 by University of Toronto Professor David Hulchanski titled “The Three Cities within Toronto”, he explores this trend of growing socioeconomic disparity within the city from 1970-2005. It should also be noted that the rates of child poverty are among the highest in the nation. CBC reports that in some neighbourhoods this percentage can be as low as 4%, but in others over 50% of children live in poverty (Israel, 2016). This further affirms the divided socioeconomic status within Toronto’s neighbourhoods, and on a larger scale- the city itself.
Toronto boasts a host of environmental initiatives, many of which have been implemented in recent years, to quell the amount of greenhouse gases they’re emitting, make public transit more environmentally friendly and promote widespread usage of renewable energy sources. “The city is committed both to reducing the environmental footprint of City operations and delivering programs and policies that build a green and sustainable community that benefits everyone,” (Wallace, 2015). Across Toronto, the city has reduced their GHG emissions by 25% from 1990 and in Toronto city-owned buildings by 40% (Wallace, 2015). The city’s most recent environmental assessment report, published in 2015, also details that the city has invested over 7 billion in funds to re-work Toronto’s urban forest structural value and expand upon the green-roof initiative which now spans the area of 42 football fields. As much as Toronto has done, and continues to do to lessen the impacts of climate change and create a more sustainable city, there are still ways in which it can improve. According to the Global Covenant of Mayors for climate and Energy, Toronto’s emissions can largely be accredited to it’s buildings, 48%, its heavy transportation sector, 32% and its waste disposal and maintenance systems, 20%.
Although Toronto is a modern city, in a developed country within the Global North, it still faces some impacts from climate change. Within human systems, specifically focusing on healthcare, climate change exacerbates problems found in cities due to heat stress and decreased air quality. Within Toronto, heat waves especially have been cause for concern as Toronto has to deal with the urban heat island effect, which results in more intense and frequent heat waves. This presents the citizens of the city with a specific subset of health concerns. Extreme heat exposure can lead to dehydration, exhaustion, heatstroke etc. within healthy people and can cause greater damage to people with pre-existing medical conditions. In Toronto specifically, heat waves have been increasing in temperature and frequency since the early 90s. The figure below, posted on the Heat Alert and Response System page of the government of Canada’s website, shows how heat waves have affected the city in the past, and how they are projected to increase in frequency in the future.
Fig. 1 – Analysis of Extreme Temperature Indices in Nine Canadian Communities Casati, B. and Yagouti, A. (In Press)
Air pollution also a serious issue in Toronto and approximately 2000 people die prematurely from acute and chronic exposure to polluted air (Toronto Public Health, 2004). Climate change increases air pollution as hotter summer and prolonged heat cause more people to use air conditioning units, which leads to increased energy consumption, which releases more pollutants into the air from fossil fuel electricity generation.
Along with climate change impacting the health systems within Toronto, it also affects public transit and humans’ means of mobility throughout the city. Climate change will definitely affect public transit, as the mobility of people within Toronto is crucial to city life. Extreme weather events caused by climate change affects transportation infrastructure and may lead to required repairs or replacement in order to deal with future climatic events. Power outages are already a cause for concern within the public transit system of Toronto as peak energy demand ceases the operation of subways and streetcars, observed through the blackout in the summer of 2003. Systems like GO Transit and the TTC are also halted in the winter, when snowstorms make rail and road travel impossible. Streetcar wires overhead can also be damaged by wind and ice storms. Below is a figure of one of the aforementioned streetcars, stalled during the summer blackout in 2003.
Fig 2 – Streetcar stalled during Summer 2003 Blackout in Toronto Canada https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Streetcar_Toronto_2003_Blackout.jpg
One of the biophysical systems that will be most affected by climate change is Lake Ontario. This is of particular concern for Torontonians as the water supply and wastewater infrastructure relies on the Great Lake. Toronto mainly gets its water from Lake Ontario through intake pipes locates offshore and below the surface of the water. As summer temperatures grow higher, demand for water will only increase; and as Toronto’s population is only set to increase, the heat waves will cause the demand for water, and thus strain on Lake Ontario, to increase. Toronto Water has estimated that a 10-12 meter drop in water level would affect all supply operations within the city (Moraru et al. 1999). In conjunction with the strain Toronto places on Lake Ontario, many neighbourhoods within the city rely on ground and river water for their water supply and these supplies are diminishing as we face a warmer climate. The disappearance of this form of water supply will place further strain on the already overloaded demand for water from Lake Ontario.
Another facet to be impacted by climate change is Toronto’s urban ecosystems. Toronto boasts over 1500 parks, understanding that a healthy natural environment must be present in order to maintain a healthy city, which provides canopy coverage to approximately 17% of the city (Ubbens, 2006). These urban green spaces are so important for maintaining CO2 levels, absorbing and directing rainwater and runoff, providing shade in the summer and creating homes for wildlife. These are necessary in a city like Toronto whose infrastructure is mainly concrete and asphalt in order to reduce the affects of the urban heat island effect and maintain air quality. The Ministry of Urban Forestry Services are “committed to doubling the City’s tree canopy by 30-40% in order to provide more shade, reduce the urban heat island effect and improve aesthetics,” (Hart, 2006), but has set no timeline on this initiative.
In an effort to mitigate the effects on human systems within Toronto, measures need to be taken in order to reduce the effects of the urban heat island effect (UHI). This causes major strain on healthcare systems and thus quality of life within the city. The fact that Toronto already has an initiative to increase the number of green-roofs within the city is a great start. In conjunction with turning more surfaces into green roofs, the city should also be looking at replacing paved surfaces within the city, including sidewalks, roads, parking lots, with permeable, more reflective pavements. Pervious pavements maintain cooler temperatures in the summer heat as they absorb lesser portions of the suns heat (Ryerson, 2014). Another strategy for battling UHI is using lighter coloured pavement; this can be achieved using white topping or coating on the pavement which reduces the absorbed solar radiation. This will hopefully reduce the effects of extreme heat events in the summer and could hopefully lead to a decrease in energy usage for air conditioning which would also help mediate power drain on the city and help keep public transit functioning without pause. If the city stays cooler, the health effects felt from extreme heat events will hopefully decrease.
In adapting Toronto’s transit infrastructure to deal with future impacts of climate change, the city should focus on weather proofing railroad tracks and streetcar lines. As well as weather proofing transit lines, the roadways should be replaced and cleared in order to accommodate and influx of drivers should the transit ways stop working. This also ties into the city ensuring its pavement is more permeable in order to reduce the effects felt by UHI; ensuring roads are in working order. The city also has a comprehensive bike sharing programing so that citizens don’t have to rely solely on engine-powered means of transportation. This helps reduce emissions, which is better for the environment in the long run and take some strain of public transit. The city is also expanding their transit map to move outwards into other cities in southern Ontario and thus hopefully connecting lower-income suburban neighbourhoods that had previous difficulties in access to public transit.
In adapting Toronto’s human systems, it also needs to adapt how it uses the natural resources around it, especially in regard to Lake Ontario. In the case of water usage and wastewater, more can be done to adapt the city into a more eco-friendly and cohesive environment. The water within lake Ontario is polluted with more than just human waste, but also chemicals disposed of by Toronto’s business institutions. Toronto Water works to remove contaminants and treat wastewater but there must be more restrictions and policies in place to hold those dumping into the lake responsible. The Toronto Environmental Alliance is a front-runner in focusing attention on pollution prevention. They have enacted a number of policies that keep chemical out of Toronto’s water supple, and keep the lake healthy for all. Toronto also needs to look into re-vamping their sewage and waste disposal routes as heavy rains or flooding could possible overwhelm operations. As stated, previously, the city has already begun a number of adaptive measures in order to increase the area of urban forestry within the city. One such adaptive plan by Beacon environmental implemented in 2016 have begun to allocate property within the city for specifically planting trees and increasing the canopy coverage within the city. Their plans have included community outreach and management, which encourages residents to plant trees on their own property as single family residents make up the highest percentage for potential tree cover expansion (Beacon Environmental, 2016).
Although Toronto is not a particularly vulnerable city, it still suffers from the effects for climate change like all other cities on earth. Toronto is economically stable enough that it has the means to re-vamp their infrastructure in order to create a more sustainable city. It is close enough to agricultural industry that it would not suffer too harshly, should an extreme climatic event hit. However, should the depth of Lake Ontario diminish, the city may face severe and serious issues in supplying water to all those who need it as well as maintain and regulating waste disposal. It is geographically located in a good place should the city ever need to be evacuated, and so geographically Toronto is in a good area to respond to the impacts of climate change. However, because there are many vulnerable sectors within Toronto, specifically the large population of children living in poverty as well with the rise of low-income families it is probable that those living outside the downtown city-centre will feel the impacts of climate change more than those living within Toronto proper. The city possesses more than adequate adaptive capacity to respond to climate change both premeditatedly and reactively.