Brockville Climate Action Group

Toronto Star / Vanessa Lu / 22 May 2008

Climate change is here to stay, and even if greenhouse gas emissions were cut to nothing, the impact, including extreme weather, cannot be stopped.

That means it's time for people and cities to find ways to cope and prepare. And Toronto wants to require every agency and division of the city to come up with ways to adapt to climate change in next year's budget. The proposal was approved by the parks and environment committee yesterday, but still needs city council's approval.

Globe and Mail / Andrew Willis / 04 April 2008

Over the next four years, Ron Taylor plans to drop off the grid.

The oil-fired furnace is already gone, replaced by electric heat, and Mr. Taylor is collecting rainwater at the century-old, five-bedroom farmhouse he bought last year near Mushaboom, N.S., a seaside town immortalized by singer Feist. The next step is to put on a new roof with solar panels, then throw up a windmill on the two-acre property.

It sounds like a tree-hugging, back-to-nature renovation. Except Mr. Taylor is no hippie. He's a Toronto-based veteran real-estate developer with a high-end firm called Arcturus Realty. He has worked on monster projects such as London's Canary Wharf and the redevelopment of Halifax's harbourfront. And he is dropping big money to drop off the grid in Mushaboom. The project is budgeted at upward of $40,000.

Canadian Press / 20 March 2008

TORONTO — Most Canadians are blissfully unaware that the water they take for granted is being threatened by overuse and mismanagement, say experts who warn climate change could soon make water shortages an unmistakable reality across the country.

underwriter.ca / 14 November 2007

The Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) is calling on Canadian municipal, provincial and federal governments to improve urban infrastructure so as to mitigate property damage caused by storms in an age of climate change.

Kitchener Record / Bill Bean / 20 October 2007

We thought that we were just trying to find a way to keep rainwater for our gardens.

But apparently, we have joined the next big wave in the worldwide engagement over climate change.

We have installed a cistern.

We live in an ordinary Kitchener sidesplit surrounded by trees and gardens. Ten years ago, we got three 45-gallon olive barrels to collect rainwater from our roof, but 135 gallons didn't go far, especially during a drought like this year's, and we didn't want more barrels.