With Earth Day on Monday, the global theme is planet versus plastic. Local environmental advocates are urging the Ford government to reconsider plans they believe harm the environment.
A small group of environmental activists gathered in front of Flamborough-Glanbrook MPP, Donna Skelly’s office to protest the provincial government’s actions that they believe are negatively impacting the environment.
“Targetting everything from conservation authority, to making more subsidies for Enbridge and attacking our urban boundary again here in Hamilton,” says activist Lucia Iannantuono.
Advocates were mainly targeting Bill 165, known as the “Keeping Energy Costs Down Act.”
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Advocates are also calling the Ford government to ditch plans for Highway 413 because they believe it puts the Greenbelt, farms, and waterways at risk.
“This highway is a huge waste of money, it would cost less money to transfer truck traffic tomorrow to the 407 and open up the 401, 403 for regular car traffic to be prioritized we would reduce gridlock and we wouldn’t have to build a $10 billion highway over wetlands and farmlands it would be a win, win, win,” said Iannantuono.
Professor at the School of Earth at McMaster University, Janok Bhattacharya, says we must continue to focus on reducing wasteful plastics.
“You are starting to see companies like Tim Hortons using paper and starting to see less and less plastic straws, so we are seeing these small steps to reduce one-time plastics.”
“So in the long-term that should have the effect that we want but the other issue is that plastic is hard to break down and it will be difficult to break down,” says Janok.
According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, plastic production continues to ramp up globally with experts believing it will triple by 2050 if nothing changes.
Ottawa will host 176 nations on Tuesday to discuss a global treaty on eliminating plastic waste in the next two decades and aims to finalize a deal by the end of the year.
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