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Ontario Tech acknowledges the lands and people of the Mississaugas of Scugog Island First Nation.

We are thankful to be welcome on these lands in friendship. The lands we are situated on are covered by the Williams Treaties and are the traditional territory of the Mississaugas, a branch of the greater Anishinaabeg Nation, including Algonquin, Ojibway, Odawa and Pottawatomi. These lands remain home to many Indigenous nations and peoples.

We acknowledge this land out of respect for the Indigenous nations who have cared for Turtle Island, also called North America, from before the arrival of settler peoples until this day. Most importantly, we acknowledge that the history of these lands has been tainted by poor treatment and a lack of friendship with the First Nations who call them home.

This history is something we are all affected by because we are all treaty people in Canada. We all have a shared history to reflect on, and each of us is affected by this history in different ways. Our past defines our present, but if we move forward as friends and allies, then it does not have to define our future.

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The Old Man is Snoring

Posted by Daniel Hoornweg on January 23, 2014

‘It’s raining, it’s pouring. The old man is snoring.’ Truth be told, I apparently snore, and I suppose I’m not that young anymore. But hard to believe, I’m sure this nursery rhyme is not about me. And despite the recent Noah-like floods in Europe, Bangkok, Calgary, Dhaka, Jakarta, New York and Toronto, it’s not really about any one city, or any one country, or even any one continent. But, ‘went to bed and bumped his head. And won’t get up in the morning,’ aptly describes our current political paralysis.

Many children know this song. Soon they will learn how their grandfathers and fathers slept through the rain.

Here in troubled Toronto and gritty Calgary, there was the inevitable debate on whether or not the recent floods could be attributed to climate change. ‘If it’s this bad now, what’s the future hold?’ people wondered. ‘Sleepwalking into trouble,’ came to mind for many.

Quality studies abound. We know with fairly high confidence what’s in store, and even more important, why. We even know what individual cities are likely to have to pay as they adapt to a changing climate (hint, try to get flood insurance in Miami, Guangzhou and New York). You can debate when and the scale, but you can’t in good conscience debate that the climate is changing. More floods are coming.

More mayors and citizens, regional and national politicians, need to wake up to the f act that their cities are now truly, irrevocably, in a different world than just a few years ago. By in large, just about everywhere, cities are bigger and many are growing faster than ever, unemployment is higher, tensions are strained, climate’s changing, sea level is rising, things move much faster than they used to. A flexible, smarter, integrated, more inclusive response to city-building and management is needed. This is not a ‘Kumbaya moment’ nor is it ‘leftie arm-waving’ or fringe. This is reality. ‘All hands on deck – we’re taking on water.’

Infrastructure needs to be hardened; self-support community groups encouraged; communication improved; insurance offerings – availability and limitations – need to be clearer; land use planning enforced; drains and recharge systems better built and maintained; urban greening, upstream management, and coastal zone management encouraged; and, metrological systems improved. Now.

As we get older we are supposed to become more set in our ways. But we can’t afford that luxury. Old men need to wake up. The roof’s leaking and the kids need help.

Photo: Flooding in Bangkok, November 2011; photo source:  ebvImages

Source: World Bank Blog


Filed under: Sustainability 101

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