Taking action on climate change: A North Shore perspective
Good land use planning decreases traffic congestion and greenhouse gas emissions leading to climate change
Climate change is THE problem of our time. In the coming decades and centuries, its effects will have massive impacts on the way we live. As the people alive while something can still be done to avert or reduce the impact, we have a responsibility to our children, grandchildren, descendants, and ourselves to act.
Since you're reading this article, there is a good chance you've done a lot in your personal life—hopefully guided by: “Reduce. Reuse. Recycle”—however, that alone is not enough.
In British Columbia, our collective carbon foot print is more than 1/3 industry, more than 1/3 cars & trucks, and less than 1/4 buildings and agriculture. (Source: BC Government Climate Inventory - based on year 2021)
Without politics, most of us cannot dramatically affect industry, transportation, and much more. An insightful American novelist, writer, and journalist wrote:
People often say, with pride, I'm not interested in politics. They might as well say, I'm not interested in my standard of living, my health, my job, my rights, my freedoms, my future or any future. If we mean to keep any control over our world and lives, we must be interested in politics. - Martha Gellhorn
To have a meaningful impact, we must engage in politics at the national, provincial, international, and local levels.
What impact can we have at the local level?
Canada is one of the worst polluters on a per-person basis.
As a relatively affluent country, we are responsible for examining our ways of living, transportation, and industry and pioneering new and better ways to live, work, and play that are lighter on the land and the planet.
Housing
For housing, this means that we get land-use planning right. It is unacceptable that the city of Vancouver, where the most significant transit investments have been made in the lower mainland (until recently), was 80% zoned for single-family homes. People living close together need less energy per person for transportation, and energy per person can be lower in buildings that include more mixed-use and low-rise “six floors and a corner store” type housing options.
The current housing crisis results from decades of overly restrictive zoning. Freeing people to build more housing types is a win-win that will increase supply, reduce prices in the long term, and result in lower emissions per person. The District of North Van and the District of West Van have, until recently, been zoned for 80% single-family homes. Our lack of housing options is a crucial contributor to our housing crisis.
The idea of living in a home in the woods is overly simplistic. It fails to recognize that dispersion results in car dependence, greater energy use and emissions per person.
Transportation
Land use drives transportation planning, so revisiting and improving land-use planning as developed in the comprehensive community-consulted Official Community Planning process is critical to improving transportation planning.
Having a range of housing options in our community so that people who work on the North Shore can live on the North Shore is essential to reducing transportation woes and our legendary traffic. The causes of congestion include many factors. If we had viable transportation options that don't get stuck in traffic, congestion would be less problematic.
How do we make other means of transportation viable?
Paint more bus lanes ASAP so more people can get through. There is no contest between fifty people in a bus and 1.25 in average in a car.
Invest in safer bike routes so that 60% of people who are “interested but concerned” in cycling can more safely choose to travel this way sometimes. You may have already noticed that people on bikes zip past you in traffic. No Traffic. Easy Parking. Join the Fun!
Build more sidewalks and protect pedestrians from vehicles.
We can live lighter on the land and the planet. By pioneering and changing our cities we make our spaces more people-friendly, happier, and healthier. We create the future we want to live in, being part of the solution ourselves and offering leadership for the rest of the world.
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Links to three North Shore Official Community Plans (OCP):
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