I happen to live a few kilometres north of Toronto in a town that has grown from 12,000 to 160,000 people since I moved here in 1972. It is astounding to think how much we have been able to alter the landscape in such a short span. In the late 70's people in these parts tried but failed to stop the opening of the
Keele Valley Landfill-- a facility that "grew up" to become a 28-million ton mountain of waste. Now that the site has been capped with clay, it is being turned into "passive recreational land", replete with soccer fields and an 18-hole golf course. As thousands of new home owners pour in, I wonder if they are aware of the environmental history of the area. A huge swath of houses is slated to be built just south of the former dump site. Last winter I took a few pictures of the heavy machinery that has now scraped off millions of tons of top soil, sand and clay from what used to be fields of corn and woodlots. What took glaciers thousands of years to create has been undone in a matter of months. And some people doubt that humans could be causing global climate change?
So what are the real costs of this development? Over the past 35 years, the air quality has gotten steadily worse as the Greater Toronto Area became a snarling mess of vehicles huffing poison. We are told that rates of asthma and resperatory diseases have increased dramatically in recent decades. Last summer a single rainstorm caused unprecedented road damage and flooding because the GTA is so built up there is no where for run-off water to go. A week ago, another sinkhole opened up, swallowing a major intersection. Meanwhile, York Region continues to build the
BIG PIPE, a sewage project that has involved pumping out billions of litres of ground water from the Oak Ridges Morraine aquifer. If completed, this pipe will encourage even more sprawl, accelerating the region's ecological death spiral.
It is sad and appalling to watch politicians and developers work together to commit teracide in the name of free enterprise. Future generations (should they survive) will look back upon this age of "development" with bemusement. This meandering scribble is not a protest -- I am just as guilty for watching all of this take place and have not put up much of a real fight. It is amazing how we gaze with upon ancient pyramids and tombs and wonder how the ancients could build such massive structures. It is easy to forget that every day we create our own giant pyramids of waste spread out over entire countries, scrape millions of acres bare of vegetation and soil in order to choke our own planet. Perhaps only a 50-year, time-lapse movie, shot from space could show these activities for what they appear to be: a form of cancer, or madness, or both.
I happen to live a few kilometres north of Toronto in a town that has grown from 12,000 to 160,000 people since I moved here in 1972. It is astounding to think how much we have been able to alter the landscape in such a short span. In the late 70's people in these parts tried but failed to stop the opening of the Keele Valley Landfill-- a facility that "grew up" to become a 28-million ton mountain of waste. Now that the site has been capped with clay, it is being turned into "passive recreational land", replete with soccer fields and an 18-hole golf course. As thousands of new home owners pour in, I wonder if they are aware of the environmental history of the area. A huge swath of houses is slated to be built just south of the former dump site. Last winter I took a few pictures of the heavy machinery that has now scraped off millions of tons of top soil, sand and clay from what used to be fields of corn and woodlots. What took glaciers thousands of years to create has been undone in a matter of months. And some people doubt that humans could be causing global climate change?
So what are the real costs of this development? Over the past 35 years, the air quality has gotten steadily worse as the Greater Toronto Area became a snarling mess of vehicles huffing poison. We are told that rates of asthma and resperatory diseases have increased dramatically in recent decades. Last summer a single rainstorm caused unprecedented road damage and flooding because the GTA is so built up there is no where for run-off water to go. A week ago, another sinkhole opened up, swallowing a major intersection. Meanwhile, York Region continues to build the BIG PIPE, a sewage project that has involved pumping out billions of litres of ground water from the Oak Ridges Morraine aquifer. If completed, this pipe will encourage even more sprawl, accelerating the region's ecological death spiral.
It is sad and appalling to watch politicians and developers work together to commit teracide in the name of free enterprise. Future generations (should they survive) will look back upon this age of "development" with bemusement. This meandering scribble is not a protest -- I am just as guilty for watching all of this take place and have not put up much of a real fight. It is amazing how we gaze with upon ancient pyramids and tombs and wonder how the ancients could build such massive structures. It is easy to forget that every day we create our own giant pyramids of waste spread out over entire countries, scrape millions of acres bare of vegetation and soil in order to choke our own planet. Perhaps only a 50-year, time-lapse movie, shot from space could show these activities for what they appear to be: a form of cancer, or madness, or both.
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