Take Action: Bring the Living Planet City to your Neighbourhood
The green economy is the future. Let your city council and local utility company know that you want green local energy solutions, and the jobs that go with them. Talk to your provincial and federal parliamentarian about making these climate solutions more accessible. The power is yours!
There's a lot more you can do to speed the transition to clean, green energy and join the fight against climate change:
Join the Living Planet Community
- Take action every day for the planet and act as a leader within your community to encourage positive change. Sign-up to the Living Planet Community and join a community of Canadians already taking action for the planet and learn about ways to reduce your daily footprint.
- Is there a cool green initiative where you live on this site, or one you'd like to see? Share it with your friends by clicking on the Share button located at the bottom of the Living Planet City home page, and talk about how you can make this happen in your community.
Share Living Planet City with your elected representative:
- Already know politicians who have a vision like the Living Planet City? Send them the link to show your support.
- Think your government could be doing more? Send your elected officials an email with the Living Planet City link.
Take it from Local to Global
- We are at a key moment for determining whether we continue with the old, fossil fuel-based economy or move to the new green economy. At the Copenhagen climate meetings in December 2009, world leaders from over 180 countries will meet to try to craft a fair, effective and science-based agreement to stop global warming.
- Show your support for Canada leading the transition to the new green economy and being part of the global solution to climate change by sending a message to the Prime Minister and your member of Parliament. For suggestions on what to include and who to send it to, click here.
Comment Wall
I'm glad to see some people are doing something to help the environment. :)
Kevin, I partly agree with you. I would love to see Toronto become less dependable on cars. But it is so vast and dispersed that it is still too ambitious a projection. It's entirely different from European cities in composition, with different development and socio-cultural issues preventing it from switching to a biking and walking city.
Dividing up the urban structure in favour of community improvement will allow Toronto to function better, faster & with less pressure on the core. This will in turn impact lifestyles and result in a healthy interaction between environment and society. European towns, particularly in Benelux and Scandinavia are more manageable and so planned to retain this balance and maximize effectiveness. Copenhagen, with 1/3 its population already biking on everyday basis, pledges to have 1/2 of the entire population biking by 2015:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8224141.stm
I took a look at the website and thought that I was going to see a “green” city of the future. What a disappointment. What I saw was a car-centric automobile city of the past with lots of greenwashing.
I suggest going back to the drawing board. Let's start with a city that actually exists today: Groningen in The Netherlands.
Today, if I go to Groningen or many other medium to large city in The Netherlands, I can see a non-car-oriented city. These cities look a lot different than the car-centered Living Planet City (LPC).
The biggest difference is that in Dutch cities, I can’t go everywhere in an automobile. In the LPC I can. In Dutch cities, the city centre is usually forbidden to cars entirely, or else there are serious restrictions upon them. Cyclists and pedestrians flourish.
In the proposed Living Planet City, cars go everywhere, intimidating cyclists and pedestrians as they go. They use up vast amounts of public space in roads and parking lots. And they waste lots of energy. That's more of a Dead Planet City.
Many Dutch cities don’t just ban cars from the city centre. If I live in a residential neighbourhood, there is usually only one way that I can drive a car - straight out to peripheral ring roads. If I want to go to another neighbourhood in a car, I have to go all the way out to a peripheral ring road, drive around the city, and then drive back in to my destination.
Pedestrians and cyclists, unlike cars, can go straight from point A to point B anywhere in the city. Result: People walk and ride bicycles, not cars.
This is why in Groningen today, 57% of all travel is on bicycles.
The Living Planet City is a car-culture car-oriented car-centered city in which the car is king. Cars go everywhere in the LPC. It is just a greenwashed monument to car culture.
I’ll take a real life Dutch city, like Groningen. A real city where I can go to today and see 57% of all travel by people on bicycles.
I do not want Toronto to be a car city like the Living Planet City. I want Toronto to be a city for people, not cars. Just like Groningen.
For more details of how Groningen tamed its cars, see:
http://hembrow.blogspot.com/2009/02/how-groningen-grew-to-be-worlds-number.html
Hi all:
We've built the Living Planet City to show that a world beyond fossil fuels is not only possible, but is on its way.
Getting there is inevitably a work in progress, as we try new things and see how they work. Which is why we're hoping that you'll be able to tell us about the climate solutions being implemented in your community that you think we should feature here. Or maybe tell us about the solutions you and your friends are trying to put into place.
So post a comment and help us keep building the Living Planet City - on-line and, more importantly, in the neighbourhoods where we live.
Keith Stewart, Climate Change Director, WWF-Canada
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