Respond

La Presse Canadienne
Undefined author
Quand le thermomètre ne sait plus où donner de la tête

http://www.cyberpresse.ca/article/20080220/CPENVIRONNEMENT/80220052/6109/CPENVIRONNEMENT

In this article, the author mentioned that in the city of Montreal the surfaces of green space in the city became smaller over the years and that cause an augmentation of the temperature and the degradation of the air. In fact, between the years 1998 and 2005, the city made a decision to take some green spaces and transform them into buildings or commercial places. So with the time those green spaces became smaller and smaller, 18 percent of those ancient green territories are now commercial places. Now, in 2008, the consequences of this decision are visible; sometimes in the summer, we can see a difference of 11.7 degrees Celsius between a place downtown (Saint-Laurent Boulevard) and a green space called the “Parc Mont-Royal” which is located in the mountain not far from downtown. In the article, Mr. Guy Garand said that certain parts of Montreal will become like an oven and the politicians had made a terrible decision. The worst part of this is that Montreal continues to lose green spaces for commercial places even if everyone can see the good effects to having green spaces in a city. Now, there is a local council who made a policy for Montreal and other cities around to preserve their own green spaces because without green spaces there will terrible consequences due to a local warming and a degradation of the air and the entire environment. At the end, the article said that the region of Montreal has only 4 percent of green protected areas compared to the suggestion of the international union for the protection of the environment which is a minimum of 12 percent. Personally, I completely agree with Mr. Garand and the local council that the situation in Montreal is unacceptable and the provincial government have to be engaged to resolve this problem. For the defence of Montreal, I can say that this city has been really innovative to battle the environmental problem with all the subventions to the public transport and the policies for recycling and the diminution of garbage. But, they still have a huge problem with two different locations in the city that have a difference in temperature of 11.7 degrees Celsius.

Thanks,

Fred