Perfect illustration of the relationship between humanity and Big Tech.

The fact that Ottawa released this right before Christmas tells me that Carney and his government know how unpopular eliminating this ban actually is. globalnews.ca/news/1159024...

Streetcars carry more people than private cars do in most downtown corridors. We need to separate streetcar and car traffic across the city.

I hope what happened yesterday is the death knell of influencer culture.

We can and should pedestrianize large chunks of Toronto’s downtown core, bound roughly between University and Yonge, Union to Bloor.

Sometimes when talking to up and coming (and often demoralized) environmental and climate justice activists, I encourage them to look up ‘McDonalds ashtray’. And then I explain that smoking was so normalized, smoking paraphernalia was literally branded by giant corporations. Change can happen.

Several countries including Costa Rica, Nepal, Albania, Ethiopia, Iceland and Norway have already reached, or come very close to, 100% renewable power. For countries like Ireland, Spain, and the UK, renewables have saved over a billion in energy costs. Read more:

This is an intersection where a six lane ‘road’ intersects with another six lane ‘road’ Drivers are told this is a road, but in other parts of the world, it’s six lane roads like these are essentially high speed highways. We need to dramatically change the Ontario road design standards.

Thousands of people wrote letters, phone calls, and made live deputations at city committees. The sheer number and diverse perspectives and passionate voices has been inspirational. Thanks to their work, a key green building policy is back on the table.

A private multinational corporation that’s responsible for more than half of Toronto’s emissions gets to use public land for free for some reason. thenarwhal.ca/ontario-enbr...

@20k.bsky.social is one of my favourite podcasts and I always look forward to the end of year mystery sound contest. Appreciate the Toronto reference in this one, too. ✈️

I’m so pleased to see this accelerated forward. Now it looks like there will be a bylaw presented for approval to Council by May of next year. Getting a Max Heat Bylaw will save lives as studies show that more are now dying of extreme heat than of extreme cold.

Private cars carry the fewest number of people per amount of road space. Of any mode of transportation. When the best way to get around a high density community is via the lowest density form of transportation, then congestion will happen.

It would be relatively easy for the federal government to finance, fund, and otherwise incentivize heat pump replacement programs. The power of the federal government to shift domestic markets is enormous. Though they will have to partner directly with provinces and municipalities to do it.

A green buildings policy in Toronto would spur heat pump adoption across the city, making homes safer, healthier, & less polluting. Send a quick email to your city councillor telling them to vote for this important green buildings policy at City Hall this week! ➡️ act.stand.earth/page/88238/d...

The Dutch cycle more than nearly every other country in the world. But interestingly, the level of car ownership in the Netherlands is on par with that of Canada. Good cycling isn’t about being anti-car. It’s about giving drivers and all others good, safe options getting around.

The people interviewed in this story hate how difficult it is to get to and from downtown, while also loving the sense of calm in their neighbourhoods. The fact is the two of them are intricately linked: The easier it is to drive, the less calm neighbourhoods become.

A woman is dead as a result of a collision less than 300m from where there used to be a speed camera. Doug Ford banned speed cameras less than a month ago despite mayors, Chiefs of Police, and medical experts all saying it was a bad idea.

This is a great example of how the economics of electricity can be completely switched around. Energy is one of the most abundant things in the entire universe. The easier we make it for people to gather and store the electricity all around us, the better for our climate and our wallets.

Thousands of people sent emails, made phone calls, and made in-person deputations at committee meetings at Toronto City Hall. Tenants and workers. Students and seniors. Environmentalists and transit enthusiasts. Together we’ll make Toronto lead again.

With the TTC board meeting wrapping up today, it’s as good time as any to post one of my favourite Venn diagrams.

To all the activists, tenants, workers, students, parents, grandparents, and business owners who spoke out these past few days: Thank You! The province and the federal governments may be pulling back on climate action, but we are drawing the line here in Toronto!

Earlier today, I spoke at the Executive Committee in favour of @mayoroliviachow.ca’s motion to bring a bylaw to a vote before next summer. And it passed!! If approved by Council, it would mean that Council would vote on a Max Heat bylaw before July of next year.

For decades, environmentalists have been telling Western governments that clean energy is a global geopolitical issue, not just an environmental one. And that it’s the way of the future. It seems that future is arriving.

Over the past weeks, thousands of Torontonians emailed and called their Councillors and the Mayor; and deputants from across the spectrum made deputations at the Infrastructure and Environment Committee. Together, we successfully convinced Councillors to support this important policy.

This is amazing news. 47 trips is still a lot, but it means people no longer have to worry about whether or not they should be locked in to a monthly metropass. Next steps: lower the number, and make it weekly!

An absolutely brilliant meta-analysis of where we’re going. For most of the 20th century, world financial systems were powered by fossil fuels (which dominated stock indices.) But now, it’s dominated by data. And it’s countries that provide the cheapest electricity (ie renewables) who will win.

This really has been one of the most amazing scientific and social achievements in my lifetime. And the activism of so many people to do the joint push that simultaneously got the cure, fought the stigma of the disease, AND surfacing LGBTQ+ rights.

One of the clearest ways to know if a human being isn’t as smart as they say they are, is if they never say “I don’t know”.

A fascinating take on one of the reasons we got Trump and climate denialists.

It’s past time we do something about disinformation online, starting with news comment sections. The entire purpose of comment sections was to provide a space for people to discuss issues. But the space is being poisoned by bots and comment farms, where comments and likes can be bought.

Introduce yourself with 5 concerts you’ve seen Moist (at Mel Lastman Square) Lilith Fair (all 4 of them!) Radiohead (in a random hanger by the airport) Smashing Pumpkins (at the Phoenix Concert Theatre) The Weakerthans (in some hotel in the outskirts of Ottawa)

I’ve definitely noticed a difference on parts of Bathurst where the lines are already painted. This is great progress forward!

In a ruling in favour of building four towers of up to 56 storeys in an area at risk of a landslide, the Ontario Land Tribunal literally wrote that “the light is amber, not red” for the project. YOU ARE ALSO SUPPOSED TO STOP AT AN AMBER LIGHT

People keep saying that driverless cars will end congestion. In reality, all driverless cars do is change the math so that instead of roads being jammed with cars with just 1-2 people in them, the roads will be jammed with cars with 0-1 people in them.

Come hang out with the team at @toenviro.bsky.social !

Fantastic #StreetcarSummit, with hundreds of @ttcriders.bsky.social this afternoon.

"When she heard it was 60 C inside the plant, her thought process was simple: “People cannot work in those conditions,” she said. 2 months later, the HR Manager was fired for closing down the plant. That year, Magna made $41 billion in revenue.

Today, @petertabuns.bsky.social tabled an act in the Ontario Legislature to better protect communities from urban wildfires. We're seeing toxic wildfire smoke in Toronto. Our governments need to be proactive, because wildfires don’t respect borders. Learn more: loom.ly/u7asy34 #onpoli

A reminder that all the most successful shopping malls in Canada aren’t the ones with the largest parking lots: They’re the ones with the best connections to public transit.

Today, a new GHG inventory was released showing that Toronto’s emissions are inching upwards. The City of Toronto needs to deliver on its climate promises, including addressing the nearly 60% of Toronto’s emissions that comes from the heating of buildings.

Parking lots across Toronto are sorely underused. And that’s because there’s simply too much parking. In North America, it’s estimated that there are anywhere between 3 to 8 parking spots for every car on the road.

Yup.

This will make these parts of Toronto an even more vibrant place to live, work, and play. It will also induce more space and transportation conflicts as people insist on driving and parking mostly-empty cars in the core. The solution cannot be to cater to cars. They take up too much space.

The provincial government has axed Toronto's local Green Roofs bylaw, which supports over 1600 jobs and an industry worth $75 million that's spread across the province. The move has upset green roof companies across Ontario, including these ones based in London, ON. lfpress.com/news/local-n...

“Doug Ford is making people homeless and making the rest of us deal with the consequences. Bill 60 should be called the ‘Create Encampments Faster’ Act,” said Encampment Justice Coalition organizer Diana Chan McNally. www.torontotoday.ca/local/politi...

Three hundred collisions across the GTA on a major snow day seems like a lot! … Then why doesn’t the news report that statistically there are over 130 collisions EVERY DAY OF THE YEAR, just within the City of Toronto? (Source: TPS Public Safety Data Portal)

In Germany, the sale of heat pumps have surpassed those of gas boilers for the first time. Like Germany, Ontario gets most of our gas from outside the country (in our case, most of the gas coming into Ontario comes from the U.S.) Yet Ontario has no credible decarbonization plan.

Energy is one of the most abundant things in the universe. The only reason it costs so much money is because corporations want to sell us fuel. Instead of letting us just gather and store it locally, they created an energy system where power would stop if we didn’t buy fuel to power it.

Australia has so much solar power that they're offering free electricity during peak hours because solar power is so cheap. Here in Ontario, Doug Ford is doubling down on nuclear, which is the most expensive form of electricity. And subsidizing it with our tax dollars. electrek.co/2025/11/04/a...