Globe Climate: Tree equity in Toronto neighbourhoods

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Good afternoon, and welcome to Globe Climate, a newsletter about climate change, environment and resources in Canada.

I opened Instagram on Friday and my feed was full of northern lights. Some of the photos were great, others were blurry, but all had been taken way farther south than I was expecting.

This past week, places around the world got a chance to see the lights where they don’t usually show, including parts of Germany, the United Kingdom, New England, New York and, of course, Canada too.

The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration had issued a severe geomagnetic storm alert after an outburst from the sun was detected earlier in the week. Such a storm increases the chance of auroras and can temporarily disrupt power and radio signals.

Now, let’s catch you up on other news.

Noteworthy reporting this week:

1. Hurricane Milton: Florida is slowly returning to normal after a Category 3 hurricane south of Tampa smacked the region with 205 km/h winds and a storm surge of up to 3 metres
2. Resources: Coal mining in the foothills of the Rockies is a tale of two municipalities
3. Infrastructure: Ontario is failing to adequately enforce rules on dirt excavated during construction, critics warn
4. Energy framework: BC Conservatives pledge to bolster LNG projects while undermining climate targets, think tank says
5. Green hydrogen: Australia’s Fortescue withdraws hydrogen project from B.C. environmental review
6. ????: Mysterious white blobs washing up in Newfoundland have government scientists and residents baffled
7. Sustainable finance: Ottawa proceeds with green investing guidebook, leaves door open for some natural gas inclusion
8. Space: NASA launches mission to study habitability of Jupiter’s moon Europa
9. From The Narwhal: Where B.C.’s political parties stand on key issues

A deeper dive

Low-income and racialized neighbourhoods tend to have fewer trees. Why?

Jill Mahoney is a Globe enterprise reporter focused on housing and real estate. For this week’s deeper dive, she talks about tree equity.

I’ve been interested in Toronto’s trees since I did an investigation into how the city manages its sprawling urban forest several years ago.

So I was curious when I learned that a new online tool had been developed to measure Toronto’s “tree equity,” which refers to the fair distribution of trees across the city.

The tool found that Toronto is a city of arboreal haves and have nots: Neighbourhoods with lower incomes and more racialized residents have fewer trees.

“Trees are critical urban infrastructure and really essential to public health and well-being,” said Janet McKay, executive director of Local Enhancement and Appreciation of Forests (LEAF), a non-profit organization that helped develop the tree equity score analyzer.

McKay is hopeful that the tool’s ability to identify tree inequity at a neighbourhood and street level will help the city and community groups better target their work.

“Everyone deserves access to the benefits that trees provide – environmental, health benefits and economic benefits. And with climate change on us now, the physical and mental health benefits offered by trees are just more important than ever.”

Most large cities in Canadian and United States are in a state of tree inequity. While there isn’t detailed research yet, it is so far safe to say that Toronto is similar to other large cities where there’s a relationship between higher income and higher canopy cover.

Check out the full conversation with McKay, where she answers more about how tree equity is measured, what factors are at play and what steps should be taken to increase canopy equity.

– Jill

More reading

What else you missed

• Grassland destruction on Canadian Prairies harming bird populations, report says
• Boissonnault appointed to lead federal government’s effort to rebuild Jasper after wildfires
• Warmer than normal temperatures lead to duller fall colours in Ontario
• Four-metre-long great white shark washes up on B.C. beach
• Carbon pricing rebates land in Canadians’ bank accounts as Liberals defend embattled policy

Opinion and analysis

John Rapley: The cost of living with climate change is rising year to year

Andrew Willis: Big money puts its trust in Canadian Natural Resources’ Murray Edwards

Amy Cardinal Christianson: Indigenous guardians hold the key to reducing wildfires and their costs

Green Investing

More emissions accountability needed in Toronto’s financial sector, report says

A report produced by the Toronto Climate Observatory estimates that the 18 largest financial institutions based in the city – including banks, asset managers and pension funds – collectively directed more than $1.43-trillion in financing toward fossil fuel companies in 2022.

It says the total across the group works out to the equivalent of 1.44 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions – twice the amount of Canada’s overall emissions for the year. Most of the financial institutions in the study have made commitments to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, while many have also set interim reduction targets.

The Climate Exchange

We’ve launched the next chapter of The Climate Exchange, an interactive, digital hub where The Globe answers your most pressing questions about climate change. More than 300 questions were submitted as of September. The first batch of answers tackles 30 of them. They can be found with the help of a search tool developed by The Globe that makes use of artificial intelligence to match readers’ questions with the closest answer drafted. We plan to answer a total of 75 questions.

Photo of the week

As the leaves begin to change colour, this cranberry farm in Bala, Ont., gets ready for another fall ritual: visitors from around the world wading hip-deep into the fruit. Check out more pictures from Christopher Katsarov.

Guides and Explainers

Catch up on Globe Climate

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