Air Pollution in Ontario Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Air Pollution in Ontario - Essay Example There has a problem of urban sprawling that has become a cause of major pollution in the capital. (Marianne, 2000) Air pollution has been one of the major problems that have been affecting the city of Ontario for along time now. It has been a subject of study and research but there have been little that has been done in order to mitigate the situation. Air pollution in Ontario has been contributed by the rising urban sprawl in the area. Thus has come with a lot of problem with multiple effects on the health and general life of the people in the area. Urban sprawling has seen the gobbling up green space in the southern part of Ontario. This has been happening at an alarming rate which has come with a lot of environmental impacts in the area. According to the Neptis Foundation which has been monitoring the issue, there are addition 260,000 acres of rural land that is expected to the urbanized by 2030. This shows that it will be double the rate of the current size of the city of Toronto. This has been compounded by the fact that about 92% of the land in Ontario is best for farmland. Urban sprawling in the areas has lead to a lot of effects. It has led to destruction of green space and farmlands which has affected the rate of food production in the area. There has been an effect of river pollution and pollution of other water ways and streams. The population has been forced to be over dependent on vehicles which has been having a lot of air pollution with the consequential problem of climate change. (Ontario Greenbelt alliance, 2008) It has been shown that the Golden Horseshoe area on Ontario has been growing with more than 115,000 people coming in the area every year. In the coming 15 years, it is estimated that it will be the third largest urban region in the North America behind New York and Los Angles. This has been coming with a lot of problems and strains for the population living in the city. The Toronto area has also approved the development for 128,000 acres of land since 1989 which has been at a rate of 9,100 acres every year. The Toronto region conservation authority has shown that increased loss of biodiversity is having an effect on the natural resource. For example of the 180 animal species that are found in greater Toronto, 110 have been classified as having a risk of extinction due to encroachment of their land. These are some of the problem that has led to the compounding problem of urban sprawling in the area. In this regard there have been many problems that have come with the increase in population and the consequent reclaiming of arable land for the purpose of settling the population. In comparison to other cities around the city of Toronto has been adversely affected by the problem of increasing population since the local authority had to deal with the problem of increasing access of basic services to the population. There are several problems that have come as a result of increase in the population of the province in general. (Bates, 1997) Challenges of urban sprawling in Ontario There have been several effects that have resulted from urban sprawling in Ontario. These have resulted from the increasing population pressure and decreasing land resources and amenities to accommodate the population. In specific there has been