Canada's Problems In The Environment Essay

We as a population have created a place where the air is thick with smog and the water is thicker due to the pollution that we are putting in to it. David Suzuki once said, “Man is a child of his environment.” Canada is home to over 35 million people and counting. This mass population needs its resources and they are getting them with a lot of environmental repercussions. The world’s population is currently at 7 billion. If the' world's population continues to grow as anticipated, by the year 2030 there will be 10 billion people, each of whom will have an average of only 2.2 acres of land available. That is about half a city block each. At the current rate of consumption by Canadians we are not living a sustainable lifestyle. Currently Canada

Some of those problems include: the melting of the icecaps, the deforestation because of the pine beetle in BC, and the oil pipeline in Alberta. I believe these are the most relevant issues currently in Canada. The Canadian icecaps have been melting since the 1980s but have sped up dramatically since 2005. According to David Burgess, a research scientist and glaciologist with Natural Resources Canada, “approximately 30 to 40 per cent of the ice mass lost has happened since 2005.” The melting of that ice is causing a loss of habitat for animals that live on and in the ice. Not only is the loss of habitat a large problem with the melting but the issue of where does that entire melted glacier water go, is still a concern. It goes back in to the water where it started. It is important to remember that even though there was a large part of the glacier above the water, it has now melted to become part of pool below. This melting and returning to the water is causing the water levels to rise all over the world. The extra water has caused mass flooding from the rising lakes and rivers, which have drowned out homes, habitats and other areas during heavy rain. On the other side of it, we have the deforestation that is occurring because of a pest problem plaguing the trees of British Colombia. The mountain pine beetle has killed huge areas of forest in B.C. Due to the increased average temperatures, the mountain pine beetle