 Toronto Archives, Fonds 1244, Item 5031 Clearing the ice from railroad tracks, Don River Valley, [ca. 1910] Daily, with the world population increasing at alarming rates, I find myself thinking of Toronto's unsustainable consumptions, and how our city is creating an increased pressure on the ability for our planet to support its living beings. Toronto's past and future is still at the heart of my artwork. I question how the preservation of resources, which includes air and water, addresses various environmental issues related to urban activities, and the impacts of urban metabolism on the quality and availability of these same resources. Is Toronto striving to achieve a balanced urban ecosystem? I understand urban metabolism to be the result of likeness between humans and living organisms, how they consume, transform and reject energy and matter. The city is the seat of interactions and exchanges between the living beings that inhabit (biotope) and the territory which supports (biocenosis), our ECOSYSTEM.  image source, EXPERIMENTING WITH CONDITIONS, garden project Artis Zoo http://www.biotope-city.net Is our city, our urban metabolism, allowing a proper support and supply of its materials and energy for our growing pollution? Is the population density changing the energy demand, water, food, fuel or other raw materials to the city? and to what extent? The conversations are not loud enough, public enough, in my opinion, concerning the potential impacts of these studies. My community is not stressing the impacts of urban consumption of resources. Yes, the city consumes or absorbs in its metabolism the air, water, food, raw materials, energy and consumer goods . It rejects the material in the form of gas, solid waste or wastewater and energy such as noise and heat. All this constitutes the waste from its metabolism. I am considering, while tracing memories of the Don River and its surroundings, Toronto's metabolism, which includes inputs and outputs. Human and animal nourishment and discharge Water Sewer liquids Sewer Solids Cargo Combustible liquids Combustible solids Glass Plastics Cement Wood Iron and metals Paper Carbon Monoxide Oxygen Carbon Dioxide Nitrogen oxide Hydrocarbons Particles Coal dust Lead Aeroplane Emissions An easy way to request, demand, an increase in knowledge and population awareness , should be through the city of Toronto Environment and Energy division (email: [email protected]), yet, when reading the city's statements ( http://www1.toronto.ca), without sounding pessimistic, how featured initiatives for greening city operations are SO FEW! Lets look at Oslo, Norway, Malmö, Sweeden, Freiburg, Germany for example, where solar and biomass provide the bulk of the city's renewable energy, and where homes produce more energy than they use. Past to Present to Future Toronto, lets truly strive for a Sustainable Development, which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.  Fonds 200, Series 372, Subseries 77, Item 15 General view of excavation — Filtration Plant in background, June 12, 1935, photonegative : b&w ; 13 x 18 cm, R.C. Harris Water Treatment Plant
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