1.0 From Here to 2020: Setting Ottawa's Environmental Context Environment has meaning for all of us - it is our water, our air, our ability to live. The environment represents conditions, ranging from local to global, involving all of the senses as well as the intangible, such as a sense of well-being, comfort, aesthetics, safety and community. The theme throughout these conditions is one in which environment encompasses the surroundings where we do our living. In addition to being our habitat, the environment provides living conditions for all species. Each of us, and the diverse plant, mammal, bird, insect and microbial species with which we share the earth, depend upon favourable living conditions. Of course, the environmental conditions change as we move from our home to other locations for our daily activities, such as a workplace, school, restaurant, museum, local park, an Ottawa River pathway, or even the South March Highlands. As the activities and locations change, so do our expectations of our surroundings to some degree. Consistent, however, is our desire for comfortable, attractive, safe, clean and healthy living conditions. Striving to achieve these positive conditions within those environments over which we have control, influences all of our lives. Besides providing us with the necessities of life - air, water, food, shelter - the environment provides us with the other raw materials that contribute to our sense of well-being, comfort and accomplishment. All the materials in our homes such as books, furniture, stereos, appliances, and clothes; items in our workplace such as paper, computers and machinery; and the built structure and components of our cities such as houses, factories, office towers, roads, vehicles, fuels, water and sewer pipes have all been converted from materials in the environment. The cycle of how we remove, use and dispose of these items can have significant impacts upon the health of the environment - the air, water and land upon which all species, including us, depend for life. Most importantly, humans and approximately ten million other species depend upon a large and complex set of systems to work well and in harmony in order for all species to be healthy. Our ecosystem relies on balanced cycling of nutrients, carbon and water as organisms die and as materials are used and returned to the earth, water or air. Throughout the earth, all species are connected to each other through a myriad of food chains. From a material standpoint, we must be aware that the earth is a closed system within which materials are continually converted into new compounds through the birth of new individuals of all species, man-made construction of goods or structures, discharges by living individuals to the environment or through decay of materials that are no longer in use. All of these materials remain contained within the living segment of the earth - within the land, water and air that supports life. Energy, however, flows freely into our atmosphere from the sun with much of this energy captured by growing plants. Energy also leaves the earth's atmosphere as heat or reflected radiation. This set of systems is the one that we need to preserve in balance to keep us, and our ten million species of neighbours, healthy and thriving. |
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