{"id":12512,"date":"2010-07-09T13:04:02","date_gmt":"2010-07-09T17:04:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=12512"},"modified":"2013-01-21T14:03:38","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T19:03:38","slug":"lorinc-greenwashing-by-any-other-name","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2010\/07\/09\/lorinc-greenwashing-by-any-other-name\/","title":{"rendered":"LORINC: Greenwashing by any other name"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I normally have a lot of time for the Toronto Environmental Alliance, but the heat this week must have wiped out the organization\u2019s institutional memory.<\/p>\n

How else to explain the perplexing and conspicuous omissions on TEA\u2019s mayoral candidate environmental report card<\/a> [PDF], released yesterday.<\/p>\n

For those who missed the evening news, Joe Pantalone comes out with solid grades, while George Smitherman gets frowny-cons and a rather catty put down (\u201cneeds to apply himself\u201d) in the comment section.<\/p>\n

A little background on both is definitely in order:<\/p>\n

Pantalone, it\u2019s true, has wrapped himself in the tree advocacy role for years. Whether this title has actually led to more trees being planted in Toronto is an untested proposition \u2013 municipalities plant constantly \u2013 and he certainly didn\u2019t do much to ameliorate the plight of the thousands of pencil-neck trees that continue to die miserable deaths on our sidewalks.<\/p>\n

TEA gives him a smiley face on the 70% diversion goal question, but neglects to note that council has missed this target, as well as David Miller\u2019s 2010 deadline, by a wide margin (residential diversion is at 46%, up from 40% in 2005). Pantalone was deputy mayor the whole time. Should he not be held to account for that failure?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Most problematically, Pantalone for years advocated the construction of the Front Street Extension, the last of Metro\u2019s downtown highways, and a megaproject that Jane Jacobs strenuously opposed. It would have ruined the Spadina\/Wellington\/Front\/Liberty Village area, and only died because the cost became completely untenable. If I were an environmentalist, I\u2019d certainly dock him marks for that.<\/p>\n

And what about Smitherman? \u201cGeorge,\u201d TEA sniffs, \u201clikes to talk about the environment, but his enthusiasm doesn\u2019t match his work to date<\/em>\u201d [emphasis added].<\/p>\n

Excuse me? Is this the same guy who, after taking over the Energy and Infrastructure portfolio, spent the summer of 2008 touring Europe to find out how countries like Denmark and Germany use green energy incentives to build green industries that create green-collar jobs?<\/p>\n

Is this the same guy who asked environmental groups to publicly push him to tear up Ontario\u2019s antiquated energy policies in favour of legislation that is considered to be absolutely cutting edge in North America?<\/p>\n

And is this the same guy who had the guts to hit the eject button when the nuclear industry and all its Liberal lobbyists were pushing for huge sums to jump start yet another reactor extravaganza?<\/p>\n

Shortly before Smitherman tabled the Green Energy Act, one environmental activist told The Toronto Star (Feb. 11, 2009), \u201cThe idea of a Green Energy Act that speeds up the development of renewable energy is absolutely necessary.”<\/p>\n

That quote, by the way, comes from TEA executive director Franz Hartman, and The Star, in fact, reported that TEA \u201capplauds the legislation.\u201d<\/p>\n

So let\u2019s not pretend that Smitherman doesn\u2019t have a rock solid track record on the environment. TEA knows it, and they need to be a lot more straightforward in their political judgments if they want to retain their credibility as green watchdogs.<\/p>\n

photo by Laurie McGregor<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I normally have a lot of time for the Toronto Environmental Alliance, but the heat this week must have wiped out the organization\u2019s institutional memory. How else to explain the perplexing and conspicuous omissions on TEA\u2019s mayoral candidate environmental report card [PDF], released yesterday. For those who missed the evening news, Joe Pantalone comes outContinue reading “LORINC: Greenwashing by any other name”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4051,"featured_media":12962,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21759,13,2],"tags":[94,15529,425,677,3949,23,1128,352,15527,6245,483,504,1103,15526,2469,1154,636,4252,405,339,19,329,15528,6872],"class_list":["post-12512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-green-space","category-politics","tag-2010-election","tag-antiquated-energy-policies","tag-david-miller","tag-denmark","tag-deputy-mayor","tag-environment","tag-europe","tag-executive-director","tag-franz-hartman","tag-george-smitherman","tag-germany","tag-jane-jacobs","tag-joe-pantalone","tag-laurie-mcgregor","tag-mayoral-candidate","tag-north-america","tag-ontario","tag-renewable-energy","tag-the-star","tag-the-toronto-star","tag-toronto","tag-toronto-environmental-alliance","tag-use-green-energy-incentives","tag-wellington"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nLORINC: Greenwashing by any other name - Spacing Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2010\/07\/09\/lorinc-greenwashing-by-any-other-name\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"LORINC: Greenwashing by any other name - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I normally have a lot of time for the Toronto Environmental Alliance, but the heat this week must have wiped out the organization\u2019s institutional memory. 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