Nadia Mykytczuk is the Interim CEO/President of MIRARCO, Laurentian University.
When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met with Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg in Montréal two years ago, he promised to plant two billion trees by 2030 to help Canada meet its net-zero emissions goal.
Planting trees, however, is hard work. It takes money and planning. But a re-greening roadmap exists.
Sudbury, the largest city in Northern Ontario, transformed itself after decades of environmental devastation, brought on by the mining industry. Other communities and industries, like oil and gas, can replicate the city’s efforts to aid in global efforts to fight climate change.
A devastated landscape
For almost 100 years, Sudbury’s community and environment were blanketed in sulfur dioxide and metals released from the smelting of nickel ore. The sulfur acidified the soils, rain and lakes. The pollution triggered the complete loss of vegetation, leaving barren rolling hills of blackened rock. It was a devastated landscape.
But 40 years ago, scientists, citizens, governments and mining companies in Sudbury set out with the goal that, no matter how damaged the environment was, it was worth trying to repair it. Since then, city- and industry-led programs have planted 12 million trees and revitalized over 3,400 hectares of land. People now swim and fish in the 330 lakes that fall within the city boundaries and were once highly acidic.
For the rest of this article: https://theconversation.com/what-mining-oil-and-gas-industries-can-learn-from-sudbury-the-city-that-went-from-major-polluter-to-thriving-environment-165595?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter