It's Depressing Environmental News Day Here On Torontoist!

City considers indexed fees for garbage pickup. This is barely news, really, because we all knew increased garbage fees were coming sooner or later, and we all know they're ultimately necessary (even if some of us don't much like that). But it's nice (or chagrin-causing, depending on your point of view) to see it finally coming about.

Ontario hydro consumers saved enough electricity to power a town. Which is a great first step, but unfortunately we need to save enough to power a whole lot of towns.

Ontario government tables legislation to charge bottlers for taking water from the Great Lakes. This is great, except the proposed price is $3.71 per million litres. That $3.71 buys a lot of Dasani, is my point.

Arctic perennial sea ice may continue to decline as much as 10 percent a year. To measure this in the only terms that seem to reach most of the news media, that means lots more drowning polar bears and baby seals.

Federal government decides not to count forests in calculations for totalling Canada's greenhouse gas emissions. Thanks to forest fires and insect infestations, Canada's forests have been a slight net source of emissions for the majority of the last fifteen years. In response, the National Post will be running a series all next week entitled "Trees: Our Silent Foe."

And nothing to do with the environment, but the Leafs beat the Flyers last night 3-2 to keep their playoff hopes alive.

Photo by sevennine from the Torontoist Flickr pool.