I first came to know about Ecology Ottawa when I was looking for summer internships, and I mean, what better way to profess my love to the environment by joining the Ottawa city renewable team! My passion for the environment sparked during the BP oil spill. The spill caused a lot of harm to the fragile ecosystem that resided there. This was the first time it showed me the extent to which human beings have an impact on the planet.
I grew up in Dubai, a city considered to be filled with luxuries and fast cars. All is well in the city as long as you remain indoors, which is where the heavenly air conditioner is. As soon as you step out, reality welcomes you with the blistering heat. The sun can make an omelette out of you if you stay out there long enough. To make matters worse, global warming makes the weather hotter every summer. Last year was one of the hottest years on record thanks to global warming and climate change. Besides that, I’ve travelled and lived in several other countries like Scotland, South Korea, Italy, and Switzerland. Living in these wonderful places showed me the importance of Mother Nature and our need for it, not vice versa!
Nowadays, with the world becoming more and more environmentally conscious, we are living in an age where climate change and global warming has become a very important cause of concern due to the rise in sea levels and temperatures worldwide. People from different countries have put aside their differences in order to combat this issue. One of the main focuses is to transfer our way of life from a lifestyle that impacts our environment in a harmful way to a more ecologically friendly way. This is where Ecology Ottawa comes to the play. Our focus is to make sure that Ottawa, a city that we love dearly, becomes a green city that is more environmentally friendly. There are currently three teams at Ecology Ottawa: Living City, Active City and Renewable City. I am part of the Renewable City team. Currently, we are petitioning against the Energy East pipeline, which runs from Alberta to Eastern Canada. It carries 1.1 million barrels of tar sands daily. The reason it is a cause for concern is because a potential oil spill in our waters such as the Mississippi River could prove deadly since we use it daily as our drinking water further upstream!
Being part of the Renewable City team is an amazing experience where I’ve learned very important skills such as managing volunteers and event coordination. Even though I have just started recently, I’ve met amazing people from all walks of life that all share a common interest: Passion for the environment. The team that I work with is very dedicated and fun to be around. Furthermore, the hours are very flexible so say goodbye to stress! To sum it all up, working for Ecology Ottawa has been one of the good decisions that I rarely make!
Latest posts
Ottawa Eco Awards 2024 - Recipients Announced!
The 2024 Ottawa Eco Awards celebrate outstanding individuals in the Ottawa community who have demonstrated exceptional dedication to environmental stewardship, sustainability leadership, and climate action. We have been thrilled with the nominations that we have received from Ottawans for our second Ottawa Eco Awards, and we are heartened to learn about the local eco champions who inspire you.
Ecology Ottawa delegates to the Environment and Climate Change Committee on the Rain Ready Ottawa program.
Ecology Ottawa was at the City Council’s Environment and Climate Change Committee on April 16, 2024, to talk about the Rain Ready Program. We’ve provided our delegations below and you can also watch the recording.
Members of ECCC invited to webinar on incineration
On April 8, we invited members of City Council’s Environment and Climate Change Committee (ECCC) to attend a webinar on incineration. This webinar is timely: Council is considering incineration as an option for dealing with Ottawa’s waste, since staff has warned Council that the Trail Road Landfill—which currently receives the majority of Ottawans’ garbage—will fill up soon.