Professor Mark Winfield: GTA's urban growth raises important questions

York University environmental studies Professor Mark Winfield of the Faculty of Environmental Studies, who sits on a provincial smart growth advisory panel and studies urban sustainability, said the Star’s analysis – the first of its kind – raises important questions about how the 2006 Places to Grow plan is playing out, wrote the Toronto Star […]

York Professors comment on Ontario's hydro rate increases and increased profits for power authorities

Conservative leader Tim Hudak slammed the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) as a wasteful entity, wrote the Ottawa Citizen Sept. 24 in a story about an Ontario Energy Board (OEB) decision to allow electricity distributors to make higher profits: The Conservative leader said that, while the agency has expanded, it has yet to fulfil its central […]

Professor Mark Winfield says Ontario needs new electricity plan to meet demand and develop renewable energy

Ontario’s electricity system will continue to lurch from crisis to crisis until a long-term strategy focused on environmental and economic sustainability is adopted, concludes a study led by York environmental studies Professor Mark Winfield. It was published in the international journal Energy Policy this month. The study finds that the conventional approaches to electricity system planning […]

Professor Mark Winfield on eaked report blaming tank-to-tank propane transfer for Toronto's Sunrise explosion

A leaked report from the Ontario Fire Marshal’s Office on the eve of the second anniversary of the massive Downsview explosion at Sunrise Propane blames a tank-to-tank transfer of propane for the blast, wrote the North York Mirror Aug. 4: The transfer, which Sunrise had previously been ordered to cease performing, caused liquid propane to […]

Professor Mark Winfield speaks to Globe and Mail about local pushback to Ontario's green energy plans

Residents of Bala, located about a two hours drive north of Toronto, say they have nothing against hydro power, but fear the $23-million facility and its construction will destroy the tiny town’s main attraction: the falls that lure curious eyeballs and day-tripper cash, wrote The Globe and Mail Aug. 2: This is one local battlefield […]

Earth Hour involving younger environmentalists, part of larger demographic trend

This is a period marked by distinct shifts in demographics and attitudes when it comes to the environment, said Mark Winfield, a professor in York’s Faculty of Environmental Studies (FES), in a story about Earth Hour in the Toronto Star March 25: For one thing, those most heavily engaged in environmentalism have become significantly younger […]