Climate Change

Earth Week 2021

Headwaters Communities in Action is partnering with Dufferin County to create a team for the Earth Month Ecochallenge. This initiative is offered by Ecochallenge.org in partnership with Project Drawdown. Individuals can create a profile and track their actions to receive points for their team. The program includes promotional material for teams to post throughout the month. Sustainable Orangeville will also co-captain a team.

Last year due to the pandemic the Town joined the Municipalities Mobilizing Earth Day campaign where municipalities can share their resources and post their own virtual events to the calendar. Also posted are actions organized by scale (individual, a school, a municipality) to use for ideas.

View a list of 51 actions individuals can take for Earth Day.

For more general climate change education material, check out these resources:

• Global Climate Change – Take a look at NASA's Global Climate Change website to learn more about climate change causes. Below are some specific resources and videos from NASA:
• Video: Global Warming from 1880 to 2020
• Video: How global warming stacks up
• Climate Time Machine – This series of visualizations shows how some of Earth's key climate indicators are changing over time
• Video: Climate Change 101 – With Bill Nye and National Geographic
• Carbon Footprint – Calculate your carbon footprint and learn how you can reduce your contribution to climate change
• Act at Home – David Suzuki Foundation resource hub for learning about climate change and actions individuals can take
• Climate Data – Residents can explore Climate Data's interactive map to compare different climate variables in Orangeville, for the past, present, and future
• Canada in a Changing Climate – Is the national assessment of how and why Canada’s climate is changing; the impacts of these changes on our communities, environment, and economy; and how we are adapting
• Town of Orangeville’s Draft Corporate Climate Change Adaptation Plan – Learn about how the Town is adapting to the local impacts of climate change 

Climate projections supported by the Canadian Centre for Climate Services show that the Town of Orangeville is going to experience warming temperatures, variability in precipitation and more extreme weather events. We recognize the threats to our community that climate change poses and are committed to both mitigation and adaptation measures. View the draft Corporate Climate Change Adaptation Plan.

Climate adaptation

Through the Town's Climate Change Adaptation Plan and Climate Change Adaptation Policy, we find ways to reduce the impact of climate change on our community. This includes adapting our assets, operations and services as they relate to climate change.

Climate mitigation

The Town of Orangeville is a member of the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI), Canada's Partners for Climate Protection (PCP) program. The PCP is a network of more than 350 Canadian municipal governments that have committed to reducing local greenhouse gas emissions and acting on climate change.

The PCP program consists of reaching five key milestones:

1. Greenhouse gas emissions inventory
2. Set reduction targets
3. Develop an action plan
4. Implement action plan
5. Monitor progress