Why some Canadians love living without a car | CBC Climate Change News

Welcome to our weekly newsletter where we highlight environmental trends and solutions that are moving us to a more sustainable world. 

Hi, it’s Emily again. My family doesn’t own a car. For us – me, my husband and two kids, ages eight and 13 –  walking, cycling, transit, car sharing and ride hailing work great. But we live in Toronto, and I was curious about the experience of other Canadians who live car-free.

This week:

• What I learned from people who live car-free across Canada
• The Big Picture: China flattens the emissions curve
• Goats destroy invasive buckthorn one bite at a time

What I learned from people who live car-free across Canada

Some newsletters ago, I asked readers of this newsletter to get in touch about living without a car. After all, research from the World Resources Institute that ranked 19 climate-friendly choices found “go car-free” had the greatest climate impact.

But going car-free can be challenging in rural areas — and even in cities, which are still largely designed for cars. Here are some key things I learned from talking to car-free Canadians.

The top reason for going car-free was financial

The average cost of owning a car in Canada is about $12,000 to $16,000 a year, including the cost of purchasing the vehicle itself, depreciation, maintenance, fuel and insurance, according to CAA’s online calculator and Ratehub.ca. 

“Driving is unaffordable,” wrote Linda Karounos, who considered owning a car when she moved to Toronto from Greece with her kids, two school-aged children and three young adults, about 15 years ago. Once she crunched the numbers, “it didn’t make any sense,” recalled Karounos, who works as a pastry chef and gets around by bike and public transit.

Some readers said they could afford owning a car, but would rather spend the money elsewhere. Many said that without the costs of a car, they were able to afford to rent or buy in a more expensive, accessible neighbourhood close to shops and transit.

Jacqueline Wallace gave up her car in 2014 while living in Calgary. She says the money she saved allowed her to retire from her job two years early and move to Victoria.

Carolyn Webb, who lives in Ottawa, lists the financial savings as the top reason her family of four lives car-free. But she said it also forces them to exercise and is better for the planet: “That matters to all of us.”

You need to choose where you live carefully to make it work

“Choose where you live strategically,” said Joanne Moyer of Edmonton, who picked an apartment in a transit-accessible neighbourhood with good routes to work, a grocery store within walking distance, and nearby parkland with walking and cycling paths.

Denser, more walkable neighbourhoods and a greater number of transit options in bigger cities make car-free living easier. 

We heard from many people who were also happily car-free in smaller towns and cities such as Victoria, Sherwood Park, Alta., and Kingston, Ont. Most managed to find neighbourhoods where they could easily get to work and go shopping. 

But it can be challenging in rural areas. 

Sandra McGuire lived happily car-free in southern Ontario for years, but moved to a farm halfway between Lunenburg and Bridgewater, N.S., a year and half ago. “It’s feeling impossible to be without a vehicle here,” wrote McGuire, who is still giving it a go. The nearest stores are on the outskirts of town, taxis are few and expensive, and the only public transit is a shuttle that must be booked two weeks in advance.

That said, we heard from William Penney in Gimli, Man., and Arnold Martin of Whaletown, on Cortes Island, B.C., who both ride trikes around their small, rural communities (Martin’s is electric, Penney’s is not).

Many without a car say it’s a great lifestyle

“I love not owning a car,” said Teal Burns of Halifax. Many others said the same thing in slightly different ways. Those who previously owned a car say they don’t miss the cost and hassle of owning a car or the stress of driving. 

Since Phil Bergeron-Burns’s family of four got rid of their car four years ago, the Dartmouth, N.S., resident says that in winter, “I don’t even shovel my driveway. I love those days when it snows!” 

One of the big selling points of owning your own car is independence. But many car-free Canadians said living without a car keeps them more socially connected – whether through carpooling, borrowing a relative’s or friend’s car or shared journeys such as transit or bus tours – and they see that as a good thing. 

Others say car-free transportation has kept them healthier both physically and mentally. Moyer calls her commute by bike and on foot through the river valley in Edmonton “glorious.” She’s sure she’s less stressed than car commuters. “And I’m definitely in better shape!”

– Emily Chung

Old issues of What on Earth? are here. The CBC News climate page is here. 

Check out our podcast and radio show. In one of our newest episodes:Can Canada have it all when it comes to fighting climate change and fossil fuel extraction? That appears to be the goal in Prime Minister Mark Carney’s first budget. But Climate Minister Julie Dabrusin says Canada still has cred in the fight to lower emissions, as she heads to the UN’s climate conference in Brazil. Then, we hear at stake as the world gathers in the Amazon rainforest for COP30, and what climate leadership looks like in 2025.

What On Earth drops new podcast episodes every Wednesday and Saturday. You can find them on your favourite podcast app or on demand at CBC Listen. The radio show airs Sundays at 11 a.m., 11:30 a.m. in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Check the CBC News Climate Dashboard for live updates on rainfall and snowfall records. Set your location for information on air quality and to find out how today’s temperatures compare to historical trends. 

Reader feedback

Last week, Nick Logan wrote about religious leaders from different faiths joining forces to promote climate action. Michael Polanyi, co-chair of the group Faith in Climate Action, wrote in and shared this photo of an event in Toronto earlier this week. He said about 100 people of different religions attended a multi-faith service and then marched to Minister of Environment and Climate Change Julie Dabrusin’s office to deliver a letter calling for no new pipelines and a faster transition to renewable energy. “Thank you for bringing attention to the efforts that people of faith are taking to press governments to stem and reverse the devastating heating of planet Earth, which many faith traditions recognize as a sacred creation that is to be respected and protected,” he said. “Faith communities in Canada are indeed stepping up, particularly on the eve of COP30. “

Write us at [email protected] (and send photos there too!)

The Big Picture: China flattens the emissions curve

China is often criticized as the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases. But for the past 18 months, its emissions have been flat or falling, a new analysis shows. Lauri Myllyvirta of the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air and senior fellow at Asia Society Policy Institute did the analysis for Carbon Brief, finding that power emissions have fallen despite growing electricity demand, thanks to a huge growth in wind and solar. China has committed to peaking emissions before 2030, but has not specified a year. It has also said it would cut its carbon intensity – the CO2 emissions per unit of GDP – by 65 per cent by 2030, compared to 2005. It’s still set to miss its interim target for 2025 “meaning steeper reductions are needed to hit the country’s 2030 goal,” Myllyvirta writes.

— Emily Chung

Hot and bothered: Provocative ideas from around the web

• There are five main techniques used to spread misinformation, says University of Melbourne cognitive scientist John Cook. Yale Climate Connection looks at how they’re used to promote climate denial, using examples from Joe Rogan’s popular podcast.

Goats destroy invasive buckthorn one bite at a time

A goat’s appetite is nothing to kid about. 

That’s what Natalie Feisthauer learned last week when she called in a team of 50 goats to munch through two acres of invasive buckthorn shrubs on her rural Hamilton property — to great success. 

The level of buckthorn clearing the goats accomplished in two days — by mouth no less — would normally take Feisthauer and her husband weeks if not months to pull out and chop down by hand, she said. 

“They’re so much more efficient than we could ever be,” Feisthauer said. “And they’re quite a joy actually — an absolute delight. They’re so cute and very friendly, and hard to stay away from.” 

Across southern Ontario, goats are becoming, well, the G.O.A.T. — otherwise known as the Greatest Of All Time — when it comes to tackling invasive plant species. 

In recent years, property owners, conservation authorities and municipalities have turned to “eco-herds” to chow down not only buckthorn but also phragmites, Manitoba maple, dog strangling vine, vetch and Canada thistle, to name a few. 

For about a decade, Feisthauer and her husband have been playing a game of “whack-a-mole” with the aggressively spreading buckthorn — clearing one area of their 10 acres, only for it to spread to another. Buckthorn is a problem because it quickly becomes dense, changes soil composition, blocks sunlight and stops native plants from growing.

Recently the couple turned to the Hamilton Conservation Authority (HCA) to help manage it without herbicides, Feisthauer said. They decided to focus on two areas with especially dense thickets of buckthorn — and to bring in the specialists.

Goat lover brings the herd

Goats in the City, a goat-rental company based out of King City, Ont., arrived at the property last week with a trailer of goats ready to bleat around the bush. 

It was their first job in Hamilton and one they thoroughly enjoyed, said goat lover Ian Matthews, 58, company founder and president, who is also writing a book about everything he’s learned from goats.

Buckthorn is like candy for them, he said. The “little lawn mowers” seek buckthorn out while eating around important native plants like milkweed, preserving them in the process. 

Goats have another advantage. 

Buckthorn spreads when birds and other animals eat their berries and then poop out the seeds, which then grow in new spots, said Matthews. The goat digestive process, on the other hand, damages the seeds so they can’t grow once excreted.  

“Our idea is to use nature to cure nature,” said Matthews, who owns 126 goats in total.

Growing up in Jamaica, his family raised goats. By age 11, he was in charge of about 50, Matthews said.

But as a kid, he always wanted to be something other than a goat herder. When he and his family eventually moved to Canada, he pursued a career as a mortgage broker instead.

Then, years later, he began helping his dad care for his goats, this time in the GTA, and couldn’t get enough.

“My whole childhood experience with goats came flooding back and I just fell back in love with them,” he said. 

By 2021, he’d launched Goats in the City and has been putting the goats to good use ever since. 

Bred to be friendly, each goat has its own personality — for better or worse, Matthews said. 

“Believe me, it’s not always fun, but it’s always interesting.”

— Samantha Beattie

Thanks for reading. If you have questions, criticisms or story tips, please send them to [email protected].

What on Earth? comes straight to your inbox every Thursday. 

Editors: Emily Chung and Hannah Hoag | Logo design: Sködt McNalty