1. Impact of Environmental Responses
Quality of Life
Impact of Environmental Responses

2. How do government decisions on environmental issues impact quality of life
Preservation is the strict setting aside of natural resources to prevent the use or contact by humans or by human intervention.
Exploitation refers primarily to food production, minerals and timber from the natural environment that has been extracted.

3. Possible Impacts
Often the exploitation of nature and the trade of natural resources have been done in a non-sustainable way. This is causing increasing concern, as a non-sustainable exploitation of natural resources ultimately threatens human existence.
The decisions that the government makes regarding environmental issues can negatively or positively affect quality of life in economic, social and physical ways.

4. Examples
Government decisions can affect the energy choices available to Canadian citizens.
Some examples of government decisions on environmental issues that impact quality of life:
Governments can support public transportation initiatives that emit low-levels of green-house gasses (GHG). Public transit, such as Calgary’s Light Rail Transit (LRT), can reduce GHG emissions by reducing the number of people who drive to work and school.

5. The federal government has provided funds to boost the production of bio-fuels, made from crops such as corn and sugarcane. In 2007, this drove up the price of food around the world.
By 2012, federal law will make energy efficient light bulbs mandatory. Consumers will have only efficient light bulbs, such as this fluorescent bulb, to choose from.
The federal government has increased investment in renewable energy technologies, such as wind turbines and solar panels. An example is the McBride Lake Wind Farm near Fort MacLeod, Alberta — one of the largest wind farms in Canada.

6. Ontario has several nuclear power plants, including this plant — the Pickering plant on Lake Ontario. In 2007, Alberta fielded its first proposal to build a nuclear plant in Whitecourt or Grande Prairie. Nuclear energy produces electricity without greenhouse gas emissions. However, it creates other environmentally dangerous wastes.
The Canadian government has been involved in the development of the Kyoto Protocol. This protocol was the first climate-change plan that countries of the world negotiated. Canada at first agreed to the Kyoto Protocol, but its position has changed depending on the political party in power. The Kyoto Protocol set targets for industrialized countries to cut their greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) by 2012.