1. Canada’s Environmental Issues

2. SS6G7 - The student will discuss environmental issues in Canada
SS6G7 - The student will discuss environmental issues in Canada. What might be some of Canada’s environmental concerns?

3. Essential Question
What are Canada’s 3 major Environmental Issues?

4. Human-Environment Interaction
Humans interact with their environment. They either adapt to it….. or change it.

5. Environmental Issues Notes
Pollution of the Great Lakes
Use
Problem
effect
2. Mining in the Canadian Shield
Deforestation of Timber

6. Pollution of the Great Lakes

7. GREAT LAKES
What is it used for?

8. The Beluga whale is one aquatic animal that is vanishing due to chemicals in Canada’s waterways.

9. Pollution in the Great Lakes is caused by waste dumping, run-off and acid rain

10. Pollution of the Great Lakes
Dumping : industries dump their waste directly into the Great Lakes.
Ex: Sewage treatment plants, power plants

11. Run-off is when rain washes pollutants like fertilizers, pesticides, or garbage into lakes and rivers.

12. Acid Rain is caused by coal-burning factories and car exhaust.
The rain becomes more acidic which is harmful to aquatic life.

13. Questions
What do you think is the main cause of all of this pollution?
What effects do you think this pollution has on wildlife?
What effect does it have on humans?
Why do you think these companies dump their waste in the Great Lakes?

14. Effects of Pollution in Canada
The effects of water pollution can range from aquatic deformities to contaminated fish to "dead" lakes.
Studies have suggested that toxic chemicals can lead to reproductive problems, cancer and neurological disorders in Humans.

15. Mining in the Canadian Shield

16. Canadian Shield
The Shield is one of the world's richest areas in terms of mineral ores. It is filled with substantial deposits of nickel, gold, silver, diamonds, and copper.

17. Extraction and Overuse
Extraction: to get. To pull out.
ex: you might have a tooth pulled or extracted.
Overuse: to use way too much of something
ex: when someone uses WAY too much cologne
Many of Canada’s natural resources are extracted and overused.

18. Extraction and Overuse: Canadian Shield
Extraction of minerals provides short-term money, but has long-term negative effects.
Mines often contaminate the soil, contaminate water and disrupt the local ecosystem.
They have been linked to increases in human sickness and death of animals.
Coal Mine in Canada

19. How eager do you think developers are to get to these minerals? Why?
Do you think these people are concerned about what happens to the environment when they extract these materials? Why or Why Not?
Gold Mine in Canada Nickel Mine in Canada

20. Deforestation of Timber

21. Extraction and Overuse: Timber
Timber or wood is another important resource found in Canada.
Often, timber is cut down to make room for a mineral mine

22. Canada’s Boreal Forest
The Boreal Forest is 10,000 years old.
It is one of the world’s oldest forests.
The timber in the Boreal Forest is being used to make paper products.
This is endangering the lives of many animals that live in this ecosystem like the woodland caribou and the red fox.

24. Forests are a limited resource.
If they continue to be overused, they will not be renewed.
Cutting trees down quicker than they can be re-grown is called Deforestation

25. From This

26. To This

27. To This

28. How does the Deforestation of the Boreal Forest make you feel? Why?
Why might deforestation be more harmful than mining?
Do you think the short-term gains of deforestation are worth the long-term effects? Why or Why not?

29. Activity
On paper…….List and describe in your own words the 3 environmental problems of Canada
Be planning …… a picture that shows the problem.