Despite the humourous arrest warrant that the O.P.P. issued recently for Wiarton Willie for giving poor advice about an early spring, in fact the next few days should let us know that March, the month of spring, is just a few days away. Poor old Wiarton Willie, the northern Ontario groundhog, can't seem to catch a break. If he predicts a late spring people are mad at him and if he predicts an early one and it doesn't happen almost immediately then people are also mad at him.
My prediction is a long, slow spring based upon the quantity of snow that needs to melt. The only way around that would be chinook type of winds that apparently visit the prairies some years .
Do harsh winter conditions affect our environment? I expect that they do. Looking back on the pandemic, one of the few good news stories was how it slowed down the economy (generally not good news) while at the same time also slowed down air pollution significantly as the quantity of vehicles on our highways plummeted. Many people stopped commuting to work either through sickness or through being advised to work from home. As the pandemic eased many drivers also returned to commuting to and from work thus putting air pollution levels back to where they had been (too high). I know here in Elmira there have been many days this winter when the traffic levels in and out of town have been greatly diminished. This helps the quality of our air as well as reduces hospital admissions due to respiratory distress.
Could permanent improvements in both health and the environment be possible if more people worked from home? I expect that that would and should be a goal of our governments. Perhaps modest incentives to both employers and employees, in certain jobs and industries, to work from home could benefit us all.
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