Today, readers are debating whether landlords should be required to keep units cool in high temperatures and whether new plastic bottles for milk are good thing.
Air conditioning units photographed around Toronto's Little Italy during a heat wave in Ontario.Fernando Morales
From In extreme heat, landlords should be required to keep tenants cool, a contributed column by Abdullah Shihipar
Many countries in the hotter parts of the world use ceiling fans in summer, improving air circulation and removing perspiration more easily. Most dwellings will be fine up to temperatures of 40 degrees with fans in every room. Air conditioning comes with significant emissions concerns and will warm up the city even further. - nupur1
In many countries of the world, air conditioning isn't as prevalent and people are fine. My office in Australia was kept at 28 degrees and no one had an issue with it. My apartment wasn't air conditioned either. No one made a big deal out of it and it gets a heck of a lot hotter there. - fadodado
In response to fadodado:
That's because in Australia, a hot country, buildings are primarily designed to shed heat. In Canada, one of the world's coldest countries, buildings are primarily designed to retain heat. - Nick2244
How can the author compare the responsibility of parents to ensure the health and safety of their underage children with the responsibilities of arms length landlords to independent adults? The failure here is in the social safety net not in the landlord-tenant relationship - barncat2014
From Milk gets a makeover: Switch to PET bottles just the start of changes for everyday staple by Guy Dixon
Parmalat Canada has retooled its factories to bottle milk in new, recyclable,1.5-litre bottles made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET). They keep milk fresher for a longer period of time.Handout/Lactancia
In a world awash with plastic, a new plastic bottle for an everyday staple is the last thing we need. - Bern N.
In response to Bern N.:
So what would you package milk in? Glass? Coated paper/cardboard? Aluminum?
All of those come with essentially similar environmental issues in terms of source raw materials and managing the re-use and waste. Plastic is not an issue if the waste is properly recaptured and processed into new usable products. Which definitely makes the bottle / jug format more desirable than the bag which is harder to manage from a recycling point of view. - Sandia2007
I’m not interested in buying milk in PET bottles, it’s bad enough I buy the bagged milk, yet thats the most environmentally friendly packaging for milk. Some might argue the carton is better but more plastic goes into the cap on milk cartons than is used for bagged milk & you still have the carton to dispose of.
We should be moving away from using plastics especially for consumables, not adding more plastic to the consumable supply chain.
As for the shelf life (spoilage) issue, that’s a result of oversupply caused by Canada’s supply management system. - kbaumgart
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