Noise over noise

Noise from students at a street party near the Dalhousie Campus recently was mentioned in complaints from residents of the neighbourhood. Other noise issues have also been brought to the attention of the municipal government in the past five years.

Noise in the neighbourhood

Andrew Sampson of CBC News reports homecoming-related parties have become a regular occurrence in Halifax since at least 2017. Caitlin Lees wants to see the city of Halifax and Dalhousie University find a way to put an end to unsanctioned street parties. 

There were hundreds of people milling about the residential area, with many carrying alcohol, some of whom were visibly intoxicated. Lees said the music nearby was so loud her house was shaking and that she witnessed some students urinating on her home. (Sampson, 2023)

In March of 2023, CBC Information Morning aired a piece by Erin MacInnis about a Halifax couple seeking a reprieve from noise generated by their neighbour, the Halifax Curling Club. The CBC Website describes the Program Segment. 

As winter sports begin to wrap up for the season, a Halifax couple is looking forward to an annual reprieve from their noisy neighbour. Nancy Shea and her husband Richard live next door to the Halifax Curling Club, they're currently in the process of suing the club over constant noise and other emissions. The CBC's Erin MacInnis brings us the story.

Aired: March 17, 2023 (Information Morning - NS With Portia Clark | Live Radio, n.d.)

The blog post We Want Our Life Back looks at noise levels, neighbour reactions and the HRM Noise By-Law.

Kayla S. Rekowski has completed “Halifax Noise Study: Resident Perceptions into Noise Annoyance” as partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts, Combined Honours in Environment, Sustainability, and Society and Environmental Science.

The literature review has confirmed that noise can have a myriad of negative impacts on both the physical health and well-being of individuals living in urban areas such as stress, loss of income, trouble sleeping, and hypertension (Bjork et al., 2006; Landon et al., 2016). Even average noise levels in the urban environment have been found to exceed acceptable limits of ≥70 dB(A), which can cause irreversible damage to hearing (Mayes, 2021; McAlexander et al., 2015). Free-living animals such as birds have also shown sleep disturbance to night-time urban noise reducing their overall quality of life (Grunst et al., 2021). Species diversity in urban songbirds is greatly decreased from anthropogenic noise in the built environment (Proppe et al., 2013), and neurodiverse persons suffer extreme anxiety from everyday interactions due to urban noise (Landon et al., 2016). (Rekowski, 2022)

Pam Berman of CBC News reported on the use of decibel reading instruments following noise complaints from constituents.

Coun. Kathryn Morse said she received complaints over the summer in her Halifax-Bedford Basin West district because of outdoor community events.

"The music was so loud it was almost intolerable for the people living nearby, yet it was very difficult to enforce and a dispute over how noisy it really was," said Morse.

Coun. Waye Mason cautioned that creating a measurement to use in the noise bylaw is not as easy as it sounds.

"You have to be trained on the decibel meter, it has to be a proper kind of technology and it has to be from a consistent distance," said Mason. "If any of that is in any way not OK, the case is going to get tossed out of court."

But Mason agreed to a review because it has been 10 years since the noise bylaw has been updated. (Berman, 2021)

As Halifax continues to grow in population and increased urban density the impact of noise on the health and enjoyment of residents will likely appear more frequently on the agenda of HRM Councillors. Achieving measurable reduction of noise levels by using mitigation technology or removal of noise sources from neighbourhoods will improve the quality of life for beleaguered residents and address a long standing issue in municipal government.

References

Berman, P. (2021, November 15). When is loud too loud? Council requests noise bylaw review in Halifax region. CBC. Retrieved October 6, 2023, from https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/council-requests-noise-bylaw-review-in-halifax-region-1.6247020 

Information Morning - NS with Portia Clark | Live Radio. (n.d.). CBC. Retrieved October 6, 2023, from https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-27-information-morning-ns 

Rekowski, K. S. (2022, April 22). Halifax Noise Study- Resident Perceptions into Noise Annoyance. DalSpace. Retrieved October 6, 2023, from https://dalspace.library.dal.ca/bitstream/handle/10222/81597/Halifax%20Noise%20Study-%20Resident%20Perceptions%20into%20Noise%20Annoyance.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y 

Sampson, A. (2023, October 2). Neighbours call for public meeting in wake of rowdy street party near Dalhousie campus. CBC. Retrieved October 6, 2023, from https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/neighbours-call-for-public-meeting-in-wake-of-rowdy-street-party-near-dalhousie-campus-1.6984547 

 

Building Consensus with Business on Climate

The Financial Post and the Fraser Institute are unusual sources of encouragement for people who are very concerned about the climate emergency. In Episode 106 of the Down to Business podcast, Nobel-prize winning economist William Nordhaus, is cited as one expert who thinks that Canada is showing the world how carbon pricing should be done.

Attention to Climate now is cheaper than later

This week on Down to Business, Yale economist William Nordhaus discusses the economics of climate change.

In 2018, Nordhaus won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his work integrating long run models of climate change with macroeconomic analysis. (Friedman, 2021)

In his new book, The Spirit of Green, Nordhaus examines what markets can and cannot address when it comes to climate change, and other issues, including the pandemics. He also talked about Canada’s carbon tax and what the costs and rewards of stopping climate change are.

In a discussion that ranges from the history of the environmental movement to the Green New Deal, Nordhaus explains how the spirit of green thinking provides a compelling and hopeful new perspective on modern life. At the heart of green thinking is a recognition that the globalized world is shaped not by isolated individuals but rather by innumerable interactions inside and outside the economy. He shows how rethinking economic efficiency, sustainability, politics, profits, taxes, individual ethics, corporate social responsibility, finance, and more would improve the effectiveness and equity of our society. And he offers specific solutions—on how to price carbon, how to pursue low-carbon technologies, how to design an efficient tax system, and how to foster international cooperation through climate clubs.

The result is a groundbreaking new vision of how we can have our environment and our economy too. (Nordhaus, n.d.)

An article on the web site of the Fraser Institute features a commentary by Kenneth P. Green

Senior Fellow, Fraser Institute, that expresses a desire for more empirical measurements in our analysis of trends in climate change.

Rarely, if ever, do we see much discussion of empirical measurements of climate change; global average temperature and sea level are rare exceptions. But empirical measurements of climate policy impacts, empirical measurements of changes that might, or might not, validate modeled projections of such climate changes, or empirical measurement of meteorological (weather) changes are scarce to non-existent in most media. (Green, n.d.)

The path to effective mitigation and adaptation of the effects of rising global average temperature and increasing sea level requires working on the common ground between environmental activism and strategic economic planning. Some of that common ground appears to be in carbon tax systems and empirical measurement of change in crucial parameters.

References

Friedman, G. (2021, June 16). Canada is showing the world how carbon pricing should be done: Nobel-prize winning economist William Nordhaus. Financial Post. Retrieved June 30, 2023, from https://financialpost.com/commodities/energy/renewables/canada-is-showing-the-world-how-carbon-pricing-should-be-done-nobel-prize-winning-economist-william-nordhaus 

Green, K. P. (n.d.). Models or Measures of Climate Change: Why Does It Matter? Fraser Institute. Retrieved July 2, 2023, from https://www.fraserinstitute.org/studies/ 

Nordhaus, W. D. (n.d.). The Spirit of Green. Princeton University Press. Retrieved July 2, 2023, from https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691214344/the-spirit-of-green