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6 stouffviue suntribune saturday nov 18 2006 suntnbune a metroland community newspaper 6290 main st stouffviue on l4a7z5 publisher ian proudfoot editor in chief debora kelly business manager robert lazurko director interactive media technoixgy john futhey director advertising marketingpartnerships distribution director barry black debraweller director circulation york region printing systems general manager lynnpashko bob dean letters to the editor new mayor a sore winner you would think when someone as public as the new mayor is accepting his new post he would have some consider ation for those who ran against him especially the previous mayor not only did wayne emmerson kick sue sherban while she was down by speaking about the town not liking some of her decisions but he did not even congratulate her on a race well run almost every other politician i saw or heard on rogers television monday night spoke nicely about their opponents what example does this set as our new mayor ms sherban took three years out of her life to serve us and some of us think she did a great job shame on you for not acknowledging this mr emmerson susan luff stouffville election no place for personal agenda re candidate running on onedimen sional platform letter to the editor nov 11 i cannot believe tina vitale of octagon medical services would use the munici pal election and a citizen concerned about the company opening steps from her home as a platform to run down council candidate it is either ms vitales lack of integrity or her desire to see someone else elected to ensure her business is approved it is not because she cares about our town she knows quite well about 100 resi dents attended the town council meeting to speak out against her business lets be clear she thinks we need a medical waste business trucking contaminated needles and other contaminated waste to our community washing it sterilizing it and shipping it away as a registered nurse with more than 30 years of experience this is not a clean business it is not the vision residents of this community have for gormley and quite frankly probably not the place residents are looking to for employment what gormley is to ms vitale is a com munity in which she hoped to quietly start a highrisk business residents were not against her business just hot in favour of putting it in a community that does not have sewer systems and relies on well water we will continue to remind elected officials of the risk posed by octagon medical barbara e collins gormley hcvmwto stern warning changes climate debate sir nicolas sterns recent report on the economics of global warming has finally changed the nature of the debate instead of being pigeonholed as an environmental problem global warming can finally be seen for what it really is an economic one the stern report was huge literally at 700 pages but also for the shockwaves it sent around the world mr stern is no lightweight hes a former chief economist with the world bank at his disposal was a team of 20 researchers and academics and the report they presented while certainly not the final word on the topic has finally assigned a dollar figure to the costs of global warm ing that figure is astounding 7 trillion us or between five and 20 per cent of the global economy wiped out by the beginning of the next century because of prob lems brought about by a warmer planet global warming the report states could cost more than the first two world wars combined and lead to a worldwide depression predictably some people pounced on the report saying it was alarmist and inaccurate of course the reality is no one knows how accurate it is creating a report of this kind naturally requires making certain assumptions and even some guesses about future trends but it represents a very good estimate that can now be refined over time what we mustnt do however is get so bogged down in fighting over the details that we fail to see the most important message in the report that we cant afford not to take serious action foryears many politicians and industry lobbyists have painted global warming as an environ mental problem like creating a new park helping an endangered david suzuki species recover or planting trees yes we need to help the envi ronment they said but we have to be careful not to do anything to slow economic growth in fact some went to great lengths to insist tackling global warming would mean shutting down the economy sure they lamented we could do something about the problem so long as you dont mind living in caves and eat ing dirt basically global warming was painted as an eitheror environ- mental problem either you had a robust econo my and accepted a hotter planet that might not have as many pret ty birds or plants or you had no economy and lived like the flintstones with lots of fuzzy ani mals and spotted toads according to the standard argument you couldnt have both mr sterns report shows this is a lie for two reasons first the economic costs not just the environmental costs of inaction are actually much higher than adequately dealing with the problem now mr stern says measures to sta bilize greenhouse gas concentra tions at levels that will prevent dangerous global warming will cost just 1 per cent of the global gdp this means we most certainly can afford to take significant action second the report shows tack ling global warming is not about saving the whales or some such thing its about not being stupid its about having the capacity to recognize the health of the world we live in and the health of our people and our economies are intimately connected its about recognizing although we rarely think about it the ser vices provided by nature are worth a great deal of money if you like to think of it that way we cant stop global warming in its tracks but we can avoid the worst of it fighting the problem certainly has a price but its manageable these are the lessons of the stern report reasons enough to put aside the rhetoric stop the posturing and not be stupid take the david suzuki challenge at wwwdavidsuzukiorg letters policy the suntribune welcomes your idlers all submissions must be less than 400 words and must include a daytime telephone number name and address the suntribuncrescrves the right to publish or not publish and to edit for clarity and space utters to the editor the suntribune stouffviue on l4a7z5 jmasonyrngcom editorial editor jim mason jmasonyrngcom assistant editor rick vanderlinde rvanderiindeyrngcom interactive media marketing advertising manager dawna andrews dandrewsymgcom advertising retail manager staceyallen sallenyrngcom classified manager ann campbell acampbellyrngcom assistant classified manager bonnie rondeau brondeauymgcom new business development manager mike rogerson mrogersonyrngcom production team leader sherry day sdayymgcom editorial 9056402612 fax9052941583 advertising 9056402612 classified i8oo7433353fax 905i94 distribution 9056402612 canajun ontario r- ctamkmeuuid pi aaa bond mentor com sunlhbune a york region newspaper group community newspaper the suntribune published every thursday and saturday is a member of the metroland printing publishing and distributing ltd a whollyowned subsidiary of torstar corporation metroland is comprised of 70 community publications across ontario the york region newspaper group includes the liberal serving richmond hill and thornhill vaughan citizen the erabanner newmarketaurora markham economist sun georgjna advocate york region business times north of the city yorkregioncom and york region printing