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EDITORIAL Aur Geo ADVERTISING Fax 9058534626 DISTRIBUTION Fax 250 Industrial Aurora ON L4G Editoriai Editor Aurora Jeff Bower com Editor Newmarket Editor Georeina Tracy Kibble tkibblrPyrmgcom Production Jackie Smart Advertising Retail Sales Manager Dave Williams dwiltiamsPyrmg com Classified Manager Bonnie Rondeau Administration Office Manager Judy White Distribution Distribution John MacKinnon Circulation Manager MeganPike mpikemyrmgcom THE ERA THE BANNER York Region Media Group community newspapers The EraThe Banner published every Tuesday Thursday and Sunday are divisions of trie Media Group Ltd a wholly owned subsidiary Torstar Corporation The family of newspapers is comprised of 100 community publications across Ontario The York Region Media Group includes The liberal serving Richmond Hill and ThomhiM Citizen Markham Economist Sun StouffvHle SunTnbune Advocate North of the City yorkregioncom and York Region Printing- LETTERS POLICY All submissions must be less than words and include a daytime telephone number name and address The EraThe Banner reserves the right to publish or not publish and to edit for clarity and space Write Letters to the Editor Tat EraThe Box 236 L3Y4X1 NION Established 1853 THE ERATHE BANNER 580 Steven Crt Newmarket ON L3Y 250 Industrial N Aurora ON 4C3 Publisher Ian Proudfoot Editor in Chief Debora Kelly Business Manager Robert Lazurko Director Operations Barry Black Director Advertising Distribution Gord Paolucci Director Sales Marketing Classified Todays Homes LETTERS TO THE EDITOR MP Lois Brown doing what shes supposed to do For the past few weeks your letters to the editor and your editorials have unjustifiably criticized the Conserva tive government especially MP Lois Brown Jan Stephanie Georges com plained Ms Brown was not available for a recent Newmarket town hall meeting She was where she was supposed to be in Taiwan promoting New market and Aurora as a member of the foreign affairs and international development committee Unlike former MP Belinda Stron- ach who failed to attend most of her committee meetings as well as most of her parliamentary sessions long before the onset of her unfortunate illness Ms Brown rigorously fulfills her legislative obligations She did so by representing New market and Aurora on a foreign affairs visit She was not invited to attend the meeting in Newmarket which was a municipal not federal assembly NewmarketAurora MPP Frank was not there either Should our MPs and MPPs be chas tised for fulfilling their duties and not attending municipal meetings when they have obligations at their respec tive levels of government If The Era and The Banner as well as those who casually criticize Ms Brown apprised themselves of the aforementioned facts through Hansard they would not ignore the unprecedented aid given by Canada to Haiti However laudable the Belinda Stronach Foundation support for Haiti it is the capability of immediate heavy air lift that brought Canadian help to that country within very few hours No other government willingly equipped Canada for such a capacity previously Meanwhile the recent prorogation of Parliament occupies The Era and The Banner more than the recogni tion Jean Chretiens Liberals did the same in the 1990s while depriving the Canadian Forces of the means to help others a blunder finally amend ed by Steven Harper LAURENCE GOTTLIEB AURORA Climate change symptom of economic madness In a interview about his deci sion to prorogue Parliament Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Canadians are primarily focused on the economy Thus he dismissed concerns about Canadian complicity with torture in Afghanistan and ignored the fact Cana dians see climate change as a critical issue Mr Harper has often used the econ omy as an excuse to reject our inter national obligations as a signatory of the Kyoto protocol and rebuff serious discussion about the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions develop renewable energy and create green jobs In his recent cabinet shuffle Mr Harper reaffirmed the economy is his governments top priority Raising the spectre of economic disaster is a convenient way to down play or ignore otrftrissues but global ecological degradation has enormous economic implications Former World Bank chief economist Lord Stem in his groundbreaking anal ysis of the economics of climate change concluded taking action to keep heat- trapping greenhouse gas emissions below levels that would cause cata strophic climate change could require investment of 2 to 3 per cent of annual David Suzuki with Faisal global gross domestic product Thats a huge amount of money but such a massive investment would cre ate jobs and move us to a sustainable and healthy energy future Lord Stem also pointed out failing to bring down greenhouse gas emis sions wul destroy the economy costing more than the First and Second World Wars combined How can anyone who claims to be concerned about the econ omy ignore this The challenges we face are far more profound than just economic collapse They threaten the very existence of civi lization The environmental crisis is not just about greenhouse gas emissions toxic pollution disappearing forests or van ishing species Its about whether or not the bio sphere can continue to support top predators and no species is higher up the food chain than humans In a debate in the Guardian newspaper between George Monbiot and Paul Aug 18 2009 both wellknown writers and environ mentalists Mr refers to a set of graphs with the same horizontal axis measuring time from 1750 to 2000 The graphs measure popula tion levels concentration in the atmosphere exploitation of fisheries destruction of tropical forests paper consumption number of motor vehicles water use the rate of spe cies extinction and the totality of the human economys GDP Whats amazing is although they measure such disparate factors the graphs curves are almost identical A line begins on the left of the page ris ing gradually as it moves to the right Then in the last inch or so around 1950 it veers steeply upwards We are familiar with these curves especially for population Try this Take a piece of paper and draw a horizontal line representing time but now ranging from 150000 years ago when our species appeared on Earth to the present For more than per cent the curve is virtually flat rising imperceptibly until finally reaching a billion in the last pencil- width of time near 1830 Then the curve leaps straight up of the page to 68 billion now Nothing can rise so steeply without hitting lim its resulting in rapid collapse Mr conclusion The root cause of all these trends is the same a rapacious human econ omy bringing the world swiftly to the brink of chaos We cannot keep fooling ourselves into thinking simply recycling and composting replacing light bulbs and buying hybrid cars will get us out of the jam were in These are important but theyre only a start Our blind and relentless commit ment to continued growth is the very heart of the crisis If Mr Harper is serious about the economy being our highest priority hed better start addressing the state of the global ecosphere Climate change is the place to start David Suzuki writes an occasional column forThe AoocateTnBanrrerTheEraDrFatsalMooiasttie at the FoundaoonVisrt