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n economist sunlsuntribune saturday jan 8 2005 n suntnbune a metroland community newspaper 34 civic ave 3rd floor stouflville on l4a 7z5 publisher ian proudfoot editor in chief debora kelly business manager robert lazurko director production interactive media john fiithey advertising director retail flyer sales nicole fletcher advertising director classified real estate events management cord paolucci distribution director marketingpartnerships circulation director barry black debraweller director circulation york region printing systems general manager lynn pashko bob dean letters to the editor share fortune with victims as we entered and celebrated the arrival of a new year more than 150000 people in another part of the world were swallowed by a tidal wave created by an earthquake this is a slap on the wrist by mother nature was it a devil a god our passion for achievements or experiments on nuclear missiles and warheads who knows some of us seem to think because we have advanced technology we are smarter with one hand nature can wipe us out and put us in our place in this tragedy everyone everywhere regardless of race colour religion or background should work together to help we humans all have the same des tiny alexander the great said before dying leave my hands outside the cof fin to show that i have nothing after conquering the whole of the known world i leave with nothing share your fortune with the millions of unfortunate people suffering in the wake of this disaster you are duty- bound to love your neighbour and you will be helped by mother nature in some way jogendrakalra markham kindness always in style on dec 27 i was walking my sons dog on sir lancelot drive in markham when i stepped on to some ice fell and broke my wrist as i lay on the side of the road unable to lift myself up a man and his wife stopped their car and came to my assis tance they picked me up and loaded the dog into their car and drove me to my sons house my husband and i neglected to get their names this act of kindness was greatly appreciated we hope to recognize this couple and let everyone know kindness never goes out of style olive lawrence bala seniors appreciate visitors i wanted to start 2005 off by recog nizing our friendly visitor volunteers at the unionville home society these great people sacrifice their time once a week to visit with some of markhams lovely seniors their visits may include a cup of tea game of cards or even a trip to the mall to some of our seniors this visit may be the only human contact they receive each week the seniors have said they are extremely thankful for this service and comment on the great friendships they have created with the visitors i would like to thank the volunteers publicly for their friendship and dedica tion to our seniors their compassion and kindness have not gone unnoticed valerie leslie unionville home society we need to discover real world that sustains human life iast time i talked about the factors that have led to a shattering of our world- view but i only hinted at the biggest one the economy and its our economy that needs the most work as currently constructed the global econ omy exists in isolation it exists in a world without limits without constraints on growth pollution or exploitation the trouble is there is no such world our world the only planet that we know of in the universe that is capable of supporting life is finite our resources are limited our little planet can only provide so many goods and absorb so much of our waste given these constraints our current economy which is predicated on relentless growth is unsustainable something has to give under the current economic system essential aspects of the natural world such as air the ozone layer water topsoil biodi versity and many others are considered externalities that is outside the economy but it is through these features that nature performs vital services such as filtering david suzuki water pollinating flowering plants com posting vegetation exchanging carbon dioxide for oxygen and much more many of these critical services could never be duplicated by human technology yet because they are provided free by nature they are essentially ignored as though they were worthless r the biosphere the zone of air water and land where life exists is a thin band that surrounds the earth if the earth were reduced to the size of a basketball the bios phere would be thinner than a layer of saran wrap and its fixed it cant grow and that thin layer is where we derive our existence where we deposit all the emissions from our machines where we get our air water and food it is what makes our lives and an economy possible according to standard economic theory none of that matters instead human inven tiveness and productivity are seen as the basis of the economy and since there is no limit to human cre ativity it is often assumed the economy can grow forever a growing economy is there fore equated with progress no one wants to stop progress but when it is so narrowly defined we never ask how much is enough why do we need all this or what is an economy for when we stand back and ask these ques tions it becomes clear what we want out of an economy is to be able to lead a high qual ity of life and to ensure that future genera tions have the same opportunities that means the standard for measuring economic growth gross domestic product gdp is woefully inadequate gdp measures all the money that changes hands in a country this includes money to clean up oil spills treat illness caused by smog clean up car accidents and more so oil spills smog and car accidents are good for the economy but bad for us we need a new bottom line that recog nizes that we are embedded in the natural world and therefore acknowledges the value of its services for our health and quality of life we need to recognize that our world is finite and that it is in our best interests to find ways for us to lead fulfilling lives without depleting the natural services upon which we ultimately depend in short we need to find sustainability the survival attribute of our species was our brain we used it to look ahead recognize dangers and take appropriate action to ensure survival its time we began to use that brain again and rediscover the real world that sustains us and set the real bottom line for our quality of life and ultimately for our survival take the nature challenge and learn more at wwwdavidsuzukiorg letters policy the suntribune welcomes your loiters submissions must be less than 100 words and include a daytime telephone number name and address the suntribune reserves the right to publish or not publish and edit for clarity and space letters to the editor the suntribune 34 cmc ave box 154 stouflville on i 14a7z5 jntasonsyrngconv editorial editor jim mason jmasonyrngcom assistant editor news frank king jkingyrngcom administration office manager vivian oneil foneilyrngcom production manager pam nichols pnichohyrngcom advertising classified manager ann campbell acampbellyrngcom managing director new business flyer sales dawna andrews danhitidt9ytngcom new business manager steve kane skaneyrngcom managing director real estate mike rogerson mrogersonyrngcom events management shows manager stacey allen i uiueqymgcopf t vvv editorial 9056402612 fax 9056408778 advertising 9056402612 classified 8007433353fax 905853765 distribution 9052948244 cauobi oiaimxwbt aodx bojrt member ontxto pita council suntnbune 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 hiil andthornhillvaughan citizen the economist sun markham the erabanner newmarketaurora stouffville suntribune georgina advocate york 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