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6stoufiville suntribune saturday may 12 2007 6290 main st stouffvileonl4alg7 wwwyorkregioncom publisher ian proudfoot editor in chief debora kelly business manager robert lazurko director interactive media technology john futhey director advertising distribution barry black director circulation systems lynn pashko york region printing general manager bob dean earth day should be daily celebration re recycling woes april 14 why is earth day only april 22 earth day is supposed to be every day every year earth is not only inhabited by humans but other creatures as well just as we keep our houses clean why cant we clean earth i why litter on earth day this years i saw three incidents first i saw teenagers throwing food wrappers out of the window second i saw a couple throw lottery tickets out the window third 1 saw teenagers throwing banana peels out the window vwhy do they have to litter why cant they throw their garbage out at home or at the waste boxes by the bus stands these people are old enough to know what happens to earth if this con tinues one of the biggest problems is when people put out their recycling they dont secure it so papers and small car tons blow in the wind now if you put recycling in plastic bags they wont accept it you must tie your recycling properly in my neighbourhood a few people dorrt tie their recycling so the wind blows papers in our yard egg cartons and styrofoam too and my mom makes me clean it if homeowners put out their recy cling properly littering would be reduced i hope instead of cleaning earth only on one day we do it every day every sin gle year murali thayabharan grade 6 milliken mills public school save habitat with photo the group known as the friends of musselmans lake works tirelessly as stewards of the lake area and have done so for years it recentiy coproduced a homeown ers guide packed with information and an awesome aerial photo of the lake area they are working to preserve i was so impressed by this booklet im giving it as a gift to family members on special occasions ive also given a copy to three first nation bands who have been stewards of the land since time immemorial we need all the help we can get to save this sensitive wildlife habitat youd be delighted to know the vast number of species living up here that have survived us humans living in their backyards the groups website is wwwfomlca charmaine damato musselmans lake more than lightbulbs needed to cure worlds woes when environment minister john baird announced his gov ernments new climate chaiige plan i was in toronto get ting ready to shoot some tv com mercials promoting energy conser vation i volunteered to do the commer cials because i believe everyone has to do their fair share to reduce the threat of global warming mr baird and prime minister stephen harper apparently disagree our federal governments bla- tandy obvious strategy is to bam boozle canadians into thinking the country is on the ball when it comes to the environment by pre senting plans that have one flashy element that everyone remembers and then essentially supporting the status quo in everything else the federal budget did this with the much touted but poorly designed feebate now mr harper and mr baird can add lightbulbs to the list switching lightbulbs is a no- brainer incandescent bulbs waste more than 90 per cent of the energy they use on heat rather thanlight we have much better options such as energyefficient lighbulbs that will help save energy so of course lets do it but that cant be the only thing we do unfortunately the new plan does little else yes it does provide slightly bet ter targets than mr harpers origi nal plan but by focusing on emis sions intensity rather than actual emissions reductions we end up with a plan guaranteed to keep canada at the back of the pack in the industrialized world let us take an example albertas tar sands are a major source of greenhouse gas emis sions reducing intensity means a reduction in the amount of emis sions per barrel of oil and thafs good but if the total amount of oil extracted doubles or more then any modest gains in efficiency are david suzuki completely wiped out so once again canadas biggest polluters are largely off the hook thats just not fair if canadas biggest polluters are responsible for 50 per cent of the problem they should be responsi ble for 50 per cent of the solution anything else is just wrong but because the plan is a mar ginal improvement over mr harpers last attempt the globe and mail actually ran an editorial praising it they even lauded mr baird for telling the truth to canadians that sticking to our kyoto targets would destroy the economy yet canadians including the globes own readers dont believe the newspapers stance or mr bauds outrageous claims in fact globe poll results in the same newspaper show 60 per cent of canadians think mr bairds claims about kyoto are not believable and 61 per cent say we should stick to our kyoto promise i think canadians are getting to be more than a little embarrassed by the performance of our leaders especially if you look at it from an international perspective the vast majority of industrial ized countries that ratified kyoto are well on their way to meeting their goals by developing technolo gy building infrastructure and hir ing and honing the talent to become economic and environ mental leaders canada is missing out worse still we arent even try ing this is mr harpers second chance at a climate plan and his second weak effort his first plan went through months of delibera tion by an allparty committee and is now much improved that plan bill c30 is now a much more hon est attempt at solving what is really a very big problem for canada and the world i certainly hope mr harper can put aside his partisan politics long enough to bring that bill back rather than proceeding with this lame effort practically every day we hear something new and scary about cli mate change canadians are justifi ably worried whatever we do in response as a country must be commensurate with the problem light bulbs and feebates alone wont cut it we need a fair equi table and responsible plan canadians should accept nothing less take the suzuki challenge at wwwdavid suzukiorg letters policy the suntribune welcomes your letters all submissions must be less than 400 words and must include a daytime telephone number name and address the suntribunereservcs the right to publish or not publish and to edit for clarity and space letters to the editor the suntribune box 154 stouffvilleon l4a7z5 jmasondyrrngcom editorial editor jim mason jmasonyrmgcom interactive media marketing advertising manager dawna andrews dandrewsyrmgcom advertising retail manager stacey alien sauenyrmgcom classified manager ann campbell acampbellyrmgcom production team leader sherry day sdayyrmgcom distribution manager megan pike mplkeyrmgcom ontario press council gjjjfc acrdtl4 yss fdsa cansdan ccab editorial 9056402612 fax9056408778 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