The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

6 stouffvilie suntribune saturday june 16 2007 0touftvlue mm suntnbune 6290 main st stouffvilie on l4a 1g7 wwwyorkregioncom publisher ian proudfoot editor in chief debora kelly business manager robert lazurko director interactive media technology john futhey director advertising york region printing distribution general manager barry black bob dean director circulation systems lynn pashko letters to the editor park plans raise concerns re meeting of local students with mayor wayne emmerson suntribune may 26 while we students from glad park public school were in favour of some of the park plans there are many things we disagreed with and had concerns about after attending the meeting we wrote a letter to the mayor about what we heard on may 22 we were able to sit in on the council meeting we enjoyed it very much however we disagree with some of the ideas such as putting the baseball diamonds and soccer fields on bethesda making main street four lanes and taking outthe outdoor pool you had talked about making main street four lanes on the welcome sign to stouffvilie it says country close to the city coming into town on a fourlane street isnt country people will just drive through our town instead of widening main street you could fix up the back roads fixing them up would encourage people to take them lowering the traffic flow on main also you talked about moving the base ball diamonds and soccer fields out to bethesda park people dont want to go all the way to bethesda just to play baseball or soccer for a couple of hours having them right in town encourages people of any age to play with their friends with them far away people wont want to play as much if you do decide to put them out on bethesda you should add basketball courts near each playground in the park plans you have a splash pad instead of the outdoor pool because ifs for all ages developmentally challenged people and people in wheelchairs if you were to spend the money you can have the pool accessible to people in wheel chairs the indoor pool has a machine to pick up the chair and lift it into the water a splash pad isnt for all ages teenagers dont want to go to a splash pad where the water is two centimetres deep the outdoor pool is the only public pool in stouffvilie you can dive in i am a swim mer and my friends are as well in the sum mer i like to hang out and dive at the pool with my friends its always busy with kids having fun with their friends in the sun also many families without air condition ing go to the night swim to cool off we also noticed youre moving every thing we kids would hang out down toward the new houses so basically youre mov ing our downtown stouffvilie closer to the new residents when its now central to all residents our question to you is why are you mov ing downtown stouffvilie closer to the new residents when weve been here longer tommy stevens william brown liam mitro alexandra smith mackenzie moyer stouffvilie still waiting for conservation after all these years climate change and the kyoto protocol are all over the news these days but the 1992 earth summit in rio de janeiro that launched the united nations framework convention on climate change and ultimately the kyoto protocol also gave rise to another critical international environmen tal treaty do you remember what it was you would be forgiven if you didnt although the convention on biological diversity opened for sig nature in rio with much fanfare it hasnt had the attention climate change and kyoto have received over the past 15 years and thats a shame because its a very laudable initiative that hasnt made it into the public consciousness yet like the kyoto protocol the convention on biological diversity includes targets and timelines for signatories to meet for kyoto the goal was to get participating coun tries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions for the convention on biological diversity it was to reduce the rate of species loss this was a landmark decision for the first time countries around the world recognized the planets diversity of life or biodi versity was a common good and it was in our best interest to con serve it for future generations scientists felt an agreement like this was essential because the planet was and still is undergoing a biodiversity crisis globally some 16000 species are threatened with extinction these creatures are at risk from human activities such as logging pollution poaching over fishing global warming and other forms of habitat destruction far from being just an emo tional issue about cute furry crea tures or as scientists sometimes say charismatic megafauna pro tecting biodiversity is important for all humanity the wide variety of life on this planet provides a host of natural services that would be expensive and virtually impos sible to duplicate such as provid- david suzuki ing food building materials and medicine and also nutrient cycling and pollination around the world twothirds of these ecosystems are in decline canada was the first industrial ized country to sign the convention on biological diversity which was a source of pride for many canadians including me when i attended the rio earth summit the convention on biological diveristy offered the hope countries were taking their responsibilities seriously and mov ing to a more sustainable path under this agreement canada and 167 other signatory nations prom ised to reduce the loss of species within our countries it seemed like a good first step however canadas main response to our obligations under the contract has been to develop the national species at risk act otherwise known as sara while good on paper this act has prov en woefully inadequate to protect canadas species it generally defers to the prov inces unless an endangered spe cies pops up on federal land which accounts for less than 5 per cent of the land base of canada or is con sidered a federal species which only refers to specific wildlife like marine mammals and migratory birds so far under sara species such as the northern spotted owl have continued to decline and face cer tain extinction this was certainly not the spirit or the intent of the convention on biological diversity while many countries around the world have also not lived up to their promises to protect biodiver sity canada should be especially embarrassed our country actually houses the secretariat for the convention on biological diversity it is in montreal and canada made quite a show of being the first industrialized coun try to sign the treaty to sweep our failure under the carpet is another black mark on canadas increas ingly shady environmental record according to the intergovern mental panel on climate change global warming will be one of the key drivers of biodiversity loss so the two issues are intricately con nected we need a parallel track to conserve biodiversity alongside our actions to reduce global warming what were missing right now is the political will to get us there 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 suntribuncrcscrvos the right to publish or not publish and to edit for clarity and space letters to the editor the suntribune bex 154 stouffvilie on l4a725 jmasondyrmgcom editorial editor jim mason jmasonyrmgcom interactive media marketing advertising manager dawna andrews dandrcwsyrmgcom advertising retail manager staceyallen sallenyrmgcom classified manager ann campbell aaimpbcllyrmgcom production team leader sherry day ulayyrmgcom distribution manager megan pike mpikeyrmgcom ontario press council ape fdsjt attrrjuftl canadian onions ccab utsrtxt editorial 9056402612 fax9056408778 advertising 9056402612 classified i8007433353 fax 9056408778 distribution oo564o2612 suntnbune a york region media group community newspaper the suntribune published every thursday and saturday is a division of the metroland media group ltd a whollyowned subsidiary of torstar corporation metroland is comprised of 100 community publications across ontario the york region media group includes the liberal serving richmond hill andthornhill vaughan citizen the erabanner newmarketaurora markham economist sun georgina advocate york region business times north of the city yorkregioncom and york region printing