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6 stouffvsksuntribunem saturday aug 182007 suntnbune 6290 main st stouffville 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 your area could be next whitchurch stouffville council approved a medical waste processing facility in the community of gormley within the oak ridges moraine tuesday the councillors who voted in favour including the local councillor did so in the face of more than 80 residents in opposi tion who had some very sound reasons not to proceed and at least three alternative recommendations what is most notable is the town plan ning department council and mayor did not even bother to hire consultants to study the safety of such a plan but rather chose to hire one consultant to complete a peer review of reports completed for the owners of the waste facility octagon medical this is extremely disappointing consid ering the detailed work other municipalities have done to study the safety and location of waste processing facilities and dumps so now we know that our councillors support and in fact encourage waste pro cessing facilities in our town residents of whitchurchstouffville call your councillor and hold him accountable to appropriate planning before council and the mayor approve a waste processing facil ity in your part of this community barbara collins gormley tips for keeping birds happy re songbirds wont sing my tunes col umn by jim thomas aug 8 jvlr thomas birdfeeding are problem are more common than you think if your neighbour is getting lots of amer ican goldfinch and you are not there are only a couple of good answers your feeder is either in need of a good clean your seed is stale or both a poorly designed finch feeder usually has an inch or two of seed that collects at the bottom that birds cant reach it becomes damp and rotten turning the birds off if your birds have forsaken you your supply of seed doesnt get better with age if you store seed cool and dry it keeps better buy small amounts you can use up quickly ensuring its freshness your problems with squirrels grackles and starlings are all easily solved by being selective and careful with what seeds you offer and how much you put out you are always better to underdo it rather than overfeed as far as birds fending for themselves natural food is available in fall and early winter for your enjoyment feeding in spring and summer is when they are most abundant kurt crist the backyard naturalist ltd stouffville know what wis is the world s smmwest violin- warming may change nature of food we eat canadians are a wellfed bunch we do not generally have to worry about our food supply for most of us its just a matter of heading to the nearest grocery store but global warming and the need to move toward more sustain able ways of food production could gradually change what we eat and how we get it most people have heard about the problems associated with glob al warming and what it will do to our climate we are more likely to get lon ger periods of drought and heat waves could become more frequent or more intense that could pose serious problems for our farmers especially on the prairies but if global warming also lengthens the growing season it would have a beneficial impact on farming in canada at least in some areas although more carbon dioxide the main greenhouse gas in the atmosphere from burning oil and gas is the primary culprit behind global warming carbon dioxide itself can actually enhance plant growth commercial growers often take advantage of this by adding car bon dioxide to the air inside green houses because of these benefits some people believe although glob al warming will force changes to where and how we farm it might have an overall benefit to canadian agriculture our growing season is so short warmer temperatures and high er levels of carbon dioxide likely couldnt help but increase yields could this really be an upside to global warming unfortunately the issue is not that simple not surprisingly nature is often far more complex than we antici pate and thats certainly the case with how plants respond to chang es such as increased greenhouse gases in our atmosphere for example according to a recent article in the journal nature very little is known- about what david suzuki other effects enhanced carbon dioxide levels will have on our food and some scientists are concerned this knowledge gap isnt being addressed quickly enough as it turns out higher carbon dioxide levels have other effects on plants and riot all of them are good many crops wont just grow fast er in an enhanced carbon dioxide environment they will grow differ ently generally plants take up nitro gen from the soil to create proteins needed to help convert atmospher ic carbon dioxide into sugars but at higher carbon dioxide lev els this job gets easier so plants create less protein and take up less nitrogen from the soil but if plants dont create as much protein then they could become less nutritious for humans and other creatures this could have implications throughout the food chain because many creatures depend entirely on plantbased proteins includ ing important livestock like cattle studies done on plants raised with higher levels of carbon dioxide con firm that they do indeed contain less protein though scientists are not sure how serious the problem will be some the protein deficiency could potentially be made up by adding more nitrogen fertilizers to the soil but that poses other envi ronmental problems as nitrogen runoff from farms is already a major source of water pollution in higher carbon dioxide envi ronments the type of protein produced by plants also changes which could alter the nature of some of our foods bread for example depends on a specific protein called gluten which is key to making bread rise other foods could be affected too andreas fangmeier a german professor of plant ecology and eco- toxicology said by 2050 carbon dioxide concentrations could make french fries poisonous beer foam- less and wheat flour unbakeable an exaggeration most likely but he raises an interesting point one we currently know very little about global warming is a very serious problem but it is also fascinating and perplexing in its complexity when everything is connected you never know what one change in the natural world will mean to the entire system we just have to remember ulti mately whatever changes we make will come back to us in the end we had better choose carefully take the nature challenge and learn more at wwwdavidsuzukiorg letters policy the suntribune welcomes your letters all submissions must be less than 400 words arid must include a daytime telephone number name and address the suntribunercscrves the right to publish or not publish and to cdi for clar ity and space letters to the editor the suntribune 6290 main st stouffville on l4aig7 jmasondyrmgcom editorial editor jim mason jmasonynngcom interactive media marketing advertising manager dawna andrews dandrewsyrmgcom advertising retail manager staceyallen sallcnyrmgcom classified manager ann campbell acampbellyrmgcom assistant classified manager bonnie rondeau brondeauyrmgcom production team leader sherry day sdayyrmgcom canadbn cmjubom tasttomc w ccab editorial 9056402612 f 9056408778 advertising 9056402612 classified 18007433353 fax 9056408778 distribution 9056402612 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 newspaper group includes the liberal serving richmond hill and thornhill vaughan citizen the erabanner 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