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6 stouffvilk suntribune b saturday sept 15 2007 tstouffville 0sxaujpwemmm sunlribune 6290 main st stoutmle0nl4alg7 vwwyorkregioncom publisher ian proudfoot editor in chief debora kelly business manager robert lazurko director interactive media technology johnfuthey director advertising york region printing distribution general manager barry black bob dean director circulation systems lynn pashko letters to the editor spend own time money on religious education today as throughout the worlds history religious sectarianism is the cause of turbu lence and countless wars children in several countries aire still taught hatred of those who follow differ ent beliefs fortunately coexistence shar ing daily situations and learning to respect clirninisnes ignorance arid prejudice my goal on the executive of york regions occasional teachers association was to incorporate a world religion course cali brated from kindergarten to grade 12 in our public schools where all are welcome we are a multireligion multicultural society in which we share the same rights rules needs goals and challenges children must be taught different does not mean better or worse and the funda mental fact that virtually all religions share common teachings of love respect forgive ness and help to all mankind canadas constitution provided two pub lic school boards which is a questionable diversity let us together in our public schools educate our youth of our similarities and differences and our shared responsibilities to respect canadas social and moral stan dards ample opportunity exists for additional learning for those who wish to spend time arid money to expand their childs specific religious concepts separation is not glue herbbell stouffville time to elect more women as we approach the 2007 provincial elec tion it is important to look at what parties have done to elect more women and vis ible minorities into the legislature ontarios mpps are predominately male white and come from middleclass backgrounds in an attempt to bolster the ranks of minority members and women elected to the legislature all parties need to sig nificantly improve the proportion of their female candidates by the 2007 election frankly speaking the conservatives have failed to accomplish this objective here are the facts for women candidates in ontario the liberals are running 38 the ndp 36 progressive conservative 24 and the green 10 similarly for the visible minorities candi dates in the province the liberals are run ning 16 ndp 16 progressive conservatives 1 1 and green party 3 in ontario it is time to advance more women and minorities into the democratic process jim jackson aurora p one cynical v one disillusioned one fed up and one what election biofuels not ood for environment earlier this year when i crossed our great coun try to talk to canadians about environmental issues some media pun dits took issue with our vehicle of choice a diesel bus even when i explained diesel actu ally has a lower carbon footprint than gasoline some of them imme diately shot back with then why isnt it biodiesel in truth we had actually wanted to showcase an alternative fuel such as biodiesel we just couldnt find a leasing agent who could get us an appropriate vehicle but from the very beginning we were also nervous about highlight ing something that might be more of a problem than a solution turns put we were probably right according to a recent analy sis published in the journal science attempting to save the planet by wholesale switching to biofuels such as ethanol and biodie sel may unintentionally have the opposite effect proponents of biofuels which are often made from plants such as corn or sugar cane often point to their many advantages over fossil fuels such as gasoline biofuels are less toxic or nontoxic in compari son to fossil fuels they are a renewable resource whereas once fossil fuels are gone theyre gone and biofuels can be grown just about anywhere you can grow crops reducing the need for giant pipelines or oil tankers and poten tially helping to reduce conflicts in areas such as the middle east so far so good but things start to get complicated when you look more closely much has already been debated about the energy requirements to produce some biofuels especially cornbased ethanol ethanol made from corn only contains marginally more energy than what is needed to produce it david suzuki in fact we use about a litres worth of fossil fuels to grow harvest pro cess and transport a litre of corn- based ethanol many people argue that making cornbased ethanol is more of an agricultural subsidy for farmers than it is a sound environ mental policy things get even dodgier for bio fuels when you look at the land area that would be needed to grow fuel crops we use a lot of fossil fuels switch ing to biofuels would not reduce the demand for fuel just change the way we get it and that would require a lot of land in fact substituting just 10 per cent of fossil fuels to biofuels for all our vehicles would require about 40 per cent of the entire cropland in europe and north america that is simply not sustainable of course reducing the amount of fuel we use no matter what the type is very important but the authors of the recent article in science say that if our primary motive in switching to biofuels is to reduce global warm ing then we have to look at all our options for the land that would be needed to grow fuel crops the authors conclude if the prime object of policy on biofu els is mitigation of carbon diox idedriven global warming policy makers may be better advised in the short term 30 years or so to focus on increasing the efficiency of fossil fuel use to conserve the exist ing forests and savannahs and to restore natural forest and grassland habitats on cropland that is not needed for food in other words biofuels alone are not the quickfix answer to global warming in fact strong legislated policies to improve the efficiency of our cars homes and industries is a much more effective strategy in the longer term biofuels may certainly play an important role some technologies such as cel- lulosic ethanol which is made from woody debris are very promising and they need to be supported by government and industry now so they can be available on a larger scale in the coming years biofuels have many advantag es but we have to look at all our options and make sure we make the best choices to ensure a more sustainable future me the nature challenge and learn more at wwwdavidsuzukioig letters policy thesuntyibune welcomes your letters all submissions must be less than 400 words and must include a daytime telephone number name and address thcsuntribuncrescrves the right to publish or not publish and to edit for clar ity and space letters to the editor the suntribune 6290 main st stoufmlle on l4a ig7 jmasoneyrmgcom editorial editor jim mason jmasonyrmgcom interactive media marketing advertising manager dawnd andrews dandrewsyrmgcom advertising retail manager staceyallen sallenyrmgcom classified manager ann campbell acampbellyrmgcom assistant classified manager bonnie rondeau brondeauyrmgcom production team leader sherry day fdayyrmgcom ontario press council gpe canxfan oramtom aomboans ccab editorial 9056402612 fax9056408778 advertising 9056402612 classified 18007433353 fax9056408778 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 thomhill vaughan citizen the erabanner newmarketaurora markham economist sun georgina advocate york region business times north of the city yorkregioncom and york refion printing