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6 stoitflvmesuntribunew saturday dec 22 2007 suntnhune 6290 main st stouffwleonl4alg7 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 directob circulation systems lynn pashko letters to the editor ordinary residents won battle with multinational province re revisiting an ugly but necessary chapter in stouffville history column by jim mason dec 12 i do not make a habit of writing letters to the newspaper but as a former member of the concerned citizens of whitchurch- stouffijjlle i feel obliged to respond i arii not sure why you would want to revisit this after 25 years but since you have it is appropriate we clarify a few things for the benefit of our new residents firstly we should make clear that we were not initally trying to close the landfill there was a proposal made by the operator to significantly expand it and that is what we were looking to prevent there would have been a much larger blot on the landscape and a much big ger deterrent to future development in stouffville if our group had not fought the province town council and anyone else who got in the way secondly your comment that a health study revealed no cause for concern is not entirely accurate it did in fact show a higher incidence of miscarriages in our municipality than the national average for both 1977 and 1978 and a higher incidence of breast cancer occurring here than in control groups my family moved to stouffville in 1980 and discussion amongst our friends and neighbours of what seemed to be an unusually high rate of miscarriage was what prompted us to get involved with con cerned citizens in the first place regardless of what you interpret the cause to be it was shown we were right to be concerned and of course the health study would never have been done had we all just sat back and done nothing i am not aware of the businesses you are that closed purely because of our efforts other than the landfill of course and the only people i know who left town did so because they were genuinely afraid that the government was not telling us the truth the landfill site was closed continues to be closely monitored and our water is safe thanks in part to a group of ordinary local residents who took on both a multination al company and the province and won the town can grow now because we were determined to protect our public water supply 25 yearsbefore the walkerton disaster made it a national issue again now as far as any new proposals for the site are concerned that will have to be someone elses fight charles parker stouffville were still j g to know planet earth we know our planet is heating up and we know inter national climate nego tiations such as the ones that are winding down in bali this week are critical steps toward a global action plan to reduce heat- trapping greenhouse gases but how will we be able to gauge if such a plan actually works in spite of all we have learned about our climate and our planets natural systems over the past two decades relatively big holes exist in our capacity to monitor where exactly greenhouse gases are com ing from and where they are going thats going to have to change in the coming years because we can no longer afford to leave such important measures to guesswork it may be hard for many of us to remember a time when global information was not readily avail able but the amazing ability to access such vast amounts of data is a relatively recent phenomenon today with supercomputers and the internet we can now share combine calculate and analyse information like never before for a simple example think about the software program google earth the capacity for anyone with a computer to see the entire planet in one instance and then zoom down to view a closeup of virtually anywhere on the globe is simply astounding still even with all this data avail able we need much more the earth is incredibly complex to understand how it works even in a basic sense requires vast amounts of information to be acquired and monitored over time living sustainably within the planefs limits will require we really get to know earth recently a special edition of the journal nature looked at this issue and how well we are doing in moni toring the planet the results are mixed huge strides forward have been achieved david suzuki with faisal moola in some areas while others limp along with sporadic funding or political changes that may stop projects entirely one of the most obvious mea surements that must be tracked over time is the level of carbon diox ide in the atmosphere as the principle greenhouse gas carbon dioxide is a key mechanism in global warming but critical questions remain half of the carbon dioxide we put into the atmosphere gets soaked up again where it goes is the subject of much debate some say the oceans others say soils or plants the reality is we dont know for sure two satellites to be launched in the next year should help us get a better understanding of whats going on one called the orbiting carbon observatory will circle the earth measuring carbon dioxide levels a halfmillion times every day this information will be com bined with models of how our atmosphere circulates to give us a better understanding of how the earth absorbs carbon dioxide another project is called the greenhouse gases observing sat ellite it will measure carbon dioxide as well but also other important greenhouse gases such as methane ozone and water vapour many other projects are also planned or are underway that will measure variables such as ice cover soil moisture urban growth and desertification wind speeds ocean temperatures phytoplank- ton growth and many more yet for every planned project there are budget shortfalls delays political interference international overlaps and duplications that can result in critical gaps in data this can be a serious problem reducing greenhouse gas emis sions and other human impacts on the planet is of course a vital task but measuring and accounting for these changes is just as impor tant its the only way well ever know if what were doing is having an effect accumulating basic data sets about the planet over long peri ods of time may be the scientific equivalent of watching paint dry but it is absolutely essential work for us to understand and protect our complicated little world take david suzukis nature challenge and learn more at wmdavidsuzukiorg 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 thcsuntribunerescrves the right to publish or not publish and to edit for clar ity and space letters to the editor the suntribune 6290 main st stouffville on l4aig7 jmasonyrmgcom editorial editor jim mason jmasonyrmgcom interactive media marketing advertising manager 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