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economist sunsuntribune saturday nov 26 2005 editor in chief advertising director distribution director marketingpartnerships debora kelly retail flyer sales circulation director business manager nicole fletcher barry black debra weller robert lazurko advertising director director circulation york region printing director production classified real estate systems general manager interactive media events management lynn pashko bob dean john futhey gord paolucci t stouflville obb suntnbune a metroland community newspaper 34 civic ave 3rd floor stouflville on l4a 7z5 publisher ian proudfoot letters to the editor greenbelt ads play same old song re environmentalists simply cant see the forest for the trees column by bruce annan nov 19 i would like to congratulate and diank mr annan for his wonderful column i too have been wondering about the green- belt advertisements i have not seen any printed versions but i have certainly heard many of the radio ads for example the little boy asking his fatiier where the water comes from before the tap the father tells his son he doesnt know the ad con tinues to tell us about the source of water being the ground and how it will be protected by ontarios greenbelt there is the other ad in which the girl asks her mother where apples come from and her moth er tells her the grocery store again we hear about apple orchards in the protected green- beltlt just goes to show how really stupid this provincial government seems to believe we are i have heard these ads so many times they are becoming like the bestselling songs every one loves at first but gets sick of real fast because they are played so often i attended a protest in pickering last week about the proposed airport if you drive along hwy 7 or other routes you will see signs telling you you are on the oak ridges moraine yes this is the same feature the airport will go on people in markham need to realize that although the airport is in pickering the flight path goes right over the east side of our commu nity they talk about protecting our water at the source but diey allow the big pipe to go through die greenbelt as for population growth i dont see how we can continue to grow at such a rapid pace with out losing our ability to feed ourselves and pro vide clean and safe water and air to people of this country we certainly cant rely on the united states to provide us with food when it has a very large population to feed itself as for die headline on mr annans column die only forest and trees that will be left will be the ones used as selling features for new subdi visions bernadette manning markham bazaar assistance appreciated thank you york region newspaper group for including the announcement of the netherlands bazaar and creating a larger turnout at the event thanks to the support we will be assisting many needy families throughout ontario over the next two years without your help this work of benevolence could not continue ge spaans committee netherlands bazaar unionville okay try r now 77 t conservation efforts could slow spread of diseases rabid vampire bats attack brazilian children may sound like something out of the tabloid weekly world news but the headline actually comes from the respected maga zine new scientist even weirder its true vampire bats have indeed been attacking brazilian children in fact theyve bitten more than 1300 people since september and 23 of their victims have died from rabies but beneath the sensational and bizarre story is more hopeful news about the emerging field of conservation medicine conservation medicine is a relatively new discipline referring to the convergence of ecology it looks at species and ecosystems and healdi science which looks at human plant and animal health its a natural connection because the health of individual plants animals and people is inti mately connected to the health of the ecosystems in which they are embedded what does this have to do with bats well the reason for the recent increase in vampire bat attacks in brazil is deforestation the amazon forests are being cleared for industry and agricul ture especially grazing animals witii their homes gone the bats are roosting closer to humans and they have a new plentiful supply of slow moving warmblooded prey catde this has led to larg er colonies in smaller areas ideal breeding grounds for rabies which makes the bats more aggressive and no longer fear humans and rabies isnt the only disease recently transferred to humans from bats bats are also a natural reservoir for sars the respiratory virus that caused panic in toronto and tore dirough soudieast asia two years ago originally scientists thought civet cats were die reservoir for sars but they now believe die civets were infected by bats bats often dont eat all of tiieir meals fruit bats for example chew fruit to extract the sugars david suzuki and then spit out the pulp which is eaten by foraging animals below scientists now believe this is how die nipali virus was spread through pig farms in malaysia five years ago when farms began dis placing forests and bats began roosting in barns audiorities there had to kill one million pigs and over 100 farm workers died from the virus more recendy in bangladesh die nipah virus was spread direct ly to humans when children picked and sold fruit contaminat ed with partially digested bat din ners researchers also believe fruit dropped by bats may have spread the hendra virus in australia and the ebola virus among primates in africa as humans continue to modify and destroy bat habitat we will continue to run into these problems but before we get out die pitch forks and torches to hunt down these winged terrors consider what ecologist andrew dobson wrote in an analysis in die journal science assuming we can control tiiese diseases by simply control ling bats is bodi naive and short sighted instead we must recog nize that increased spillover- mediated pathogen transmission from bats to humans may simply reflect an increase in their contact through anthropogenic modifica tion of the bats natural environ ment in other words as humans continue to modify and destroy bat habitat we will continue to run into these problems to solve diem we must focus on conservation and learning more about bat ecology and immunology something we currently know very little ultimately minimizing die condi tions diat lead to disease outbreak is much more effective tiian deal ing with die problem after it has already occurred in nature everything is con nected and while people tend to think diat human society is some how excluded from nature like some sort of observer we are in fact deeply embedded in the nat ural world because of this our actions can have profound unforeseen and mysterious reper cussions the new field of conservation medicine can help unlock those mysteries and help us build a healthier world join the nature challenge and learn more at wwwdavidsuzukiorg letters policy the suntribune 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