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economist sunsuntribune saturday april 22 2006 stouffviile am suntnbune a metroland community newspaper box 154 stoufmlle on l4a 7z5 publisher ian proudfoot editor in chief debora kelly business manager robert lazurko director interactive media technology johnfuthey i director advertising distribution barryblack director circulation systems lynn pashko marketingpartnerships director debra welter york region printing general manager bob dean letters to the editor town should save heritage homes soon vvwtaurchstoufrville council will have its way and stoiiflville markham and scarborough will all look the same we will all have our walmarts and 10- metre lots if you dont see the welcome to signs you may not know were you are however markham and scarborough have done something stouffville seems reluctant to do both municipalities are saving heritage homes and buildings scarborough in the late 1970s and early 80s managed to incorporate a number of the older farmhouses into subdivision plans if memory serves one is a fine dining restaurant ln markham they have the heritage subdi vision where these homes after being pur chased for 1 can be brought and saved the townofmarkhamhasrunoutofroomon the site at hwy 48 and 16th avenue and is look ing to purchase land for another site i have noticed the subdivision on the northeast corner of woodbine avenue and major mackenzie drive has incorporated into the lot fabric the original farmhouse and another house to the north well done i applaud their efforts i am hoping this might be incorporated in stouffvilles expansion plans currently two houses that are part of our heritage are slated for the wrecking ball one is in front of the wal- mart project on hwy 48 and one is a house i lived in for three years when i moved to stouffville in 1981 the brownsberger house across from spring lakes golf club if we insist on paving over the best farm land in the country i respectively ask council to insist developers do more to save these fine old buildings and keep a small part of our his tory intact is this too much to ask dave brooks stouffville community caught playoff spirit wow what a run the stouffville spirit jr a hockey team just finished it was the best they have ever done winning the north conference and then the north west cham pionship was unbelievable many thanks to all the players who came through game after game it was quite thrilling to have stouffville put on the map again everywhere i went in the last seven weeks someone was talking about the spirit good to see lots of spirit fans in newmarket aurora oakville and at st mikes like the two young stouffville minor hockey players in the tim hortons jerseys with big smiles on their faces waiting to see their local heroes go on the ice thafs support that is something that is lost in this day and age but not in stouffville did you know spirit gate manager kelly martinello general manager ken burrows and vicepresident jim mason have been with the team almost since its inception 11 years ago thats support thanks to all staff and volunteers of the spirit for an awespme season michael humphreys president whitchurchstouffville minor hockey of scary scenarios glimate change just wont go away will it like a bad penny it just keeps turn ing up that shouldnt be sur prising since its a problem of our own making but what is surprising is scientists continue to be perplexed at actual observed changes on the planet changes that seem to be happening much more quickly than expected take ice for example its disap pearing no big surprise given warming trends over the past several decades but ice is proving to be more sensi tive to temperature change than sci entists predicted some of the worlds largest ice sheets are now on the move and it could mean dramatic rises in sea level over the next 100 years while much of the canadian news about disappearing ice has centred on the arctic ice pack in the far north that ice is already in the david suzuki water its melting will not affect sea levels only ice melting off land can do that and recent studies show two of the biggest landbased ice sheets antarctica and greenland are indeed melting in greenland one study looked at glacial earthquakes associated with glacial flow it found that seis mic activity increased somewhat in the late 1990s but by 2002 ice- quakes were becoming increasingly common lastyear greenland had as many of these events as the combined total between 1993 and 1996 and the ice isnt just shaking its mov ing studies have also found greenlands glaciers which naturally j creep along at a glacial pace have in some cases more than doubled in speed just five years ago the kangerdlugssuaq glacier marched into the ocean at a rate of six kilome tres a year in 2005 it moved more than 13 kilometres sending vast amounts of fresh water and giant icebergs into the sea normally most of the ice greenland loses to the sea is replaced by snowfall but in recent years snowfall has not kept up as a result greenlands three- kilometre thick ice pack is shrinking because of this vast size it is diffi cult to pin down just how much of the ice is disappearing but using satellite radar and airborne lasers scientists estimate the rate of loss has doubled in the past 10 years a similar problem is occurring in the west antarctic ice- sheet which is losing between 47 and 148 cubic kubmetres of ice per year again because of the areas incredible size pinning down the exact amount of loss is difficult some of the loss is being offset by snowfall gains on the east antarctic ice sheet but overall antarctica is also melting what does all this mean for ocean levels well at current rates melting ice sheets in greenland and antarctica are only responsible for about a millimetre increase in sea levels per year this in addition to the thermal expansion of water water expands as it warms and other melting glac iers will lead to a onehalf to one- metre rise in sea level this century that could pose a serious threat to lowlying areas the trouble is no one knows if melting will continue at current rates it could slow down or more like ly it could speed up as the editors of the journal science point out at no time in at least the past to million years has the atmospheric concen tration of carbon dioxide exceeded the present value of 380 ppmv parts per million by volume think about that 10 million years back then sea levels were many metres higher and tempera tures were several degrees warmer than they are today scientists are concerned if we dont seriously reduce our output of carbon dioxide and other heattrap ping gases soon the seas will rise once again and thats one bad penny wed best avoid take the nature challenge and learn more at wwwdavidsuzukiorg letters policy the economist sun welcomes your letters all submissions must be less than 400 words and must include a daytime telephone number name and address the economist sun reserves the right to publish or not publish and to edit 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