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6 stouflville suntribune saturday sept 8 2007 nion suntnhune 6290 main st stouffville on l4a1g7 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 vandals destroyed trampoline to the kids who destroyed our trampoline i woke up this morning and found the mess you made in my back yard and to say the least im disgusted you know who you are there wasnt a day that went by that my children didnt enjoy playing on their tram poline until some of you worked very hard to destroy it do you really have nothing else to do at night but ruin little kids toys deannehorton stouffville think before using lawn chemicals i am a new resident to stouffville my husband and i just bought a house here and moved in with our fourmonthold son dog and cat we were attracted to stouffville for its family appeal parks trees and abundance of greenery ihinking this is a great place to raise our family it seems many people have pets and there are many different creatures that live here including squirrels chipmunks possums bunnies and skunks which have sprayed my dog twice so far and birds considering how many people are upset with the treeclearing by developers i assume there are many ecologically minded people in the area all this said i have to say how appalled and distressed i am too see during august practically every other house had a sign on its lawn warning people of the toxic chemicals either herbicides or pesticides they had used on their lawns what is up with that i guess grass is an ornamental thing in stouffville not for walking lying on or hav ing children play on dont people realize our pets occasionally eat grass i heard a horrible story of a neighbour with two little girls and a pet rabbit well after spraying his lawn the rabbit had a snack and the girls were left without a pet i understand it is a hassle to deweed manually but at what expense what about environmentally friendly herbicides i guess people arent aware these chemi cals leach down into our water table and into our sewers rivers lakes and eventually our drinking water ok grass looks nice but think of alter natives for your lawns including flowers bushes trees or a rock or herb garden or how about just pulling weeds dande lion leaves make a great salad when boiled and topped with lemon juice olive oil and salt residents please think it through before putting toxic chemicals into our commu nity we want our families children pets and wildlife to be safe kali gigas stouffville respect for nature has to start in the home one of the refrains i often hear is how we have to educate our chil dren in schools to be more environmentally responsible its too late for us they say adults are too set in their ways to change weve got to teach the children what a copout so not only are we leaving our children with a legacy of global warming and other environmental challenges but well leave it up to them to fix the problems we cre ated sorry but thats fundamen tally unfair it also sets us all up for failure children do what we do not what we say if we dont change our ways first what incentive do children have to behave more responsibly this isnt to say we couldnt be doing a better job with teaching them in school to be more environ mentally aware but doing that isnt just about pointing to tilings in a book its about doing things differently together its about changing behav iours even before children get to the classroom look at how they get there every year it seems there are new alarming statistics about child hood obesity more and more we hear how children are becoming increasingly housebound and sedentary yet we fail to connect these problems with the lineups of suvs and minivans several blocks long outside schools every morning and every after noon chauffeuring our children to and fro not only denies them an opportunity to exercise pollutes our air and adds to global warming it further removes them from the natural world we dont respect things we dont understand and its very hard to understand something without experiencing it at the risk of sounding very old- david suzuki fashioned and very old when was young i walked to school- when i got older i rode a bicy cle so did everyone else its a great way to get exercise and experience the outdoors theres nothing like walking to help you get to know your commu nity and not just the people but the plants and the trees the ani mals the weather and the seasons reconnecting our children with nature in their everyday lives is the first step in an environmental edu cation that means getting children outside into the world to experi ence it firsthand rather than through tvs computers or on youtube- im not saying there isnt a place for technology to help us understand the world after all ive spent 40 years trying to educate people through television in fact one of my favourite new tools is an addition to google earth called google sky for years ive been a fan of google earth as a tool to help peo ple understand jut how small our world really is and how connected we all are google sky adds a new dimen sion as now you can turn the lens around and look at whats out there its really an interactive chart of the heavens the stars and the planets that let us explore the uni verse and ultimately better under stand our place in it but as fascinating as it is noth ing can replace the real experiences we have outdoors peering through a telescope into the night sky or digging in a garden or exploring a swamp a forest or a tide pool if we want our children to be more environmentally responsible we have to show them why they should be we have to emulate the right behaviours and teach them why environmental sustainability is so important so yes this means we need more school yard gardens better outdoor education curriculums more field trips and more sustain able schools but it also means we need more exercise more cycling and more plain old walking we have to get our kids outside more to play and explore the wonders of nature so that they will come to understand it better take the suzuki challenge and learn more at wwwdavidsuzukiorg letters policy the suntribune welcomes your letters ah submissions must be less than 400 words and must include a daytime telephone number name and address thcsuntribuncrcscrves the right to publish or not publish and to edit forclar iry and space utters to the editor the suntribune 6290 main st stouffville on l4a ig7 jmasonyrmgcom editorial editor jim mason jmasonyrmgcom interactive media marketing advertising manager dawna andrews dandmvsynngcom advertising retail manager staceyallen sallcnyrmgcom classified manager ann campbell acampbcllyrmgcom assistant classified manager bonnie rondeau brondcauyrmgcom production team leader 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