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a 6 stouffville suntribune saturday dec 1 2007 pinion sunlribune 6290 main st stouffville on l4a 1g7 wwwyorkregioncom publisher jw proudfoot editor in chief debora kelly business manager robert lazurko director interactive media technoijogy oftn futhey director advertising york region printing distribution general manager barry black bob dean director circulation systems lynnpashko editorial courage needed to tackle shortfall when there is a big problem no one wants to acknowledge you call it the elephant in the room but what do you call the problem everyone acknowledges but no one wants to fix accord ing to a report from the federation of cana dian municipalities 123 billion is needed to stabilize canadas deteriorating infrastructure everything from sewer pipes to roads and bridges our economic and physical health are at risk with our infrastructure the report says near collapse when one considers the people killed in last years collapseof a highway bridge near montreal clearly the consequences can be serious york region as a younger community is not facing the worst of these problems yet like a family living in a new house the roof replacement kitchen upgrades and new carpeting are years away but eventually the pipes roads and parks built in the postwar 1950s to 1970s boom will fall apart and the longer we wait to replace them the more it will cost speaking in markham last may the provin cial minister of public irifrastructure renewal david caplan said his government was chip ping away at an infiastructure gap in ontario but there was no quick fix the problem he said was not attributable to any single political party orgovemment but rather to neglect over the course of decades that did not stop federal transport min ister lawrence cannon after seeing the fcm report from acknowledging the need to do better while also laying the blame at the feet of the previous liberal government finance minister jim flaherty went one better saying ottawa is not in the pothole business before encouraging private corpo rations to get involved the truth is there is only one taxpayer whether these repairs are paid for by munici palities or higher levels of government which continue to post large budget surpluses does not matter to you as much as knowing that the work will get done clearly higher levels of government are collecting more taxes than they need and that needs to change- nevertheless much of the onus will fall on municipal governments to get these repairs done and therefore on your property tax bill for politicians around york region it is not the sexy stuff of new arts centres hockey rinks and swimming pools but it is vitally impor tant the contingency funds built up now via spending cuts or property tax increases may not be used until they have long since retired it will take courage from municipal politi cians and understanding from property tax payers to acknowledge the elephant in the room then remove it finally something not caused by global warming global warming is becoming the paris hilton of environ mental stories every time you pick up a paper or turn on the tv if theres a story remotely related to the environment global warming will somehow be impli cated this shouldnt be surprising as much as we humans try to sepa rate ourselves from the natural world we cant get away from it earths air water and soils are all connected so if you change the composi tion of the atmosphere in this case by increasing carbon dioxide levels by 30 per cent in the last 200 years youre likely to see changes across the board and that ultimately affects us too really its about time global warming was covered thoroughly in the media but not every environmental issue can be attributed to global warming despite all the doom and gloom there is some positive news out there too you just have to look for it case in point dissolved organic carbon essentially thats just a fancy name for any sort of plant or ani mal matter that has been broken down into such fine bits it can be dissolved in water in recent years some research ers have become concerned about widespread increases in dissolved organic carbon flowing off surface waters in parts of europe and north america in southern sweden norway and finland as well as in the united kingdom the northeastern united states and parts of ontario and quebec dissolved organic carbon levels in rivers and streams have increased considerably and consistently over the past 20 years this has led some researchers to conclude there must be something amiss indeed some evidence suggests this increase in dissolved organic matter in the water is a result of rising temperatures or increased carbon dioxide levels in the air which in turn has increased david suzuki with faisal moola the decomposition of peat bogs peat bogs hold vast amounts of carbon some 20 to 30 per cent of the entire planets stock of soil- based carbon evidence that globalwarming trends are causing peat bogs to break down and release carbon into the rivers that drain diem would be bad news we really need that carbon to stay put however according to an article published in the journal nature all that extra dissolved organic carbon may have an entirely different cause and its not global wanning researchers looked at data from 522 remote lakes and streams in northern europe and north amer ica that had shown changes in dis solved organic carbon levels after examining several differ ent potential mechanisms that could account for the increases they concluded the cause was most likely reduced pollution thats right strange as it may seem less pollution specifically sulfur pollution deposited from the atmosphere appears to be the reason for the increasing dissolved organic carbon commonly known as acid rain this type of pollution largely from coalfired power plants and heavy industry peaked in the late 1970s after that the international community joined together and signed protocols designed to reduce it these agreements worked and levels of acid rain have been decreasing since the 1990s as this acidification has decreased soils have started releasing dissolved organic carbon at preindustrial levels a process researchers describe as integral to recovery from acidification rather than being an alarm ing trend this is a case of nature bouncing back of course what this increase in dissolved carbon will mean for the carbon cycle is still unknown while we should in no way downplay the environmental chal lenges we face today we should also make sure that we recognize good news in this case clean air laws helped reduce pollution and acid rain creating a situation that looked like more bad news at first but turned out to be a small flame of hope its a reminder that our actions do make a difference and we can still fix things when we try take david suzukis nature challenge and learn more at wwwdavidsuzukiorg letters policy thcsurttribune welcomes your letters all submissions must be less than 400 words and must include a daytime telephone number name and address the suntribunercscrves the right to publish or not publish and to edit for clarity 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 dawna andrews dandtewsynngcom advertising retail manager staceyallen sallenyrmgcom classified manager ann campbell acampbellyrmgcom assistant classified manager bonnie rondeau brondeauyrmgcom production team leader sherry day sdayyrmgcom ortarlo press condi ope 4jjtt fdsa aftr4ilji cux orawjom fcxxboani uvmtr cccab 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 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