The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

THURSDAY, JANUARY 11, 2007 THE NEW TANNER 7 GRAPEVINE with Mike OLeary The Way I See It Texaco work Still no word on whats behind the sudden flurry of activity on the former Texaco gas station site at Young and Mill Streets, where vari- ous crews have worked since just before Christmas, cutting down at least one tree. JJ Barnicke Real Estate listing agent Neil McDonough would not comment on the activity, but offered to refer a request for infor- mation to the vendor. Calls to a construction company and tree service that had trucks on site were not returned. Nominations wanted Acton could continue its win- ning ways with the Halton Hills Chamber of Commerce annual business awards, if the people and companies that deserve the awards are nominated before noon on January 29. Last year, Acton cleaned up with MacMillans Gourmet Fro- zen Foods winning Business of the Year, Acton librarian Marie Vickery being named Employee of the Year, and Kristine Cieslok of Blue Spring Spa and Salon on Mill Street earning the Entrepreneur of the Year award. Since 1979, five Acton busi- nesses have won the top award and three Acton residents have been named top employee. Two Acton companies have won the Civic Pride award. Roy Martin, of MacMillans said it was an honour to win Business of the Year and was nice to know that the people like what were doing. Chamber GM Sue Walker hopes for a slew of nominations for the selection committee to consider on January 29. For information call the Chamber at 905-877-5117, or visit www. haltonhillschamber.on.ca Tanners changes Acton politician Clark Somerville is back in the kitchen, at least from a management point of view. The former hospitality worker and his sister-in-law Trish Somer- ville, have a new management agreement to run Tanners Restau- rant on Eastern Avenue. Councillor Somerville, who is operations manager and (Trish Somerville is the administrative manager,) said hes busy tweak- ing the menu to make adjustments and improvements. *** Tickets are now on sale at Tan- ners bar for a Super Bowl bash on February 4. Pre-sold tickets are $20 and pro- ceeds from the party will benefit the Acton Agricultural Societys building fund. Manager Somerville said theyd continue to support the community with on-going funding for McKen- zie-Smith Bennett School, and plan to hold a fundraiser for the High School concert band. Phishing scam TD Canada Trust officials cau- tion clients never to give out any banking information in response to an e-mail or mail request for updated information. There have been several reports of so called phishing lately in the Acton area culprits fishing for information they can use to get into accounts by sending what looks like an official TD Canada Trust request for confirmation of client details. TD Canada Trust never asks for information like this if people get an e-mail like this, they should delete it without opening it, Acton branch manager Hugh Calderwood said, adding the attempted frauds are being investigated. Spring season Its hard for players and fans not to think soccer when theres no snow on the ground, and the Acton Soccer Club now Acton Villa is gearing up for the spring season with another registration on Janu- ary 20, at Acton arena/community centre from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Registration is also available on- line this year. Storytime Acton parents are invited to the Acton arena/ community centre at 2 p.m. on Wednesdays, until Feb- ruary 14, for a free, drop-in family storytime program. No registration is required for the program that features 30 minutes of stories, music and fun for adults and young children. For more information about fam- ily storytime, or other childrens programming, call 519-853-0301. PHANTOM ENTRANCE: Its hard to visualize the fact that hundreds of employees went through these gates daily to work at Beardmore & Co. The site sits abandoned now waiting for some enter- prise to take over what once were charming gardens and the vast expanse of land where one of the worlds largest tanneries produced leather that was world renowned. This photo taken by New Tanner photographer Danielle McIsaac catches the wistful aura which surrounds the Elgin St. site, a derelict which carries thousands of memories. than later. None of the above ef- forts will be advanced one iota by the chattering class doing their best imitation of Chicken Little. On the other side, those living in denial add nothing to the de- bate. That our earth has changed is obvious. When I was a tad of a lad we could, and did, drink out of most small streams when we were off on our adventures. These days many people prefer not to drink from municipal water supplies and instead opt for bottled water. The resulting plastic bottles just increase our garbage load. But I digress. There are as many theories as to what we must do as there are stars in the skies. Everything from abandoning our cars and shutting down all heavy industry to full speed ahead and let science and mother nature solve the problem. I heard a local science teach- er explain that the reason our oceans are rising is not because of the melting polar ice caps. He explained that, with 3/5th of the planet being ocean, the rise in temperature causes the water molecules to expand and raise the ocean levels. Yet another theory, equally as plausible as the melt- ing ice berg proponents. Discuss amongst yourselves. Still others insist that this obvi- ous warming trend is simply a cyclical event the world has gone through over the milleniums. Its true this winter (?) has been warm but the last time an El Ninio had such an effect on our weather was in 1997. We all seem to forget that. The weather talking heads on T.V. were all fretting last week- The hot topic these days ap- pears to be the unseasonable warm weather weve been ex- periencing so far. While the weather is unusual for this time of year it is far form being a sign of a coming apocalypse. That is not to say our modern world is not causing problems with our fragile environment, but I think its far from the doomsday scenario that many in the envi- ronment movement are trying to sell us. I read that a think tank in England, after careful analysis of recent media messages, has labelled these comments as cli- mate porn. What they mean is that like the boy who cried wolf over and over, pretty soon his neighbours stopped listening. I recall the hysteria in the 1970s and 80s that we were running out of oil worldwide. The outcome was even more exploration worldwide and the discovery of oil sources never before imagined. Not just the oil sands, which we knew about for years, but undersea oil fields coupled with aggressive conser- vation efforts. Before I am burned in effigy, which would only add to our global warming problem, let me assure you I do believe we have to change our attitudes towards energy consumption. Develop- ing technologies may be the answer in the next decade or so. Wind power is expensive and to date has not proven to be a dependable source. Solar power, while more of a consistent sup- ply, is a difficult energy to store, especially during our long winter nights. I believe hydrogen combustion may be the answer to our future transportation needs. The prob- lem nowdays is that it takes more energy to cause the combustion than it produces. But researchers are working on the problem and I look for a breakthrough sooner end that the Rideau Canal in Ottawa had not frozen over. But I remember many occasions where the Rideau Canal didnt freeze until early February when Winterlude happens, the most re- cent being 2002, when the canal finally froze at the end of the first week of February. I find the recent political de- bate over environmental matters very disturbing. Not because recently deposed Minister Rona Ambrose or previous environ- ment Minister Stephane Dion did such a great job on the envi- ronment because they didnt. In fact the only thing weve heard about the environment in the last 15 years from government is that the Chretien government signed it and P.M. Harper trashed it. The results in the intervening years proved no one took it seriously. In the past I have taken an anti- Kyoto stand. I still do. Unless and until someone can show me what possible benefit there is to Canada paying other polluting countries for clean air credits, so we can increase our CO2 emissions over 20% in the last decade, I remain an opponent. Canadians are still suffering through polluted water, acid rain, smog days and the like. How is that good environmental stewardship? I think we should be insisting on the polluting countries cleaning their own houses not bribing them with out tax dollars. The leftist leaning mainstream media has been howling about Canada breaking its word on the Kyoto Accord when Min- ister Ambrose attended a world environmental bunfest last year. It seems to me that we broke the spirit of the accord when we increased instead of decreased our level of emissions since Kyoto was signed. Secondly, on something as important as our environment, do we really care seems to be the Dudes socks, never mine. Currently the Dude has four socks looking for a companion and no doubt this week there will be at least one more. Its like trying to find some- thing that you have lost. Missing a keylook in the last place you had it. Great advice. But if we knew where we had it last the stupid thing wouldnt be missing. It is another mystery. For about two weeks it seemed almost every day Id lose my house keys, car keys or work keys. How did they keep appear- ing under the cushion of the sofa when I hadnt even been there? I probably had a better chance of figuring out what was in the Mr. Clean Eraser than finding out how my keys had got there. Enough about the Seven Wonders of the World. I think there are actu- ally ten. I want to know what the secret ingredient in the Mr. Clean Eraser is. I want to know how on earth do they get the caramilk in the chocolate bar and more importantly where the Dudes socks are. Angela has 10 Wonders... Continued from page 6 Being Green not just for Irish Continued on page 8