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THE NEW TANNER THURSDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2009 6 Distributed to every home in Acton and area, as well as adjoining communities. 373 Queen Street East, Unit 1 Acton, Ontario L7J 2N2 email: thenewtanner@on.aibn.com Editorial with Frances Niblock (519) 853-0051 Fax: (519) 853-0052 Every effort will be made to see advertising copy, neatly presented, is correctly printed. The publisher assumes no financial responsibility for typographical errors or omissions in advertising, but will gladly reprint without charge that part of an advertisement in which an error may occur provided a claim is made within five days of publication. All articles, advertisements and graphic artwork appearing in The New Tanner is copyrighted. Any usage, reproduction or publication of these items, in whole or in part, without the express written consent of the publisher of The New Tanner is a copyright infringement and subject to legal action. Publisher Ted Tyler Editor Emeritus Hartley Coles Editor Frances Niblock Editorial Contributors Mike OLeary Angela Tyler Rebecca Ring Advertising and Circulation Marie Shadbolt Composing Ken Baker Science Matters By David Suzuki Im still waiting for the Christmas spirit to move me, or find me. So far, no go. Despite decking my halls with beautiful Christmas decorations and ornaments, despite hearing Christmas carols all around me and despite writing Christmassy holiday stories Christmas pageants, church services and dinners for the lonely the spirit continues to evade me. Id like to think that Im open to it that Im ready to be swept up into the holiday festivities but so far, holiday preparations have been just a long list of things to do, things to buy, things to clean with too little time, money and patience. Im envious of people with little children who still believe. Im envious of people who happily bake, shop and prepare for a family feast. It all seems like burdensome work to me this year. Im not pleased with the bah humbug state Im in and feel guilty for not being more grateful for all I have. Maybe instead of waiting for the Christmas spirit to find me, Ill have to go and find it. All Im sure of is that it wont be at a mall. *** It has been very easy to get caught up in the excitement of the Olympic Torch Relay as the symbolic flames comes closer and closer to Acton. Day 51 of the relay is Saturday and the torch will cross over into Acton at 7:57 a.m. handed off to Aaron Walkoff of Thorn- hill. Although three of the seven names of people who will carry the torch through Acton have not yet been released, only one of the three whose identify has been released is from Acton. It seems a shame that many of the people who took the time and effort to enter the various contests to put their names in con- tention as potential torch carriers will not get to carry the torch in their home community. Thumbs up CTo the staff of ALLTO Construction whose friendly and cour- teous ways have sure impressed neighbours along Guelph Street where waterman and sewer replacement work is underway. CTo the potential vandals who have shown remarkable re- straint and not touched the Olympic display at the Main/Mill Street parkette. CTo Acton BIA manager Josey Bonnette who has created the various displays including the Fall Fair, Halloweeen and now the Olympics at the four corner parkette Thumbs down DTo the drives who dont clear snow from the tops of their vehicles, causing a hazard for following motorists when the wind throws the snow back onto the windshields of following cars. DTo Halton Council that was expected to approve a planning document yesterday (Wednesday) that has angered, and frus- trated local rural landowners and councillors with its added land use restrictions. Still waiting By David Suzuki with Faisal Moola To many people, our oceans are little more than a great blue ex- panse of water. To some, they are a source of beauty and enjoyment. And for millions of people around the globe, the oceans are sources of food and jobs in fishing or fish- farming industries. But the oceans are also the anchor for life on this planet. When it comes to global warming, the oceans may be our salvation. The oceans do much more than provide us with food, employ- ment, and enjoyment. They also absorb much of the excess carbon that humans have been pumping into the atmosphere during indus- trialization. The worlds oceans have al- ready absorbed a huge percentage of carbon that would contribute to global warming if it were released into the atmosphere, according to Blue Carbon: the Role of Healthy Oceans in Binding Carbon, a re- port by the UN Environment Programme, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, and the The ocean is more than a great place to catch fish Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO. The IOCs Patricio Bernal argues that the ocean has al- ready spared us from dangerous climate change. He adds, though, that each day we are essentially dumping 25 million tons of carbon into the ocean. As a consequence, the ocean is turning more acidic, posing a huge threat to organ- isms with calcareous structures. (These organisms include corals, clams, shrimp, and many types of plankton.) The report finds that protecting and restoring marine ecosystems such as estuaries and mangroves could contribute to offsetting up to seven per cent of current fossil fuel emissions at a much lower cost than technologies to capture and store carbon at power sta- tions. What this means from a global warming perspective is that by simply protecting and restor- ing these ecosystems, we could achieve 10 per cent of the reduc- tions required to keep the climate from warming by 2 C. These ac- tions would also have numerous other benefits to marine wildlife and fisheries. The damage we are inflicting on ocean ecosystems has numerous consequences for global warming. Ice at the North and South poles has kept our ocean temperatures relatively stable for millennia. Now, our oceans are absorbing so much additional energy that the ice is melting and the oceans are warming at an ever-increasing rate. If polar ice disappears, the warm- ing trend will escalate because the albedo effect, the reflection of sunlight off bright surfaces like clouds and ice, will decrease. We can only guess how this will affect marine ecosystems and all life on our planet, but we are already noti- cing changes in the distribution and abundance of species through- out the worlds oceans. The Blue Carbon report notes that of all living organisms that are able to capture carbon, those that live in the ocean capture more than 55 per cent. Coastal TEA TIME: Churchill Community Church was busy recently when it hosted a proper English Tea. Mary Allen, from Acton, and Shirley McKeown, from Georgetown, enjoyed their after- noon tea with friends and family. - Nancy McLelland photo Continued on Page 7