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THE NEW TANNER THURSDAY, JANUARY 14, 2010 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 fi nancial 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 fi ve 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 Advertising and Circulation Marie Shadbolt Composing Ken Baker Science Matters By David Suzuki Actons new library will not be a warehouse for books, magazines and CDS staff wants it to be a warm, welcoming place featuring a two-sided fi replace, a self-service checkout option and relaxed, comfortable atmosphere. The details the colours, furnishings, landscaping will be presented to the public at a community open house on January 28 at the River Street branch. Library staff envision a $3.5-million facility that will be a fun, interesting, relaxing and comfortable a community hub. The hope is that the facility, to be built to the east of the existing branch, will feel have a warm, welcoming living room feel, but still be functional as a library. Thats a very different approach from my earliest experi- ences with the library, a Book Mobile that used to pull into the parking lot of the Applewood Acres shopping plaza every Friday evening. Cramped, with a limited collection because of the size, never-the-less the Book Mobile was where words became important to me. My library card opened up the world, helped by librarians who also loved books and words. Going to the main library in Cooksville was a rare treat usually triggered by a school project but I remember it felt cold and sterile compared to the revamped book bus. The new Acton library will be anything but cold and ster- ile. Thanks to stimulus funding from the federal and provincial governments, which each will pay one-third of the cost with the Town picking up the last third, Acton will have a state-of- the-art library fully accessible, energy effi cient and geared to the demands of a growing population. Now is the chance to comment on the plans to have your say in how the facility will look and operate. If you cant get to the open house, the proposed plans will be on display at the River Street branch, ensuring that everyone can comment on or question the design. Library more than a book warehouse Imagine a brighter 21st century By David Suzuki with Faisal Moola In our short time on Earth, we humans have emerged from a chaotic world, imposing order and meaning in myriad ways, im- agining the world into being. That was our great gift. As we enter the second decade of the 21st cen- tury, will we prove ourselves to be imaginative beings capable of creating a better world? Our challenge is to imagine a world where our wealth is in hu- man relations and where we learn to live in balance with the rest of nature. By imagining a future, we can make it happen as we al- ways have. If we continue, though, to set human borders and the economy as our highest priorities, we will never come to grips with the de- structiveness of our activities and institutions. In imagining a better future, we must open ourselves to the idea of change. And wed do well to remember that people with vision have been overturning outmoded ways of thinking and acting throughout our brief history on this Earth often in the face of great resistance. It wasnt long ago that people in countries such as the U.S. believed slavery was an economic necessity and that abolishing it would destroy the economy and way of life of its free citizens. As far as the cost and the speed of acting in our own best interests, consider how quickly the U.S. was able to build its space pro- gram after the Russians launched Sputnik I in 1957. In putting tre- mendous energy, thought, and resources into getting people onto the moon, the U.S. also sparked innovations such as 24-hour tele- vision news channels, cellphones, and GPS navigation. On the environmental front, world leaders came together in Montreal in 1987 to confront the effect humans were having on the ozone layer with our use of chlorofluorocarbons. The inter- national treaty they signed used trade sanctions and incentives to get countries to phase out the use of chemicals that were con- tributing to the depletion of the ozone layer. And that agreement allowed developing countries to take longer to phase out CFCs be- cause the industrialized world had disproportionately contributed to the problem. We really do have to think big to imagine what a future that offers the most good to the most people and to all life on this plan- et would look like. Obviously, reducing poverty, conflict, and human-rights abuses is para- mount. Environmental problems exacerbate those issues and so must also be dealt with. Part of the problem is that many of our political leaders are stuck in the mindset that constant economic growth is essential. For example, consider what Prime Minister Stephen Harper said in a speech to South Koreas National Assembly in late 2009: Without the wealth that comes from growth, the environmental threats, the developmental chal- lenges and the peace and security issues facing the world will be ex- ponentially more diffi cult to deal with. But with constant growth comes depletion of and increasing competition for scarce resources, as well as more waste; in other words, increased environmental threats, developmental chal- lenges, and peace and security issues. Constant growth is just not pos- sible in a fi nite world with fi nite resources. Our focus on constant economic growth also leads to some bizarre anomalies. War and natural disasters, for example, can Continued on Page 7 OLYMPIAN EFFORT With help from Actons Eileen Quackenbush, Rallis Family Restau- rant owner George Rallis is into the Olym- pic spirit in a big way, decorating his eatery with Olympic torch re- lay photos and other displays in advance of the 2010 games that begin next month in Vancouver. Frances Niblock photo