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THE HERALD OUTLOOK Saturday December 1 Page Peoples Forum- Acton Firefighters express thanks Citizens of Acton and area The Acton Santa Parade keeps getting bigger and better which is only made possible by the generous donations of many people On behalf of the Acton Firefighters Association I wish to express my sincere thanks to all the businesses and industry who donated money towards the cost to Steve Dawkins and the Hide House for sponsoring Miss Dominion of Canada and the Guelph Royalaires for providing the float to bring Santa to town in such fine style to Dave and Mike Manes of Acton IGA Bill Radio Guelph Dare Foods Ltd Milton and the residents of Maria St Apart ments for their generous dona tions of all the candy for the children along the parade route to Capital Ford Sales Acton for supplying the vehicles for the dignitaries to Regional Police to the Acton Free Press to all who entered floats to the float judges to the clowns and especialJy to all of you for your enthusiasm and fine turnout along the parade route Without each and every one of you the parade would not be possible My congratulations to the float winners Best Overall Acton Lions Club Best School MacKenzieSmith Middle School Best Service Club Acton Op timist Club Best Other Rocky Lane Farms We are already planning next years parade to be held November 1991 and I look for ward to seeing you all again Merry Christmas and a safe Happy New Year Sincerely WmRSpielvogel Chairman Santa Claus Parade Committee Acton Fire Fighters Association Offensive column Editors note In the Letter to the Editor which appeared In the Halton Hills Herald Nov under the headline Snobbery quotation marks were In advertently left out possibly leading readers to misconstrue the letter writers point The Herald regrets the typographical error The corrected letter Is reprinted below Dear editor Smokers can do without John Sommers help His ideas wreak of snobbery He states Today only the poor smoke and those who disregard their health If smoking would still be a habit of the upper classes nobody would dare to attack them How offensive I cant believe this is the voice of ideas and the arts in Halton Hills Jane Gadoutsis Glen Williams Auto club favors lower premiums Dear Sir In the Ontario Governments Throne Speech it was mentioned there is a need for an expanded transit system Hamilton Automobile Club President Richard Congdon says Better public transit is only a part of the program There must be a balanced approach between public transit and the use of the automobile Road maintenance and con struction must be given a higher priority to increase road capacity and improve the decline of roads and bridges Mr Congdon says a paved road has a useful life span of about years Without repaving it will last only about years Ill main tained roads cost 36 per cent more than a road that is regular ly looked after Ontario has a total of 21271 kilometres of roads under provincial jurisdiction many of which are at best in poor to fair condition The Club President emphasiz ed the automobile as the most favoured choice of people to transport themselves to and from work and for shopping recrea tional and social activities Over the past few -years- the Hamilton Automobile Club has been very active in making sub missions on automobile in surance The Club welcomes the opportunity to provide its exper tise in the design of a better system through the Govern ments consultations The Hamilton Automobile Club is in favor of a system of in surance that will lower the cost of insurance premiums or at the very least offer the promise of containing future increases in in surance premiums to modest levels Whether the system is governmentrun or is not a concern of the Hamilton Automobile Club The Club believes auto insurance should be affordable to all who drive and the risks assessed on a fair im partial and basis Thank you Hamilton Automobile Club Who is responsible Dear Editor Monday evening November at the General Committee Meeting in Hills the sub ject once again was water Mr Gord Vandervalk of Milton wished to address the committee on that issue His con cern for the water situation in Halton Hills is one which should concern us all Whether we live in the rural areas or in a town con dominium we all rely on the same water supply wells Tax payers deserve to know who takes the final responsibility to ensure an adequate quantity of this lifesustaining necessity Meeting after meeting this sub ject of availability of water is raised and the concerns are quickly passed over or ignored and no municipal or regional agency takes responsibility for our future supply Ignoring this thorny problem will not make it disappear As long as this council continues to treat each develop ment proposal on a site specific basis without considering the overall impact of total develop ment in the area we all stand to suffer The day you dont have water running from the tap it is too late and the remedy is too costly and we the taxpayers will have to foot the bill Who is responsible Is it not time for a full assessment of the whole area Where are the brave souls who will insist that this be done Mr Vandervalk and others before him have faced the council and asked these questions When are we going to get an answer Sincerely Hickory Falls Ratepayers Association No help from Turner Editors note A copy of the following letter was released to the Hills Herald for publication Mr Garth Turner HaltonPeel Main Street South Georgetown Ont Dear Mr Turner In June I contacted your office to ask you my to look into a tax matter On July I received your letter requesting me to sign an authorizing form in order for you to obtain personal information regarding my taxes which I signed and returned to you Realizing this would take time I waited Not receiving a reply by the first part of November I con tacted your office again and was told this matter would be looked into I have given you written authorization to obtain personal information about me what have you done with it I am feeling at risk Recently you sent around a pamphlet asking what do you think Obviously you dont care what I think asked you for help months ago and I havent heard from you yet Sincerely Jan Quirk Acton Opinion Global warming issue neglected by media By JIM FULTON NDP Environment Spokesman Canadas media has turned a blind eye to the surest threat fac ing our species Certainly the threat of War in the Persian Gulf deserves covering Certainly the explosion of world population from billion to 10 billion or more over the next 60 years deserves coverage The death of youngsters every day from preventable disease and starva tion deserves coverage Nuclear War pollution the list goes on The question 1 raise is why the dismal coverage given to the 2nd World Climate Conference held in Geneva this month One Cana dian reporter Anne Mcllroy of Southam capably covered the event and the reality of Global Warming the surest threat to our survival The World Scientific Communi ty reached consensus that there will be warming of 2 to degrees Centigrade and a sea level rise of 300100 cm during the next cen tury All other consequences aside it is estimated that the costs to protect Canadian property alone from a one meter searise is billion dollars Scientists concluded that a per cent reduction in carbon diox ide emissions over the next 15 years is technically and economically feasible for all countries To stabilize concentrations of Greenhouse Gases at about SO per cent above prelndustrial concen trations by the middle of the next century will require worldwide reductions of net C02 emissions by 1 to 2 percent per year Canada proceeded in Geneva to endorse the conclusions of the scientists and then to propose that Canada will only stabilize emissions by the year 2000 This position flies in the face of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Environment Report No Time To Lose This unanimous AllParty report con cluded after hearing over 60 witnesses and over submis sions in the past year that Canada must at minimum reduce emissions 20 per cent from levels by AD Why Because the Committee believes that the threat of Global Warming is serious and steps must be taken now Canadians are the fifth largest per capita emitters of Carbon Dioxide on Earth Only nations like Bahrain or the United Arab Emirates are larger than our tons per capita Per year So one might ask why when the scientific community of the world consensus on the steps necessary to protect the Earths atmosphere does a wealthy country like Canada say forget if Why would Canadas media give so little attention to such an important issue The only answer can come up with is that certain key sectors feel threatened The forest in dustry Canadas largest in dustry employer and source of balance of trade know that re cent scientific discoveries have concluded that northern temperate forests are a vital car bon sink 143 countries concluded at the World Climate Conference that all countries must reduce the rate of deforestration With 10 per cent of the worlds forests Canadas lumber and pulp barons do not want that discussed let alone debated in Canada The fossil fuel sector primarily located in Western Canada know that the best reduction in carbon dioxide come from conservation energy efficiency and fuel swit ching Each and every one of these is seen as a threat to the profits of the pumpitout digH up sellitcheap mentality of Canadas fossil fuel barons Did you know or for that mat ter has it ever been discussed in Canadas media that the burning of l gallon of gasoline weight about pounds releases pounds of carbon dioxide It takes a healthy large tree a whole year to remove 20 pounds of car bon back out of the atmosphere It requires about 2 acres of healthy natural forest to remove the C02 release of each Canadian 45 tons per year The connection is clear Canadas most powerful and well connected resourceconsuming industries are threatened on their bottom line They are frightened at the prospects of change I am ashamed of Canadas media for not covering this issue Is the crossindustry ownership and lobbying so strong that this issue deserves no coverage Global warming is real It is more of a threat than nuclear war So far it is The world community listened last week to the pleas of the tiny island na tions that will cease to exist with a meter sea rise If Canadas media had the conference global warming would be headline news Survival matters more than business as usual We must cut our carbon dioxide emission and Canadians deserve to know why