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THE NEW TANNERTHURSDAY, JANUARY 11, 2018 5THE NEW TANNER THURSDAY, JANUARY 11, 20184 Editorial By Angela Tyler Take the pledge with Dawn Brown Distributed to every home in Acton and area, as well as adjoining communities. Contact us: 379 Queen Street East Acton, Ontario L7J 2N2 Tel: 519-853-0051 Fax: 519-853-0052 E-mail: General: thenewtanner@on.aibn.com (including Advertising and Circulation) Editoral: tannereditor@bellnet.ca Deadline: Advertising and Editorial TUESDAY at 9 a.m. 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 Editorial: Dawn Brown, Angela Tyler, Jane Dougan, Vivien Fleisher, Les Schmidt, Harry Rudolfs, Trish Bell, Alex Hilson, Michael Oke Advertising and Circulation: Marie Shadbolt Production: Iain Brennan What's in a name? E M P T Y N E T S : I t wasn't just the arctic conditions that kept ska ters away f rom the rinks at Valentino Park in Rockwood last week. According to the Guelph/Eramosa Parks and Recreation Department, the rink was started a l i t t le later, and some choppy s u r f a c e a re a s w i l l require more flooding to make it safe for skating. - Vivien Fleisher photo On Monday, a fair bit of snow fell. It was pretty much the first snow fall of the new year, and it created quite a few challenges for those heading back to work after the Christ- mas break. However, in the grand scheme of "Canadian winters" it was just another day. Early Monday morning, the plow trucks were out, and be- fore the sun rose, the town sidewalk plow was trekking through the streets of our com- munity making paths for those who walk to school or about town. While shovels flew snow over the shoulders of men and women digging out their drive- ways and plow trucks cleared our roads, some people seem to believe there is a better way to remove snow from their paths. Most people, when it snows, work co-operat ively with neighbours, family and friends to help one another. My par- ent's neighbour frequently helps them out when he has his snow blower out. When we lived in town, I would shovel our elderly neighbour's drive- way whenever I could. On Monday, a resident decided to help out students and parents of those who attend MSB and walk across the very wide field by clearing a path. I'm sure the gesture was greatly appreci- ated by many. I even saw one bank employee downtown before 8 a.m. shovelling the sidewalk in front of the bank for their customers and being a good business neighbour. That is what being a Canadian in winter is about. Yet, with all the helping out, paying it forward and just being a good, neighbourly Canadian, some people still feel the need to push snow from their driveway onto the road or not clear the sidewalk in front of their place. That morning I was saddened to see a man on Main Street pushing mounds of snow directly from his driveway onto the road that was just freshly plowed. Un- fortunately, he's not the only person to do this in town--or in general. So here's what I am sug- gesting...we have a community resolution for 2018 where we "pledge", so to speak, to clear our sidewalks and not to push snow onto them or the road. Let's shovel the snow or blow the snow onto lawns or other safe areas. Let's clear our side- walks to ensure safe travel for those who walk in our com- munity. Let's be courteous to our Municipal plow truck oper- ators and give them the space to do their job properly and abide by the parking by-law that also lets them do their job. We have about a dozen more weeks of winter and probably about a dozen more snowy days ahead of us. We can do it! For more information on snow plowing in our community, visit: www.haltonhills.ca/Pamphlets/pdf/ PublicWorks_Winter.pdf or www. haltonhills.ca/RoadsSidewalks/ roadwaysSnowplow.php "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet" from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet implied that it didn't mat- ter what something was called, but what something was that mattered. However, in this time of instant access, click-bait headlines and so called "fake news" what something is called matters. Back in 2009, countries around the world, including here in Canada, faced a potentially deadly strain of flu; N1H1--or swine flu as it was first reported. While justifiable concerns about the impact of the flu rose, there was perhaps an un- expected impact on pork famers. It seemed pork sales dropped as a result of the general public no longer buying pork prod- ucts for fear of catching swine flu despite multiple reports explaining that while some of the genes were similar to in- fluenzas commonly found in North American pigs, the 2009 strain of N1H1 was very different. And so, reporters and experts began referring to the strain as N1H1 to help end the association. Climate Change is another term to feel the impact of a misunderstood name with the term Global Warming. In fact, just a few weeks ago Donald Trump tweeted, "In the East, it could be the coldest New Year's Eve on record. Perhaps we could use a little bit of that good old Global Warming that our Country, but not other countries, was going to pay trillions of dollars to protect against. Bundle up!" There is no point in getting into the implications of a man in the role that had at one time been considered the leader of the free world having no real understanding of difference between Climate Change and weather, or the impact that such ignorance could have on the rest of the planet. I only have so much space, after all. However, it is perhaps surprising how many people believe that a cold winter somehow discounts Climate Change. In order for there to be life on this planet, we require the heat from the sun. Gasses in our atmosphere--of which carbon dioxide (CO2) is among the most important--allows a portion of the sun's heat to remain trapped beneath said atmosphere. However, over time so many green house gasses released into the atmosphere has thickened it trapping more heat. Our atmosphere today holds 42 per cent more carbon dioxide than before the industrial era. This disruption to the atmospheric balance has resulted in extreme effects worldwide making extreme weather events more common. Even without the scientific data, of which there is plenty, surely, we have to understand on some level that there would be repercussions to our actions--a basic cause and effect. That if we pumped pollutants into the air, the water, the earth, if we decimated entire eco systems, there would be an impact, a fallout. Don't be fooled. Just because it's cold outside, doesn't mean we can be complacent about Climate Change.