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6- The Oakville Beaver, Wednesday April 2, 2008 www.oakvillebeaver.com OPINION & LETTERS The Oakville Beaver 467 Speers Rd., Oakville Ont. L6K 3S4 (905) 845-3824 Fax: 337-5567 Classified Advertising: 905-632-4440 Circulation: 845-9742 Editorial and advertising content of the Oakville Beaver is protected by copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: The Oakville Beaver is a division of IAN OLIVER Group Publisher Media Group Ltd. NEIL OLIVER Publisher DAVID HARVEY General Manager JILL DAVIS Editor in Chief ROD JERRED Managing Editor DANIEL BAIRD Advertising Director RIZIERO VERTOLLI Photography Director SANDY PARE Business Manager MARK DILLS Director of Production MANUEL GARCIA Production Manager CHARLENE HALL Director of Distribution ALEXANDRIA ANCHOR Circ. Manager Great hour for the family While last weekend's Earth Hour effort was supposed to draw world attention to the need for everyone on our planet to reduce their carbon footprint, closer to home it had another profound impact. Across Oakville, Earth Hour also became Family Hour -- a time when couples, families of all sizes and entire neighbourhoods pulled together to share the simplest of activities with a common goal of making our world a better place in which to live. The question of how we would each be spending the 60 minutes between 8-9 p.m. last Saturday saw many local residents re-inventing ways to pass the time. Residents who submitted photos to The Oakville Beaver (see an Earth Hour slideshow at oakvillebeaver.com) of how they spent Earth Hour, portrayed activities ranging from candlelight dinner parties for two or more, to games night with the kids. For most who participated, Earth Hour proved to be a simply-executed, feel-good exercise in energy conservation and a powerful reminder that if we could all cut our consumption of electricity even a small amount -- all the time -- it would make a huge difference. The undeniable social aspect of Oakville's Earth Hour leaves us pondering whether a future merger of Earth Hour and Ontario's new Family Day might make sense. All residents who turned off their lights for the hour are richer today on two fronts; they have gained a stronger appreciation for the collective impact a community can have on its environment and they have benefitted by spending at least onehour of quality time with family and friends. The Oakville Beaver welcomes letters from its readers. Letters will be edited for clarity, length, legal considerations and grammar. In order to be published all letters must contain the name, address and phone number of the author. Letters should be addressed to The Editor, Oakville Beaver, 467 Speers Rd., Oakville, ON, L6K 3S4, or via e-mail to editor@oakvillebeaver.com. The Beaver reserves the right to refuse to publish a letter. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Energy conservation depends on 3Rs -- Reduce, Re-use and Recycle Re: Committed to the environment (The Oakville Beaver, March 28). Thank you very much for contacting me regarding Earth Hour and energy conservation. I hope the article helps to get people thinking about what they can do to save energy. The feedback I've received so far has been very positive. A number of ordinary people have told me that they already do those things. Others have said, "Why didn't you say this?" or "Why didn't you add that?" I'd like to take the opportunity to say a bit more. The comments in the article about recycling were a little misconstrued. Recycling is the baseline. Whenever I talk with people about my volunteer roles, the first words out of people's mouths are, "We recycle at home." Recycling has become the norm. It's a good thing to do, but it's not the only thing. It's time to work on the Reduce and Re-use parts of the 3Rs. You might wonder what recycling has to do with energy conservation. Recycling helps recover used resources, saving the energy it took to extract them. Reusing saves the manufacturing energy as well. And reducing product consumption eliminates the need to spend the energy in the first place. So the 3Rs are all about resource and energy conservation. The more we practice them, the more we slow down climate change. It was great to see all the dark homes during Earth Hour. People in Oakville got that message, and had fun with it. The hard work comes in continuing to use less and finding new ways to use less so that conserving becomes a habit. LISA SEILER Earth Hour a lot of hot air Pud Instead of educating our youths on non-factual "anthropogenic climate change" why don't we instill in them the BY STEVE NEASE snease@haltonsearch.com notion that researching all aspects of topics will better serve their future? This idea of telling them what they should do and what to believe is not only dangerous, but it is also hypocritical considering Earth Hour is not going to make people reduce their carbon emissions at the cost of their pocketbook. Besides that, there is just as much evidence that discounts man-made climate change as there is promoting it. I guess nobody wants to present that side of the argument to our youths. JAMIE RUSYNYK The Oakville Beaver is a member of the Ontario Press Council.The council is located at 80 Gould St., Suite 206,Toronto, Ont., M5B 2M7. Phone 416-340-1981.Advertising is accepted on the condition that, in the event of a typographical error, that portion of advertising space occupied by the erroneous item, together with a reasonable allowance for signature, will not be charged for, but the balance of the advertisement will be paid for at the applicable rate. The publisher reserves the right to categorize advertisements or decline.