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6- The Oakville Beaver, Friday July 11, 2008 www.oakvillebeaver.com OPINION & LETTERS The Oakville Beaver 467 Speers Rd., Oakville Ont. L6K 3S4 (905) 845-3824 Fax: 337-5567 Classified Advertising: 845-3824, ext. 224 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: NEIL OLIVER Vice ­ President and Group Publisher of Metroland West The Oakville Beaver is a division of IAN OLIVER President Media Group Ltd. 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 Global foot dragging While it's refreshing to see Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper exhibiting some leadership qualities at the G8 Summit in Japan, we're not entirely sure his soft position on worldwide global warming emissions truly reflects what all Canadians want. By all accounts, Harper led the way in convincing fellow leaders from the United States, Japan, Russia, Britain, Italy, Germany and France to cut emissions in half by 2050 -- a gesture that has been sharply criticized by environmental groups. Not only is the target date considered too little, too late, but the agreement reached this week between the eight world powers allows each nation to set its own base year from which the 50 per cent emission reduction will be calculated. Globally, Canada and the U.S. have long been viewed as among the two most reluctant nations on the planet to adopt real action to combat the effects of global warming emissions. When one considers that the G8 nations are responsible for more than 60 per cent of the carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere (according to the World Wildlife Federation), we would have hoped they would lead the way to literally clearing our air. Instead, Harper reportedly told his G8 peers about his government's approach to the problem here at home, including refusing to meet Canada's obligations under the Kyoto Protocol for economic reasons. While Harper trumpeted this week's accord as an "important advance" -- citing U.S. president George Bush's firstever acceptance of long-term greenhouse gas cuts and the first time Russia has shared a similar sentiment -- a policy analyst with Canadian environmental think tank the Pembina Institute characterized the agreement as "a baby step" toward addressing global warming. "The world was looking for leadership from these countries and was hoping to see a breakthrough... but what we saw was a real lack of leadership," said the institute's Clare Demerse. As we said before, it is nice to see Canada's prime minister taking charge on a world stage. We're just not sure that Canadians want to be known as leaders in the field of dragging our feet where global warming is concerned. 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 Dog markings are not harmful to grass lawns I am always distressed by the narrow and angry views such as those expressed in J. Poirer's letter (My front yard is not your dog's personal toilet, Oakville Beaver, July 4). I am an avid gardener on quarter-acre property that is gardened extensively. I am also a dog owner and dog lover and my garden is dog friendly and dog-welcoming. An attractive garden is not incompatible with the natural activities of a dog! Our dog and visiting dogs do indeed use our property as their primary place to do their business. But they will also do their business during walks and we always pick up the solid waste. I agree that any dog owner that lets their dog do a poo on someone's lawn and then does not pick it up is being irresponsible (and violating by-laws I think). As a responsible dogowner, that offends me. I sometimes pick up after other people's dogs when I see poo left on someone's lawn. Urination is an entirely different matter. I think there is a significant, but common, lack of understanding expressed in that letter. The vast majority of times that dogs appear to be urinating, what they are actually doing is territorial makings or responding to peemail from other dogs. In those cases, the volume of urine expressed is small. Yes, some of the times will be empty-the-bladder urination of course. But it is very unlikely that a day or two later brown spots will appear in the lawn as a result. If brown spots are appearing in the lawn suddenly, look to something like white grubs as the more likely cause. I was noticing this morning while we walked our dog that the hydro poles in the neighbourhood that are regular pee-mail posts are not surrounded by dead, brown grass. Certainly dog urine will kill grass (as is evident in a couple of spots in our backyard) but it takes repeated, high volumes in the same place to do it. Small, infrequent volumes act as nitrogen fertilizer. The occasionally urination by passing dogs is more likely to fertilize your lawn that kill it. In fact, if you pay attention, you will sometimes see patches of grass in lawns that are darker green and growing more vigorously that the rest. I find it very sad that some people are unwilling to tolerate sharing their patch of this planet with a species that has a long history of being a loving and/or working companion to man. SUSAN JOHNSTON Pud BY STEVE NEASE snease@haltonsearch.com 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